The Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission is jointly operated by ESA and EUMETSAT to deliver operational ocean, land and atmosphere observation services. ESA is responsible for the operations of the S3 LAND Payload Data Ground Segment (PDGS) for the generation of the S3 LAND products, where EUMETSAT is responsible for the operations of the S3 MARINE PDGS for the generation of the S3 MARINE products. The S3 Land Altimetry MPC, so-called “ALT-MPC” will focus on the operational performance assessment of the S3 Altimetry LAND mission through the analysis of the S3 STM core-products generated by ESA within the ESA S3 LAND Ground Segment.

The aim of the S3MPC “Sentinel-3 Range Transponder Operations” activity is to support the S3 SRAL Altimeter absolute calibration during the Operational Phase of the Sentinel-3 Constellation mission, by maintaining and operating the S3 “Permanent Altimeter Calibration Facility” (PACF), so-called “CDN1” in West Crete, Greece.

Objectives

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
• ensure that the Copernicus user level data are in line with their specification in terms of characteristics, performance, and accuracy,
• perform explorative activities aiming at improving the product characteristics or expanding the product family to stay on top of the Copernicus Services evolving expectations.

The use of the PFAC site to support the routine operations of other missions, and in particular Cryosat-2, Jason-3 and Sentinel-6 contributes to the cross-comparison between Altimeter missions and improve the quality of Sentinel-3 STM calibrations

Partners:

• Collecte Localisation Satellites (CLS), France (Prime Contractor)
• 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