Sentinel-4, the new ESA's fronteer against Global warming

The European space agency will continue to support the fight against global warming and greenhouse gases with its two new environmental satellites.
Yesterday, July 11, Volker Liebig, ESA's director of Earth Observation Programmes, and Evert Dudok, CEO of Astrium Satellites, signed a contract on July 11 worth almost €150 million to develop and build two satellite sensors, known as “Sentinel-4”, which will monitor the Earth's atmosphere as part of Europe's Global Monitoring for Environment and Security programme.
The satellites will provide data on sulphur dioxide and aerosols present over Europe from a geostationary satellite that will orbit about 36,000 km above the equator. The satellite will provide data every hour on the chemical composition of the atmosphere, including trace gases and ultraviolet radiation. The devices also will help improve the monitoring of plumes from volcanic eruptions. They will be carried on Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) weather satellites, scheduled to be launched in 2019 and 2027.
The agreement was signed in Ottobrunn, near Munich, Germany, where the headquarters of Astrium is located. Astrium is an aerospace subsidiary of EADS.
“Sentinel-4 is one of a family of five missions ESA is developing for the EU's Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme,” according to an ESA statement. Through GMES, experts will have reliable, timely and accurate information to manage the environment, understand and mitigate the effects of climate change and ensure civil security.
“These services will be realised through the integration of data collected from space, from the air, at sea and on the ground. However, the space component forms the backbone of the programme. ESA's first GMES satellite, Sentinel-1, is planned to be launched in 2013”, reads ESA's statement.
The programme also is based on the long-term collaboration between ESA and Eumetsat. Each full Sentinel-4 mission will carry on board the ultraviolet-visible-near-infrared spectrometer that Astrium will build, along with data from Eumetsat's thermal-infrared sensor. Both instruments will be carried on MTG-Sounder satellites.
“In addition, the Sentinel-4 mission will also make use of data from the imager that will be flown on the MTG-Imager satellites,” the statement reads.
“For example, the data from Sentinel-4 on sulphur dioxide and aerosols will complement those provided by the MTG-Imager for volcanic plume monitoring.”
MTG is a cooperative venture between Eumetsat and ESA ensuring continuity with the Meteosat Second Generation satellites currently in operation. The series will be made up of four MTG-Imaging satellites and two MTG-Sounding satellites.