Two days after the launch, Sentinel-1B sends the first images of our planet

Matera  29 April 2016

The first image sent by the Sentinel-1B ESA satellite, launched on April 25 from Kourou space centre in French Guiana, shows an area that extends for 600 km from 80° N via the Barents Sea, revealing on the left the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, and, above, the Austfonna glacier.

The first image was captured on 28 April 2016 at 07:37 (Italian time), just two hours after the radar sensor on board the satellite was switched on.

Sentinel-1B is part of the Sentinel 1 family of the Copernicus Earth observation programme, coordinated by the European Commission. The first satellite of the family, Sentinel-1A, was launched in 2014, while Sentinel-1C and Sentinel- 1D will be placed in orbit from 2021 Copernicus includes the launch of 6 families of satellites that are designed to monitor the land, sea, and atmospheric environment, tackle the effects of climate change, and ensure the safety of citizens. To date there are already four satellites from the programme in orbit.

The Matera Space Centre of e-GEOS, owned by Telespazio (80%) and the Italian Space Agency (20%), is one of three ground stations of Copernicus' Core Ground Segment, and it already receives radar and optical data acquired by the Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 missions.

Copernicus is the programme that is coordinated and managed by the European Commission to provide Europe with its own capability for Earth Observation. Telespazio is one of the main industrial partners in the programme.

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