EUMETSAT Annual Report 2021
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<strong>EUMETSAT</strong> ANNUAL REPORT <strong>2021</strong><br />
LOW-EARTH ORBIT SATELLITES<br />
Jason-3<br />
Metop-B<br />
SSO 98.7° inclination - EPS primary mission<br />
Delivers the primary operational EPS services from 817km altitude.<br />
Sentinel-3B<br />
Metop-C<br />
SSO 98.7° inclination - EPS secondary mission<br />
Delivers additional EPS services from 817km altitude.<br />
Metop-A<br />
SSO 98.7° inclination - EPS secondary mission<br />
Delivered additional EPS services from 817km altitude and primary<br />
support to the ARGOS and search and rescue missions. Was<br />
decommissioned in November <strong>2021</strong>.<br />
Metop-A<br />
Metop-B<br />
Meteosat-8<br />
Jason-3<br />
NSO 66° inclination - Primary ocean surface topography mission<br />
Delivers measurements of ocean surface topography and sea state from<br />
a non-synchronous, 10-day repeat orbit at 1,336km altitude (mission<br />
shared with CNES, NOAA, NASA and the European Commission). Current<br />
reference altimetry mission in the high precision ocean altimetry orbit.<br />
Planned to depart ocean altimetry reference orbit in 2022, to be replaced<br />
by Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich.<br />
Copernicus Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich<br />
NSO 66° inclination - Next-generation ocean altimetry mission<br />
Primarily delivers measurements of ocean surface topography and sea<br />
state from a non-synchronous, 10-day repeat orbit at 1,336km altitude<br />
(mission partners are <strong>EUMETSAT</strong>, the European Commission, ESA, NASA/<br />
JPL and NOAA with support from CNES). To assume primary responsibility<br />
for ocean altimetry (OSTM) in 2022 when Jason-3 departs reference orbit.<br />
Copernicus Sentinel-3A and -3B<br />
SSO 98.7° inclination - Copernicus dual-satellite Sentinel-3 mission<br />
Delivers Copernicus marine data services from 814km altitude.<br />
SENTINELS<br />
Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellite operations consisted of routine,<br />
dual-satellite operations. The Sea and Land Surface Temperature<br />
Radiometer decontamination process was optimised to reduce<br />
the duration of the process and minimise the resulting impact on<br />
service. The response to a known anomaly with the Ocean and<br />
Land Colour Instrument camera was optimised to minimise the<br />
impact on service during any outage.<br />
The average yearly availability to users of Sentinel-3 marine and<br />
near-real-time atmospheric products exceeded all applicable targets.<br />
Copernicus Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich completed its in-orbit<br />
verification and system commissioning activities following its 2020<br />
launch and entered routine operations phase in November <strong>2021</strong>.<br />
The Poseidon-4 altimetry payload was reconfigured to the<br />
redundant electronics side to assess a degradation of gain seen on<br />
the nominal side, although similar performance was observed on<br />
the redundant. Mission products remain within specification and<br />
the risk to consistent calibration arising from a subsequent side<br />
swap later in the mission was mitigated.<br />
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