Sentinel-3 Optical Sensor Calibration Expert - NANO | NF-POGO Alumni Network for the Ocean

SCISYS Deutschland GmbH provides professional engineering and consultancy services supporting space programmes and missions. We have a strong presence at ESOC and EUMETSAT, as well as serving all ESA sites and spacecraft primes. Our team is composed of university graduates and experienced professionals, comprising some of the most knowledgeable, dedicated and talented engineers across Europe. Our services cover the whole life cycle of space programmes from early concepts to operations.

Our Space Division provides a dynamic, supportive and friendly atmosphere in which you are encouraged to lead with initiative. We support new ideas from our colleagues and are focused on innovation. Moreover, we actively manage your professional development, training and career progression.

For the location in Darmstadt (Germany) we are looking for a Sentinel-3 Optical Sensor Calibration Expert to work at EUMETSAT.

Tasks:

The focus of this Sentinel-3 Optical Sensor Calibration Expert consultancy is to support the calibration of the Ocean and Land Colour Imager (OLCI) and Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR) instruments on the Sentinel-3 mission, which EUMETSAT operates on behalf of the European Commission. Hence, the focus will be to provide an in- depth understanding of the instruments’ calibration and characterisation inorbit. The

calibration data and instrument performance will be analysed using existing tools and by developing in-house tools for instrument calibration as well as vicarious and

intercalibration to adjust and monitor the operational calibration systems.

The key person shall provide consultancy to the Calibration Team of INRC competence area, in close collaboration with the Ocean Colour and Surface Temperature Radiometry teams in the Marine Applications competence area, whose activities the key person shall primarily support.

The tasks of the key person will typically include:

 Scientific analysis of the radiometric and spectral calibration of Ll data from OLCI and SLSTR

 Analysing results of pre-launch and in-orbit calibration systems and characterisation data , including:

– solar diffusers, straylight, nonlinearity, SNR, polarisation sensitivity

– spacecraft manoeuvres performed during or after commissioning

 Developing in-depth knowledge of the instruments’ operational processing chain

 Applying calibration monitoring tools to OLCI and SLSTR, including:

– pseudo-invariant calibration sites,

– Rayleigh scattering over the sea,

– lunar calibration,

– deep convective clouds,

– inter-calibration against collocated hyperspectral sounder observations,

 Developing specific components of the calibration monitoring tools to handle Sentinel-3 data

 Analysing results of these tools to assess these sensors’ performance

 Performing comparisons with other instruments, such as A VHRR, VIIRS, MODIS to gain understanding of the performance of OLCI and SLSTR

 Using the GEOCAL tool developed by ESA to monitor the geometric performance of OLCI and SLSTR

 Providing recommendations to implement changes to the operational procedures and processing chains to improve the instruments’ calibration

 Working with the team responsible for generating L2 products for these instruments to assess and improve the instruments’ calibration

 Writing and reviewing documentation describing the instruments’ calibration and aspects of their L1 processing.

Essential requirements:

The Key person shall have the following background and the following specific technical skills and experience:

 A university degree or equivalent in Physics, Remote Sensing, Instrument engineering, or similar

 At least 3 years practical experience in the processing of satellite data to generate calibrated Ll datasets in the visible, near- and/or thermal infrared

 At least 3-5 years practical experience in Ll calibration/validation

 Recognised expertise in the calibration of optical sensors -pre-launch or on orbit

 The Key person shall be able to demonstrate a good working knowledge of statistical techniques and understanding of the concepts of calibration and traceability

 The Key person shall have a knowledge of radiative transfer in the solar and/or infrared spectral ranges and practical experience in applying them for surface and/or atmospheric applications, for example using MODTRAN

 Proven experience in the use of (i) data analysis tools, such as Matlab/IDL, (ii) scripting languages, such as Peri/Python and (iii) high-level programming, such as C/C++ in a Linux/Unix environment, and an aptitude to learn further programming

languages as required

 Experience in the implementation of calibration algorithms

 Very good communication skills – both verbal and written are an important aspect of this role -both between teams within EUMETSA T and with Industry and ESA

 The ability to work effectively in a small team

 The ability to work autonomously without close supervision

 The ability to work to tight deadlines under changing conditions

 The ability to analyse complex problems, distinguishing between critical and less critical information, and to synthesise and clearly present the results of such analyses

Desirable requirements:

Additionally, the following experience would be considered advantageous:

 Knowledge and practical experience with the calibration of similar optical sensors, such as MERIS, MODIS, OLCI, (A}ATSR or A VHRR

 Experience of working in an operational satellite environment

 Experience of image analysis

 Experience with a range of different data formats used in satellite remote sensing

 Experience with software build environments and version control tools

Other Information

 Start date is as April 2017

 Fluency in English is mandatory.

Interested? Then send your application to: antonella.costa@scisys.de

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