Abstract's details
WiSA : a Wide Swath Altimetry Mission for Operational Oceanography and Hydrology - A good candidate for of Copernicus-NG Sentinel 3-Top Program
CoAuthors
Event: 2019 Ocean Surface Topography Science Team Meeting
Session: The Future of Altimetry
Presentation type: Type Poster
Contribution: not provided
Abstract:
ln order to provide continuity to the highly valuable spatial measurements that will be performed by the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) wide-swath altimetry mission on a demonstration basis, CNES has started a 2-year study called WiSA, focused on defining an innovative concept of altimetry system to provide new measurements for both oceanography and hydrology on an operational basis. This will lead to improved estimates of deep-ocean and near-coastal marine circulation as well as the dynamics of open water stored on the land surface. The targeted programmatic framework is the Sentinel-3 Topo altimetry mission (~2030), follow-up of Sentinel-3, which will answer the expected evolution of the Copernicus Space Component.
The primary focus of the next generation of altimeters should be to extend the observing capability of the current altimeter constellation, and to observe smaller scales of the ocean surface topography. The objective is to resolve ocean scales of 50 km and 5 days, i.e. ocean features that are approximately twice as small and twice as fast as what is resolved today with altimetry. The secondary mission objective of the constellation should be to monitor the medium to large rivers (> 100 m width) and lakes/reservoirs (areas above 250 m x 250 m) with a time resolution from ~10 days and a height accuracy around 10 cm, at basin scale. In collaboration with expert scientists from the ocean and inland waters communities, a WiSA Users Requirement Document will be written to serve as reference input for future Copernicus studies.
CNES is involved with NASA/UKSA/CSA in SWOT mission which embarks KaRIn, the first Ka-band interferometric altimeter instrument operating in space. Alternative concepts have been proposed in the past by Thales Alenia Space. They rely on simpler antenna subsystem than for SWOT to moderate the complexity and the cost of the mission.
In the frame of WiSA study, several topics will be addressed such as Preliminary Definition of the Wide Swath Instrument and its mission performances, orbit analysis in hybrid altimetry (nadir+swath) satellite constellation context, swath altimetry system error budget, oceanography and hydrology processing chains definition (including on-board processing demonstrator for ocean topography mission).
This Poster will present an overview of mission objectives and the preliminary definition of the swath altimeters mission based on-going WiSA activities, which are led in coordination with ESA related activities (Swath Altimeter for Operational Oceanography - Feasibility Study, TRP Feasibility Study into Multibeam Swath Altimetry,…).
The primary focus of the next generation of altimeters should be to extend the observing capability of the current altimeter constellation, and to observe smaller scales of the ocean surface topography. The objective is to resolve ocean scales of 50 km and 5 days, i.e. ocean features that are approximately twice as small and twice as fast as what is resolved today with altimetry. The secondary mission objective of the constellation should be to monitor the medium to large rivers (> 100 m width) and lakes/reservoirs (areas above 250 m x 250 m) with a time resolution from ~10 days and a height accuracy around 10 cm, at basin scale. In collaboration with expert scientists from the ocean and inland waters communities, a WiSA Users Requirement Document will be written to serve as reference input for future Copernicus studies.
CNES is involved with NASA/UKSA/CSA in SWOT mission which embarks KaRIn, the first Ka-band interferometric altimeter instrument operating in space. Alternative concepts have been proposed in the past by Thales Alenia Space. They rely on simpler antenna subsystem than for SWOT to moderate the complexity and the cost of the mission.
In the frame of WiSA study, several topics will be addressed such as Preliminary Definition of the Wide Swath Instrument and its mission performances, orbit analysis in hybrid altimetry (nadir+swath) satellite constellation context, swath altimetry system error budget, oceanography and hydrology processing chains definition (including on-board processing demonstrator for ocean topography mission).
This Poster will present an overview of mission objectives and the preliminary definition of the swath altimeters mission based on-going WiSA activities, which are led in coordination with ESA related activities (Swath Altimeter for Operational Oceanography - Feasibility Study, TRP Feasibility Study into Multibeam Swath Altimetry,…).