The Magra reservoir in Alentejo, Portugal, became the test site for Aquatic Ecosystem Analysis students, learning to use remote sensing to monitor and possibly forecast algae blooms.

Due to a Copernicus Sentinel-3B spacecraft manoeuvre scheduled on 8 April  reduced data quality is expected for all the SRAL and SLSTR user products in the following UTC sensing time interval:

• SRAL from 11:18 to 11:52.
• SLSTR from 11:08 to 13:39.

Copernicus Sentinel-3B OLCI L1 (OL_1_EFR, OL_1_ERR) and L2 (OL_2_LFR, OL_2_LRR) reprocessed data will be soon available on the Open Access Hub. The time period covered by the reprocessing activity includes the commissioning phase of Sentinel-3B, therefore part of these products are newly published on the data hub and are going to cover a gap of several months of data.

Due to a Copernicus Sentinel-3B SLSTR instrument special operation scheduled on 30 March, the IR channels may be degraded during the overall duration of the maintenance lasting 3 hours and 22 minutes. As a consequence of that all the SLSTR/SYN user products may be degraded from UTC sensing time 10:50 to 14:12 on 30 March.

Until recently, the exploitation of Earth Observation in the marine domain was somewhat limited, due to poor spatial resolutions and long revisit times, often extending to months or years— today, Copernicus Sentinel data and the development of multispectral techniques are bringing significant advantages in monitoring marine debris.

Due to a planned Copernicus Sentinel-3A spacecraft manoeuvre, executed on 11 March, all the SLSTR and SRAL user products could be degraded in the following UTC sensing time intervals:

• SLSTR from 08:50 to 11:32
• SRAL from 09:01 to 09:37

The ESA Atmospheric Validation Data Center (EVDC) has been updated, introducing new tools and upgrading existing functionalities for the exploitation of users interested in accessing both Cal/Val data and satellite products for specific missions.

With reference to the news published on 5 March, users are informed that the Copernicus Sentinel-5 Precursor (S5P) operation system has been updated for products starting with the orbit / dates given below. The update comprises the change in the Suomi NPP (S-NPP) auxiliary file used for the Copernicus S5P methane (CH4) and Aerosol Layer Height (ALH) data processing. 

For about 30 years now, ESA satellites have been cruising some 800 km above our heads, collecting information about our planet—but why are older missions still so fundamental today?

An update of the Copernicus Sentinel-5 Precursor (S5P) operation system is planned for 11 March.