The Scatterometer Instrument Competence Centre (SCIRoCCo) project was established by ESA in support of the activities of the Sensor Performance and Product Assessment and Algorithm section (EOP-GMQ) for the ERS-2 Scatterometer mission Phase-F.

The project started on 24 June 2014 for a duration of two years. The final project review was held in ESRIN on 31 January 2017.

SCIRoCCo is an interdisciplinary cooperation of international scatterometry experts, aimed at promoting the continuing exploitation of ESA's unique 20 years' worth of ERS Scatterometer data (ESCAT) at medium (25 km, 50 km) spatial resolution, and improving the quality of available and future scatterometry data.

The SCIRoCCo project aims are to consolidate current methodologies for scatterometer data processing and calibration. SCIRoCCo provides ERS-1/-2 sensors inter-calibration, sensor characterisation and data validation. Data analysis and processing software, academic and technical publications in support of calibration and many diverse applications and research in Land (e.g. Soil Moisture), Oceanography (Ocean Winds, Sea, Ice), Climatology are also provided through the web portal. The web portal also serves as the entry point to SCIRoCCo's educational network, funded through grants and aimed at fostering the next-generation scatterometry experts. SCIRoCCo thus targets the needs of meteorological agencies, meteorological operations centres and the broader research and user communities for consistent and high quality Scatterometer data processing.

SCIRoCCo is a (Multi-)Sensor Timeseries project. ESA has been collecting and processing Earth observation data from ESA missions (for example Envisat, ERS-1 and -2), and ESA Third Party Missions (for example AVHRR, Landsat, ALOS) for nearly three decades. To facilitate the various end-user and science applications, there is a need for the agency to support and maintain the quality aspects across missions with similar sensors. The SPPA (Sensor Performance, Products and Algorithms) team multi-sensor activities focus primarily on the sensor Fundamental Data Records (FDR), i.e. the level 1 data, on the instrument's core products, as outlined in the Mission Requirements Documents of each mission, and on some select additional geophysical parameters that facilitate the improvements of the sensor FDR.

Download information about SCIRoCCo project activities and first achievements

Contact Information

If you have any questions about this project, contact:

Dr Raffaele Crapolicchio
Email: raffaele.crapolicchio@esa.int
Address: Serco SpA, Via Sciadonna 24-26, 00044 Frascati, Italy
Organisation: Serco

Dr Philippe Goryl
Email: philippe.goryl@esa.int
Address: ESA-ESRIN, Largo Galileo Galilei 1, 00044 Frascati, Italy
Organisation: ESA/ESRIN

ERS Wind and Soil Moisture Scatterometer data is provided through the ESA Earth Online Portal, via the Fast Registration procedure.

ERS Wind Scatterometer Level 2.0 Data

ERS Wind Scatterometer Level 2.0 data are available as:

• High resolution (25 km) ASPS and NetCDF format
• Nominal resolution (50 km) ASPS and NetCDF format
• Nominal resolution (50 km) UWI format (to maintain compatibility with previous data formats, see the table below).

Detailed tables reporting the total number of missing Level 2 Orbits for each ERS-2 cycle are available through the Quality Control Report pages for the Wind Scatterometer.

A useful resource regarding data availability and quality are the Quality Readme files for the ERS-1/2 Wind Scatterometer Products and the ERS-2 Soil Moisture Products.

ERS-2 Soil Moisture Data

Surface soil moisture records are derived from the backscatter coefficient σ0 measured by the Scatterometer on-board the European Remote Sensing satellite (ERS-2) using the Technische Universität (TU) Wien soil moisture retrieval algorithm called WARP (WAter Retrieval Package).

Scatterometer Surface Soil moisture WARP 5.6 Technical Documents:

• Download Product User Manual for Surface Soil Moisture Time Series
• Download Product User Manual for Surface Soil Moisture Orbit Product
• Download WARP 5 Grid Specification for WARP Soil Moisture
• Download Product Validation Report
• Download Products Quality Readme File