Copernicus Sentinel-2 Mission:
The European Space Agency (ESA)’s Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission recently released a stunning high-resolution image of the 2026 Winter Olympic venues across northern Italy.
- It is an Earth observation satellite mission developed by the European Space Agency (ESA).
- It is part of Copernicus – the European Union’s Earth observation program.
- It aims at monitoring variability in land surface conditions.
- It comprises a land monitoring constellation of two polar-orbiting satellites placed in the same sun-synchronous orbit.
- It delivers high-resolution optical multispectral imagery in the visible to shortwave infrared.
- This data supports a wide range of applications, including precision agriculture, food security, ecosystems monitoring, disaster management (e.g., volcanoes, wildfires, floods, landslides), water quality assessment, and observing anthropogenic methane emissions.
- Copernicus Programme is the Earth observation component of the European Union’s Space programme.
- This initiative is headed by the European Commission (EC) in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA).
- It offers information services that draw from satellite Earth observation and in-situ (non-space) data.
- The programme consists of a complex set of systems that collect data from multiple sources, including Earth Observation satellites, in-situ sensors like ground stations, and airborne and sea-borne sensors.
- Users have free and open access to a great deal of this data, which is also processed to provide a set of services based on reliable and near-real-time information.
- ESA has developed a new family of satellites, called Sentinels, specifically for the operational needs of Copernicus.
