Abstract's details
Lessons learned from Sentinel SARM missions in preparation of Jason-CS
CoAuthors
Event: 2019 Ocean Surface Topography Science Team Meeting
Session: Quantifying Errors and Uncertainties in Altimetry data
Presentation type: Type Oral
Contribution: not provided
Abstract:
The Copernicus Sentinel-3A mission was successfully launched in February 2016. It is a multi-instrument mission to measure surface topography, sea- and land-surface temperature, ocean colour and land colour with high-end accuracy and reliability. To reach the data coverage required by the Copernicus service, its twin Sentinel-3B was launched on 25th of April 2018. After 5 months in a tandem flight configuration (Sentinel-3B 30 seconds ahead of Sentinel-3A), Sentinel-3B was moved to its final orbit, the same as Sentinel-3A but shifted by 140°.
The Jason-CS-A/Sentinel-6A launch is planned end of 2020, this new Copernicus constellation (Jason-CS-B/Sentinel-6B launch expected in 2026) will ensure the continuity with Jasons satellites, providing on the same low inclination orbit high precision measurements to monitor the sea surface topography dynamic and long term evolutions. The onboard altimeter Poseidon4 belongs to a new generation of Delay Doppler instrument. Thanks to the SAR interleaved mode, it will provide both LRM and SARM co-located measurements.
In the frame of the Mission Performance Centre (MPC), a consortium defined by ESA and EUMETSAT in charge of the qualification and the monitoring of the instrument performances, the high level of quality of the Sentinel-3 Topography Mission (STM) datasets was demonstrated. Now, working on the residual small remaining errors, objectives are to improve the processing.
To prepare a seamless transition between Jason-3 and Jason-CS/Sentinel-6 missions what lessons can we learn from these investigations?
The Jason-CS-A/Sentinel-6A launch is planned end of 2020, this new Copernicus constellation (Jason-CS-B/Sentinel-6B launch expected in 2026) will ensure the continuity with Jasons satellites, providing on the same low inclination orbit high precision measurements to monitor the sea surface topography dynamic and long term evolutions. The onboard altimeter Poseidon4 belongs to a new generation of Delay Doppler instrument. Thanks to the SAR interleaved mode, it will provide both LRM and SARM co-located measurements.
In the frame of the Mission Performance Centre (MPC), a consortium defined by ESA and EUMETSAT in charge of the qualification and the monitoring of the instrument performances, the high level of quality of the Sentinel-3 Topography Mission (STM) datasets was demonstrated. Now, working on the residual small remaining errors, objectives are to improve the processing.
To prepare a seamless transition between Jason-3 and Jason-CS/Sentinel-6 missions what lessons can we learn from these investigations?