CoAuthors

Claire Dufau (CLS, France); Paolo Cipollini (NOC, United Kingdom); Villy Kourafalou (U. Miami/RSMAS, USA); Pierre De Mey (LEGOS, France)

In coastal oceans and marginal seas, ocean circulation processes and sea level variability influence numerous human activities and impact environmental health and biological productivity. Altimeter data re-tracked and/or re-processed with range and geophysical corrections appropriate to coastal regions are a valuable complement to observations traditionally employed in shelf sea applications (moorings, drifters, tide gauges, ship-borne CTD, HF-radar, and satellite SST and color). Furthermore, the synthesis of coastal altimetry with hydrodynamic models is enhancing the skill of forecasts that assist decision-making for societal applications, especially with respect to inundation and sub-inertial timescale circulation. Recognizing this synergy of coastal altimetry and coastal modeling, the ARCOM (Altimetry for Regional and Coastal Ocean Modeling) joint initiative of the Coastal Altimetry Workshops (CAW) and GODAE Coastal Ocean and Shelf Seas Task Team (COSS-TT) is exploring how to accelerate the use of altimetry in applied coastal modeling, and how to use models to complement knowledge of MDT and MSS in coastal seas. Presentations at CAW/COSS-TT/ARCOM meetings have demonstrated successes in the complementary uses of altimetry, in situ observations, and models, and highlights of these will be given. These workshops have also noted that coastal oceanographers who lack expert knowledge in altimetry need guidance in using the various specialized coastal altimetry data sets that exist, and indeed seek simplified, unified multi-satellite “L4” altimeter products customized and optimized for coastal oceans.