17 July 2015

Media representatives are invited to a presentation of potential applications using the early images from the second satellite in orbit for the EU’s Copernicus Earth observation programme.
The event, jointly organised by ESA and the European Commission, will be held on 27 July at the Milano Congressi convention centre, located at Piazzale Carlo Magno in Milan, Italy.
At the event, experts will demonstrate how the Sentinel-2 ‘colour vision’ mission’s critical observations can be used to monitor our changing lands, wetlands and coastal waters.
Key European users will also present their plans for using Sentinel-2 data in the various fields of applications, including agriculture, forestry, wetlands, glaciers and coastal waters.
Sentinel-2A was launched from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 23 June.
Developed by ESA, the Sentinel satellites make up the core of Europe’s Copernicus environmental monitoring network. Copernicus will provide operational information on the world’s land surfaces, oceans and atmosphere to support environmental and security policymaking and the needs of individual citizens and service providers.
Sentinel-2 is designed as a two-satellite constellation – Sentinel-2A and -2B – and will provide imagery for the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service, among other services developed by the EU.
The camera’s 13 spectral bands, from the visible and the near-infrared to the shortwave infrared at different spatial resolutions, take land monitoring to an unprecedented level.
Sentinel-2 is the first optical Earth observation mission of its kind to include three bands in the ‘red edge’, which provide key information on the state of vegetation.

Programme
17:30 Welcome address by Mauro Facchini, Head of Unit at the Directorate General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, Directorate Space Policy, Copernicus and Defence, European Commission
17:40 Director of ESA’s Earth Observation Programmes, Volker Liebig, discusses the Copernicus Space Component
17:50 Sentinel-2 mission status and outlook overview by Project Manager Francois Spoto and Mission Manager Bianca Hoersch
18:10 Scientists and experts provide an overview of how Sentinel-2 imagery will be used, including applications in agriculture, forestry, wetlands, glaciers and coastal waters. The mission’s image quality and lessons learned from heritage missions will also be discussed.
18:55 Question and answer session