Assessment of SARAL/AltiKa Wave Height Measurements Relative to Buoy,Jason-2, and Cryosat-2 Data

SARAL/AltiKa GDR-T are analyzed to assess the quality of the significant wave height (SWH) measurements. SARAL along-track SWH plots reveal cases of erroneous data, more or less isolated, not detected by the quality flags. The anomalies are often correlated with strong attenuation of the Ka-band backscatter coefficient, sensitive to clouds and rain. A quality test based on the 1 Hz standard deviation is proposed to detect such anomalies. From buoy comparison, it is shown that SARAL SWH is more accurate than Jason-2, particularly at low SWH, and globally does not require any correction. Results are better with open ocean than with coastal buoys. The scatter and the number of outliers are much larger for coastal buoys. SARAL is then compared with Jason-2 and Cryosat-2. The altimeter data are extracted from the global altimeter SWH Ifremer data base, including specific corrections to calibrate the various altimeters. The comparison confirms the high quality of SARAL SWH. The 1 Hz standard deviation is much less than for Jason-2 and Cryosat-2, particularly at low SWH. Furthermore, results show that the corrections applied to Jason-2 and to Cryosat-2, in the data base, are efficient, improving the global agreement between the three altimeters.     

Comparison of Near Coastal Significant Wave Height Measurements from SARAL/AltiKa with Wave Rider Buoys in the Indian Region

Significant Wave Height (SWH) measurement data from the AltiKa Radar Altimeter (RA) for the first 13 cycles of satellite coverage are compared with the SWH from Wave Rider Buoys (WRB) located at nine stations along the Indian coast to assess the performance of the altimeter over the coastal region. AltiKa SWH observations within a 30-minute interval and 50 km distance from WRBs are found to be over estimated by 6%, the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) is 0.36 m, the Scatter Index (SI) is 26%, and the correlation coefficient (r) is 0.91. Relaxing the distance criteria by 50 km leads to increase in RMSE and deterioration of r to 0.89. There is a marked difference in the statistics on the comparison pairs pooled separately for the buoys near west and east coasts, with the latter showing RMSE error 26% more than the former. The method of Cressman weights adopted to correct for the errors arising out of the temporal and spatial differences in altimeter and buoy data comparison pairs resulted in reduction of RMSE by 5% and 25%, respectively, for the 30-minute and 50 km criteria and 4% and 56% for the 30-minute and 100 km criteria.     

联合GPS和SARAL卫星测高数据构建南极Dome A区域DEM

南极冰盖数字高程模型(digital elevation model,DEM)对南极环境变化和地形研究具有重要作用,利用GPS实测数据和卫星测高数据建立DEM是构建南极冰盖表面DEM的重要方法。考虑到实测GPS数据的精度较高,而卫星测高的空间分辨率占优,本文探讨综合利用这两种数据构建南极Dome A区域DEM。法国国家空间研究中心和印度空间研究组织共同研制的SARAL卫星是Envisat的后续卫星,搭载的Alti Ka雷达高度计首次采用了Ka波段,可以极大减小电离层的影响,提高测距精度和卫星数据的空间分辨率。本文首先利用中国南极第29次科学考察在Dome A区域的实测GPS数据对SARAL数据进行精度评定,然后利用实测GPS数据对SARAL测高数据进行高程修正,联合GPS数据获取得到了Dome A区域300 m分辨率的DEM。结果表明SARAL的高程精度为0.615 m,而联合GPS数据能改善DEM精度,提高到0.261 m。     

Global Calibration of SARAL/AltiKa Using Multi-Mission Sea Surface Height Crossovers

SARAL/AltiKa completed its first year in orbit in March 2014. The 1 Hz GDR-T data of the first 10 cycles of the mission are used to perform a comprehensive quality assessment by means of a global multi-mission crossover analysis. Within this approach, SARAL sea surface heights are compared with data from other current missions, mainly Jason-2 and Cryosat-2, to reveal its accuracy and consistency with the other altimeter systems. Alongside with global mean range bias and instrumental drifts, investigations on geographically correlated errors as well as on the realization of the systems origin are performed. The study proves the high quality and reliability of SARAL. The mission shows only a small range bias of about ?5 cm with respect to Jason-2 and neither significant time-tag bias nor instrumental drifts. With 1.3 cm the scatter of radial errors is in the same order of magnitude as for Cryosat-2 and Jason-1 GM and will probably further improve using an enhanced sea state bias (SSB) model. However, the wet tropospheric corrections from SARAL radiometer still show some systematic effects influencing the range bias as well as geographically correlated error patterns and the z-component of the origin. Improved inflight calibration will be necessary to overcome these effects.     

Impact of SARAL/AltiKa-Derived Sea Level Anomaly in a Data Assimilative Ocean Prediction System for the Indian Ocean

The impact of SARAL/AltiKa derived sea level anomaly (SLA) has been studied by assimilating it along with Jason-2 and Cryosat-2 SLA in the Princeton Ocean model (POM) using ensemble optimal interpolation (EnOI) technique. For isolating the extra benefit brought by SARAKL/Altika, a parallel run with assimilation of only Jason-2 and Cryosat-2 SLA has also been conducted. The importance of SARAL SLA in a data assimilative ocean prediction system has been evaluated with special emphasis on the improvement in thermocline depth, depth of the 20° isotherm, subsurface temperature and currents. Comparison with RAMA buoy has shown a positive impact of up to 13% for 20°C isotherm and up to 17% for thermocline depth after assimilating SARAL SLA. An overall improvement in temperature profile is also observed when compared with analogous profiles from RAMA buoys and Argo floats. Improvement in zonal currents away from the equator has also been noticed.     

On the Impact of the Assimilation of SARAL/AltiKa Wave Data in the Operational Wave Model MFWAM

As a part of our calibration/validation activities five months of SARAL/AltiKa wave data have been analyzed in this study. A robust quality control procedure using threshold values on signal and retrieved wave heights was implemented before the assimilation. Assimilation runs in the wave model Météo-France (MFWAM) were performed for a long period. The validation of the model outputs was performed with independent wave observations from altimeter and buoy data. The results indicate good performance in terms of bias and scatter index for the significant wave height and the peak wave period. Statistical analyses were performed for different ocean basins (high and intermediate latitudes and tropics). The use of SARAL/AltiKa and Jason-2 wave data combined was also investigated. This leads to further improvements for the analysis and forecast periods. In other respects, the impact of the assimilation of SARAL/AltiKa wave data is discussed for waves under strong wind conditions such as typhoons Fitow and Danas which occurred in early October 2013.     

Validation of SWH and SSHA from SARAL/AltiKa Using Jason-2 and In-Situ Observations

The focus of this study is the validation of significant wave height (SWH) and sea surface height anomaly (SSHA) obtained from the first Ka-band altimeter AltiKa onboard SARAL (Satellite for ARGOS and Altimeters). It is a collaborative mission of the Indian Space Research Organization and Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES). This is done using in-situ observations from buoy and Jason-2 measurements. Validation using buoy observations are at particular locations while that using Jason-2 altimeter is an attempt towards global validation of Altika products. The results clearly indicate that the SARAL/AltiKa provide high-quality data and the errors are within a predefined range of accuracy. A parallel validation of SWH from other altimeters, which monitored ocean since last decade, like EnviSAT and Jason-2 was also performed with buoy observations. The results clearly show that the accuracy of AltiKa SWH is much better than EnviSAT and comparable to reference mission Jason-2. The accuracy is quite good for the calm sea while in the rough seas the accuracy degrades some. The inter-comparison of SARAL/AltiKa SSHA with Jason-2 indicates a fair match between them. These validation exercises demonstrate the high quality of AltiKa products, usable for practical applications.     

SARAL/AltiKa Waveform Analysis to Monitor Inland Water Levels: A Case Study of Maithon Reservoir,Jharkhand, India

In the present study, behavior of the SARAL/AltiKa (Satellite with ARgos and ALtiKa) waveforms over Maithon Reservoir (～65 km² of surface area), Jharkhand, India, has been studied. The estimated water level has been compared with the in situ measurements at hydro-gauging station at the dam site. The problem of minimization of errors in the water level retrieval from AltiKa measurements has been resolved by improvement of the retracking method. A real retracking gate detection algorithm based on statistical analysis harnessing various physical parameters of the waveform has been developed, which has been applied to SARAL/AltiKa waveforms over the Maithon reservoir. Comparing the in-situ measurements with altimetry data (from cycle 1, 19 March 2013 to cycle 12, 8 April 2014) showed that it is crucial to improve the retracking method. Results showed accuracy of water level monitoring increased by nearly 76% by the newly developed waveform retracking algorithm over non-retracked water level. We also compared this new method with the existing ice-1 algorithm and found that with the new method there is improvement of ～27% over ice-1 retracked water level. The correlation coefficient values and root mean square values without retracking, with ice-1 algorithm and with newly developed retracking algorithm were 0.87, 0.91, and 0.95, and 8.12 cm, 2.08 cm, and 1.42 cm, respectively. This shows the proposed retracker performed better than ice-1. The retracking procedure helped in outliers' identification and substitution and with waveform fitting and waveform parameter extraction. This algorithm should have good performance capability for retrieving water level over inland water bodies like Maithon reservoir.     

Assessment of Cryosat-2 and SARAL/AltiKa altimetry for measuring inland water and coastal sea level variations: A case study on Tibetan Plateau lake and Taiwan Coast

Satellite altimetry has been proven as an effective technology to accurately measure water level, ice elevation, and flat land surface changes since the 1990s. To overcome limitations of pulse-limited altimetry, new altimetric missions such as Cryosat-2 and Satellite with ARgos and AltiKa (SARAL/AltiKa), have been designed to have higher along-track spatial resolution to measure more accurately inland water levels for small water bodies, and coastal sea level changes. In this study, we evaluate the performance of Cryosat-2 low-resolution (LRM) and SARin modes and SARAL/AltiKa Ka-band data on two connected lakes in central Tibetan Plateau, and in the coastal region of Taiwan. Results are compared with in situ tide gauge data in Taiwan and altimetric lake level time series from the CNES Hydroweb database. Our results show that water level change trends observed by Cryosat-2 20-Hz retracked observations, the SARAL/AltiKa 40-Hz Ice-1 retracked data, and the Hydroweb measurements are consistent with the estimated water level trend of ～0.30?m/y, during 2011–2017, and 2013–2015, for the Tibetan Migriggyangzham Co and Dorsoidong Co, respectively. For the coastal region, the performance of SARAL/AltiKa is better than that of Cryosat-2 LRM data in Taiwan. This finding demonstrates the superiority of the Ka-band over Ku-band radar altimetry.     

Retracking of SARAL/AltiKa Radar Altimetry Waveforms for Optimal Gravity Field Recovery

The accuracy of the marine gravity field derived from satellite altimetry depends on dense track spacing as well as high range precision. Here, we investigate the range precision that can be achieved using a new shorter wavelength Ka-band altimeter AltiKa aboard the SARAL spacecraft. We agree with a previous study that found that the range precision given in the SARAL/AltiKa Geophysical Data Records is more precise than that of Ku-band altimeter by a factor of two. Moreover, we show that two-pass retracking can further improve the range precision by a factor of 1.7 with respect to the 40 Hz-retracked data (item of range_40 hz) provided in the Geophysical Data Records. The important conclusion is that a dedicated Ka-band altimeter-mapping mission could substantially improve the global accuracy of the marine gravity field with complete coverage and a track spacing of <6 km achievable in ～1.3 years. This would reveal thousands of uncharted seamounts on the ocean floor as well as important tectonic features such as microplates and abyssal hill fabric.