The European Space Agency and the European Commission announce the end of the mission for the Copernicus Sentinel-1B satellite and regret the inconvenience caused to the Copernicus Services, Copernicus Participating States, and the many users worldwide affected by the lack of Sentinel-1B data.
Following the previous news on the Sentinel-1B anomaly that occurred on 23 December 2021, the very detailed investigations related to the satellite power system’s affected unit have been completed. The conclusions drawn by the Anomaly Review Board resulted in the impossibility to recover the 28V regulated bus of the C-SAR Antenna Power Supply unit (CAPS), which provides power to the radar electronics. The capability of Sentinel-1B to support the mission is therefore considered lost.
A summary report of the description of the anomaly, of the investigations and the recovery attempts, as well as the parallel Sentinel-1 mission level actions and way forward is available here.
Copernicus Sentinel-1A remains fully operational. Strong efforts have been deployed to launch Sentinel-1C as early as possible, the current plans target a launch in the second quarter of 2023. The successful VEGA-C maiden flight on 13 July 2022 marks a major milestone towards the launch of Sentinel-1C.
The Sentinel-1B satellite remains under control, all systems except the power affected unit, which prevents the radar from being switched on, continue to function nominally. Regular orbit control manoeuvres are routinely performed. The preparation of the Sentinel-1B disposal phase has started. It requires detailed analyses in the domains of satellite engineering, mission analysis and flight operations. This preparatory phase is planned to last until the end March 2023, indicatively. The execution of the Sentinel-1B disposal cannot take place in parallel to the Sentinel-1A operations and to the Sentinel-1C related activities (launch preparation, launch execution and Commissioning). The start of the Sentinel-1B disposal is therefore planned to take place after the Sentinel-1C In-Orbit Commissioning Review (IOCR), indicatively during the third quarter of 2023. The de-orbiting activities will last several months (current estimate in the order of 9 months).
The de-orbiting of Sentinel-1B is an example of ESA’s and EU’s commitments to clean and responsible space. It will be performed according to the safety and clean space environment requirements in place for ESA projects at the time of design of Sentinel-1A and Sentinel-1B (re-entry in the atmosphere within maximum 25 years).
As a consequence of a ground segment anomaly, the Sentinel-2A systematic production was stopped the 02 August from 00:00:00 UTC to 08:30:00 UTC, leading to all S2A production unavailable.
An update will follow with the plans for the recovery of the impacted production.
We apologise for any inconvenience this might cause to your activities.
Due to Sentinel-3A SLSTR instrument anomaly, SLSTR data degradation or unavailability is expected starting from 1st of August 2022 at 01:56:00 UTC. Issue is under investigation.
Due to unavailability of auxiliary data required for the Sentinel-5P Methane (CH4) processing, data from orbit 24790 2022-07-26T17:11:49 have degraded quality and should be used with care. An update of this news will be provided when additional information are available.
Our apologies for any inconvenience.
As previously announced, the update of the Copernicus Sentinel-5 Precursor (S5p) operational ground-processing system has been put in place. This implies that Level 1B products are now processed with the new processor version 02.01.00., Level 2 Ozone (O3), Tropospheric O3, CLOUD, Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) and Formaldehyde (HCHO) products, which belong to the same processor suite, are now processed with the new processor version 02.04.01. Level 2 Methane (CH4), Carbon Monoxide (CO), Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), Ozone Profile (O3_PR) Aerosol Layer Height (AER_LH) and Aerosol Index (AER_AI) are now processed with the new processor version 02.04.00.
As already announced, following the update, the quality of SO2 and HCHO production may be of temporarily reduced quality for 2 to 3 days whilst the background calibration is re-established, in additionthe L2 OFFL data between orbits 24655 – 24687 have been processed using in input the previous version of the L1B data, which is not optimal; therefore these data should be used with care.
The data processed with the new version are available on the Copernicus S5P Hub starting with the orbits/dates provided below. Please note that the Near Real Time (NRTI) products for data acquired during the processing downtime period were not generated.
Data orbits/dates starting from:
Detailed information will be provided within the Product Readme Files.
Due to predicted outage for S3A in-Plane Manoeuvre #068, SLSTR products degradation is expected for sensing time from 21/07/2022T06:36:45 to 21/07/2022T06:46:35.
As previously announced the update of the Copernicus Sentinel-5 Precursor (S5p) operational ground-processing system is now planned on 20th July 2022. This includes changes in the algorithms and product format for all products. The main impact on the data products of the processors upgrade is:
L1b Radiance degradation correction (the Irradiance degradation correction was already in place).
Usage of a Directional surface Lambertian Equivalent Reflectivity (DLER) database based on TROPOMI data, replacing OMI LER (for NO2 and O3 Profile) and GOME LER (for ALH).
CO product:
The unit of the column_averaging_kernel has changed from metres to unitless.
Inclusion of a priori profiles in the output product.
AAI product: a new wavelength pair using 335 and 367 nm to perform an aerosol index calculation has been added.
CH4 product: update order of fit for the spectral albedo dependence, for removing some artefacts in the CH4 products
Updates of the correction factors to account for the radiance degradation correction of the updated L1b, mainly affecting CLOUD and Ozone Near Real Time (NRT).
Updated the CLOUD neural networks for clear-sky and cloudy
The resulting production will be marked with Collection number 3 according to the file name convention (characters 58,59 of the filename).
Following the update, the quality of SO2 and HCHO production may be of temporarily reduced quality for 2 to 3 days whilst the background calibration is re-established, therefore these data should be used with care.
More details on the algorithm updates and format changes are available to the user community, together with sample data.
Full detailed information will be provided within the Product Readme Files after the operational switch.
Please note that NRT products for data acquired during the downtime period will be not generated. After the successful deployment of the new system, version numbers of the first orbit generated with the new version of the S5p operational processors both, in NRT and OFFL, will be provided.
Due to Copernicus Sentinel-3A Moon calibration, data will be degraded on hereafter products:
Copernicus Sentinel-3ASLSTR: products degradation is expected for sensing time from 13/07/2022T23:21:46 to 14/07/2022T00:12:16
Copernicus Sentinel-3A OLCI: products degradation is expected for sensing time from 13/07/2022T00:06:35 to 14/07/2022T00:12:16
Copernicus Sentinel-3A SRAL: products degradation is expected for sensing time from 13/07/2022T23:22:46 to 13/07/2022T23:54:06
Copernicus Sentinel-1A was unavailable between 18:26 UTC on 9 July 2022 and 12:15 UTC on 10 July 2022, due to a SAR reset anomaly, most probably due to environmental effects.
No data were generated during this period.
Apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused.
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 Editors at: contentmatters4sentinelonline@ejr-quartz.com with your proposals.
