Level-2 OCN products are processed by the Level-2 Instrument Processing Facility (IPF). For each OSW, OWI and RVL component:
- the appropriate Level-1 internal product is read
- the variables corresponding to the considered component are estimated
- a temporary file containing the results is saved locally
The figure below shows the Level-2 processing workflow at the IPF. External IPF interfaces have a white background, internal IPF interfaces are identified by a grey background.
Level-2 processing workflow
During the processing, a job order is read by the processor retrieving high level information required for processing a particular product (e.g. names and directories of input Level-1 files, names and directories of auxiliary data files, directories of outputs files, etc). Processing then starts from Level-1 products using the auxiliary data files provided such as the Level-2 processor parameter file. During the processing, a log file is generated to monitor the status of each processing step. The final step of the processing is the creation of the product including writing of all the geophysical information into netCDF files.
The SM and TOPS modes have the dual-polarisation option. However, the Level-2 OCN components are always estimated only using the information from the co-polarised signal. As a result, the algorithms for each component, as well as the workflow for the Level-2 OCN product generation, are not different from that of single polarisation product.
Separate processing of the components include: