Abstract's details
Sentinel-3 for Cryosphere and Hydrology
CoAuthors
Event: 2022 Ocean Surface Topography Science Team Meeting
Session: Science IV: Altimetry for Cryosphere and Hydrology
Presentation type: Type Poster
Contribution: not provided
Abstract:
Sentinel-3 is an Earth observation satellite series developed by the European Space Agency as part of the Copernicus Programme. It is designed as a constellation of two identical polar orbiting satellites, for the provision of long-term operational marine and land monitoring services. The constellation currently comprises 2 satellites: Sentinel-3A and Sentinel-3B, launched respectively on 16 February 2016 and 25 April 2018. Among the on-board instruments, the satellites carry a radar altimeter to provide operational topography measurements of the Earth’s surface. Besides measuring the sea surface height, the mission primary objectives also include the measurement of the surface topography over inland waters, sea-ice, and land ice.
Compared to previous missions embarking conventional pulse-limited altimeters, Sentinel-3 is sampling the Earth’s surface with an enhanced spatial resolution, thanks to the on-board SAR Radar ALtimeter (SRAL), exploiting the delay-Doppler capabilities. To further improve the performances of the Sentinel-3 Altimetry LAND products, ESA and the MPC has developed the so-called Thematic IPFs, which are dedicated delay-Doppler and Level-2 processing chains for (1) Inland Waters, (2) Sea-Ice, and (3) Land Ice areas. The objective is to provide dedicated “thematic products” specially tuned for Cryosphere and Hydrology areas.
In this talk, the Mission Performance Cluster, in charge of qualification and the monitoring of the core products performances, will present the main changes in ground segment processors, and a first assessment of the thematic products. The quality step-up provided by these thematic products will be highlighted, using comparisons with reference missions in these areas such as CryoSat-2, ICESat-2, and comparisons with in-situ datasets.
From now on, the Sentinel-3 Land Thematic Products will continuously and independently evolve to better meet the requirements of the Cryosphere and Hydrology user community. A Full Mission Reprocessing (FMR) is planned early 2023, to produce fully homogeneous S3A and S3B Thematic datasets.
Compared to previous missions embarking conventional pulse-limited altimeters, Sentinel-3 is sampling the Earth’s surface with an enhanced spatial resolution, thanks to the on-board SAR Radar ALtimeter (SRAL), exploiting the delay-Doppler capabilities. To further improve the performances of the Sentinel-3 Altimetry LAND products, ESA and the MPC has developed the so-called Thematic IPFs, which are dedicated delay-Doppler and Level-2 processing chains for (1) Inland Waters, (2) Sea-Ice, and (3) Land Ice areas. The objective is to provide dedicated “thematic products” specially tuned for Cryosphere and Hydrology areas.
In this talk, the Mission Performance Cluster, in charge of qualification and the monitoring of the core products performances, will present the main changes in ground segment processors, and a first assessment of the thematic products. The quality step-up provided by these thematic products will be highlighted, using comparisons with reference missions in these areas such as CryoSat-2, ICESat-2, and comparisons with in-situ datasets.
From now on, the Sentinel-3 Land Thematic Products will continuously and independently evolve to better meet the requirements of the Cryosphere and Hydrology user community. A Full Mission Reprocessing (FMR) is planned early 2023, to produce fully homogeneous S3A and S3B Thematic datasets.