23/07/2025
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The subsequent sea-level monitoring satellite tv for pc, Copernicus Sentinel-6B, has begun its journey from Europe to the Vandenberg Area Power Base in California, the place it’s scheduled to launch in November. Rigorously packed right into a climate-controlled container, the satellite tv for pc is presently crossing the Atlantic Ocean aboard the cargo ship Industrial Dolphin.
Sentinel-6B will comply with within the footsteps of its predecessor, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, assuming the position of the reference radar altimetry mission to proceed the very important document of sea-surface top measurements via not less than 2030.
To make sure the very best knowledge accuracy and continuity, Sentinel-6B will orbit in tandem with Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich for its first 12 months, permitting for exact cross-calibration between the 2 devices.
With the significance of monitoring sea-level rise so excessive on the worldwide agenda, quite a few organisations have been concerned in making Copernicus Sentinel-6 the gold customary reference mission to take the document of sea-surface top measurements into the long run, and to do that with larger precision than ever earlier than.
So, whereas Sentinel-6 is among the European Union’s household of Copernicus missions, its implementation is the results of an distinctive cooperation between the European Fee, ESA, NASA, Eumetsat, and NOAA, with assist from the CNES French area company.
The mission consists of two an identical satellites: Sentinel-6 Michael Frelich, launched in late 2020, and Sentinel-6B, now en path to the Vandenberg Area Power Base launch web site. These satellites proceed the legacy of sea-surface top monitoring that started in 1992 with the French–US Topex Poseidon mission, adopted by the Jason sequence of satellites.
ESA’s prime contracts for the construct of the mission is Airbus Defence and Area in Germany with Thales Alenia Area in France accountable for the altimeter.
The mission builds on heritage from the French–US Jason sequence, ESA’s CryoSat and the Copernicus Sentinel-3 missions.
Developed by ESA, the primary instrument is the Poseidon-4 dual-frequency (C-band and Ku-band) radar altimeter to measure sea-surface top, important wave top and wind velocity to assist operational oceanography.
A sophisticated microwave radiometer, offered by NASA, helps Poseidon-4.
Water within the environment impacts the velocity of the altimeter’s radar pulses – and due to this fact the estimates of sea-surface top. The superior microwave radiometer determines the water content material within the environment for precisely correcting the radar measurements.
Deliberate to launch 5 years aside, Sentinel-6B is now making ready to take to the skies and later carry the baton from its predecessor, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich.
Earlier this 12 months, Sentinel-6B was faraway from storage and underwent a sequence of checks at IABG in Ottobrunn, Germany.
It was then transported by lorry to Bremen, the place it was loaded onto the Industrial Dolphin for a three-week voyage to Galveston, Texas.
Upon arrival, it’s going to proceed by street to NASA’s services at Vandenberg Area Power Base, the place it’s going to stay in storage till early October, when last launch preparations will start.
With its November launch approaching, Sentinel-6B is poised to increase a legacy of over three a long time of precision sea-level measurements – essential to understanding and responding to one of the urgent challenges of our time.
