Wave Along-track Level-2+ (L2P)

Sentinel-3 A/B Altimetry L2P products will be discontinued as of January 1, 2025.
Users are encouraged to use EUMETSAT Level 2 (L2) products or CMEMS Level 3 (L3) products instead.

Types of dataset: Wave altimeter product, available for Sentinel-3 and Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich missions in Near-Real-Time. Since April 8th 2021 a wind variable is included in the products.

Contents: along-track Significant Wave Height (SWH) values calibrated relative to buoys. A validity flag and the applied correction are also provided. Since April 8th 2021, the wind variable is added in the file and it is computed by Gourrion (2002) algorithm using Collard (2005) table with PLRM sigma0 and swh. Moreover, the values are cross-calibrated with Jason-3 standard F wind speed.

Use: marine meteorology

Description: Monomission Along-track altimeter satellite product. 
Check monomission processing last updates. 

Geographic coverage: Global

Format: NetCDF-CF

Tools:

• User handbook: Wave Along-track Level-2+ (L2P) Sentinel-3&6 Product Handbook
• Quality reports: Daily Sentinel-3 L2P product quality monitoring reports, available for Near-Real-Time (NRT) products on the authenticated FTP (use IE or a FTP client).

The use of Sentinel-3 & Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich products is described in the licence agreement (section 13. Licence specific to Sentinel-3 L2P products).

References:

For Winds:

• Table by (in french) Collard, F., 2005, Algorithmes de vent et période moyenne des vagues JASON à base de réseaux de neurones, BO-021-CLS-0407-RF, Boost Technologies, 33pp
• Algorithm by Gourrion, J., D. Vandemark, S. Bailey, B. Chapron, G. P. Gommenginger, P. G. Challenor, and M. A. Srokosz, 2002. A two-parameter wind speed algorithm for Ku-Band altimeters, J. Atmos. and Oceanic Tech., 19, 2030-2048.

For Waves:

• Sepulveda H. H., Queffeulou P. and Ardhuin F. (2015): Assessment of SARAL AltiKa wave height measurements relative to buoy, Jason-2 and Cryosat-2 data. Marine Geodesy, 38 (S1),449-465, doi: 10.1080/01490419.2014.1000470.
• Queffeulou P. (2016): Validation of Jason-3 altimeter wave height measurements (poster). OSTST meeting, November 1-4, 2016, La Rochelle, France.
• Queffeulou P. and Croizé-Fillon D. (2017): Global Altimeter SWH Data Set, version 11.4, February 2017. Technical report Ifremer. ftp://ftp.ifremer.fr/ifremer/cersat/products/swath/altimeters/waves/documentation/altimeter_wave_merge__11.4.pdf

Citations:

• for Sentinel-3 and Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich missions, please refer to the licence agreement to mention credits explicitly in function of your use (section 13. Licence specific to Sentinel-3 L2P products).

Copyright :

• for Sentinel-3 and Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich missions: 2019-ongoing CNES/CLS consortium under an EUMETSAT Contract, funded by the European Union. Further information in the licence agreement

Near-Real-Time (NRT) Wave L2P

Satellite	Distribution media	Quality reports	Delivery delay	Data period	Data used	File weight
Sentinel-3A	please refer to MY AVISO+	please refer to MY AVISO+	4 hours	2 months	one pass per file	<100 Ko per file (zipped)
Sentinel-3B			4 hours	2 months
Sentinel-6 MF LR			4 hours	2 months