Sentinel 6B from the Copernicus programme was successfully launched on Monday 17 November at 06.21 CET aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg space base (California, USA), announced the European Space Agency (ESA).
Less than an hour after lift-off, the satellite was placed in orbit 1,336 km above the Earth, higher than other Earth observation satellites.
Sentinel 6B is equipped with a radar altimeter and a radiometer and will provide critical data every ten days on ocean currents, wave heights and wind speeds, as well as measurements of river and lake levels to help predict flooding, for example. It will map up to 95% of ice-free ocean surfaces.
“Its data will help to improve weather, ocean and climate forecasts and support effective management of water resources, thereby helping to protect people and livelihoods”, said the European Meteorological Satellite Agency, EUMETSAT, the satellite’s operator, in a statement. Sea levels have risen by 9.38 cm since 1999, and the rate of sea level rise has increased by 46% between 2014 and 2024, to 4.2 mm per year.
Once fully operational, Sentinel 6B will take over from its twin, Sentinel-6A (Michael Freilich), which has been in orbit since November 2020.
Sentinel 6 is the fruit of international cooperation involving the European Commission, ESA, NASA, EUMETSAT and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), with the support of the French Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES). (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)