NASA and ESA launch largest observation satellite on Earth next Saturday (21)

Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, the largest Earth observation satellite, is undergoing the final adjustments for its launch, which is expected to take place next Saturday (21). The mission is developed in a partnership between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), and will aim to analyze sea level rise as a result of climate change occurring on our planet.

The launch will be carried out with a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the same as last weekend’s Crew-1 mission: “soon we will see the satellite traveling to an orbit 1300 km above the Earth,” said Parag Vaze, project manager for the mission. The satellite was initially called Sentinel-6A, but there was a change at the beginning of the year. The satellite is now called Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich after the NASA scientist of the same name. This spacecraft is a pair of identical satellites from the Sentinel-6 / Jason-CS mission, part of ESA’s Copernicus program; the other, called Sentinel-6B, is expected to be launched in 2025.

By observing Earth from space, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich could provide a unique insight into the worrying trend of sea level rise, which will help take action against the problem. “People are interested in measuring sea level,” Vaze explained during a video conference held earlier this week. However, he points out that this is a difficult process and suggests that remote satellite analyzes are the way to understand the global effect of sea level rise.

It is that when in orbit around the Earth, satellites have a privileged view of our planet, which allows the collection of accurate and complete data. “Understanding and quantifying what is happening in the ocean is difficult; it is slowly changing, but it is changing. Understanding how fast these changes are happening requires precise and continuous measurements,” he adds. For this, the Sentinel-6 altimeter radar calculates the distance between the satellite and the Earth by measuring the time it takes for a radar pulse to reflect itself on the planet’s surface; the echo of the return pulse from the sea surface provides a wave, which is processed to determine the height of the sea surface and the wave and wind speed in the ocean.

Unlike previous Earth observation missions, Sentinel-6 will collect measurements at a much higher resolution, as well as being able to measure more discrete changes in sea level near the coast. Finally, the satellite will provide near-real-time measurements of sea surface height, wave height and wind speed. This data will be important for ocean forecasts, as well as being crucial for ocean resource management and environmental protection.

NASA plans to launch next Saturday at 2:17 PM Brasilia time, and live coverage will begin at 1:45 PM on NASA TV and the space agency website. To check this, click here.

Characters: NASA (1, 2), Inverse