Latest Airbus sea level monitoring satellite finishes environmental testing
Airbus Space Systems, part of the Airbus Defence and Space division of Europe-based global major aerospace group Airbus, reported on Thursday that its Sentinel-6B satellite had completed its environmental tests. It would now be returned to its Friedrichshafen, Germany, satellite integration centre for some final adjustments.
Sentinel-6B is a specialist sea-level monitoring satellite, the second of two, built by Airbus under the European Union’s (EU’s) Copernicus programme for Earth observation. The Sentinel-6 element of the programme is a joint effort between the European Space Agency (not a part of the EU, but providing key space expertise and services to the EU programme), the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (again, not part of the EU but also providing key services to the EU), the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The first Sentinel-6 satellite, named Michael Freilich, was launched in November 2020 and has been operating ever since. Together, the two satellites will measure the distance to the surface of the sea, with an accuracy of a few centimetres. This will be done in a rhythm of ten days, over a period of at least seven years. Changes in the height of the sea surface and variations in sea levels will be recorded, and ocean currents observed and analysed.
The Sentinel-6B will join its sister in a 1 336 km orbit above the Earth. The data the two craft will collect will be essential for modelling the ocean and forecasting the rise in sea level.
“As a result of global warming, global sea levels are currently rising by an average of 3.3 millimetres per year – with potentially dramatic consequences for countries with densely populated coasts,” pointed out Airbus in its statement. “On 22 March 2022 ‘Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich’ became the official reference satellite for global sea level measurements. This means that sea surface height data collected by other satellites will be compared to the information produced by ‘Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich’ to ensure their accuracy.”
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