Satellites

December 2010

Satellites have been used to observe the ocean since the 1970s. The satellite-based instruments listed on this page are operational instruments currently used in MyOcean products. Even more satellite observations are used by MyOcean, for climatology, reanalysis and validation purposes, from past missions or from satellites that do not deliver data in real-time.

Instrument type

Ocean parameter measured

Instrument name

Satellite
Spectroradiometer •Chlorophyll content
•Organic and mineral content
•Sea surface temperature
•Sea Ice Cover
 		 MODIS

MERIS

 

 Aqua (NASA, USA)
Envisat (ESA, Europe)
 
Infrared radiometer •Sea surface temperature (SST) AVHRR

AATSR
MODIS
SEVIRI
GOES
 

 (NOAA, USA) + METOP (Eumetsat, Europe)
Envisat (ESA, Europe)
Aqua, Terra (NASA, USA)
MeteoSat ( Eumetsat, Europe)
(NOAA, USA)
DMSP (NASA, USA)
 
Microwave radiometer •Atmospheric water vapor content
•Atmoshperic water liquid content (cloud)
•Rain rates
•Sea-ice concentration, type, extent
•SST
•Salinity
 		 SSM/I

TMI
AMSR-E
MWR
JMR, AMR
 

 DMSP (NASA, USA)
TRMM (NASA, USA)
Aqua (NASA, USA) + (developed by JAXA, Japan)
Envisat (ESA, Europe)
Jason-1, Jason-2 (Cnes, France + NASA, USA)
 
Altimeter •Sea-surface height
•Ocean surface wind speed
•Wave height
•Sea ice
 		 Poseidon-2
RA-2
Poseidon-3
 		 Jason-1 (CNES, France + NASA, USA)
Envisat (ESA, Europe)
Jason-2 (CNES, France + NASA, NOAA, USA + Eumetsat, Europe)

 
Scatterometer •Wind speed and heading (10 m above ocean surface)
•Rain
•Sea ice concentration
 		 ASCAT

 		 Metop (Eumetsat, Europe)
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) •Wind
•Surface wave field
•Sea ice monitoring
 		   Radarsat-1, Radarsat-2, Canada
Envisat, Europe