Come Tuesday -- July 1, The European Space Agency Will Launch Sentinel 2, To Work In Tandem With Sentinel 1...

We will be off grid that evening, at a social function -- at about 6:15 pm Central US time, but do look in here -- on Tuesday US evening time, as live coverage of this launch will be shown on ESA WebTV, on this coming Tuesday.

[The below left is a computer model / animated simulation -- of the soon to be world's largest floating iceberg. It is certain / due to break off of the Antarctic shelf. . . in the next few years. The data for the model came from the first ESA Sentinel 1 mission.] Climate monitoring and modeling is now a space based effort -- as well it should be. . . unencumbered by geo-political boundaries on some map somewhere -- drawn by some oligarch or general. Here's the latest on this fine effort:

. . .The MTG mission already has one satellite in orbit – the MTG-Imager (MTG-I) – so MTG-S will be the second MTG satellite to launch. Its Infrared Sounder uses interferometric techniques to capture data on temperature, humidity, wind and trace gases that are used to generate 3D maps of the atmosphere, improving the accuracy of MTG’s weather prediction.

The Infrared Sounder will be the first hyperspectral sounding instrument placed in geostationary orbit by a European-led mission. It will be positioned about 36 000 km above the equator and will maintain its position relative to Earth, following the same area on the planet’s surface as we rotate.

Thanks to its fixed position in geostationary orbit on board MTG-S, Sentinel-4 will be able to deliver data every 60 minutes during daylight to support the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service for rapid forecasting. The mission will complement the Sentinel-5 and Sentinel-5P missions, which provide daily observations of the Earth from their polar orbits.

Sentinel-4 is the European contribution to the global constellation of geostationary air quality sensors. It will work alongside the Korean sensor Gems, observing air pollution over Asia, and NASA sensor Tempo, measuring air pollution over North America.

Thales Alenia Space was the prime contractor for the overall MTG mission, with OHB Systems responsible for the MTG-Sounder. The prime contractor for Sentinel-4 is Airbus Defence and Space. Mission control and data distribution for both MTG-S and Sentinel-4 will be managed by Eumetsat. . . .

It will provide coverage of Europe and part of northern Africa on a repeat cycle of 15 minutes, providing meteorologists with a complete weather picture of the region, complementing data on cloud formation and lightning from MTG-I. . . .

Now you know -- do go, and be excellent to one another. We are all. . . we've got. True dat.

नमस्ते