30-11-2020 | 16:06 PM
Sentinel Satellite to track Earth’s sea level rise
NASA launched the Copernicus Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite to monitor oceans.
The satellite was launched in a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The satellite launch was a part of the Mission Jason Continuity of Service.
The mission was launched to measure the height of the ocean. Measuring the height of the ocean is one of the key components in understanding climate change.
Developed by:
The satellite was jointly developed by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, European Space Agency and European Organization for the Exploration of Meteorological satellites and French National Centre for Space Studies.
Objectives:
The satellite will make sea level observations and will provide measurements on global sea level rise.
To measure the sea surface height, the satellite will send pulses to the Earth’s surface and will measure the returning signals.
The satellite will also measure water vapour in the earth’s atmosphere. It will also collect data supporting oceanography.
Other satellites launched to measure Ocean
The GRACE satellite was launched in 2018. It was a joint mission of NASA and German Aerospace Centre. It mainly measured distribution of water across the planet.
The Aquarius was launched in 2011 by NASA.
Jason-1 was launched in 2001, Jason-2 in 2008 and Jason-3 in 2016 by NASA. All the three studied about Ocean.
Oceansat, Cartosat were launched by ISRO to study oceans.
