Abstract's details
Validation of the extended CryoSat-2 ocean data products
CoAuthors
Event: 2017 Ocean Surface Topography Science Team Meeting
Session: Regional and Global CAL/VAL for Assembling a Climate Data Record
Presentation type: Type Oral
Contribution: PDF file
Abstract:
Operational marine products from CryoSat-2, generated by a dedicated processor, have been available since April 2014. Here we present some results of a verification and scientific validation of the Geophysical Ocean Products (GOP), which have consolidated orbits and are available 30 days after acquisition. This assessment, carried out within the ESA-funded CryOcean-QCV project, is performed for sea surface height anomaly (SSHA), significant wave height (SWH) and wind speed. ESA have recently made available GOP for the period covering November 2010 through March 2014 (therefore completing the time series) and the CryOcean-QCV project is currently producing the monthly quality/validation reports for this additional period in addition to continuing to provide the operational daily and monthly reports.
In this presentation, we first assess the quality of the global ocean products by showing how various indicators (e.g. histograms of SSHA, SWH, sigma0 and mispointing, and noise statistics for SSHA and SWH) vary over mission time. The results show the low level of noise and excellent stability of the SIRAL instrument, which allow its exploitation for oceanographic applications.
The 7+ year time series of CryoSat-2 data now allow a look at interannual-scale signals of relevance to climate. One particularly intriguing result is the global mean sea level (GMSL) observed by CryoSat-2. While this shows a trend in line with other altimeter-based estimates of GMSL, it also displays a larger amplitude of the seasonal signal (see figure). We illustrate and discuss ongoing work to investigate these differences, including looking at the role played by sampling and the role of hydrology and/or thermosteric effects.
In this presentation, we first assess the quality of the global ocean products by showing how various indicators (e.g. histograms of SSHA, SWH, sigma0 and mispointing, and noise statistics for SSHA and SWH) vary over mission time. The results show the low level of noise and excellent stability of the SIRAL instrument, which allow its exploitation for oceanographic applications.
The 7+ year time series of CryoSat-2 data now allow a look at interannual-scale signals of relevance to climate. One particularly intriguing result is the global mean sea level (GMSL) observed by CryoSat-2. While this shows a trend in line with other altimeter-based estimates of GMSL, it also displays a larger amplitude of the seasonal signal (see figure). We illustrate and discuss ongoing work to investigate these differences, including looking at the role played by sampling and the role of hydrology and/or thermosteric effects.