A new satellite from Copernicus Environmental Satellite Programme directed by the European Space Agency was successfully launched from French Guiana.
Sentinel-1B, the fourth Copernicus sentinel satellite, was successfully launched on April 26 from the Kourou spaceport, located in the French Guiana. It is orbiting the Earth, with a 180° orbital phase difference from its twin satellite Sentinel-1A, which was launched on 2014. They have a 12m long radar and two 10m long solar wings.
The satellites are part of the Copernicus Environmental Satellite Programme. It is a 30 satellite plan to provide accurate and timely information about the Earth's conditions to improve the management of the environment and mitigate the effects of climate change.
On 2012 Copernicus replaced the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) as it is now headed by the European Commission and the European Space Agency.
The Sentinels are the Copernicus' family of satellites. There are plans for Sentinels 1 to 5 already established, they will be providing data related to land management, marine environment, atmosphere, emergency response security and climate change.
Sentinel-1B and its twin brother will provide radar views every 6 days, night and day. This is important for example to monitor the Artic sea-ice extent, sea-ice mapping, surveillance of the marine environment, water and soil management and mapping the support of humanitarian aid and crisis when needed.
“The launch of Sentinel-1B marks another important milestone" said ESA’s Director General Jan Woerner.“Orbiting 180° apart, the two satellites optimize coverage and data delivery for services that are making a step change in the way our environment is managed.”
On April 28, only two hours after Sentinel-1B was turned on, it produced its first images. They are 250 km wide and were captured in the Norwegian archipelago in the Artic Ocean, clearly showing the Austfonna glacier.
“With another important milestone reached, we now have the fourth satellite in orbit and the Sentinel constellation as we envisaged it becomes a reality," said Volker Liebig, ESA's Director of Earth Observation Programmes.
"This will enable our Copernicus services to get better and more data faster – and therefore help generate more information to a broader user community on a full, open and free of charge basis."
Now they're expecting Sentinel-1B to reach its final orbit to complete the radar vision along with Sentinel-1A. When fully operational the system will provide 10 Terabytes of data per day.
The Guiana Space Center from which the Sentinels have been launched has been operational since 1968.
It provides two important geographical requirements because of its location. Being close to the equator and having uninhabited territory to the east to prevent debris from launch failures to fall into towns.