The Sentinel Citizen project takes its name from the European Sentinel satellite family. It proposes a new family member, an engaged citizen observing the quality of the living environment on a ground orbit.

As a pilot project within European Space Agency’s Citizen Science Earth Observation Lab (CSEOL) efforts, this project aims to demonstrate a model of citizen science action. Here, citizens do not only volunteer their labour for top-down scientific research, but are engaged because they understand that scientifically grounded actions are crucial for their quality of life.

Sentinel Citizen uses citizen science environmental data acquired within Waag’s Hollandse Luchten project. Working with data collected by local communities of North-Holland exposed to heavy industry pollution, and in collaboration with policymakers, regulators and earth-observation experts, the project seeks to establish a mutual understanding of shared use of the atmosphere by using local air pollution forecast. The forecast will bridge the data acquired during the Hollandse Luchten project, the Sentinel 5P atmospheric data and the Copernicus Atmospheric Model Service forecasts.