The SARAL/AltiKa Altimetry Satellite Mission

Jacques Verron et al. © 2015, Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. The India-France SARAL/AltiKa mission is the first Ka-band altimetric mission dedi-cated to oceanography. The mission objectives are primarily the observation of the oceanic mesoscales but also include coastal oceanography, g...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Marine Geodesy
Main Authors: Verron, Jacques, Pascual, Ananda, Gupta, Praveen Kumar
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: Taylor & Francis 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/125749
https://doi.org/10.1080/01490419.2014.1000471
Description
Summary:Jacques Verron et al. © 2015, Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. The India-France SARAL/AltiKa mission is the first Ka-band altimetric mission dedi-cated to oceanography. The mission objectives are primarily the observation of the oceanic mesoscales but also include coastal oceanography, global and regional sea level monitoring, data assimilation, and operational oceanography. Secondary objectives include ice sheet and inland waters monitoring. One year after launch, the results widely confirm the nominal expectations in terms of accuracy, data quality and data availability in general. Today's performances are compliant with specifications with an overall observed performance for the Sea Surface Height RMS of 3.4 cm to be compared to a 4 cm requirement. Some scientific examples are provided that illustrate some salient features of today's SARAL/AltiKa data with regard to standard altimetry: data availability, data accuracy at the mesoscales, data usefulness in costal area, over ice sheet, and for inland waters. Peer Reviewed