The new Earth watcher

The Sentinel-2A is the first of two Sentinel-2 satellites. Stentinel-2 have been designed to deliver continuously updated high-resolution data for the provision of initial G.M.E.S. (Global Monitoring for Environment and security) operational services for agricultural, forest management , civil protection and humanitarian relief applications. Sentinel-2 will also be used to monitor natural disasters such as flooding, volcanic eruptions, subsidence and landslides.

Once in orbit, in 2013, Sentinel-2A will support land monitoring services throughout its desing live of at least seven years. Sentinel-2A will later be joined by Sentinel-2B in 2015. This duo will hakve the time required to complete a full global monitoring cycle, enabling seasonal and year-to-year changes to be mapped which unprecedented acuracy.

The fiers one, Sentinel-2A, is being assembled in the Astrium installations in Madrid, Spain. The pre-integrated platform for the Sentinel-2A satellite is the beginning of a new space proyect for the Spanish space engineering. This satellite platform, constructed by the Astrium engineers is equiped with its propulsion system, heat shield and complete wiring harness. The integration and test team, led by Thilo Nacke, will now spend the next two years completing the final stages of tje satellite's construction in the cleanroom as well as installing and testing the measuring instruments required for its mission under the supervision or the European Space Agency.