Publications

Version: 1.0 Approved

LDO-ID 2015-01-23-02

Title The Sentinel-3 Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer

Abstract

Within the European Commission’s Copernicus programme, the Sentinel-3 Medium Resolution Imaging and Altimetry Mission is currently under development. One of the main instruments selected for the Sentinel-3 mission is the Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR), which is a high accuracy radiometer to provide Sea-Surface Temperature (SST) data. It is meant to provide data continuity for climatology and new data for meteorology following the heritage to previous instrument designs, i.e., the Advanced Along-Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR) and the Along-Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR). The Sentinel-3 mission plans to launch various satellites, starting with Sentinel-3A in 2015 and the subsequent Sentinel-3B to be launched at least 18 month later. Together with the planned Sentinel-3 C and D satellites and a designed lifetime of 7.5-year per satellite, a 20-year period of continues observation is foreseen. Each SLSTR onboard the Sentinel-3 satellites has an improved design with respect to the ENVISAT-AATSR and ERS-ATSRs predecessors through a large near nadir and oblique view swaths (1400 and 740 km) for sea and land surface temperature global coverage at 1 km spatial resolution with a daily revisit time (with two satellites), appropriate for climate and meteorology. Compared to the classical infrared (IR) channels, the visible (VIS) and shortwave-infrared (SWIR) channels have a higher spatial resolution (500 m). Further, there are two additional channels included to monitor high temperature events, such as forest fires. The two swaths are obtained with two conical scans and telescopes combined optically at a common focus, representing the input of a cooled Focal Plane Assembly, where eleven channels are separated with dichroics and focalized on detectors with appropriate optical relays. IR and shortwave IR optics/detectors are cooled to about 89 K by an active mechanical cryo-cooler with vibrations compensation, while the VIS ones are maintained at a stabilized temperature near 265 K. This chapter describes the SLSTR opto-mechanical design, the calibration activities and the expected electro-optical performance. Further information on typical products and overall description of the Sentinel-3 mission can be found in chapter 10 of this book.

Authors Coppo Peter Mario, Smith David, Nieke Jens

Type Paper for Book

Media Chapter included in the “Optical Payloads for Space Missions” Book, S-E Qian (editor), Canadian Space Agency

Web site

Anno 2015