|  | Sentinel-3 | |
Based on over 30 years of experience developing and implementing Earth observation satellites, ESA is developing five new missions called Sentinels specifically for the operational needs of the joint European Commission-ESA GMES programme. The Sentinels will not replace nor duplicate satellites that are planned as national initiatives, but will rather complement these capacities.
Each Sentinel mission is based on a constellation of two satellites to fulfil revist and coverage requirements to provide robust datasets for GMES Services.
Sentinel-1 - Planned for launch in 2011
Sentinel-1 is a polar-orbiting, all-weather, day-and-night radar imaging mission for GMES land and ocean services.
Sentinel-2 - Planned for launch in 2012
Sentinel-2 is a polar-orbiting, multispectral high-resolution imaging mission for GMES land monitoring to provide, for example, imagery of vegetation, soil and water cover, inland waterways and coastal areas. Sentinel-2 will also provide information for emergency services.
Sentinel-3 - Planned for launch in 2013
Sentinel-3 is a multi-instrument mission to determine parameters such as sea-surface topography, sea- and land-surface temperature, ocean colour and land colour with high-end accuracy and reliability.
Sentinel-4 - Planned for launch in 2017
Sentinel-4 is a payload devoted to atmospheric monitoring that will be embarked upon a Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) satellite in geostationary orbit.
Sentinel-5
Sentinel-5 is a payload will be embarked on a post-EUMETSAT Polar System (EPS) spacecraft and launched in 2019. A Sentinel-5 precursor mission is planned to launch in 2014, to avoid data gaps between Envisat (Sciamachy data in particular) and Sentinel-5. This mission will be devoted to atmospheric monitoring.
Last update: 9 December 2009 | 
