Final Assessment of Performance from the ENVISAT Altimeter System from IDEAS Operational Monitoring
Cotton, David1; Pinori, Sabrina2; Femenias, Pierre3
1Satellite Oceanographic Consultants Ltd, UNITED KINGDOM; 2SERCO, ITALY; 3ESA, ITALY

Operational quality control monitoring of data streams from all ESA's space-borne Earth Observation instruments is carried under the IDEAS contract. IDEAS is a consortium of European companies, with expertise in Earth Observation, which provides operational support to the ESA Sensor Performance, Products and Algorithms (SPPA) Office.

IDEAS provides the following services:

  • Routine data quality control, production of daily and cyclic quality reports,
  • Advanced instrument performance assessment,
  • Monitoring instrument calibration
  • Implementation and validation of new processors
  • Anomaly investigation
  • Support to ESA EO Help on scientific issues.

    In this paper we present a final, whole mission, assessment of Near Real Time (NRT) altimeter data from the ENVISAT mission, summarizing data coverage, sensor performance and data product quality. This study could help in defining improved specific performances objectives for NRT data of future altimeter missions. We also provide guidance to users of the ESA altimeter products in terms of correct application of corrections.