Improved oceanographic measurements with cryosat sar altimetry:Application to the coastal zone and arctic

• Main Authors: Cotton, P. D., Garcia, P. N., Cancet, M., Andersen, O., Stenseng, L., Martin, F., Cipollini, P., Calafat, F. M., Passaro, M., Restano, M., Ambrózio, A., Benveniste, J.
• Other Authors: Ouwehand, L.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: European Space Agency 2016
• Subjects: Arctic; Arctic Ocean
• Online Access: https://vbn.aau.dk/da/publications/2c00a4e0-350b-4ba6-b60d-d636a4ba7f9a; http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84988535533&partnerID=8YFLogxK

The ESA CryoSat-2 mission is the first space mission to carry a radar altimeter that can operate in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) mode. Although the prime objective of the CryoSat-2 mission is dedicated to monitoring land and marine ice, the SAR mode capability of the CryoSat-2 SIRAL altimeter also presents significant potential benefits for ocean applications including improved range precision and finer along track spatial resolution. The "CryoSat Plus for Oceans" (CP4O) project, supported by the ESA Support to Science Element (STSE) Programme and by CNES, was dedicated to the exploitation of CryoSat-2 data over the open and coastal ocean. The general objectives of the CP4O project were: to build a sound scientific basis for new oceanographic applications of CryoSat-2 data; to generate and evaluate new methods and products that will enable the full exploitation of the capabilities of the CryoSat-2 SIRAL altimeter, and to ensure that the scientific return of the CryoSat-2 mission is maximised. Cotton et al, (2015) is the final report on this work. However, whilst the results from CP4O were highly promising and confirmed the potential of SAR altimetry to support new scientific and operational oceanographic applications, it was also apparent that further work was needed in some key areas to fully realise the original project objectives. Thus additional work in four areas has been supported by ESA under a Contract Change Notice: Developments in SARin data processing for Coastal Altimetry (isardSAT). Implementation of a Regional Tidal Atlas for the Arctic Ocean (Noveltis and DTU Space). Improvements to the SAMOSA re-tracker: Implementation and Evaluation-Optimised Thermal Noise Estimation. (Starlab and SatOC). Extended evaluation of CryoSat-2 SAR data for Coastal Applications (NOC). This work was managed by SatOC. The results of this work are summarized here. Detailed information regarding the CP4O project can be found at: http://www.satoc.eu/projects/CP4O/.