A driving force for Copernicus
A global monitoring programme
Copernicus comprises an ‘in-situ’ measurement component and a ‘services’ component addressing six specific topics: oceans, atmosphere, climate change, land, security and emergency management.
All starts with Sentinels
Airbus plays a crucial role in constructing the Sentinel satellites and their instruments:
- developing and building the radar instrument for Sentinel-1
- prime contractor for Sentinel-2 and a spectral mode observations instrument
- designing and building the microwave radiometer (MWR) on board Sentinel-3
- designing and building the satellite and instrument for Sentinel-5 Precursor (5P)
- prime contractor for the two spectrometers on Sentinel-4
- prime contractor for the Sentinel-5 imaging spectrometer
- prime contractor for Jason-CS/ Sentinel-6
More about the Sentinels
Sentinel-1
The twin Sentinel-1 satellites are designed to provide radar-based Earth observation imagery and will supply data of significantly higher quality than its predecessor missions.
The first satellite, Sentinel-1A, was successfully launched in April 2014, to be followed in 2016 by the second satellite, Sentinel-1B.
Sentinel-2
Airbus is prime contractor for this 2 satellites mission.
The extracted data will be used primarily for monitoring natural disasters (floods, forest fires, landslides, erosion) and in the fields of land use, soil sealing, spatial planning, forestry management and humanitarian aid and as well as for coastal monitoring.
Sentinel-3
Sentinel-3 is dedicated to oceanography and the monitoring of vegetation.
Sentinel-3 will be equipped with up to four instruments. Airbus has been selected to supply one of these instruments, called the Microwave Radiometer, to determine the amount of humidity contained in the path of the radar pulses, as well as a number of satellite subsystems for this mission.
Sentinel-4
Airbus is the prime contractor for the development and construction of the two spectrometers for the Sentinel-4 mission.
The Sentinel-4 mission will concentrate on services such as analysing the chemical composition of the atmosphere and monitoring air quality. Its main task is to measure concentrations of aerosols, trace gases and cloud cover in the lower troposphere.
Sentinel-5 Precursor
Sentinel-5 Precursor (Sentinel-5P) will be the first satellite dedicated to monitoring atmospheric chemistry for the Copernicus programme. Airbus is the prime contractor for the satellite.
It will ensure there is continuity of data to monitor the ozone hole and tropospheric pollution as current climate monitoring missions come to the end of their lives. Sentinel-5P will fill the gap between current atmospheric capabilities from low polar orbit and the launch of Sentinel-5 which is envisaged for around 2021.
Sentinel-5
The high-precision Sentinel-5 instrument will be developed and constructed by the prime contractor Airbus.
The instrument will monitor the composition of the Earth’s atmosphere globally on a daily basis by taking measurements of trace gases and aerosols that have an impact on the climate and air quality. Sentinel-5 will be installed on a MetOP Second Generation (MetOP-SG) satellite and fly in a roughly 800 kilometre polar orbit around the Earth.
Jason-CS/Sentinel-6
Jason-CS/Sentinel-6 for which Airbus is prime contractor to ESA, is a mission to carry out high-precision measurements of ocean surface topography.
The satellite will measure its distance to the ocean surface with an accuracy of a few centimetres and use this data to map the topography globally, repeating the cycle every ten days. The measurements made are vital for modelling the oceans and predicting rises in sea levels.
Go further
The Sentinel satellites benefit from the SpaceDataHighway services provided by Airbus. The Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellites are equipped with laser communication terminals that will significantly accelerate the delivery of time-critical data and large volumes of data to Earth monitoring centres.
Media
With launch planned in 2027, CRISTAL will carry an advanced multi-frequency altimeter that will measure sea ice thickness and ice sheet elevations. These data will support maritime operations in polar oceans and contribute to a better understanding of climate processes. CRISTAL will also support applications related to coastal and inland waters and the observation of ocean topography.
Great Barrier Reef: The Copernicus Sentinel-2A satellite image over part of the Great Barrier Reef off Australia’s northeast coast. Extending more than 2000 km and covering an area of some 350 000 sq km, it is the planet's biggest single structure made by living organisms, called coral polyps. The reef is home to over 1500 tropical fish species, 400 types of coral, more than 200 species of bird, 5000 species of mollusc, 500 species of seaweed and six species of sea turtle. It is also a breeding area for humpback whales.
Copernicus Sentinel-2A image over central-eastern Brazil. It shows a large, flat plateau blanked with fields benefiting from rich soils and an apparent abundance of water, before falling off into a green, hilly valley (left). The straight lines in the image are roads, such as the highway running in a nearly straight line from the centre-top to bottom of the image. A distinctive feature in this image is the circles – mainly at the centre. These shapes were created by a central-pivot irrigation system, where a long water pipe rotates around a well at the centre of each plot. The varying colours show different types of crop, or different stages of growth.
