Astrium has received a 150 million worth contract from ESA to design and construct two satellite sensors for monitoring the atmosphere of the earth as a part of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security Program (GMES) in Europe.
The Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) weather satellites would carry two identical spectrometers called Sentinel-4 and they would be launched in 2019 and 2017.
The Sentinel-4 would provide data on an hourly basis from geostationary orbit positioned at 36,000 km above the equator on the atmosphere’s chemical composition, including UV radiation and trace gases. It would give data on aerosols and sulfur dioxide all over Europe and thus aid in improving the monitoring of plumes from volcanic eruptions.
Volker Liebig, the Director of ESA for the Earth Observation Programs signed the contract along with Astrium Satellites’ CEO, Evert Dudok at the company’s offices in Ottobrunn, which is near Munich in Germany.
According to Professor Liebig, this contract would mean one more important step towards realizing the Sentinel satellite series. He further mentioned that the Sentinel-4 would be first spectrometer of its kind which would be positioned in geostationary orbit and offer precise data about greenhouse gases and air quality forecasting services, which can be utilized by decision makers to develop strategies for reducing emissions.
Sentinel-4 is one of the series of five missions, which ESA is creating for the GMES program. Decision makers would obtain reliable, accurate and timely data via the GMES which would help them to gain insights and take the edge off the changes arising from climate change, manage the environment and thus ensure civil security. The data collected from space, sea, ground and air would be integrated with special focus on the space component.
ESA’s long-standing collaboration with Eumetsat would be made use of and each and every Sentinel-4 mission would include the Astrium’s UV visible near infrared spectrometer and Eumetsat’s data from the thermal infrared sensor. Moreover, data from the imager that would be flown on the MTG Imager satellites would also be used by the Sentinel-4 mission.
Source: http://www.astrium.eads.net