Under the Copernicus agreement it signed with the European Commission on 7 November 2014, EUMETSAT will be the operator of the Sentinel-3A satellite and will deliver its marine mission on behalf of the European Union, in cooperation with ESA.

EUMETSAT will take over operations of the Sentinel-3A spacecraft in five months from now, upon completion of the ESA-led in-orbit commission phase, and will process Sentinel- 3 marine data and products at its Sentinel-3 Marine Centre for real time delivery to the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service and end-users.

Sentinel-3 is the second of five Copernicus missions to be operated by EUMETSAT, the first being the cooperative Jason-3 marine and climate mission launched on 17 January of this year.

ABOUT EUMETSAT

The European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites is an intergovernmental organisation based in Darmstadt, Germany, currently with 30 Member States (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom) and one Cooperating State (Serbia).

EUMETSAT operates the geostationary satellites Meteosat-8, -9, -10 and -11 over Europe and Africa, and Meteosat-7 over the Indian Ocean.

EUMETSAT also operates two Metop polar-orbiting satellites as part of the Initial Joint Polar System (IJPS) shared with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

EUMETSAT is also a partner in the cooperative high precision ocean altimetry Jason missions involving Europe and the United States (Jason-2, Jason-3 and Jason-CS/Sentinel-6).

The data and products from EUMETSAT’s satellites are vital to weather forecasting and make a significant contribution to the monitoring of environment and climate change.

From 2016 onwards, EUMETSAT will exploit the Copernicus Sentinel-3 marine mission in cooperation with ESA and on behalf of the EU, and deliver data services to the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service benefiting EU citizens.

MEDIA RELATIONS EUMETSAT:
Tel: +49 6151 807 7320
Fax: +49 6151 807 7321
Email: press@eumetsat.int