It will closely monitor the Earth’s health – El Diario de Yucatán

         

     

DARMSTADT (EFE) .- The Sentinel-3A, the third satellite of the European Copernicus program, took off yesterday from the Russian Plesetsk Cosmodrome on a Rockot rocket.

The launch of the device, which pay particular attention oceans, was controlled from the headquarters of the European Space Agency (ESA) in Darmstadt, where he will be monitored. “An hour and a half after takeoff, the antenna Kiruna (Sweden) receive the signal from the Sentinel-3A: that’s when I’ll be more satisfied,” had said Volker Liebig, director of programs for Earth observation ESA .

 

The satellite, which weighs 1,250 kilograms and has an initial mine life of 7.5 years, will fly to 814 km altitude.

Sentinel-3A is the third of the Copernicus satellites that are launched with goal of “x-ray” the state of our planet.

for the director of the ESA, Jan Wörner, the program is a clear example of the unity and cooperation among the countries of the Union, the European Commission and Eumetsat, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites.

data Distribution

and after the launch, the launching and the first five-month review of the satellite , Eumetsat will operate the Sentinel-3A distributing marine data and supporting users in the European Union, the member states of Eumetsat and others. The Sentinel-3A, like the rest of the Copernicus satellite family, continuously observe the planet, which aims to flood data to improve environmental management, mitigation of climate change and ensure security.

will be set, especially in the oceans, which will measure height, temperature and color of the surface and the thickness of the floating layer.

also make maps of land uses, vegetation indices obtained and measure the height of rivers and lakes. It will also be able to detect forest fires from space.

The data will be distributed free of charge to users around the world, he told reporters scientific Eumetsat Ewa Kwiatkowska.

Sentinel-3A will have a couple (to be launched in 2017) and both have been designed and built by a consortium of hundred companies under the leadership of Thales Alenia Space, France.