Thursday, April 3 at 23:02 (local time in France) – the first satellite of Earth Observation European Copernicus program called “Sentinel-1 A” was successfully launched from the space center Kourou in French Guiana.
This program is coordinated by the European Commission on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA) .The objective of Copernicus is to ensure European independence in the acquisition and management of environmental data of our planet to support the authorities and European policymakers.
CLS has already been involved in several programs using Sentinels satellites (especially S-1 and S-3). The Sentinel-1 satellite for example, features a SAR sensor (high resolution imaging radar). CLS contributed to the product definition and development of S-1 processor, as well as monitoring the performance of the sensor under the “Mission Performance Centre Sentinel-1” (MPC-S1) , located in CLS / Brest. The preparation of the MPC-S1 has involved teams CLS since 2012.
The Sentinel-1A first images were released by ESA. The first official image was acquired on April and covers an european city, Brussels (Belgium). The quality of the instrument and the product is promising. Other images were acquired elsewhere.
Monitoring of terrestrial changments with Sentinel 1-A
The satellite has already demonstrated its ability to be reprogrammed in emergency major event (flooding in Namibia) and for detecting marine pollution. Sentinel 1-A will be used to monitor the oceans, oils and gas pollution issues and natural disaster. It is possible today to manage crises and to prevent risks by observing the Earth every 3-6 days to capture images of any place.
