EU launches crop-watching satellite
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.028981
BBC : Last night the European Space Agency (ESA) launched Sentinel-2a aboard a Vega rocket from Kourou, French Guiana. The satellite and its partner, Sentinal-2b, which will be launched later this year, are the second of six pairs of Earth-monitoring satellites being launched by ESA as part of the Copernicus project . The first pair of satellites, which went up in 2014, use radar to measure land movements. Earlier this year they studied the Nepal earthquakes. The Sentinal-2 satellites are equipped with visible and IR cameras to map natural features as well as urban growth. However, their primary focus will be monitoring crops and vegetation to give advanced notice of poor harvests and potential famine areas.
