CoAuthors

Sylvie Labroue (CLS, France); Matthias Raynal (CLS, France); François Boy (CNES, France); Nicolas Picot (CNES, France); Abderrahim Halimi (ENSEEIHT, France); David Cotton (SATOC, UK); Christine Gommenginger (NOC, UK); Alejandro Egido (STARLAB, Spain); Remko Scharroo (EUMETSAT, Germany); Salvatore Dinardo (SERCO/ESRIN, Italy); Bruno Manuel Lucas (DEIMOS/ESRIN, Italy); Jérôme Benveniste (ESA, Italy)

The ESA CryoSat-2 mission is the first space mission to carry a SAR-mode radar altimeter, which is expected to provide better performances than a conventional radar altimeter: finer along-track spatial resolution and improved precision. However, the real issue being addressed today is the elaboration of new altimetric models, since the SAR echo power exhibits a different shape than the conventional one, and the evaluation and validation of their output. The Cryosat Plus for Oceans (CP4O) project aims precisely at quantifying skills and drawbacks of the different innovative methods (SAMOSA, CPP, DDA3 from Halimi) and see whether they will enable the full exploitation of the capabilities of the Cryosat-2 SIRAL altimeter or not. For this purpose, CLS has conducted an assessment of performances of each new algorithm (from instrumental to geophysical corrections) that consisted in comparing accurately their impacts against those obtained with other algorithms, through the use of robust and standard diagnoses. This paper presents the results of this assessment exercise.