Scientific Developments and the EPS-SG Scatterometer

• Published in: IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing
• Main Authors: Stoffelen, Ad, Aaboe, Signe, Calvet, Jean-Christophe, Cotton, James, de Chiara, Giovanna, Saldana, Julia Figa, Mouche, Alexis, Portabella, Marcos, Scipal, Klaus, Wagner, Wolfgang
• Other Authors: Laboratoire d'Océanographie Physique et Spatiale (LOPS), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université de Brest (UBO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2017
• Subjects: [SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-04201884; https://hal.science/hal-04201884/document; https://hal.science/hal-04201884/file/Scientific_Developments_and_the_EPS-SG_Scatterometer.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1109/JSTARS.2017.2696424

International audience The second-generation exploitation of meteorological satellite polar system (EPS-SG) C-band-wavelength scatterometer instrument (called SCA), planned for launch in 2022, has a direct heritage from the successful advanced scatterometer (ASCAT) flown on the current EPS satellites. In addition, SCA will represent three major innovations with respect to ASCAT, namely: 1) Cross polarization and horizontal copolarization; 2) a nominal spatial resolution of 25 km; and 3) 20% greater spatial coverage than ASCAT. The associated expected science and application benefits that led the SCA design are discussed with respect to ocean, land, and sea ice applications for near-real time, climate monitoring, and research purposes. Moreover, an option to implement an ocean Doppler capability to retrieve the ocean motion vector is briefly discussed as well. In conclusion, the SCA instrument innovations are well set to provide timely benefits in all the main application areas of the scatterometer (winds, soil moisture, sea ice) and can be expected to contribute to new and more sophisticated meteorological, oceanographic, land, sea ice, and climate services in the forthcoming SCA era.