The European Space Agency ( ESA ) has successfully plunge their Sentinel satellite today , which aims to revolutionize environmental and humantarian monitoring . Sentinel-2A is the first optical imagery planet from the EU ’s ambitious Copernicus programme and will take gamy resolving range of Earth , hopefully providing us with a wealth of data .
Sentinel-2Awas send up on a Vega Eruca vesicaria sativa from Europe ’s Spaceport in Kourou , French Guiana . After the first stage is accomplished , which usually lasts for three days , investigator will start checking and calibrating the equipment . The military mission should begin in three or four months . Sentinel-2B , its twin satellite , will be found in mid-2016 .
“ Sentinel-2 is the 2nd satellite of a constellation of 20 satellites which will size up major planet Earth and will immensely meliorate the ability of Copernicus to supply European citizens with the most comprehensive data for environmental and security applications available anywhere in the world , ” sound out ESA Director General Jean - Jacques Dordain in astatement .
The satellite carries a high - firmness of purpose multispectral television camera that is capable to find very specific wavelengths of light , providing an ‘ unprecedented ’ view of earth change and vegetation growth . The deputation will send back data on agricultural practices and the amount of befoulment in lake and coastal water . It will also map changes in country cover version , monitor the world ’s woods and help in humanitarian rest efforts by taking icon of floods , volcanic eruptions and landslides .
" We have 13 spectral bands include four in the so - called ' flushed edge ' where plant , and chlorophyll for example , reverberate short – and this shows us what plants are doing . This is specially crucial for food monitoring and , for me , intellectual nourishment security app will be among Sentinel-2 ’s most important uses , " Professor Volker Liebig , film director of Earth observation at ESA , toldBBC News .
“ It will help the World Food Programme foretell bad harvests , and thin , let ’s say , supposition on existence intellectual nourishment markets , which always costs life because it broadcast price skyrocketing even when there are enough cereals to go around , ” he adds .
Sentinel-2A was develop by a consortium of 60 companies run by Airbus Defence and Space . The European Commission , ESA , industry , service provider and data user are working closely together for this mission .
