SENTINEL-2C

About This Satellite

Sentinel-2C launched on September 5, 2024 aboard the final Vega rocket. It carries a multispectral imager for observing land, islands, and inland and coastal waters. Its first published scenes included southern Spain, a Mediterranean coastal strip, and a California wildfire, showing why the same instrument can serve several kinds of environmental investigation.

Thirteen bands do not all have the same resolution

The instrument observes a 290 km swath in 13 spectral bands with spatial resolutions of 10, 20, and 60 metres. The swath is the width of the observed strip, not the size of a pixel. A display that resamples every band onto a 10-metre grid does not create native 10-metre detail in the coarser measurements.

A false-colour fire image is not an ordinary photograph

ESA showed the September 12, 2024 California scene in natural colour and in a combination using shortwave and near-infrared channels. The latter highlights burned areas and active fires differently. To interpret a scene, identify which bands were assigned to the display colours before treating a bright orange patch as something the human eye would see from orbit.

Mission reference: ESA: Sentinel-2C first images and multispectral instrument. Editorial review: 2026-09-14.

The handover needed measurements to agree across spacecraft

The commissioning campaign included radiometric cross-calibration between Sentinel-2C and Sentinel-2A in tandem configuration. This helped keep their products consistent across the planned January 21, 2025 transfer of duty. For a vegetation time series, a change in measured brightness should represent the surface as far as possible, rather than simply the arrival of a different sensor.

Reference: Copernicus: Sentinel-2C commissioning and radiometric cross-calibration.

Finding observations from C rather than another Sentinel-2

The Copernicus notice identifies the S2C satellite-platform filter for locating Sentinel-2C products in the Copernicus Browser. Use the platform, acquisition date, and product information together when building a comparison. A general Sentinel-2 search can include other spacecraft, and a preliminary commissioning scene should not silently be treated as interchangeable with a later operational product.

Reference: Copernicus: selecting Sentinel-2C archive products.

Reading this orbital snapshot

Based on TLE epoch: 2026-09-05. Estimated altitude ranges from 788 km at perigee to 790 km at apogee, a difference of 2 km. The orbital period is about 100.6 minutes. Eccentricity 0.00014 indicates a nearly circular path. In a two-body approximation, perigee speed is 1.00 times apogee speed. These are mean-element estimates, not instantaneous measurements. Distance per orbit uses an ellipse approximation.

Saved build snapshot. If a valid TLE is retrieved, this explanation and the orbit panel update together. Otherwise this dated snapshot is retained.

Ground track is not sensor coverage

An inclination of 98.56 degrees implies approximate geocentric ground-track limits of 81.4 degrees north and south. This is a retrograde orbit, moving against the direction of Earth rotation. The plotted line marks the point beneath the object. It does not represent camera coverage, radio reception, or a guaranteed visible pass.

Accuracy and missing information

The introductory record describes the build snapshot. The orbital snapshot explanation and orbit panel share any successfully retrieved TLE; check the displayed epoch. Reentered objects retain historical data only. Mission history is not rewritten by TLE updates. TLE/SGP4 positions are predictions and can change after maneuvers or updated observations. The 14-day stale-data cutoff is a display safeguard, not an accuracy guarantee. Local passes are geometric predictions, not a visibility forecast. No verified operator or mission status means unknown, not active. Do not use this catalog for collision avoidance or operational flight decisions.

Catalog sources: CelesTrak SATCAT: NORAD 60989 · GCAT: S60989 (source update 2026 Sep 4 2345:57). Supplementary metadata: SatNOGS DB, retrieved 2026-09-05T12:57:25.375Z. Page assembled 2026-09-15. GCAT phase codes describe trajectory phases, not mission health.

Learn more: TLE data · Perigee and apogee · Ground tracks · JOT (Jewawud Live Orbital Map)

Satellite Details