- The Copernicus Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite, was launched from the in California.
- This is a part of the Jason-CS mission dedicated to measuring changes in the global sea level.
- It has been named after Dr Michael Freilich, who was the Director of NASA’s Earth Science Division from 2006-2019 and passed away in August this year.
What is the objective of mission?
- The mission, called the Jason Continuity of Service (Jason-CS) mission, is designed to measure the height of the ocean, which is a key component in understanding how the Earth’s climate is changing.
- The spacecraft consists of two satellites, the other, called Sentinel-6B, to be launched in 2025.
- It has been developed jointly by the European Space Agency (ESA), NASA, and France’s National Centre for Space Studies (CNES).
What will the satellite do?
- The satellite will ensure the continuity of sea-level observations and will provide measurements of global sea-level rise.
- Since 1992, high-precision satellite altimeters have helped scientists understand how the ocean stores and distributes heat, water and carbon in the climate system.
- Essentially, the satellite will send pulses to the Earth’s surface and measure how long they take to return to it, which will help scientists measure the sea surface height.
- It will also measure water vapour along this path and find its position using GPS and ground-based lasers.
What is Significance of the mission?
- As per NASA, it is possible to observe the height of the oceans on a global scale and monitor critical changes in ocean currents and heat storage only from space.
- Data from satellites such as Sentinel-6 help scientists foresee the effects of the changing oceans on the climate.
- Further, in order to measure and track changes in the oceanic heat budget, scientists need to know the ocean currents and heat storage of the oceans, which can be determined from the height of the sea surface.
