EU Copernicus Sentinel-3A was launched more than 6 years ago. It was accompanied by its sibling Sentinel-3B two years later and by Sentinel-6A less than two years ago. It is now timely to evaluate NRT Sentinel wind and wave products and their value to ECMWF either for validation or for data assimilation.

Sentinel wind and wave data are verified against ECMWF Integrated Forecast System (IFS) model products, buoy measurements and measurements done by other radar altimeters. Self-consistency checks are also carried out. The quality of the data, its geographical distribution and temporal evolution will be presented.

Results from various wave data assimilation experiments involving data from various altimetry missions includeing Sentinel-3 and Sentinel-6 will be demonstrated.