The Envisat Radar Altimeter System (RA-2)

A. Resti, J. Benveniste, M. Roca, G. Levrini & J. Johannessen

Following on from the great success of its ERS-1 and -2 satellites, which have contributed to a much better understanding of the role that oceans and ice play in determining global climate, ESA is currently preparing Envisat, Europe's largest remote-sensing satellite to date, for launch. Its payload includes an advanced instrument complement designed to guarantee the continuity of observations started by its predecessors and to meet the global Earth-monitoring requirement on a longer time scale. In particular, the altimetry from Envisat will benefit from the improved performance of a dual-frequency Radar Altimeter (RA-2) working in synergy with the Microwave Radiometer (MWR) and Doppler Orbitography and Radio-positioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS) instruments. The ground processing products that will be available in near-real-time will be as comprehensive as the off-line products, differing only in terms of the availability and quality of the auxiliary data.