NASA Releases First Precision Altimetry Datasets From the Sentinel-6B Sea-Level Satellite
NASA's Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC) announced on November 5 the first public release of non-time-critical (NTC) altimetry data products from the Sentinel-6B satellite, available through Earthdata Search and downloadable with subsetting options via the PO.DAAC Data Subscriber Tool.
Sentinel-6B's radar altimeter mission provides high-precision measurements of global sea level, building on the extensive observation record of the earlier Jason series of altimetry missions. The NTC products were validated during calibration and validation activities in the second half of the satellite's commissioning phase, following near-real-time (NRT) and short-time-critical (STC) products released earlier this year.
The release covers L1A, L1B and L2 altimeter low-rate and high-rate data, plus microwave radiometer data, processed in NTC latency from cycle 31 onward. L2 datasets come in standard and reduced forms: standard products contain both 1 Hz and 20 Hz data, while reduced products contain only 1 Hz data. Sea surface height anomaly, significant wave height and wind speed are included in all L2 altimetry datasets.
A continuous, precise sea-level record is the baseline for tracking global sea-level change. With Sentinel-6B's precision data now in the public archive, the observation series begun by the Jason missions continues on the same measurement standard. (Source: National Aeronautics and Space Administration)
Source: National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：Copernicus Sentinel-6 海平面监测卫星揭幕现场。Wikimedia Commons 图片（CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO，欧洲航天局）。 / Photo: The Copernicus Sentinel-6 sea-level monitoring satellite at its unveiling. Image via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO, European Space Agency).
