Towards an Operational Use of HY-2A in SSALT/Duacs: Evaluation of the Altimeter Performances Using NSOAS S-IGDR Data
Nicolas
Picot
CNES
Oral
HY-2 is a second generation ocean observation/monitoring satellite series supported by CNSA (China National Space Administration) and operated by NSOAS (National Satellite Ocean Application Service) which carries a dual frequency (Ku-Band and C-Band) radar altimeter among its scientific payload. The satellite was launched on August 15, 2011 and provides scientific data since the summer of 2012.
The CNES SSALTO/Duacs system processes data from all available altimetry missions to provide a consistent and homogeneous catalogue of products for varied applications, both for near real time applications and offline studies. They cover a large spectrum of operational oceanography needs, from ocean mesoscale observations to climate applications. These products are of great interest thanks to the combination of multiple satellites such as the Jason-1 & 2 tandem with Envisat and more recently CryoSat and SARAL/AltiKa. But the product's quality has been affected by the recent loss of the Jason-1 and Envisat missions. Hence the potential contribution of a new altimeter mission such as the Chinese HY-2A (HaiYang stands for \'ocean\' in Chinese) has to be examined.
In order to introduce HY-2A data into the SSALTO/Duacs system, a CNES/CLS prototype derived from the current Jason-2 algorithms has been developed. It processes the S-IGDR provided by NSOAS and builds intermediate RS-IGDR products. The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of the quality of the RS-IGDR data over ocean and through it, to evaluate the HY-2A altimeter performances. The main conclusion is that over ocean the RS-IGDRs data quality is close to the Jason-2 one, which makes of HY-2A a good candidate for the enrichment of the SSALTO/Duacs system.
The CNES SSALTO/Duacs system processes data from all available altimetry missions to provide a consistent and homogeneous catalogue of products for varied applications, both for near real time applications and offline studies. They cover a large spectrum of operational oceanography needs, from ocean mesoscale observations to climate applications. These products are of great interest thanks to the combination of multiple satellites such as the Jason-1 & 2 tandem with Envisat and more recently CryoSat and SARAL/AltiKa. But the product's quality has been affected by the recent loss of the Jason-1 and Envisat missions. Hence the potential contribution of a new altimeter mission such as the Chinese HY-2A (HaiYang stands for \'ocean\' in Chinese) has to be examined.
In order to introduce HY-2A data into the SSALTO/Duacs system, a CNES/CLS prototype derived from the current Jason-2 algorithms has been developed. It processes the S-IGDR provided by NSOAS and builds intermediate RS-IGDR products. The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of the quality of the RS-IGDR data over ocean and through it, to evaluate the HY-2A altimeter performances. The main conclusion is that over ocean the RS-IGDRs data quality is close to the Jason-2 one, which makes of HY-2A a good candidate for the enrichment of the SSALTO/Duacs system.
OSTS session
Near Real Time Products and Applications and Multi-Mission, Multi-Sensor Observations