Ocean surface currents (vector) Measurements Made by Earth Observation Satellites

Ocean surface currents (vector) Measurement Instruments

Measurements > Ocean > Ocean topography/currents > Ocean surface currents (vector)

Measurement Definition: Water flow on ocean surface - Physical unit: [ cm/s ] - Accuracy unit: [ cm/s ] intended as vector error, i.e. the module of the vector difference between the observed vector and the true vector - Measuring Units cm/s, Uncertainty Units cm/s

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ECV Surface Currents

Instrument	Status/ Accuracy	Instrument Description	Measurement Technology	Timeline
C-Band SAR	Operational	Marine core services, land monitoring and emergency services. Monitoring sea ice zones and arctic environment. Surveillance of marine environment, monitoring land surface motion risks, mapping of land surfaces (forest, water and soil, agriculture), mapping in support of humanitarian aid in crisis situations.	n/a
Ka-band Radar Interferometer (KaRIn)	Operational	Swath mapping radar altimeter that provides measurements for surface water.	n/a
SAR (RADARSAT-2)	Operational	All-weather images of ocean, ice and land surfaces. Used for monitoring of coastal zones, polar ice, sea ice, sea state, geological features, vegetation and land surface processes.	n/a
SAR (RCM)	Operational	All-weather, C-band data to support ecosystem monitoring, maritime surveillance and disaster management.	n/a
SAR-L	Operational	Land, ocean, emergencies, soil moisture, interferometry, others.	n/a
X-Band SAR	Operational	High resolution images for monitoring of land surface and coastal processes and for agricultural, geological and hydrological applications.	n/a
SAR (NIBE Space)	Being developed	All-weather, day-and-night Earth observation for monitoring India's vast coastlines, maritime surveillance, disaster monitoring, and change detection.	n/a
XPAA	Being developed	XPAA provides Spotlight, Stripmap and ScanSAR data for applications of environmental monitoring, disaster monitoring, resource management, topographic mapping, and information gathering.	n/a
L-Band SAR	Approved	L-band SAR instrument combining wide swath, high spatial resolution, high sensitivity, low ambiguity ratios, full polarimetric acquisition capability, and repeat-pass interferometry to support the retrieval of surface deformation over vegetated terrain, above-ground biomass density, soil moisture, land cover and land-cover change, flooded area information, ice sheet and glacier velocity, snow water, sea-ice conditions (type, concentration and motion), ocean winds and sea state conditions, as well as enhancing European maritime situational awareness.	n/a
NG C-Band SAR	Approved	Marine core services, land monitoring and emergency services. Monitoring sea ice zones and arctic environment. Surveillance of marine environment, monitoring land surface motion risks, mapping of land surfaces (forest, water and soil, agriculture), mapping in support of humanitarian aid in crisis situations.	n/a