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Déjà 1668 signatures. Objectif : 1500
Sentinel-2 is one of the most succesful satellite missions ever launched. Its data are being used by tens of thousands of users every year. It enables to monitor the land and coastal surfaces in the optical domain, globally, with decametric resolution and systematic revisit at least every five days. Sentinel-2 is used for research, mapping and commercial services on a very large diversity of themes : lands, forests, farming, biodiversity, arid zones, continental hydrology, cryosphere, land planning...
As the new Sentinel-2C satellite is about to be launched (September 4th) to replace the older Sentinel-2A, the Copernicus program intends to cease Sentinel2A operations when Sentinel2C becomes operational for cost reasons. Because on average 70% of land surfaces are covered by clouds, despite its frequent revisit, the Sentinel2 mission often fails to deliver one cloud free observation per month, as shown in this letter : https://labo.obs-mip.fr/multitemp/lets-ask-copernicus-to-keep-s2a-operational-after-s2c-launch/
Having three operational satellites instead of two would increase revisit and largely improve the quality of the generated maps and products, and the reliability of operational services based on Sentinel2 data. With this petition, we ask the Copernicus program of the EU to extend the operations of S2A for as long as possible.