Abstract's details
Impact of Geophysical Corrections on Altimetry Sea Level Estimations Near the Coast
CoAuthors
Event: 2018 Ocean Surface Topography Science Team Meeting
Session: Quantifying Errors and Uncertainties in Altimetry data
Presentation type: Type Oral
Contribution: PDF file
Abstract:
During the last 15 years, substantial progress has been achieved in altimetry data processing; nowadays, coastal altimetric data has enough accuracy to illustrate the potential of these observations for coastal applications. In parallel, new altimetry techniques (the Ka-band of SARAL/AltiKa, the SAR mode of Cryosat-2 and Sentinel 3) improve data quality by reducing land contamination and an enhancing the signal-to-noise ratio. Satellite altimetry provides ever more robust and accurate measurements ever closer to the coast and resolves ever shorter ocean features. The SWOT mission planned in 2021, with its SAR interferometer in Ka-band measuring SSH over 120-km wide swaths will still be a step forward. We can easily predict that altimetry will become rapidly an important component of coastal observing systems.
The progress of altimetry in coastal zones places the data processing issues in a new context, and we need to revisit a number of technical and scientific questions. It also requires the knowledge of the error budget associated with coastal altimetry observations, which is fundamentally different than over the deep ocean. Here we will focus on the geophysical correction component and analyze the errors associated with each correction and quantify how they impact the coastal sea level variations estimated from altimetry data. As we may expect a significant regional tendency in the results we use a regional approach. In parallel of error quantification, the objectives are to define the best possible set of altimetry corrections, as well as where more research efforts are needed.
The progress of altimetry in coastal zones places the data processing issues in a new context, and we need to revisit a number of technical and scientific questions. It also requires the knowledge of the error budget associated with coastal altimetry observations, which is fundamentally different than over the deep ocean. Here we will focus on the geophysical correction component and analyze the errors associated with each correction and quantify how they impact the coastal sea level variations estimated from altimetry data. As we may expect a significant regional tendency in the results we use a regional approach. In parallel of error quantification, the objectives are to define the best possible set of altimetry corrections, as well as where more research efforts are needed.