Sentinel-3B arrivé à bon port, à Plesetsk.

Ocean and land surveillance
Four instruments
- Two optical instruments: OLCI (Ocean and Land Color Instrument), and SLSTR (Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer).
- Two RF (radio frequency) instruments: SRAL (Synthetic Radar ALtimeter), along with the MWR (Microwave Radiometer), which will provide measurements to determine the topography of oceans, ice, sea ice and water on continents.
Copernicus and the waltz of the Sentinels

The Sentinel spacecraft are developed on behalf of ESA within the scope of the European Union’s Copernicus program. They are a key to Europe’s environmental monitoring efforts. There are actually six Sentinel families, of satellites or instruments: Sentinel-1 is designed to provide continuity for the radar data collected by ERS and Envisat; Sentinel-2 and -3 are dedicated to monitoring land and oceans. The Sentinel-4 and -5 instruments are designed for meteorology and climatology missions. Sentinel-6 will provide operational continuity for Jason altimetry missions. Thales Alenia Space is prime contractor for the Sentinel-1 and -3 families (4 satellites each), is in charge of the image ground segment for Sentinel-2, and makes the imaging spectrometer carried by Sentinel-5P as well as the Poseidon-4 radar altimeter for the Jason-CS/Sentinel-6 mission.
Copyrights:
Artistic views 1, 2 and 5: © ESA Oceans: © Thales Alenia Space/Master Image Programmes Photo in the clean rooms: © Thales Alenia Space/Imag[IN]