Improved Determination of Sea Surface Heights Close to the Australian Coast from ERS-2 Satellite Radar Altimetry

The homogeneous and repeated data coverage over coastal regions from satellite radar altimetry is one important data source for oceanographic and geodetic applications. However, the sea surface heights (SSH) extracted from the altimeter data are often in error close to the coast, due in part to the...

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Main Authors: Deng, Xiaoli, Featherstone, Will
Other Authors: Fernando Sanso
Format: Conference Paper
Published: Springer 2005
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/41851
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author Deng, Xiaoli
Featherstone, Will
author2 Fernando Sanso
author_facet Fernando Sanso
Deng, Xiaoli
Featherstone, Will
author_sort Deng, Xiaoli
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description The homogeneous and repeated data coverage over coastal regions from satellite radar altimetry is one important data source for oceanographic and geodetic applications. However, the sea surface heights (SSH) extracted from the altimeter data are often in error close to the coast, due in part to the complex nature of echoes returned from rapidly varying coastal topographic surfaces (both land and sea) and the generally rougher sea state. This paper presents improved SSH results derived from ERS-2 altimeter waveform data (two cycles of 35-day repeat orbit, March to May 1999) near the Australian coast using a coastal retracking system. This system was developed based upon a systematic and comprehensive analysis of return waveforms. Central to the system is the use of two retracking techniques: the iterative least squares fitting and the threshold retracking algorithms. Using the AUSGeoid98 geoid grid as a quasi independent ground reference and comparing with abroad contaminated distance of ~10 km obtained from a previous study before retracking, the use of the retracking system is able to reduce this contaminated distance to ~5 km. However, improved SSH data cannot be recovered by waveform retracking less than ~5 km from the coastline due to predominant land returns in the waveform range window.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-418512017-10-02T02:27:10Z Improved Determination of Sea Surface Heights Close to the Australian Coast from ERS-2 Satellite Radar Altimetry Deng, Xiaoli Featherstone, Will Fernando Sanso improved sea - surface height satellite radar altimeter waveforms coastal waveform retracking system The homogeneous and repeated data coverage over coastal regions from satellite radar altimetry is one important data source for oceanographic and geodetic applications. However, the sea surface heights (SSH) extracted from the altimeter data are often in error close to the coast, due in part to the complex nature of echoes returned from rapidly varying coastal topographic surfaces (both land and sea) and the generally rougher sea state. This paper presents improved SSH results derived from ERS-2 altimeter waveform data (two cycles of 35-day repeat orbit, March to May 1999) near the Australian coast using a coastal retracking system. This system was developed based upon a systematic and comprehensive analysis of return waveforms. Central to the system is the use of two retracking techniques: the iterative least squares fitting and the threshold retracking algorithms. Using the AUSGeoid98 geoid grid as a quasi independent ground reference and comparing with abroad contaminated distance of ~10 km obtained from a previous study before retracking, the use of the retracking system is able to reduce this contaminated distance to ~5 km. However, improved SSH data cannot be recovered by waveform retracking less than ~5 km from the coastline due to predominant land returns in the waveform range window. 2005 Conference Paper http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/41851 Springer restricted
spellingShingle improved sea - surface height
satellite radar altimeter waveforms
coastal waveform retracking system
Deng, Xiaoli
Featherstone, Will
Improved Determination of Sea Surface Heights Close to the Australian Coast from ERS-2 Satellite Radar Altimetry
title Improved Determination of Sea Surface Heights Close to the Australian Coast from ERS-2 Satellite Radar Altimetry
title_full Improved Determination of Sea Surface Heights Close to the Australian Coast from ERS-2 Satellite Radar Altimetry
title_fullStr Improved Determination of Sea Surface Heights Close to the Australian Coast from ERS-2 Satellite Radar Altimetry
title_full_unstemmed Improved Determination of Sea Surface Heights Close to the Australian Coast from ERS-2 Satellite Radar Altimetry
title_short Improved Determination of Sea Surface Heights Close to the Australian Coast from ERS-2 Satellite Radar Altimetry
title_sort improved determination of sea surface heights close to the australian coast from ers-2 satellite radar altimetry
topic improved sea - surface height
satellite radar altimeter waveforms
coastal waveform retracking system
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/41851