IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - June 2014 - 42

3) SENTINEL-3
The objective of the SentiEACh SENTINEL MISSION IS
nel-3 mission is to deterbASEd ON A CONSTELLATION
mine parameters such as
OF TwO SATELLITES TO
sea-surface topography, seaFuLFILL REVISIT ANd
and land-surface temperaCOVERAGE REquIREMENTS,
tures, as well as ocean- and
pROVIdING RObuST dATASETS
land-surface color with highend accuracy and reliability
FOR COpERNICuS SERVICES.
[8]. The revisit times of the
Sentinel-3 instruments will
be very short, even with only
one satellite in orbit: less than 3 days for OLCI (Ocean and
Land Color Instrument, based on heritage from Envisat's
Medium-Resolution Imaging Spectrometer-MERIS), less
than 2 days for SLSTR (Sea and Land-Surface Temperature
Radiometer, based on heritage from Envisat's Advanced
Along-Track Scanning Radiometer-AATSR) and 27 days
for the topography package, based on technologies used
on ESA's Earth Explorer CryoSat mission. In combination,

(a)

(b)
FIGuRE 5. (a) Sentinel-1A lift-off (ESA). (b) Sentinel-1A's selfie from
space (ESA).

the OLCI and SLSTR instruments will provide global daily
coverage with the nominal two-satellite configuration.
Sentinel-3 will provide support services relating to the
marine environment, with capabilities to serve numerous
land-, atmosphere- and cryosphere-based areas of application. The marine part will be operated by Eumetsat, the
land part by ESA.
4) SENTINEL-4, 5, 5P
Unlike the first three Sentinel missions, Sentinel-4 and
Sentinel-5 will be payloads embarked on meteorological
satellites operated by Eumetsat. Both of these missions,
and a Sentinel-5 precursor mission, will be dedicated to
monitoring Earth's atmosphere, providing data related to
air quality, climate change, stratospheric ozone and solar
radiation for the Copernicus atmosphere monitoring service. The Sentinel-5 precursor mission, similar to Sentinel-5, but with no TIR sounder or imager, will be launched
in 2015 to minimise gaps in the data between the Ozone
Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on Aura and Envisat-in
particular the SCanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric CartograpHY (SCIAMACHY) instrument-and Sentinel-5, and thus ensure the continuity of
atmospheric monitoring services.
IV. METEREOLOGICAL MISSIONS
ESA's meteorological programs include the geostationary (Meteosat) and low-Earth polar orbit Meteorological
Operational (MetOp) satellites, both of which have been
developed in cooperation with Eumetsat. Within this
cooperation, Eumetsat is responsible for defining the enduser requirements and the overall system, for providing
the ground segment, satellite operations and data retrieval,
and for data processing and dissemination. ESA is responsible for the design and development of the space segment
elements and for the procurement, launch and commissioning of the satellites. Following on from the success of
the first Meteosat program, the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) and MetOp satellites are now fully operational,
with some satellites deployed in orbit and others in storage
awaiting launch. Looking to the future, the detailed design
and development of the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG)
satellites, under ESA responsibility, is well under way, and
ESA's Member States have approved the funding and initiated the development activities for the MetOp Second
Generation (MetOp-SG) satellites.
1) METEoSaT ThIrd GENEraTIoN
The MTG Space Segment will comprise two types of satellite based on a common 3-axis stabilized platform: MTG
Imaging (MTG-I) satellite and MTG Sounding (MTG-S)
satellite. In total, four imaging satellites and two sounding satellites are currently under development.
The MTG Imaging (MTG-I) satellite will offer
advanced imaging capabilities through the Flexible Combined Imager (FCI) and the Lightning Imager (LI), providing
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - June 2014