ESA's Sentinel-3 Mission - Status and Performance

Abstract

The Sentinel-3 mission forms part of the Copernicus Space Component. Its main objectives are to measure sea-surface topography, sea- and land-surface temperature and ocean- and land-surface colour in support of ocean forecasting systems, and for environmental and climate monitoring. The series of Sentinel-3 satellites will ensure global, frequent and near-real time ocean, ice and land monitoring, with the provision of observation data in routine, long term (up to 20 years of operations) and continuous fashion, with a consistent quality and a high level of reliability and availability. The Sentinel-3 mission addresses these requirements by implementing and operating the following instruments, building on experience and heritage from the ERS and ENVISAT missions: •A dual frequency, delay-Doppler Synthetic Aperture Radar Altimeter (SRAL) instrument supported by a dual frequency passive microwave radiometer (MWR) for wet-tropospheric correction, and a Precise Orbit Determination package. This combined package provides measurements of sea-surface height and topography measurements over sea ice, ice sheets, rivers and lakes. •A highly sensitive Ocean and Land Colour Imager (OLCI) delivering multichannel wide-swath optical measurements for ocean and land surfaces. With 21 bands, compared to the 15 on Envisat's MERIS, a design optimised to minimise sun-glint and, a resolution of 300 m over all surfaces, OLCI marks a new generation of measurements over the ocean and land. The swath of OCLI and nadir SLSTR fully overlap. •A dual-view Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR) delivering accurate surface ocean, land, and ice temperature, with an accuracy better than 0.3 K. SLSTR measures in 9 spectral channels and two additional bands optimised for fire monitoring. SLSTR has a spatial resolution in the visible and shortwave infrared channels of 500 m and 1 km in the thermal infrared channels.