Brussels, 22/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - The first satellite in the European earth observation programme, Copernicus, was presented in Rome on Friday 22 November by EU Industry Commissioner Antonio Tajani. Sentinel 1A was built in Italy and will be sent into orbit in April from the Kourou space station in French Guyana. It will initially be used to detect ships or vessels at sea and will orbit the earth at an altitude of around 700 km, giving constant, reliable radar images 24/7. It will be joined by Sentinel 1B in 2015 and other sentinels to create a constellation of six other families of Sentinels between 2014 and 2021, each with its own specific task.
In reality, Copernicus is already in operation, providing information from earth and sea sensors and images from other satellites (as was shown with the speedy images of the Haiyan/Yolanda typhoon in the Philippines), but its services will be improved to make it capable of sending images at night and even when there is thick cloud cover.
It is estimated that the Copernicus programme will make a profit of some €30 billion by 2030 because its services can be sold to the energy industry (gas extraction and renewable power generation), farming and shipping. (MD/transl.fl)