Sentinel-2 is an Earth observation mission developed by ESA as part of the Copernicus Programme to perform terrestrial observations in support of services such as forest monitoring, land cover change detection, and natural disaster management.
The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission provides high-resolution optical imagery for a wide range of applications including land, water and atmospheric monitoring. The mission is based on a constellation of two identical satellites flying in the same orbit but 180° apart: Sentinel-2A and Sentinel-2B. Together, they cover all of Earth’s land and coastal waters every five days.
The satellites each carry a high-resolution multispectral imager that generates optical images in the visible, near-infrared and shortwave-infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum. From their altitude of 786 km, they provide continuous imagery in 13 spectral bands with resolutions of 10 m, 20 m and 60 m, with a large swath width of 290 km.
Sentinel-2C is the third in the Sentinel-2 series. Once commissioned in orbit, it will replace its predecessor, Sentinel-2A. Later, Sentinel-2D will replace Sentinel-2B. This all ensures the continuity of imagery for Copernicus Services and beyond.
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Watch the launch of @CopernicusEU #Sentinel2C on #VV24, the last Vega flight from Europe’s Spaceport, live on #ESAwebTV on 4 September from 02:30 BST/03:30 CEST (liftoff scheduled at 02:50 BST/03:50 CEST).