{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/eu-decision-2018-621/annex/division-3/division-3.2/division-3.2.1",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/eu-decision-2018-621/annex/division-3/division-3.2/division-3.2.1.json",
  "legislation": "eudn/2018/621",
  "legislation_title": "Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2018/621 of 20 April 2018 on the technical specifications for the Copernicus space component pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 377/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council (Text with EEA relevance)",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/eu-decision-2018-621",
  "path": "annex/division/3/division/3.2/division/3.2.1",
  "kind": "division",
  "number": "3.2.1",
  "heading": "Space Segment general description",
  "text": "The dedicated Sentinel missions shall carry a range of technologies, including radar and multispectral imaging instruments for land, ocean and atmospheric monitoring. They shall be developed by ESA and organised into six different mission families.\nSentinel-1 mission: shall comprise a constellation of at least two polar-orbiting satellites to reach Full Operational Capacity (FOC), operating day and night performing C-band synthetic aperture radar imaging, enabling them to acquire imagery regardless of the weather;\nSentinel-2 mission: shall comprise a constellation of at least two two polar-orbiting satellites aiming to monitor variability in land surface conditions supporting the monitoring of changes to vegetation within the growing season;\nSentinel-3 mission: shall comprise a constellation of at least two polar-orbiting satellites with the objective to monitor oceans and land masses globally. Sentinel-3 partim marine shall measure sea surface topography, sea surface temperature, and ocean surface colour to support ocean forecasting systems, environmental monitoring and climate monitoring. Sentinel-3 partim land shall measure land and inland water surface height, land surface temperature and land surface colour;\nSentinel-4 mission: Sentinel-4 shall monitor key air quality trace gases and aerosols over Europe in support of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) at high spatial resolution and with a fast revisit time. Sentinel-4 shall be implemented as part of the Geostationary EUMETSAT Meteosat Third Generation Satellite System. The Sentinel-4 instruments shall be hosted on the EUMETSAT satellites MTG-S-1 (Sentinel-4A) and MTG-S-2 (Sentinel-4B), with an expected 15,5 years of operations for both satellites combined;\nSentinel-5 mission: Sentinel-5 shall provide accurate measurements of key atmospheric constituents such as ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, formaldehyde, and aerosol properties. Sentinel-5 shall be implemented as part of the EUMETSAT Polar System of Second Generation (EPS-SG). The Sentinel-5 instruments shall be hosted on the EUMETSAT satellites METOP-SG-A-1, METOP-SG-A-2, METOP-SG-A-3 (each with a design lifetime of 7,5 years and hosting Sentinel-5A, -5B, -5C respectively). Sentinel-5p shall be the precursor mission to Sentinel-5;\nSentinel-6 mission: shall be a radar altimeter mission, with the objective of providing high-precision measurements of global sea-level as a reference altimetry mission. Sentinel-6 shall consist of 2 units (A and B, each with a design lifetime of 5 years) covering 10 years of observations.\nSentinel-1, Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3 shall consist each of 4 satellites, whereby 2 units are needed to reach Full Operational Capacity (FOC) and 2 units shall ensure recurrent observation capacity after the end-of-life of the first 2 units.\nThe operations of Jason-3 shall be included in the Copernicus Space Component to provide continuity of observations between Jason-2 and Sentinel-6 as a reference altimetry mission.\nThe characteristics of the Copernicus dedicated missions shall be as specified in Table 2.\nTable 2\nCopernicus Dedicated missions characteristics\nThe period of operations may change depending upon the actual life time of the individual satellite units and evaluation of programmatic options.\nAbbreviations: VIS = Visual Range Bands; SWIR = Short Wave Infrared; MWIR = Mid-Wave Infrared; TIR = Thermal Infrared.\nSentinel Mission\nMain Characteristic and purpose\nNumber of Units\nPayloads\nSatellite orbit\nApproximate Period of operations\nSentinel-1\nRADAR Mission\n4 units (A, B, C, D), two units are flying in parallel for full capacity\nC-Band SAR Payload with centre frequency of 5,405 GHz (4 polarisations) and 4 modes:\nStrip Map mode with 80 km Swath and 5 × 5 metre spatial resolution\nInterferometric Wide Swath Mode with 250 km swath and 5 × 20 metre spatial resolution\nExtra-wide Swath Mode with 400 km swath and 20 × 40 m spatial resolution\nWave mode with 5 × 5 metre spatial resolution at 100 km along the orbit\nSun-Synchronous orbit at approximately 693 km\nA, B: 2014 – 2022\nC, D: 2022-2030\nSentinel-2\nHigh Resolution optical mission for land imaging\n4 units (A, B, C, D), two units are flying in parallel for full capacity\n—\nMSI — Multi Spectral Imager with 13 multispectral channels between 400 nm and 2 300 nm, spectral resolution between 1 nm and 180 nm and spatial resolutions of 10 m, 20 m and 60 m. Includes an Optical Communication Payload for mission data relay through EDRS.\nSun-Synchronous orbit at approximately 786 km\nA, B: 2015 – 2023\nC, D: 2023-2030\nSentinel-3\nGlobal Ocean and Land Imaging\n4 units (A, B, C, D), two units are flying in parallel for full capacity\nOLCI – Ocean and Land Colour Instrument with 21 bands and spatial resolution of 300 m\nSLSTR – Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer with 9 bands and spatial resolution of 500 m (VIS, SWIR) and 1 km (MWIR, TIR)\nSRAL – SAR Radar Altimeter with dual CX and Ku bands\nMWR – Microwave Radiometer, with an operation frequency in dual 23,8 GHz and 36,5 GHz\nSun-Synchronous orbit at approximately 814,5 km\nA, B: 2016 – 2023\nC, D: 2023-2030\nSentinel-4\nAtmospheric monitoring\n2 instruments (A, B), on board consecutive Meteosat Third Generation – Sounder satellites\nThe Sentinel-4 instrument is a high-resolution imaging spectrometer (spatial resolution of 8 × 8 km) covering three wavelength bands:\nUltraviolet (305-400 nm)\nVisible (400-500 nm)\nNear-Infrared (750-775 nm)\nOn board Meteosat Third Generation Satellites in geostationary orbit at approximately 35 786 km. Coverage of Europe and North Africa with a repeat cycle of about 60 minutes\n2022 - 2040\nSentinel-5\nAtmospheric monitoring\n3 units (A, B, C), on board consecutive METOP Second Generation – A satellites\nThe Sentinel-5 UVNS instrument is a high resolution spectrometer (spatial resolution about 7 km), covering the following wavelength bands:\nUltraviolet (270-370 nm)\nVisible (370-500 nm)\nNear-infrared (685-773 nm)\nShort-wave infrared (1 590-1 675; 2 305-2 385 nm)\nPart of the EUMETSAT Polar System of Second Generation (EPS-SG) at approximately 817 km\n2022-2040\nSentinel-5p\nAtmospheric monitoring\nPrecursor satellite for Sentinel-5\n—\nTROPOMI — TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument with 4 channels in the following spectral ranges: 270-500 nm, 675-775 nm, 2 305-2 385 nm and spatial resolution of 7 × 7 km\nSun-Synchronous orbit at approximately 824 km\n2017 - 2024\nSentinel-6\nHigh Precision Ocean Altimetry\n2 units (A, B)\nPOSEIDON-4 – SAR Radar Altimeter\nAMRC-C – Climate-quality microwave radiometer, a NOAA/JPL contribution\nNon-Sun-synchronous at approximately 1 336 km\nA: 2020 – 2025\nB: 2025 - 2030",
  "extent": "E+W+S+N.I.",
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f1",
      "text": "The Sentinel-5 Precursor (Sentinel-5p) mission is a joint initiative between ESA and the Kingdom of the Netherlands."
    },
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f2",
      "text": "Jason-3 is the result from the long-standing cooperation between EUMETSAT, NOAA, CNES and NASA. It is a High Precision Ocean Altimetry Mission that provides continuity between Jason-2 and Sentinel-6 and is operational since 2016 with an envisaged lifetime of 5 years."
    },
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f3",
      "text": "The period of operations may change depending upon the actual life time of the individual satellite units and evaluation of programmatic options."
    },
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f4",
      "text": "Abbreviations: VIS = Visual Range Bands; SWIR = Short Wave Infrared; MWIR = Mid-Wave Infrared; TIR = Thermal Infrared."
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eudn/2018/621/annex/division/3/division/3.2/division/3.2.1",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-11-01T15:13:07.904759+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}