Project

In the Copernicus Ground Segment, the Sentinel-3 Mission Performance Cluster for Surface Topography Mission (S3MPC-STM) service encompass all the necessary activities

  • To characterize the SRAL/MWR instruments with the aim to detect anomalies or degradation that may impact the data performance
  • To ensure that the Copernicus user level data are in line with their specification in terms of characteristics, performance, and accuracy,
  • To perform explorative activities aiming at improving the product characteristics or expanding the product family to stay on top of the Copernicus Services evolving expectations.

Many competencies and skills are required to fulfil the objective of the Sentinel-3 Mission Performance Cluster, ranging from a solid knowledge of the altimeter and radiometer measurement principles, together with a vast knowledge of the state-of-the-art processing algorithms able to fully exploit the various measurements over complex surfaces such as inland water, sea ice or land ice surfaces. The range of experience requested for such a project goes from technological/instrumental understanding up to scientific recognised skills in the different scientific fields of application.

The consortium involved in this proposal has been formed to gather all this expertise in a strong and complementary team. Nine companies/institutes/universities from 6 ESA Member States are members of the consortium:

  • Collecte Localisation Satellites (CLS), France
  • isardSAT, Spain
  • Dannish Technical University (DTU), Denmark
  • Space Geomatica, Greece
  • Radio Analog Micro Electronics (RAME), Italy
  • LEGOS (Laboratoire d’Etudes en Géophysique et Océanographie Spatiales), France
  • Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), Germany
  • Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), France
  • Thalès Alenia Space (TAS), France

In the recent years, all companies of the consortium have been involved in the exploitation of altimeter or radiometer measurements and all of them have already a deep knowledge of the Sentinel-3 mission and its measurement dataset. The figure below presents the team in charge of the S3MPC-STM service and the compagnies they come from. You can find an overview each company’s expertise on the partners page

Project presentation illustration