CoAuthors

Pierre Thibaut (CLS, France); Malcolm McMillan (Lancaster University, UK); Eero Rinne (FMI, Finland); Frank Fell (Informus, Germany); Fernando Nino (LEGOS, France); Sara Fleury (LEGOS, France); Angelica Tarpanelli (IRPI, Italy); Annabelle Ollivier (CLS, France); Hélène Roinard (CLS, France); Marie-Laure Denneulin (CLS, France); Beatriz Calmettes (CLS, France); Jean-Alexis Daguzé (CLS, France); Emma Woolliams (NPL, UK); Pierre Féménias (ESA, Italy)

In the framework of the European Long Term Data Preservation Program (LTDP+), which aims at generating innovative Earth system data records named Fundamental Data Records (FDR) and Thematic Data Records (TDP), similar to level 2+ geophysical products, ESA/ESRIN has launched two years ago a reprocessing activity of the ERS-1, ERS-2 and ENVISAT altimeter and radiometer dataset. A large consortium of thematic experts has been formed to perform these activities which are 1) to define new tailored end-user products including the long, harmonized record of uncertainty-quantified observations, 2) to define the most appropriate and state-of-the-art level 1 and level 2 processing, 3) to reprocess the whole times series according to the upgraded ground processing and, 4) to validate the different products and provide them to a large community of users focused on the observation of the atmosphere, ocean topography, ocean waves, coastal, hydrology, sea ice, ice sheet regions. This activity will result in the production of 8 different datasets for each mission, each of them addressing a different need. The project kicked off in September 2019 and the first phase of definition and pre-validation is now completed. The production phase began in early 2022 and is expected to be finalized at the end of 2022. Results already show major improvements compared to the current ESA ERS and Envisat Altimetry products, on all surfaces.
The objective of this talk is first to remind the OSTST members of this initiative, to explain the main guidelines, constraints, and status of the project and then to present the excellent performances of the FDR4ALT products. In particular, the presentation will show how the different communities (over global ocean, coastal, inland waters, sea ice, land ice, waves and atmosphere) will be able to benefit from this reprocessing to improve their long-term climate analysis.