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sentinel-3-sr-2-wat-stc·dataset

Short-delay ocean surface height (Copernicus)

Sentinel-3 SRAL Ocean Radar Altimetry (STC)
ocean ESA ESA Copernicus active
In plain English

What it measures. Radar altimetry measurements over the ocean, indicating how high the sea surface sits.

How it's made. Derived from the SRAL radar altimeter aboard ESA Copernicus' Sentinel-3 satellites as a Level-2 ocean product, in a "slow-time-critical" version delivered within a couple of days.

How & where you'd use it. Useful for sea-level and ocean monitoring where a short delay brings improved quality.

What's measured

1640mAltimetryCopernicusECESAEUOceanPT48HRadarSRALSR_2_WAT____SatelliteSentinelSentinel-3

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2017-01-28 → ongoing
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90

What you can do with it

  • Watch sea-surface temperature and marine heatwaves
  • Spot algal blooms and ocean-colour shifts
  • Support fisheries and coastal monitoring
Official description

This Collection provides Sentinel-3 SRAL Level-2 Ocean Altimetry products, which contain data on ocean radar altimetry measurements.

Get the data

copernicus_access.py
# ESA Copernicus Data Space — open STAC API (free account)
from pystac_client import Client

cat = Client.open("https://stac.dataspace.copernicus.eu/v1")
search = cat.search(
    collections=["sentinel-3-sr-2-wat-stc"],   # add _cog or _nc for a format variant
    bbox=(-10, 35, 30, 60),             # your area (W,S,E,N)
    datetime="2024-01-01/2024-12-31",
)
items = list(search.items())            # then read assets with rioxarray / xarray
Browsing the Copernicus STAC is open; downloading bytes needs a free Copernicus Data Space account.