Future ESA Missions for SST: Providing Enhanced Continuity for Copernicus

Short abstract

Sustained observations in the visible and infrared domain are one of the pillars of the Copernicus Programme. For SST, the vast amount of data collected by the current Sentinel-3 Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR) provide crucial input to a number of Services including the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS). Here we present three highly-synergistic missions currently in preparation that will continue and extend the space-based SST record.

The Next Generation of Sentinel-3 Optical, to be launched in 2032, will address the evolution of the optical payloads OLCI and SLSTR. The primary Sentinel-3 NG Optical mission objective for SST is to achieve enhanced continuity for Copernicus, at least at the level of the quality of the current generation of Sentinel-3 SLSTR. We will illustrate the advanced technical concepts that are currently being evaluated as part of Phase 0 of the mission development, in particular those for the technical evolution of SLSTR and of the SST products. This in turn leads to enhanced services or new services, and also enables R&D into new applications.

The coastal zone has also been identified as one of the complementary mission objectives of the Copernicus Expansion Land Surface Temperature Monitoring (LSTM) Mission (launch planned in 2028). The key observational requirements of the LSTM mission are systematic global acquisitions of high-resolution (50 metres) observations over land with a high revisit frequency of 2 days. Coastal waters are covered within 100 km from the shoreline, plus the full Mediterranean Sea and Caspian Sea, and coral reef areas. We will illustrate the main technical features of the instrument and the expected applications in the coastal zone.

SST is also crucial in the Arctic. Monitoring SST with an all-weather instrument in the Arctic is key for the operational monitoring and forecasting by CMEMS, and is one of the two primary objectives of the Copernicus Imaging Microwave Radiometer (CIMR) mission, whose launch is also planned for 2028. We will describe the key requirements for CIMR SST, the expected SST products and their application to monitoring the melting of sea ice and ocean dynamics.