EO·Atlas
Sentinel-6B
Sentinel-6B is the second flight unit of the Copernicus Sentinel-6/Jason-CS ocean altimetry programme, formerly designated Jason-CS B. Launch is recorded as 2025-11-16 by NASA Earthdata (UTC) and as 2025-11-17 in EUMETSAT publications (European date label). The satellite reached its final reference orbit of 1336 km altitude and 66.04 degree inclination on 2025-12-16 and entered a cross-calibration tandem phase with Sentinel-6A Michael Freilich ahead of planned reference-mission handover. As of mid-2026 the satellite is commissioning, not yet the operational reference satellite for the Jason altimetry series. Instrument suite matches Sentinel-6A: the Poseidon-4 Ku/C-band SAR radar altimeter, AMR-C and HRMR microwave radiometers, GNSS radio-occultation receiver, DORIS, GNSS POD receiver, laser retroreflector, and a radiation environment monitor. Together, the instruments continue the long-term sea-surface-height, ocean wave, wind, inland water level, and atmospheric-profiling record from the TOPEX/Jason lineage. [1][2][3][4][5]
Named with
In the same stories- EUMETSAT Operator · named together · 1 story
- European Commission (DG DEFIS) Operator · named together · 1 story
Supply chain position
- [1]Sentinel-6B science and spacecraft, NASA Scienceagency doc2026-06-14
- [2]Sentinel-6 instrument payload, Copernicus Sentinel Onlineagency doc2026-06-14
- [3]Sentinel-6/Jason-CS platform, NASA Earthdataagency doc2026-06-14
- [4]Copernicus Sentinel-6B first altimeter images and final orbit, EUMETSATagency doc2026-06-14
- [5]Moving in the same direction, EUMETSATagency doc2026-06-14
How to cite this page
Plain text
Sentinel-6B. EO-Atlas, SpectraWorks B.V. https://eo-atlas.org/missions/sentinel-6b (CC BY 4.0)
BibTeX
@misc{eoatlas:missions:sentinel-6b,
title = {Sentinel-6B},
author = {{EO-Atlas}},
publisher = {SpectraWorks B.V.},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
url = {https://eo-atlas.org/missions/sentinel-6b}
}