CoAuthors

Christine Gommenginger (National Oceanography Centre, UK); Meric Srokosz (National Oceanography Centre, UK)

SAR mode altimetry over the ocean was demonstrated for the first time in orbit with the ESA Cryosat-2 mission. Scientific studies since then have convincingly established the improved performance of SAR altimetry in terms of reduced altimetric noise, finer along-track spatial resolution and improved performance near land. Currently, no solution is available for sea state bias in SAR mode, and there remain uncertainties about the sensitivity of SAR mode altimetry to long ocean surface waves (swell) and their direction of propagation. Here some initial investigations of these issues are presented.