Sentinel-4

Sentinel-4 (also known as S4) is a satellite mission making up a part of the European Copernicus Programme, which is also known as the European Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme. Sentinel-4 will utilize 2 payload instruments integrated on board a Meteosat Third Generation Sounder (MTG-S) satellite to observe primarily the tropospheric composition of the Earth’s atmosphere. The data will be gathered and made available to the Copernicus program with the aim of contributing to air quality applications such as with the Copernicus Atmosphere Services as well as the air quality monitoring over the regions of Europe and Northern Africa. As with other aspects of the Copernicus programme, the Sentinel-4 initiative is funded mostly through the EU and the technical design and development has been put under responsibility of the European Space Agency (ESA).

For the detection and measurement of atmospheric characteristics, two payload instruments have been designed; the Ultra-Violet and Near Infra-Red Multispectral Spectrometer (S4 UVN) and the Infra Red Sounder (S4 IRS). The two instruments will be embarked on two Eumetsat Meteosat Third Generation Sounder (MTG-S) satellites due to be launched in 2019 and 2027.

As the name suggests, Meteosat Third Generation is the third generation of meteorological satellites and is developed by Thales Alenia Space (TAS) under the responsibility of Eumetsat and ESA. It is the ‘next generation’ for numerical weather predication and nowcasting. The unprecedented high-resolution and profiling technology will yield a vast improvement in weather forecasting reliability for the medium and long term. Eumetsat will head up the operations of the programme and will also ensure provision of meteorological data and services to European as well as International users and improved imaging capability to the scientific community.

“The objective of the MTG system is to provide continuous high-resolution observation data and geophysical parameters of the Earth system derived from direct measurements from the radiation it emits and reflects using satellite-based sensors from a geostationary orbit. Thanks to advances in technology, MTG, compared to the current MSG system, will also provide a more powerful tool by contributing significant improvements to the existing service with an improved imagery mission and by introducing new sounding and lightning missions from a geostationary orbit” – a quote from the MTG publication produced and published by OHB System AG.

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