An important new tool to combat climate change is now available. Using data from the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite, this new technology makes it possible to track and attribute methane emissions around the world. 

Scientists using data from the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite have noticed a strong reduction of ozone concentrations over the Arctic. Unusual atmospheric conditions, including freezing temperatures in the stratosphere, have led ozone levels to plummet – causing a ‘mini-hole’ in the ozone layer.

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.

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.