ESA today awarded a contract worth almost €150 million to Astrium to develop and build two satellite sensors that will monitor Earth's atmosphere as part of Europe's Global Monitoring for Environment and Security programme.

The identical spectrometers, known as Sentinel-4, will each be carried on Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) weather satellites, to be launched in 2019 and 2027. From geostationary orbit 36 000 km above the equator, Sentinel-4 will provide data every hour on the chemical composition of the atmosphere including trace gases and ultraviolet radiation.

By providing data on sulphur dioxide and aerosols over Europe, the mission will also help to improve the monitoring of plumes from volcanic eruptions.   Read More