Cryosat-2 introduced an innovative SAR altimeter technology with high resolution. Although Cryosat-2 mission was intended to be primarily an ice mission, the unexpected loss of ENVISAT and the decision to adopt an altimeter based on the same technology for Sentinel-3 series of satellites motivated further exploitation of Cryosat altimeter especially in the SAR mode.
ECMWF receives operationally in near-real time (NRT) two LRM products. The first is the official product produced by ESA and the second is a product produced by NOAA. Surface wind speed and significant wave height from both products are routinely monitored and verified. An overall quality assessment will be presented of both products.
he results from SWH data assimilation experiments will also be presented. This includes NRT SWH products from Cryosat, SARAL/AltiKa and Jason-2. It is expected that the NRT SWH data from Cryosat (NOAA LRM) and SARAL/AltiKa will be assimilated on top of Jason-2 data in the operational ECMWF model soon.
Other Cryosat wind wave products from the SAR mode are being assessed. If results become available in time for the meeting, a summary will be provided as well.