What is the Sentinel-6 satellite?

The Copernicus Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite that will be critical to the understanding of climate change has been launched from California.

It is set to become the primary means of measuring the shape of the world’s oceans. Its data will track not only sea-level rise but reveal how the great mass of waters is moving around the globe.

Data from satellites such as Sentinel-6 help scientists foresee the effects of the changing oceans on the climate.

The satellite has been named after Dr. Michael Freilich, who was the Director of NASA’s Earth Science Division from 2006-2019 and passed away in August this year.

According to Indian Express, The mission, called the Jason Continuity of Service (Jason-CS) mission, is designed to measure the height of the ocean, which is a key component in understanding how the Earth’s climate is changing. The spacecraft consists of two satellites, one of them launched on Saturday, and the other, called Sentinel-6B, to be launched in 2025.

It has been developed jointly by the European Space Agency (ESA), NASA, European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (Eumetsat), the USA’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the EU, with contributions from France’s National Centre for Space Studies (CNES).