Sentinel Calibration/Validation Site “Frank Silvio Marzano”
The site, located in the San Giovenale fraction in the Leonessa municipality – Rieti province in Italy, has been built, is operated and maintained under the responsibility of RAME srl in the framework of ESA Contract No 400136824/21/I-BG “Copernicus Space Component, Sentinel-3 Land Altimetry Mission Performance Cluster” led by CLS and authorized by Leonessa Municipality through deliberation of Consiglio Comunale no. 21 – 27/04/2022.
The site has been entitled in memory of Professor Frank Silvio Marzano, Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for contributions to microwave remote sensing in meteorology and volcanology.
Main mission of the site is to perform radiometric calibration of the SRAL instrument σ0 for the Copernicus Sentinel 3 fleet.
The radiometric calibration is performed by the Active Radar Calibrator, also called “ground transponder”, designed, fabricated and operated by RAME srl.
The further assist and improve the accuracy of the radiometric calibration, the site disposes of two independent in-situ methods for characterization and experimental determination of the troposphere radio propagation bias, by means of a MicroWave Radiometer and a GNSS EPN registered to EUREF network.
Figure: Leonessa FSM Cal/Val site entrance gate.
Figure: Leonessa Active Radar Calibrator installed into its shelter.
The Active Radar Calibrator (ARC) is a “ground transponder” producing an echo to the incoming radar signals, with unique features allowing to achieve σ0 standard deviaton down to 0.2dB.
The ARC operates in the Ku-band, centered at 13.575GHz with real-time bandwidth >320MHz.
The ARC main goal is to represent a reference target for the Sentinel satellites fleet with performances independent from environmentaò conditions and with low and characterized drift in time due to aging.
Such performances are related to the processing performed on the echoed signal received from satellites, namely:
- power gain;
- time delay.
This processing type ensure to lower undesired backscatter phenomena from surrounding Earth surface which may prevent to reach the 0.2dB calibration accuracy.
Further, the ARC implements a proprietary digital fingerprinting processing granting the echo to be produced in response to Sentinel satellites fleet only, highly reducing jamming/spoofing or misuse attempts during operations.
Open to Scientific collaboration
Among the missions of the Cal/Val site, through ESA recommendation we encourage to contact us for scientific collaboration in the fields of:
- radio propagation modeling and experimentation trough atmosphere;
- meteorology related topics;
- accessing data retrieved from the MWR and/or the GNSS EPN for remote sensing applications;
- SATCom radio links characterization.
Figure: Leonessa MWR Profiler.
Figure: Leonessa GW Station.
Gateway Service for SATComs
The Cal/Val site also disposes of a mechanical tracking GateWay (GW) station operating in the following bands with realized gain:
- L-band, 18 dBi;
- S-band, 24 dBi;
- C-band, 32 dBi;
- K-band, 42 dBi;
- Ka-band 45 dBi.
The GW can be provided of High Power Amplifier for reaching EIRP according to Italian PNRF.
The GW Station has been succesfully proven to track LEO satellite in 25-75 deg elavation interval.
For any additional information contact us at info@ramesrl.it !
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Page data creation: May 30th, 2025.