Published: 11/08/2017

Sweltering southern Europe – the ESA Sentinel mission

© ESA; contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2017), processed by ESA, Id 382392, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Southern Europe is in the grip of a relentless heatwave, fuelling wildfires and water shortages. Information from the Copernicus Sentinel-3A satellite has been used to map the sweltering heat across the region.

The Sentinel missions mark a new era in Earth observation focusing on delivering a wealth of operational data for decades to come. The six different missions carry a range of state-of-the-art technologies to supply a stream of complementary imagery and data tailored to the needs of Europe’s environmental monitoring Copernicus programme. ©ESA

The main objective of the Sentinel-3 mission is to measure sea surface topography, sea and land surface temperature, and ocean and land surface colour with high accuracy and reliability to support ocean forecasting systems, environmental monitoring and climate monitoring. The mission is jointly operated by ESA and EUMETSAT to deliver operational ocean and land observation services.