Gas Flares in Iraq, captured by Sentinel-2A on 12th December 2025. Image courtesy of ESA & Copernicus.
This week we’re looking at a new satellite launch, and a ten-year old satellite trying out something new!
Sentinel-2A Goes Out at Night
To disprove the phrase ‘You can’t teach an old dog new tricks’, Sentinel-2A has completed an innovation recently, over a decade after launch, it has started capturing night-time images.
Launched on the 23rd June 2015, it was the second satellite in the European Union’s Copernicus Programme. Sentinel-2A is an optical satellite that carries a Multispectral Imager (MSI) with a 290-kilometre swath and 13 spectral bands:
- 4 visible and near infra-red spectral bands with a spatial resolution of 10 metres.
- 6 shortwave infrared spectral bands with a spatial resolution of 20 metres.
- 3 atmospheric correction bands with a spatial resolution of 60 metres.
It was joined by Sentinel-2B in March 2017 to offer a twin constellation improving temporal resolution, and in September 2024 Sentinel-2C was put into orbit. Sentinel-2C is the full replacement for 2A, but the OG satellite isn’t going quietly into the night.
Fishing boats off South_Korean coast, captured by Sentinel-2A on 9th December 2025. Image courtesy of ESA & Copernicus.
It has provided huge amounts of optical data used by many, including Pixalytics, but being an optical satellite, it relies on light to capture images using sunlight reflected by Earth’s surface and the atmosphere; because of this it struggles with cloud and could not capture images at night. In fact, the imagers were switched offer when it was operating in darkness … until now.
Engineers and scientists from the European Space Agency are using the final stages of its operational life to test new ideas for the future Copernicus Sentinel-2 Next Generation mission, which will be a capability for missions after Sentinel-2D. So, the imager has been switched on at night and has produced positive and interesting results – including capturing gas flares in the Middle East, a wildfire in India and fishing boats off the South Korean coast. It is certain that these experiments will provide valuable input into the future development of Sentinel-2 follow-on missions.
Satellite Launch for Algeria
Last Thursday saw the successful launch of the ALSAT-3A satellite for Algeria. It was put into orbit by the Chinese Long March-2C rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.
ALSAT-3A is Algeria’s sixth satellite, and was developed by the Algerian Space Agency with Chinese partners. It is believed to be an optical satellite carrying a multispectral imager and was put into a sun-synchronous orbit at 627 kilometres.
Summary
It is great to see how innovative the Earth Observation sector is, even a satellite that has given a decade of service can still surprise everyone by doing something new!
