The SARAL/AltiKa Altimetry Satellite Mission

Jacques Verron (1) , Pierre Sengenes (2) , Juliette Lambin (2) , Jocelyne Noubel (2) , Nathalie Steunou (2) , Amandine Guillot (2) , Nicolas Picot (2) , Sophie Coutin-Faye (2) , Rashmi Sharma (3) , R.M Gairola (4) , Raghava Murthy (4) , James G. Richman (5) , David Griffin (6) , Ananda Pascual (7) , Frédérique Remy (8) , P.K. Gupta (4)

1 LGGE - Laboratoire de glaciologie et géophysique de l'environnement
2 CNES - Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse]
3 ISRO - Indian Space Research Organisation
4 SAC/ISRO
5 NRL - Naval Research Laboratory
6 CISRO Oceans and Atmosphere
7 IMEDA - Institut Mediterrani d'Estudis Avançats
8 CRCA - Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale - UMR5169

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.

Domaines: Sciences de l'environnement

Jacques Verron, Pierre Sengenes, Juliette Lambin, Jocelyne Noubel, Nathalie Steunou, et al.. The SARAL/AltiKa Altimetry Satellite Mission. Marine Geodesy, 2015, 38 (1), pp.2-21. ⟨10.1080/01490419.2014.1000471⟩. ⟨insu-01286698⟩