Waves breaking on sea wall. Credit: Zacarias da Mata

Altimetry services

Altimetry data can be used to determine sea and lake surface height, significant wave height, surface wind speed, and sea ice height and thickness.

Last Updated

16 February 2023

Published on

27 July 2018

EUMETSAT operates several satellites with altimetry instruments on board – Sentinel-3, Sentinel-6, and Jason-3. EUMETSAT delivers data from these instruments, as well as providing access to historical data from Jason-2.

Visit our Altimetry knowledge base

We are developing new ways to present technical information, including details previously available in the pdf versions of our user handbooks. Visit our user knowledge bases and provide any feedback via our helpdesk.

Example altimeter waveforms from Sentinel-3A for a pass over the Arctic. The different response to sea ice, land, and open ocean can be seen. — Figure 1: Altimeter waveforms of Sentinel-3A for a pass over the Arctic. The different response to sea ice, land, and open ocean can be seen.

Altimetry applications, key variables and available products and timeliness applications

Main applications	Products	Timeliness	Main variables
Real time operational oceanography Marine nowcasting Operational wave forecasting	Near Real Time (NRT) (Sentinel-3 and 6) Operational Geophysical Data Record (Jason-3)	3 hours (Sentinel-3 and 6) 3-5 hours (Jason-3)	Significant Wave Height (SWH) Surface Wind Speed (WIND) Sea Surface Height (SSH)
Operational oceanography Seasonal forecasting	Slow Time Critical (STC) (Sentinel-3 and 6*)	36 hours (Sentinel-6) 48 hours (Sentinel-3)	More accurate Sea Surface Height (SSH)
Sea level monitoring Climate monitoring Climate research	Non Time Critical (NTC) (Sentinel-3 and 6) Geophysical Data Record (Jason-2 and 3)	30 days (Sentinel-3 and 6) 60 days (Jason-3)	Most accurate Sea Surface Height (SSH)

*equivalent to the interim geophysical data record

How to get altimetry data

Users need to be registered to get access to the altimetry products. To do this you need to use our Earth Observation Portal (EOP). To access the Earth Observation Portal (EOP) for the first time, users need to create an account. Once the account has been created, you can log in to view and modify your profile, service subscriptions and licence arrangements.

Altimetry products are available via:

For Sentinel-3

EUMETSAT Data Store, an online rolling archive with access via GUI and various APIs.
The Copernicus Data and Information Access Service (DIAS), WEkEO.
Via our broadcast delivery system EUMETCast.
By ordering from the EUMETSAT Data Centre.

For Sentinel-6

Via SFTP, EUMETCast, EUMETSAT Data Centre, GTS and NASA PO.DAAC

For Jason-3

Via EUMETCast, GTS and EUMETSAT Data Centre

For Jason-2

Jason-2 is no longer in operations. As such, historical data is only available via the EUMETSAT Data Centre.

Note: Not all products are available via all services. For clarity please see the Product Navigator, user support confluence and recent product news and notices. For any questions contact our User Service Helpdesk.

All Sentinel data products are distributed using a Sentinel-specific variation of the Standard Archive Format for Europe (SAFE) format specification. The information is contained in a single package, with objects encoded in NetCDF format.

Full details can be found on the Sentinel data formats page and product specific pages within the Sentinel-3 knowledge base.

Processing baselines & reports

Current Sentinel-3 altimetry processing baselines

Timeline and overview of the SRAL/MWR processing baselines.

Past Sentinel-3 altimetry processing baselines

Timeline and overview of previous SRAL/MWR processing baselines.

Sentinel-6 altimetry processing baselines

Timeline and overview of the POS-4 and AMR-C processing baselines of Sentinel-6.

Sentinel-6 cyclic reports

The Sentinel-6 altimetry cyclic reports contain information on data quality for each orbital cycle (10 days).

Sea level variations measured by S6 and Copernicus satellites

Altimetry resources

Documents relating to altimetry services (SRAL/MWR, Poseidon-4/AMR-c and Jason missions, including Algorithm Theoretical Basis Documents, Product Data Format Specification, Product Notices and any other technical reports.

Altimetry science studies

Sentinel-3 Altimetry GPD+ Wet Tropospheric Correction

Developing a service to improve the Copernicus Sentinel-3 SRAL/MWR Level-2 wet tropospheric correction (WTC).

Image - Press Release - Sentinel-3 - 19/02/2016

Altimeter 1D-VAR Tropospheric Correction (AMTROC)

Deriving Total Column Water Vapour (TCWV) and a Wet Tropospheric Correction (WTC) from observations from the S3 Microwave Radiometer (MWR).

All science studies

Other Sentinel-3 services

A Noctiluca scintillans bloom in the north Arabian Sea on 2 March 2017

Ocean colour services

Providing information on ocean living ecosystems, water quality and sediment dynamics.

Sea Surface Temperature services

Sea & land surface temperatures, atmosphere, clouds & fire.

Atmospheric composition

The Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission includes key optical instruments monitoring the composition of our atmosphere.

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The Earth observation satellites contributing data to Copernicus are split into two groups of missions: the Copernicus Sentinels and the contributing missions.