Major Ocean-Observing Satellite Starts Providing Science Data (phys.org) 23
After six months of check-out and calibration in orbit, the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite will make its first two data streams available to the public on June 22. It launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Nov. 21, 2020, and is a U.S.-European collaboration to measure sea surface height and other key ocean features, such as ocean surface wind speed and wave height. Phys.Org reports: One of the sea surface height data streams that will be released is accurate to 2.3 inches (5.8 centimeters) and will be available within hours of when the instruments aboard Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich collect it. A second stream of data, accurate to 1.4 inches (3.5 centimeters), will be released two days after collection. The difference in when the products become available balances accuracy with delivery timeliness for tasks like forecasting the weather and helping to monitor the formation of hurricanes. More datasets, which will be accurate to about 1.2 inches (2.9 centimeters), are slated for distribution later this year and are intended for research activities and climate science including tracking global mean sea level rise.
The satellite, named after former NASA Earth Science Division Director Michael Freilich, collects its measurements for about 90% of the world's oceans. It is one of two satellites that compose the Copernicus Sentinel-6/Jason-CS (Continuity of Service) mission. The second satellite, Sentinel-6B, is slated for launch in 2025. Together, they are the latest in a series of spacecraft starting with TOPEX/Poseidon in 1992 and continuing with the Jason series of satellites that have been gathering precise ocean height measurements for nearly 30 years. Shortly after launch, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich moved into position, trailing the current reference sea level satellite Jason-3 by 30 seconds. Scientists and engineers then spent time cross-calibrating the data collected by both satellites to ensure the continuity of measurements between the two. Once they have are assured of the data quality, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich will then become the primary sea level satellite.
The satellite, named after former NASA Earth Science Division Director Michael Freilich, collects its measurements for about 90% of the world's oceans. It is one of two satellites that compose the Copernicus Sentinel-6/Jason-CS (Continuity of Service) mission. The second satellite, Sentinel-6B, is slated for launch in 2025. Together, they are the latest in a series of spacecraft starting with TOPEX/Poseidon in 1992 and continuing with the Jason series of satellites that have been gathering precise ocean height measurements for nearly 30 years. Shortly after launch, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich moved into position, trailing the current reference sea level satellite Jason-3 by 30 seconds. Scientists and engineers then spent time cross-calibrating the data collected by both satellites to ensure the continuity of measurements between the two. Once they have are assured of the data quality, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich will then become the primary sea level satellite.
Very interesting... (Score:5, Interesting)
This is very cool.
The downlink for these sats are 5Ghz and 12-18Ghz... I don't know the specific frequency. But antone with the proper equipment should be able to monitor the signals.
Hopefully the downlink will not be encrypted. This can be an interesting radio/deciding exercise.
Re: Very interesting... (Score:5, Informative)
If you're into that, the venerable NOAA series is still up. NOAA-15, 18, and 19 still transmit in 137MHz. So do the Russian Meteor sats. A little fancier is all of those, plus the european MetOp series, at 1.7GHz, all of them which can be received with about $200 worth of SDR, amplifier, an old big sat dish, and open source software. The 137MHz ones with a $20 SDR dongle and a V dipole (though I use a QFH)
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I've got the equipment for 137Mhz and have had some fun with it.
This might be an excuse to build some microwave kit. I'm just doing it for a technical exercise.
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Check out nooelec for LNAs, github/altillimity for L-Band decoders and Standalone-Demodulators.
WXtoimg is dead but there is a mirror website and a working key for it (it works on linux too)
Goestools is pretty stable for GOES-16 here too
Check out Tindie for NanoVNA v4 if you need a VNA for $150 new. (there are cheaper clones on ali, but that is the official store).
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It's certainly great fun to try and get the raw data coming down.
If this follows the same model as the other Sentinel missions, all of the processed data (at different levels) will be made freely available in netCDF format for anyone to download and play with.
https://sentinel.esa.int/web/s... [esa.int]
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But antone with the proper equipment should be able to monitor the signals.
Do you have Antone's info so we can contact him directly? :-)
actual content (Score:4, Informative)
https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus/Sentinel-6/New_sea-level_monitoring_satellite_goes_live [esa.int]
interesting article (Score:2)
.. And while I can credit the desire to honor someone, somebody needed to step in and tell them that was a stupid name and didn't need to be FULLY repeated with every iteration.
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Well it is intern season.
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The earlier messages were calibration and diagnostic data, now that it's properly configured it's sending science data.
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Well, he was an important figure in the Copernicus program that everyone would have worked with, and he died an untimely death last year... It seems a bit truculent to object to his colleagues naming the sixth series satellites after him.
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I don't object to them NAMING it after him. Sounds like a good guy.
I object to the constant tiresome repetition of the full formal name over and over again in the reporting.
We have pronouns for a reason.
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I don't object to them NAMING it after him. Sounds like a good guy. I object to the constant tiresome repetition of the full formal name over and over again in the reporting.
We have pronouns for a reason.
Oddly, the satellite self-identifies as non-binary and prefers "they". :-)
Re: interesting article (Score:2)
Impending Doom (Score:1)
How long before the headline alarming us, based on data from this satellite? Luckily, doom can be avoided by self-flagellation and living in caves.
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I presume you are worried the satellite with show Mother Nature aiming a gun at you and you wish to hide under your blankets so you don't know when the bullet will hit.
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I sense a total lack of imagination from you.
There never has been a serious push back progress in order to help fix the environment. Actually it is asking us to go further and come with better and cleaner solutions.
1. Solar Panels: They are getting cheap enough to be considered a good replacement towards powering your home directly off the grid. They also offer additional energy that can feed the grid during normal peak hours. Being installed on individual homes we can support the grid with much smaller
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"Solar Panels: They are getting cheap enough to be considered a good replacement towards powering your home directly off the grid."
Solar panels are great and getting better, but they aren't always a good solution. What about people packed in urban environments, often hundreds in a single building. They can't get enough solar panels on the roof to handle that load. If they spread out to the burbs, then they use more energy for transportation and distribution of goods. Also, some areas just don't get a lot of
But what about (Score:1)
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A satellite publishing anti-science data? Very unscientific of them to exclude datasets like that. I doubt the scientificy of this program.
Sadly the Flat Earth Space Agency has never been able to get a satellite up. I suspect NASA in cooperation with Jewish Space Lasers (JSL) have been blocking them. Too keep the truth hidden from us for... Reasons.
What is the spatial and time resolution? (Score:2)
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