Monday 30 April 2018

Seventh EU satellite to monitor ocean and land

The seventh satellite for ocean and land monitoring under the EU's Copernicus environment programme was launched last week.

The second Sentinel-3 satellite joins its identical twin Sentinel-3A as part of the Oceans Mission, expected to provide global coverage of land, ice and water every two days.

The additional data provided by the satellite will help improve the understanding of sea level changes, marine pollution and biological productivity which are all important climate change indicators.

The mission is also expected to deliver unique and timely information about changing land cover, urban heat islands and water levels in lakes and rivers.

Elżbieta Bieńkowska, Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs said: “This new satellite will deliver valuable images of how our oceans and land are changing. This will not only speed up the response to natural disasters but also create new business opportunities.

“Earth observation is a larger market that you would think – a driver for research discoveries, a provider of highly skilled jobs and a developer of innovative services and applications.”