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Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in central California on November 21. NASA’s Eyes visualization tools allow you to follow the spacecraft at the start of its mission to measure the height of the sea level as it orbits the Earth. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
With NASAWith the Eyes on the Earth web app, you can tag along with the US-European satellite as it orbits the globe, collecting critical measurements of our evolving planet.
When Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich was encapsulated in the payload fairing of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, was the last time human eyes could have looked closely at the satellite. But now that the spacecraft is in orbit after launching from Vandenberg Air Force Base in central California on November 21, NASA’s Eyes on the Earth is keeping track.
The app provides a 3D view of the sea level monitoring satellite, allowing you to see where it is right now as he glides over the cloud-covered globe.
Learn more about Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich as he orbits the Earth to collect critical sea level and atmosphere data. Click anywhere in the image to walk around. View the full interactive experience and fly along with the real-time mission to Eyes on the Solar System. Credit: NASA /JPL-Caltech
Rendered in jaw-dropping detail, the spacecraft avatar also includes the tools it will use to measure sea level height and collect atmospheric data. With a click of the mouse, you can rotate the satellite to see it from any angle, watch it fly over Earth in real time, or speed it up to see its entire five and a half year mission unfold over a matter of minutes.
“What we create for Eyes is an engineering model of the real thing. You can get lost in the details, not only in the way sunlight reflects off the spacecraft’s solar panels, but also in how you can track its exact position in orbit, “said Jason Craig, visualization maker at Jet Propulsion. NASA Laboratory in Southern California. “We have streaming data from near and distant space missions and put this data to work. Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich is just the latest spacecraft to be added to the growing number of missions.”
As a bonus, the Michael Freilich Sentinel-6 satellite model has also been added to the award-winning Webby Eyes on the Solar System. The web-based application has customizable pop-up menus that allow you to zoom in and out to see where Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich is relative to other Earth observation satellites. You can even put it side by side with other spacecraft orbiting other planets.
As you explore, zoom in on the rest of the solar system and travel to distant worlds with Eyes on ExoPlanets.
Learn more about the mission
Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich will be followed by his twin Sentinel-6B in 2025. Together, they form the Sentinel-6 / Jason-CS mission, which was developed by ESA (European Space Agency) in the context of the European Commission-led Copernicus program European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), with financial support from the European Commission and technical support from the French National Center for Space Studies ( CNES).
JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, has built three scientific instruments for each Sentinel-6 satellite: the Advanced Microwave Radiometer, the Global Navigation Satellite System – Radio Occultation and the Laser Retroreflector Array. NASA has also contributed to launch services, ground systems that support the operation of NASA’s scientific instruments, scientific data processors for two of these instruments, and support for the international ocean surface topography science team. The launch was managed by NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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