FLEX and Sentinel-3C launch highlights

Video: 00:03:22 ESA’s state-of-the-art FLEX Earth Explorer satellite and the Copernicus Sentinel-3C satellite have been launched together aboard a Vega-C rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, marking a new milestone in Europe’s Earth Observation Programmes. Flight VV30 lifted off on 15 September at 03:21 (14 September at 22:21 local time). FLEX is designed to reveal a phenomenon invisible to the human eye: the faint fluorescence emitted by plants as they photosynthesise. Equipped with a Fluorescence Imaging Spectrometer, FLEX will detect and measure this incredibly weak signal from orbit. Because the fluorescence varies with plant health and environmental conditions, the measurements will provide scientists with new information about photosynthetic activity and vegetation stress on a global scale. Sentinel-3C is the third in the Sentinel-3 series. Carrying a suite of cutting-edge instruments, Copernicus Sentinel-3C will continue the mission’s task of measuring systematically Earth’s oceans, land, ice and atmosphere to monitor and understand large-scale global dynamics. The mission also provides essential information in near-real time for ocean and weather forecasting. E…

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