The SENTINEL-2 mission is supported by two identical spacecraft, SENTINEL-2A and SENTINEL-2B, flying in the same orbital plane with a phase shift of 180ยบ. An overall description of the satellite is available, showing the geometry of the satellite. Additionally, they are equipped with two dual frequency RUAG GPS receivers to allow POD in order to meet the accuracy requirements of the mission.
Figure 1: Drawing of SENTINEL-2A satellite showing the GPS receivers (image credit: ESA)
For Precise Orbit Determination processing it is of paramount importance to know in great detail the mass history of the satellite, the evolution of its centre of gravity, the manoeuvre history and the attitude information. Moreover, for GNSS based processing, the location and orientation of the antennae are required. In the case of the manoeuvre and mass history file (including the CoG position), available hereafter, a historical record is kept since the launch of the satellite:
- Sentinel-2A Mass History file and Sentinel-2B Mass History file
- Sentinel-2A Manoeuvre History file and Sentinel-2B Manoeuvre History file
For the convenience of users, another file combining information on manoeuvres and GNSS outages for the mission is provided below:
Please note that all of the files provided above contain a header that explains the format of their content.
The GPS Antenna absolute phase centre offset and variations (PCO/PCV) of both GPS receivers is located in this ANTEX file.