Sentinel-1D

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Sentinel-1D
Sentinel 1-IMG 5874-white.jpg
Sentinel-1 satellite
(radar antenna missing)
Mission type Earth observation
Operator ESA
COSPAR ID 2025-251A OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
SATCAT no. 66315 OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Website Sentinel-1 (ESA)
Mission durationPlanned: 7 years [1]
16 days (in progress)
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft type Sentinel-1
Bus Prima [2]
Manufacturer Thales Alenia Space
Airbus Defence and Space [1]
Launch mass2,164 kg (4,771 lb)
Start of mission
Launch date4 November 2025, 21:03 (2025-11-04UTC21:03) UTC
Rocket Ariane 62 (VA265) [3] [4]
Launch site Kourou ELA-4 [3]
Contractor Arianespace
Orbital parameters
Reference system Geocentric
Regime Low Earth
Altitude693 km [5]
Sentinel-1 scale model Sentinel-1 scale model (7628218618) (2).jpg
Sentinel-1 scale model
Sentinel-1D satellite being lowered onto Ariane 6 launch adaptor Sentinel-1D satellite being lowered onto Ariane 6 launch adaptor ESA514281.jpg
Sentinel-1D satellite being lowered onto Ariane 6 launch adaptor

Sentinel-1D is a European radar imaging satellite launched in November 2025. [6] [7] It is the second of two additional satellites, and the fourth satellite overall, in the Sentinel-1 constellation, part of the European Union's Copernicus programme for Earth observation. The satellite is equipped with a C-SAR sensor, capable of providing high-resolution imagery regardless of weather conditions. [8] [9] [10] [11] It is designed to replace Sentinel-1A, which had been in orbit for 11 years at the time of Sentinel-1D's launch, long beyond its planned mission duration. Sentinel-1D will work in tandem with Sentinel-1C, [12] [13] orbiting 180° apart. [14]

Contents

Applications

Like the other Sentinel-1 satellites, Sentinel-1D will use its radar to capture high-resolution images over land, ice, and sea. [15] [16] [17] These freely accessible data [18] are used in land management [19] and disaster response, e.g. for real-time flood detection and monitoring [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] or hurricane [25] and earthquake damage detection. [26] [27] [28]

The Sentinel-1 satellites can detect ground movement changes in terms of millimetres per year, [29] [30] [31] which is used for monitoring agriculture, [31] construction, [32] or infrastructure [33] like railway networks, [34] [35] [36] as well as for predicting landslides. [37]

Both Sentinel-1D and Sentinel-1C include an Automated Identification System (AIS) instrument for detecting AIS signals from marine vessels in coastal areas and the Arctic. This, combined with ship detection in the satellite's radar images, is used in maritime surveillance for monitoring shipping traffic, [38] as well as oil spills, [39] [40] illegal fishing, [41] [42] and other suspicious maritime activities. [17] [43] [44]

Timeline

Development contract was signed with Thales Alenia Space of Italy in December 2015. [45] In November 2022, the satellite's launch was scheduled for the second half of 2024. [46] In January 2025, ESA signed a contract with Arianespace to launch the satellite in the second half of 2025 on Ariane 6. [47]

In September 2025 the satellite was transported from the cleanroom in Cannes, France, via Turin, Italy to French Guiana by the Ukrainian Antonov Airlines. [48] [49] At the same time, control teams at ESOC in Darmstadt, Germany begun simulations of the Sentinel-1D's Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP). This was the first time an ESOC-operated satellite was launching on Ariane 6. [50]

In early October 2025, the satellite has undergone functional tests at Guiana Space Centre and had its AIS antenna assemblies integrated. [51] The spacecraft Flight Readiness Review took place in mid-October, paving the way for fuelling. By 20 October, the spacecraft was fuelled. On 24 October, it was encapsulated inside its rocket fairing [52] [53] and later placed on top of the Ariane 6 launch vehicle in a launch tower at the Guiana Space Centre [54] for the launch planned for 4 November 2025. [12] [55]

The Ariane 6 flight VA265 with Sentinel-1D lifted off on 4 November 2025 at 21:03 UTC and the satellite was successfully deployed in its planned orbit 34 minutes after launch. [6] [56] [14] After releasing Sentinel-1D, the Ariane 6 upper stage fired its Vinci engine once again to deorbit itself and prevent creation of space debris. The Ariane 6 flight VA265 officially ended on 5 November 2025 at 01:16 UTC. [57]

The first acquisition of signal from the satellite occurred as planned [12] on 4 November 2025 at 22:22 UTC via Troll Satellite Ground Station in Antarctica. [58] [59] Then, controllers at ESOC deployed the satellite's solar arrays and radar antenna in a 10-hours long deployment sequence. [60] [61]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Facts and figures / Sentinel-1". ESA . Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  2. ↑ "Thales Alenia Space flies high at the Space Symposium". Thales Group. 13 April 2015. Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  3. 1 2 "Sentinel 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  4. ↑ JOSEPH-GABRIEL, Daphné (2025-10-06). "Arianespace to launch EU's Copernicus Sentinel-1D satellite on November 4, 2025, with Ariane 6". Newsroom Arianespace. Retrieved 2025-10-06.
  5. ↑ "ESA - Sentinel-1" . Retrieved 18 January 2022.
  6. 1 2 Parsonson, Andrew (2025-11-04). "Arianespace Launches Sentinel-1D Aboard Ariane 6 Rocket". European Spaceflight. Retrieved 2025-11-04.
  7. ↑ "Ariane 6 to take Sentinel-1D into orbit". www.esa.int. Retrieved 2025-10-06.
  8. ↑ "Sentinel-1 D Satellite Mission Summary | CEOS Database". database.eohandbook.com. Retrieved 2025-10-06.
  9. ↑ "WMO OSCAR | Satellite: Sentinel-1D". space.oscar.wmo.int. Retrieved 2025-10-06.
  10. ↑ "Countdown to launch – Copernicus Sentinel-1D lifts off in November - European Commission". defence-industry-space.ec.europa.eu. Retrieved 2025-10-06.
  11. ↑ JOSEPH-GABRIEL, Daphné (2025-10-06). "Arianespace to launch EU's Copernicus Sentinel-1D satellite on November 4, 2025, with Ariane 6". Newsroom Arianespace. Retrieved 2025-10-06.
  12. 1 2 3 "Watch live: Sentinel-1D launch on Ariane 6". www.esa.int. Retrieved 2025-10-28.
  13. ↑ Luciani 0, Massimo (2025-11-05). "The Earth observation Sentinel-1D satellite has been successfully launched" . Retrieved 2025-11-05.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  14. 1 2 "Sentinel-1D reaches orbit on Ariane 6". www.esa.int. Retrieved 2025-11-05.
  15. ↑ "Sentinel 1" . Retrieved 2025-11-04.
  16. ↑ "The Story of Earth Observation: From Aerial Pioneers to Satellites - Vintage Aviation News". 2025-11-02. Retrieved 2025-11-04.
  17. 1 2 "Sentinel-1 mission… did you know?". www.esa.int. Retrieved 2025-11-04.
  18. ↑ Raspini, Federico; Bianchini, Silvia; Ciampalini, Andrea; Del Soldato, Matteo; Solari, Lorenzo; Novali, Fabrizio; Del Conte, Sara; Rucci, Alessio; Ferretti, Alessandro; Casagli, Nicola (2018-05-08). "Continuous, semi-automatic monitoring of ground deformation using Sentinel-1 satellites". Scientific Reports. 8 (1): 7253. Bibcode:2018NatSR...8.7253R. doi:10.1038/s41598-018-25369-w. ISSN   2045-2322.
  19. ↑ Cian, Fabio; Blasco, Jose Manuel Delgado; Marconcini, Mattia; Rivolta, Giancarlo; Giupponi, Carlo (2016), Sentinel-1 and 2 data fusion for land management and disaster risk assessment, Unpublished, doi:10.13140/RG.2.1.3926.3608 , retrieved 2025-11-04
  20. ↑ Australia, Geoscience (2024-06-18). "Sentinels activated for NSW floods". Geoscience Australia. Retrieved 2025-11-04.
  21. ↑ Kuntla, Sai Kiran (2021-01-01). "An era of Sentinels in flood management: Potential of Sentinel-1, -2, and -3 satellites for effective flood management". Open Geosciences. 13 (1): 1616–1642. Bibcode:2021OGeo...13..325K. doi:10.1515/geo-2020-0325. ISSN   2391-5447.
  22. ↑ Tarpanelli, Angelica; Mondini, Alessandro C.; Camici, Stefania (2022). "Effectiveness of Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 for flood detection assessment in Europe". Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences. 22 (8): 2473–2489. Bibcode:2022NHESS..22.2473T. doi: 10.5194/nhess-22-2473-2022 . ISSN   1561-8633.
  23. ↑ Portalés-Julià, Enrique; Mateo-García, Gonzalo; Gómez-Chova, Luis (2025). "Understanding flood detection models across Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 modalities and benchmark datasets". Remote Sensing of Environment. 328 114882. Bibcode:2025RSEnv.32814882P. doi:10.1016/j.rse.2025.114882. ISSN   0034-4257.
  24. ↑ "Mozambique – Copernicus Sentinel-1 Maps Floods in Wake of Idai". floodlist.com. Retrieved 2025-11-04.
  25. ↑ "Satellite Images Reveal Scale of Melissa Destruction in Jamaica".
  26. ↑ Liu, Haihui; Song, Chuang; Li, Zhenhong; Liu, Zhenjiang; Ta, Liangyu; Zhang, Xuesong; Chen, Bo; Han, Bingquan; Peng, Jianbing (2024). "A New Method for the Identification of Earthquake-Damaged Buildings Using Sentinel-1 Multitemporal Coherence Optimized by Homogeneous SAR Pixels and Histogram Matching". IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing. 17: 7124–7143. Bibcode:2024IJSTA..17.7124L. doi:10.1109/JSTARS.2024.3377218. ISSN   2151-1535.
  27. ↑ "Step-by-Step: Earthquake Urban Damage Detection Using Sentinel-1 Data | UN-SPIDER Knowledge Portal". www.un-spider.org. Retrieved 2025-11-04.
  28. ↑ "In Detail: Earthquake Urban Damage Detection Using Sentinel-1 Data | UN-SPIDER Knowledge Portal". www.un-spider.org. Retrieved 2025-11-04.
  29. ↑ "Tap into Europe in motion". www.esa.int. Retrieved 2025-11-04.
  30. ↑ "Sentinel-1 imagery maps Norway ground movement | UN-SPIDER Knowledge Portal". www.un-spider.org. Retrieved 2025-11-04.
  31. 1 2 "Using Sentinel-1 For Long-Term Ground Movement In Agri". farmonaut.com. 2025-07-23. Retrieved 2025-11-04.
  32. ↑ Nahli, Abdeljalil; Simonetto, Elisabeth; Merrien-Soukatchoff, Véronique; Durand, Frédéric; Rangeard, Damien (2018-01-01). "Sentinel-1 for monitoring tunnel excavations in Rennes, France". Procedia Computer Science. CENTERIS 2018 - International Conference on ENTERprise Information Systems / ProjMAN 2018 - International Conference on Project MANagement / HCist 2018 - International Conference on Health and Social Care Information Systems and Technologies, CENTERIS/ProjMAN/HCist 2018. 138: 393–400. doi:10.1016/j.procs.2018.10.056. ISSN   1877-0509.
  33. ↑ Fitriana, Hana Listi; Julzarika, Atriyon; Adawiah, Syifa Wismayati (2024). "Utilizing Sentinel-1 for Analyzing Infrastructure Resilience in Disaster Zone (Case in Rebana Area)". 2024 IEEE International Conference on Aerospace Electronics and Remote Sensing Technology (ICARES). pp. 1–6. doi:10.1109/ICARES64249.2024.10767911. ISBN   979-8-3315-4201-6.
  34. ↑ "UK's entire rail network to be monitored by satellites". RailAdvent. 2025-11-08. Retrieved 2025-11-04.
  35. ↑ Nahli, Abdeljalil; Simonetto, Elisabeth; Tatin, Maxime; Durand, Stéphane; Morel, Laurent; Lamour, Vincent (2019). "Monitoring ground deformation using Sentinel-1 PSInSAR and RTS measurements in the context of the Grand Paris Express project". 4th Joint International Symposium on Deformation Monitoring (JISDM).
  36. ↑ "Dhaka-Kasiani-Gopalganj rail line sinking, study warns". The Business Standard. 2025-11-03. Retrieved 2025-11-04.
  37. ↑ Kothari, Rishav (2025-05-28). "Rapid glacier movement and landslides at Birch Glacier force evacuation, prompt monitoring initiative in Switzerland". The Watchers. Retrieved 2025-11-04.
  38. ↑ "Visualizing shipping lanes from Sentinel-1 – Séries Temporelles". www.cesbio.cnrs.fr. Retrieved 2025-11-04.
  39. ↑ Blondeau-Patissier, David; Schroeder, Thomas; Suresh, Gopika; Li, Zhibin; Diakogiannis, Foivos I.; Irving, Paul; Witte, Christian; Steven, Andrew D. L. (2023). "Detection of marine oil-like features in Sentinel-1 SAR images by supplementary use of deep learning and empirical methods: Performance assessment for the Great Barrier Reef marine park". Marine Pollution Bulletin. 188 114598. Bibcode:2023MarPB.18814598B. doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2023.114598. ISSN   0025-326X. PMID   36773587.
  40. ↑ "Copernicus Sentinel-1 data enable oil spill detection in South-eastern Mediterranean Sea - Sentinel Success Stories - Sentinel Online". Sentinel Success Stories. 2023-02-16. Retrieved 2025-11-04.
  41. ↑ "Vessel Detections Dataset from Sentinel-1 SAR". Global Fishing Watch. 2024-05-31. Retrieved 2025-11-04.
  42. ↑ "Monitoring Illegal Fishing Activities". Copernicus Service on Support to EU External and Security Actions (SESA). Retrieved 2025-11-04.
  43. ↑ Fasoulas, Grigoris (2025-02-28). "Multi-temporal "dark vessel" detection with Sentinel 1 and AIS data". PERIVALLON. Retrieved 2025-11-04.
  44. ↑ Kerekes, Dávid; Nascetti, Andrea (2024). "Multi-Temporal Sentinel-1 SAR Images for Dark Vessel Detection and Classification Using a Circlenet Model". IGARSS 2024 - 2024 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium. pp. 8223–8227. doi:10.1109/IGARSS53475.2024.10640689. ISBN   979-8-3503-6032-5.
  45. ↑ "Thales Alenia Inks Deal To Build 2 More Sentinel Satellites for ESA".
  46. ↑ "Arianespace supporting the European Union's Copernicus programme with Vega C". Arianespace (Press release). 29 November 2022. Retrieved 29 November 2022.
  47. ↑ "Ariane 6 to take Sentinel-1D into orbit". www.esa.int. Retrieved 2025-04-06.
  48. ↑ "Copernicus Sentinel-1D manoeuvred into place". www.esa.int. Retrieved 2025-10-06.
  49. ↑ "Sentinel-1D in French Guiana for launch campaign". www.esa.int. Retrieved 2025-10-06.
  50. ↑ ""We know the drill": Sentinel-1D begins streamlined simulations training". www.esa.int. Retrieved 2025-10-06.
  51. ↑ "Sentinel-1D preparations underway in Kourou". www.esa.int. Retrieved 2025-10-08.
  52. ↑ "Sentinel-1D fuelled and ready for encapsulation". www.esa.int. Retrieved 2025-10-20.
  53. ↑ "Sentinel-1D encapsulated inside Ariane 6 fairing". www.esa.int. Retrieved 2025-10-27.
  54. ↑ "Sentinel-1D and Ariane 6 ready for liftoff". www.esa.int. Retrieved 2025-11-04.
  55. ↑ JOSEPH-GABRIEL, Daphné (2025-10-06). "Arianespace to launch EU's Copernicus Sentinel-1D satellite on November 4, 2025, with Ariane 6". Newsroom Arianespace. Retrieved 2025-10-06.
  56. ↑ "Sentinel-1D is launched on Ariane 6". www.esa.int. Retrieved 2025-11-04.
  57. ↑ "ESA Space Transport (@transport.esa.int)". Bluesky Social. 2025-11-06. Archived from the original on 2025-11-06. Retrieved 2025-11-06.
  58. ↑ "Sentinel-1D reaches orbit on Ariane 6". www.esa.int. Retrieved 2025-11-04.
  59. ↑ "ESA Operations (@operations.esa.int)". Bluesky Social. 2025-11-04. Archived from the original on 2025-11-04. Retrieved 2025-11-04.
  60. ↑ "Sentinel-1D : A new chapter for Copernicus - Sentinel Success Stories - Sentinel Online". Sentinel Success Stories. 2025-11-07. Retrieved 2025-11-07.
  61. ↑ "ESA Operations (@operations.esa.int)". Bluesky Social. 2025-11-04. Archived from the original on 2025-11-07. Retrieved 2025-11-07.
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