Sentinel-2C instrument new features and first instrument performance characterization

Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission provides continuity to services relying on multi-spectral high-resolution optical observations over global terrestrial surfaces. The key mission objectives for Sentinel-2 are: (1) To provide systematic global acquisitions of high-resolution multi-spectral imagery with a high revisit frequency, (2) to provide enhanced continuity of multi-spectral imagery provided by the SPOT series of satellites, and (3) to provide observations for the next generation of operational products such as land-cover maps, land change detection maps, and geophysical variables. The corresponding user requirements have driven the design towards a high spatial resolution, wide field of view and large spectral coverage instrument. The mission has already a constellation of 2 satellites (Sentinel-2A and Sentinel-2B) launched in 2015 and 2017, each having a 7.25-year lifetime with consumable sized for 12 years. To cover the 20-year overall mission duration, two additional satellites Sentinel-2C and Sentinel-2D were founded by the European Commission and are under development. Some modifications were implemented for the two new satellites: (1) on the technical side, modifications to improve further the instrument performance up to End of Life (thermal improvements to reduce the focal plane temperature, optimization of MTF at detector and instrument level) (2) added in orbit activities to improve interinstrument calibration with the Moon calibration. The first set of radiometric and geometric performances of the VNIR and SWIR channels from the test campaign performed in 2018 and early 2019 are compared with performances of the two in-flight instruments.