Copernicus Sentinel-2 Mission

Copernicus Sentinel-2 Mission Latest News

The European Space Agency (ESA)’s Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission recently released a stunning high-resolution image of the 2026 Winter Olympic venues across northern Italy.

About Copernicus Sentinel-2 Mission

• It is an Earth observation satellite mission developed by the European Space Agency (ESA).
• It is part of Copernicus – the European Union’s Earth observation program.
• It aims at monitoring variability in land surface conditions.
• It comprises a land monitoring constellation of two polar-orbiting satellites placed in the same sun-synchronous orbit.
• The twin satellites S-2B and S-2C have a wide swath width (290 km) and a high revisit time. This capability will support monitoring of changes on the Earth’s surface.
• It delivers high-resolution optical multispectral imagery across 13 spectral bands in the visible to shortwave infrared.
• This data supports a wide range of applications, including precision agriculture, food security, ecosystems monitoring, disaster management (e.g., volcanoes, wildfires, floods, landslides), water quality assessment, and observing anthropogenic methane emissions.

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Key Facts about Copernicus Programme

• It is the Earth observation component of the European Union’s Space programme.
• This initiative is headed by the European Commission (EC) in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA).
• It offers information services that draw from satellite Earth observation and in-situ (non-space) data.
• The programme consists of a complex set of systems that collect data from multiple sources, including Earth Observation satellites, in-situ sensors like ground stations, and airborne and sea-borne sensors. 
• Users have free and open access to a great deal of this data, which is also processed to provide a set of services based on reliable and near-real-time information.
• ESA has developed a new family of satellites, called Sentinels, specifically for the operational needs of Copernicus.

Source: IT