Within the first days of its operational life, the Sentinel-1A satellite has provided data for marine services in the Arctic.
Significant Wave Height (SWH) is mapped globally through Satellite Altimetry. SWH estimation is possible because the shape of a pulse-limited altimetric waveform depends on the sea state. The algorithm for SWH also depends on the width of the point target response (PTR) function.
With the commissioning of Sentinel-1A completed and the satellite's transfer to the team in charge of its exploitation, its data are available as of today to all users.
The Sentinel satellites are built primarily to deliver information for environmental services through Europe's Copernicus programme, but they will also be used to advance our scientific understanding of Earth. Paving the way for easy scientific exploitation, ESA has released three new open source scientific software toolboxes.
Using satellites for improving the exploitation of water resources is just one of the innovative ideas developed over the week-long 'camp' dedicated to creating mobile apps drawing on Earth observation data.
Sentinel-1A has added yet another string to its bow. Radar images from this fledgling satellite have been used to map the rupture caused by the biggest earthquake that has shaken northern California in 25 years.
Imaging Earth's land with unprecedented speed and resolution has come another step closer as the next Sentinel satellite has been given its solar wing and started a strenuous six-month test campaign to make sure that it is fit for launch next April.
Although it was only launched a few months ago and is still being commissioned, the new Sentinel-1A radar satellite has already shown that it can be used to generate 3D models of Earth's surface and will be able to closely monitor land and ice surface deformation.
Land surface dynamics is one of the key drivers for the assessment of global environmental change and remote sensing based methods are the most important tools for its accurate monitoring. Here, the scientists use an Envisat-MERIS full resolution time series for vegetation decline monitoring as an alternative to more commonly used MODIS data using as a case study irrigated croplands located in the lower Amu Darya River Basin in Northern Uzbekistan, Central Asia.
Calling on all interested users of Sentinel data, who would like to submit their results, turning their experiences into 'success stories'.
If you have a good story to tell, of how any of the Sentinel satellites are producing data that bring benefit to your work and/or to society, please contact the Sentinel Online Editor Malì Cecere at: mali.cecere@ejr-quartz.com with your proposals.
