ON THE PERFORMANCE OF CRYOSAT-2 SAR MODE OVER WATER SURFACES

摘要

This paper presents analyses of L1B waveforms in SARrnmode and Low-Rate Mode (LRM) over water surfacesrnfrom numerical simulations from the CryoSat MissionrnPerformance Simulator (CRYMPS) and from CryoSat-2rnsatellite measurements. This work was performed asrnpart of the ESA project "Development of SARrnAltimetry Studies and Applications over Ocean, Coastalrnzones and Inland waters (SAMOSA)". The project aimsrnto determine the performance of SAR altimeters overrnthe ocean and the coastal zone, compared to those ofrnconventional pulse-limited altimeters. The performancernfor range and wave height retrieval in SAR mode isrnassessed with the help of the SAMOSA1 theoreticalrnwaveform retracker developed in the SAMOSA contractrnto retrack peaky SAR mode waveforms (Gommengingerrnet al., 2010). The SAMOSA1 SAR ocean retracker hasrnbeen delivered to the Sentinel-3 team to form the basisrnof the operational SAR ocean retracker for the Sentinel-rn3 Surface Topography Mission. In this paper, wernpresent an analysis of range retrieval accuracy as arnfunction of significant wave height from CRYMPS L1BrnLRM and SAR waveforms, and for pseudo-LRMrnwaveforms obtained from the SAR mode data. Firstrnresults of the SAMOSA1 SAR ocean retracker appliedrnto CryoSat-2 waveforms over ocean are presented.