The Sentinel‑4 mission will be launched tonight, 1 July 2025, as part of the MTG‑S1 satellite payload aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral. Liftoff is scheduled for 23:03 CEST, with live coverage beginning at 21:15 CEST.
About Sentinel-4
Sentinel‑4 is not a standalone satellite but an atmospheric sounder integrated on board the MTG‑S platform. Its UVN (ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared) Sounder is designed to monitor tropospheric trace gases and aerosols with high temporal resolution. Parameters retrieved include ozone (O₃), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), formaldehyde (HCHO), sulfur dioxide (SO₂), aerosol optical depth (AOD), and surface reflectance (BRDF).
The mission is part of the European Union’s Copernicus Programme and is designed to support the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS). The data will be used in operational forecasting systems, public health assessments, and environmental policy enforcement.
In contrast to polar-orbiting missions like Sentinel‑5 and Sentinel‑5P, which provide daily global coverage, Sentinel‑4 is focused on Europe and North Africa, offering hourly temporal resolution. This allows for improved monitoring of short-term pollution events and diurnal emission cycles.
Together with NASA’s TEMPO and South Korea’s GEMS, Sentinel‑4 contributes to a coordinated system of geostationary atmospheric monitoring across the northern hemisphere.
GRASP contribution to Sentinel-4
GRASP is responsible for the operational retrieval algorithms that convert Sentinel‑4 UVN radiances into aerosol optical depth (AOD) and surface bidirectional reflectance factor (BRDF) products. These algorithms were originally developed and tested for Sentinel‑5P during the earlier “Sentinel‑5P Innovation” project . Information on that project is available here: https://www.grasp-earth.com/portfolio/sentinel-5p-innovation.
