Sentinel 2 is a future space mission from ESA

European Space Agency

The European Space Agency , established in 1975, is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space, currently with 18 member states...

, the second in GMES

GMES

Global Monitoring for Environment and Security is a joint initiative of the European Commission and European Space Agency, which aims at achieving an autonomous and operational Earth observation capacity....

program.
It will provide multispectral earth observation data providing data continuity of Landsat and SPOT-type missions.
The foreseen launch date is around 2013. The mission comprises two satellites simultaneously circulating the earth in the same orbit phased at 180°. The satellites are designed to provide continuous acquisition of all Earth land surfaces between -56° and +84° latitude.

Mission characteristics

• Role: Earth Observation
• Launch date: 2014
• Launch mass: ~1180 kg
• Launcher: Vega or Rockot
• Launch location: Kourou, French Guiana or Plesetsk/Russia
• Orbit: Sun-synchronous
• Altitude: 786 km
• Orbit cycle: ~100 minutes
• Repeat cycle: 5 days with 2 satellites
• Design lifetime: 7.25 years. The satellites carry additional consumables to enable mission extension to at least 12 years.

Instruments

Sentinel 2 spacecrafts carry a single multi-spectral instrument with 13 spectral channels in the visible/near infrared VNIR and short wave infrared spectral range SWIR. The spatial resolution varies between 10, 20, and 60m, the swath width is 290 km.

External links

• Global Monitoring for Environment and Security at ESA
• GMES Sentinel-2 Mission Requirements Document

Applications

• Land cover, usage and change-detection maps
• Risk mapping
• Fast images for disaster relief