Coastal Altimetry Challenges CIOSS Science Review Meeting Dynamics Working Group Oregon State University September 8-9, 2005 John Lillibridge NOAA Laboratory for Satellite Altimetry
Altimetry Issues in the Coastal Regime Coverage & space/time sampling Proximity to the coast Contamination of radiometer by land Small-scale tidal variations Sept. 8-9, 2005 CIOSS Science Review - Dynamics WG
Multi-Mission Altimetric Coverage Four concurrent altimeters Topex (black) : 10 day repeat Jason-1 (red) : 10 day repeat GFO (green) : 17 day repeat Envisat (blue) : 35 day repeat Radar Altimeter Database System All data & corrections within RADS Normally data provided at 1 Hz (7 km) Capable of handling 10 Hz high-rate data Does NOT account for radial orbit errors Coarse sampling near shore Assimilation into coastal models Will only get worse as we lose Topex, GFO… Sept. 8-9, 2005 CIOSS Science Review - Dynamics WG
Proximity to the Coastline 1 Hz averaged data (red) 7 km spacing too coarse Data gaps due to editing or radiometer contamination 10 Hz high-rate data (black) 700 m spacing - sufficient? Careful near shore editing Agility of altimeter acquiring sea surface after land/sea transition Waveform retracking Sept. 8-9, 2005 CIOSS Science Review - Dynamics WG
CIOSS Science Review - Dynamics WG Waveform Retracking 10 Hz altimeter waveforms from Geosat Geodetic Mission Ascending ground track (black) leaves coast near Crescent City, CA Color illustrates return power of radar return ‘echo’: Lo-power pre-arrival noise (purple) Track point in leading edge (blue) Hi-power trailing plateau (yellow/green) Correct height data when track point not centered in middle of waveform Track crosses Pt. St. George and reacquires sea surface to the North Crescent City Sept. 8-9, 2005 CIOSS Science Review - Dynamics WG
Radiometer Wet Troposphere Correction Radiometer footprint of ~50 km > radar’s Land contamination increases radiometer wet correction Workarounds: Use model wet Extrapolate to coast with Dwet constant Coastal met. model? Sept. 8-9, 2005 CIOSS Science Review - Dynamics WG
CIOSS Science Review - Dynamics WG Coastal Tides courtesy C. K. Shum Largest errors in global models on shelf Small scale variability Non-linear tides: M4 and other species Need regional tide models embedded in open-ocean model Sept. 8-9, 2005 CIOSS Science Review - Dynamics WG
CIOSS Science Review - Dynamics WG Future Work Hi-Rate 10 or 20 Hz RADS database for coastal altimetry Waveform retracking tailored to land/sea transition Refined radiometer wet tropo. correction & flagging Regional/Coastal tide models melded with global model Orbit error estimation prior to multi-satellite assimilation Sept. 8-9, 2005 CIOSS Science Review - Dynamics WG