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SCIENCEWednesday 17 February
Satellite boosts Europe’s environmental, border surveillance
FRANK JORDANS In this Monday, Jan. 18, 2016 file photo, migrants cross a frozen stream as they walk through a casts and help track the
Associated Press snow storm from the Macedonian border into Serbia, near the village of Miratovac, Serbia. impact of climate change,
BERLIN (AP) — A European which is expected to trig-
satellite designed to moni- Associated Press ger mass migration in com-
tor environmental changes ing decades.
will also be able to provide spot upcoming droughts lower and this can be a giving scientists and poli- Being able to forecast cur-
early warnings of possible by detecting subtle chang- source of migration.” cy-makers detailed infor- rents and wave heights
migrant flows at a time es in surface color that sug- One of Sentinel-3A’s great- mation on environmental should also warn coast
when governments on the gests crops are failing, he est advantages is its ability changes in close to real guards of hazardous con-
continent are grappling said. “(This) will warn politi- to scan the entire planet in time. By measuring sea ditions at sea that could
with an unprecedented in- cians that the harvest in a just over a day and send temperatures it will boost pose a particular danger
flux of people fleeing con- particular country will be back data within hours, short-term weather fore- to migrants trying to cross
flict and poverty elsewhere the Mediterranean in small
in the world. boats.
The Sentinel-3A satellite Aschbacher said the Co-
was lifted into orbit by a pernicus system could also
Russian rocket Tuesday. identify areas where peo-
It is the third of more than ple may be gathering to
a dozen “eyes in the sky” cross the Mediterranean to
that make up the Coper- Europe, though other satel-
nicus program, which the lites or drones with greater
European Space Agency resolution would be need-
describes as the most so- ed to get detailed images
phisticated Earth observa- and confirm boat-sized ob-
tion system ever launched. jects. Finding ways to slow
Two satellites already in the influx of migrants and
orbit are equipped with prevent mass drownings at
radar and high-resolution sea has become a priority
cameras, to which Sen- for Europe, which last year
tinel-3A will add instru- saw more than a million
ments for measuring sea people arrive on its shores.
and surface temperatures, Some of the migrants were
among other things, said fleeing war and persecu-
Josef Aschbacher, who tion in countries such as
oversees the Earth obser- Syria and Iraq, while others
vation program. sought to escape poverty
The satellite will be able to at home.q
