REprocessed Coastal Altimetry Products and Exploitation

Author:

Marcello Passaro - (DGFI-TUM)

Co-Investigator(s):

Denise Dettmering (DGFI-TUM)
Julius Oelsmann (DGFI-TUM)
Florian Schlembach (DGFI-TUM)

Abstract:

There has been an increasing interest towards satellite altimetry measurements in the coastal area and in recent years the scientific community has provided the first examples of dedicated products.

In the previous four years, the product based on the Adaptive Leading Edge Subwaveform (ALES) retracker has evolved from a prototype to a milestone in the processing of Low Resolution Altimetry (LRM) missions. Its benefits have expanded to include better spectral representation of the ocean scales of variability, improved precision in the open ocean through a novel approach to sea state bias correction and processing of the sea-ice covered oceans.

Meanwhile, the focus of coastal altimetry, which is still the main objective of our research, has moved towards the exploitation of the full coastal time series, the improvements brought by the SAR altimetry processing and the estimation of the coastal sea state.

Our research for the next four years encompasses several stages of satellite altimetry, from engineering to science. We propose a series of tasks involved in the design of novel retracking strategies for satellite altimetry, in the validation of the incoming Sentinel-6 mission and in the exploitation.

The project will help establishing coastal altimetry as a mature part of the OSTST community, which is ready to provide innovative scientific applications and expand the knowledge of the ocean in the areas where cities and infrastructures are located. At the same time the project follows its predecessor in the push for innovative signal processing techniques that focus on the added value offered by SAR altimetry.