{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,4]],"date-time":"2025-11-04T23:37:39Z","timestamp":1762299459858,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":24,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"16","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,8,12]],"date-time":"2020-08-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1597190400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100000844","name":"European Space Agency","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["4000111836\/14\/I-LG"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["4000111836\/14\/I-LG"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100000844","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100002830","name":"Centre National d\u2019Etudes Spatiales","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["180059 sousAC 14026"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["180059 sousAC 14026"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100002830","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Copernicus Sentinel-3 Surface Topography Mission embarks a two-channel microwave radiometer combined with the altimeter in order to correct the altimeter range for the excess path delay resulting from the presence of water vapour in the troposphere. The in-flight calibration of a single instrument is the critical point to achieve the expected performances. In the context of a constellation, the inter-calibration is even more important. After a presentation of the instrument design, we present the diagnoses used for the calibration of Sentinel-3A, using vicarious calibration over specific areas and double difference methods. The inter-calibration of Sentinel-3B with Sentinel-3A is performed during the tandem phase, using the residual differences of co-located measurements. Finally performances are assessed at crossover points with two parameters, first the wet troposphere correction by comparison with Jason-3; secondly on the Sea Surface Height by difference of variance. Analysis results have shown that Sentinel-3A is well calibrated, consistent with other instruments, and that Sentinel-3B is calibrated within 0.4 K with Sentinel-3A as a reference. Performances and stability fulfill the requirements for both missions.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs12162590","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,8,12]],"date-time":"2020-08-12T09:14:49Z","timestamp":1597223689000},"page":"2590","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":15,"title":["Sentinel-3 Microwave Radiometers: Instrument Description, Calibration and Geophysical Products Performances"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6045-407X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Marie-Laure","family":"Frery","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Collecte Localisation Satellites (CLS), 31520 Ramonville Saint-Agne, France"}]},{"given":"Mathilde","family":"Sim\u00e9on","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Collecte Localisation Satellites (CLS), 31520 Ramonville Saint-Agne, France"}]},{"given":"Christophe","family":"Goldstein","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre National d\u2019Etudes Spatiales (CNES), 18 avenue Edouard Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France"}]},{"given":"Pierre","family":"F\u00e9m\u00e9nias","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"European Space Agency (ESA) European Space Research Institute (ESRIN), Largo Galileo Galilei 1, 00044 Frascati, Italy"}]},{"given":"Franck","family":"Borde","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"European Space Agency (ESA) European Space Technology and Research Centre (ESTEC), Keplerlaan 1, 2201 AZ Noordwijk, The Netherlands"}]},{"given":"Alexandre","family":"Houpert","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Thal\u00e8s Alenia Space, 26 Avenue Jean Fran\u00e7ois Champollion, 31100 Toulouse, France"}]},{"given":"Ana","family":"Olea Garcia","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Airbus Defence and Space S.A.U., former EADS CASA Espacio, 28022 Madrid, Spain"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,8,12]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3211","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2011.2104967","article-title":"Using objective analysis of scanning radiometer measurements to compute the water vapor path delay for altimetry","volume":"49","author":"Stum","year":"2011","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"893","DOI":"10.5194\/os-10-893-2014","article-title":"Evaluation of wet troposphere path delays from atmospheric reanalyses and radiometers and their impact on the altimeter sea level","volume":"10","author":"Legeais","year":"2014","journal-title":"Ocean Sci."},{"key":"ref_3","first-page":"1","article-title":"Uncertainty in satellite estimate of global mean sea level changes, trend and acceleration","volume":"2","author":"Ablain","year":"2019","journal-title":"Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"277","DOI":"10.1080\/01490419.2015.1040903","article-title":"SARAL\/AltiKa wet tropospheric correction: In-flight calibration, retrieval strategies and performances","volume":"38","author":"Picard","year":"2015","journal-title":"Mar. Geod."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"44","DOI":"10.1109\/36.823900","article-title":"Detection of calibration drifts in spaceborne microwave radiometers using a vicarious cold reference","volume":"38","author":"Ruf","year":"2000","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"509","DOI":"10.1109\/36.992824","article-title":"Characterization and correction of a drift in calibration of the TOPEX microwave radiometer","volume":"40","author":"Ruf","year":"2002","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1006","DOI":"10.1109\/JSTARS.2012.2195773","article-title":"Inter-calibration of microwave radiometers using the vicarious cold calibration double difference method","volume":"5","author":"Kroodsma","year":"2012","journal-title":"IEEE J. Sel. Top. Appl. Earth Obs. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1144","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2005.846129","article-title":"Long-term stability of ERS-2 and TOPEX Microwave radiometer in-flight calibration","volume":"43","author":"Eymard","year":"2005","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_9","first-page":"915","article-title":"TOPEX\/POSEIDON microwave radiometer performance and in-flight calibration","volume":"99926","author":"Ruf","year":"1994","journal-title":"J. Geophys. Res."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1340","DOI":"10.1175\/JTECH1769.1","article-title":"Determination of an Amazon hot reference target for the on-orbit calibration of microwave radiometers","volume":"22","author":"Brown","year":"2005","journal-title":"J. Atmos. Ocean. Technol."},{"key":"ref_11","unstructured":"Picard, B., and Sim\u00e9on, M. (2013). Estimation des D\u00e9rives et des Incertitudes Associ\u00e9es pour les Radiom\u00e8tres Micro-Ondes: Revue des M\u00e9thodes Existantes, Universit\u00e9 de Toulouse. Technical Report."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"802","DOI":"10.1175\/JTECH1878.1","article-title":"First three years of the microwave radiometer aboard Envisat: In-flight calibration, processing, and validation of the geophysical products","volume":"23","author":"Obligis","year":"2006","journal-title":"J. Atmos. Ocean. Technol."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"602","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2006.887165","article-title":"A new sidelobe correction algorithm for microwave radiometers: Application to the Envisat instrument","volume":"45","author":"Obligis","year":"2007","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_14","unstructured":"Simeon, M., Frery, M., Borde, F., Goldstein, C., and Femenias, P. (2019). A New Side-Lobe Correction for Sentinel-3A Microwave Radiometer: Definition and Assessment, Ocean Surface Topography Science Team."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Quartly, G.D., Nencioli, F., Raynal, M., Bonnefond, P., Nilo Garcia, P., Garcia-Mond\u00e9jar, A., Flores de la Cruz, A., Cretaux, J.F., Taburet, N., and Frery, M.L. (2020). The Roles of the S3MPC: Monitoring, Validation and Evolution of Sentinel-3 Altimetry Observations. Remote Sens., 12.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs12111763"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1446","DOI":"10.1175\/JTECH-D-13-00179.1","article-title":"The effect of atmospheric water vapor content on the performance of future wide-swath ocean altimetry measurement","volume":"31","author":"Ubelmann","year":"2014","journal-title":"J. Atmos. Ocean. Technol."},{"key":"ref_17","unstructured":"EADS CASA Espacio Team (2013). Sentinel-3 Microwave Radiometer, MWR Design Description, EADS CASA Espacio Team. S3-TN-ECE-MR-00016."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"43","DOI":"10.1080\/01490419.2015.1006381","article-title":"AltiKa Radiometer: Instrument Description and In\u2013Flight Performance","volume":"38","author":"Steunou","year":"2015","journal-title":"Mar. Geod."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1606","DOI":"10.1080\/01431168708954802","article-title":"An approximate model for the microwave brightness temperature of the sea","volume":"8","author":"Guissard","year":"1987","journal-title":"Int. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1063","DOI":"10.1029\/1999RS002240","article-title":"Development of a modified two-scale electromagnetic model simulating both active and passive microwave measurements: Comparison to data remotely sensed over the ocean","volume":"37","author":"Boukabara","year":"2002","journal-title":"Radio Sci."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3057","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2009.2020433","article-title":"An improved retrieval algorithm for water vapor retrieval: Application to the Envisat microwave radiometer","volume":"47","author":"Obligis","year":"2009","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_22","unstructured":"ESA (2020, May 12). Sentinel Online\u2014Data Product Quality Reports. Available online: https:\/\/sentinel.esa.int\/web\/sentinel\/technical-guides\/sentinel-3-altimetry\/data-quality-reports."},{"key":"ref_23","unstructured":"Frery, M., Picard, B., Obligis, E., Eymard, L., Steunou, N., and Picot, N. (2014). First Year of the Microwave Radiometer Aboard SARAL\/AltiKa: In-Flight Calibration, Processing and Validation, Ocean Surface Topography Science Team."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zhang, B., Cao, C., Lillibridge, J., and Miller, L. (2015). Assessing the Measurement Consistency Between the Jason-2\/AMR and SARAL\/Altika\/DFMR Microwave Radiometers Using Simultaneous Nadir Observations. Mar. Geod., 38.","DOI":"10.1080\/01490419.2014.988836"}],"container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/12\/16\/2590\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T09:59:29Z","timestamp":1760176769000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/12\/16\/2590"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2020,8,12]]},"references-count":24,"journal-issue":{"issue":"16","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,8]]}},"alternative-id":["rs12162590"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/rs12162590","relation":{},"ISSN":["2072-4292"],"issn-type":[{"type":"electronic","value":"2072-4292"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2020,8,12]]}}}