Articles | Volume 385
https://doi.org/10.5194/piahs-385-457-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/piahs-385-457-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Post-conference publication
| 
19 Apr 2024
Post-conference publication |
| 19 Apr 2024
| 19 Apr 2024
SAR, SARin, RDSAR and FF-SAR Altimetry Processing on Demand for Cryosat-2, Sentinel-3 & Sentinel-6 at ESA's Altimetry Virtual Lab
Jérôme Benveniste
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
European Space Agency-ESRIN, Via Galileo Galilei, 00044 Frascati, Italy
Salvatore Dinardo
Collecte Localisation Satellites, Toulouse, France
Luciana Fenoglio-Marc
Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformation, University of Bonn, Germany
Christopher Buchhaupt
Cooperative Institute for Satellite Earth System Studies, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
Michele Scagliola
Aresys Srl, Via Flumendosa 16, 20132 Milan, Italy
now at: RHEA/ESRIN, Largo Galileo Galilei, Frascati, Italy
Marcello Passaro
DGFI, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany
Karina Nielsen
DTU Space, Technical University of Denmark, Elektrovej 328, 2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
Marco Restano
SERCO/ESRIN, Largo Galileo Galilei, Frascati, Italy
Américo Ambrózio
DEIMOS/ESRIN, Largo Galileo Galilei, Frascati, Italy
Giovanni Sabatino
Progressive Systems/ESRIN, Largo Galileo Galilei, Frascati, Italy
Carla Orrù
Progressive Systems/ESRIN, Largo Galileo Galilei, Frascati, Italy
Beniamino Abis
Progressive Systems/ESRIN, Largo Galileo Galilei, Frascati, Italy
Related authors
Victor Rousseau, Robin Fraudeau, Matthew Hammond, Odilon Joël Houndegnonto, Michaël Ablain, Alejandro Blazquez, Fransisco Mir Calafat, Damien Desbruyères, Giuseppe Foti, William Llovel, Florence Marti, Benoît Meyssignac, Marco Restano, and Jérôme Benveniste
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-236, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-236, 2023
Preprint withdrawn
Short summary
Short summary
The estimation of regional Ocean Heat Content (OHC) is crucial for climate analysis and future climate predictions. In our study, we accurately estimate regional OHC changes in the Atlantic Ocean using satellite and in situ data. Findings reveal significant warming in the Atlantic basin from 2002 to 2020 with a mean trend of 0.17W/m², representing 230 times the power of global nuclear plants. The product has also been successfully validated in the North Atlantic basin using in situ data.
Stefania Camici, Gabriele Giuliani, Luca Brocca, Christian Massari, Angelica Tarpanelli, Hassan Hashemi Farahani, Nico Sneeuw, Marco Restano, and Jérôme Benveniste
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 6935–6956, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-6935-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-6935-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
This paper presents an innovative approach, STREAM (SaTellite-based Runoff Evaluation And Mapping), to derive daily river discharge and runoff estimates from satellite observations of soil moisture, precipitation, and terrestrial total water storage anomalies. Potentially useful for multiple operational and scientific applications, the added value of the STREAM approach is the ability to increase knowledge on the natural processes, human activities, and their interactions on the land.
Martin Horwath, Benjamin D. Gutknecht, Anny Cazenave, Hindumathi Kulaiappan Palanisamy, Florence Marti, Ben Marzeion, Frank Paul, Raymond Le Bris, Anna E. Hogg, Inès Otosaka, Andrew Shepherd, Petra Döll, Denise Cáceres, Hannes Müller Schmied, Johnny A. Johannessen, Jan Even Øie Nilsen, Roshin P. Raj, René Forsberg, Louise Sandberg Sørensen, Valentina R. Barletta, Sebastian B. Simonsen, Per Knudsen, Ole Baltazar Andersen, Heidi Ranndal, Stine K. Rose, Christopher J. Merchant, Claire R. Macintosh, Karina von Schuckmann, Kristin Novotny, Andreas Groh, Marco Restano, and Jérôme Benveniste
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 411–447, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-411-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-411-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Global mean sea-level change observed from 1993 to 2016 (mean rate of 3.05 mm yr−1) matches the combined effect of changes in water density (thermal expansion) and ocean mass. Ocean-mass change has been assessed through the contributions from glaciers, ice sheets, and land water storage or directly from satellite data since 2003. Our budget assessments of linear trends and monthly anomalies utilise new datasets and uncertainty characterisations developed within ESA's Climate Change Initiative.
Florence Marti, Alejandro Blazquez, Benoit Meyssignac, Michaël Ablain, Anne Barnoud, Robin Fraudeau, Rémi Jugier, Jonathan Chenal, Gilles Larnicol, Julia Pfeffer, Marco Restano, and Jérôme Benveniste
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 229–249, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-229-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-229-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
The Earth energy imbalance at the top of the atmosphere due to the increase in greenhouse gases and aerosol concentrations is responsible for the accumulation of energy in the climate system. With its high thermal inertia, the ocean accumulates most of this energy excess in the form of heat. The estimation of the global ocean heat content through space geodetic observations allows monitoring of the energy imbalance with realistic uncertainties to better understand the Earth’s warming climate.
Denise Dettmering, Felix L. Müller, Julius Oelsmann, Marcello Passaro, Christian Schwatke, Marco Restano, Jérôme Benveniste, and Florian Seitz
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 3733–3753, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-3733-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-3733-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
In this study, a new gridded altimetry-based regional sea level dataset for the North Sea is presented, named North SEAL. It is based on long-term multi-mission cross-calibrated altimetry data consistently preprocessed with coastal dedicated algorithms. On a 6–8 km wide triangular mesh, North SEAL provides time series of monthly sea level anomalies as well as sea level trends and amplitudes of the mean annual sea level cycle for the period 1995–2019 for various applications.
Yvan Gouzenes, Fabien Léger, Anny Cazenave, Florence Birol, Pascal Bonnefond, Marcello Passaro, Fernando Nino, Rafael Almar, Olivier Laurain, Christian Schwatke, Jean-François Legeais, and Jérôme Benveniste
Ocean Sci., 16, 1165–1182, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-16-1165-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-16-1165-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
This study provides for the first time estimates of sea level anomalies very close to the coastline based on high-resolution retracked altimetry data, as well as corresponding sea level trends, over a 14-year time span. This new information has so far not been provided by standard altimetry data.
Marcello Passaro
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-809, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-809, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
This paper evaluates the capability of satellite altimetry to monitor coastally trapped waves in light of the latest advancements in daily gridded sea level data, including new interpolation schemes, an increased number of missions in orbit, and the incorporation of wide-swath altimetry measurements. The eastern Australian coast serves as a testbed, with validation provided by tide gauges and model data.
Victor Rousseau, Robin Fraudeau, Matthew Hammond, Odilon Joël Houndegnonto, Michaël Ablain, Alejandro Blazquez, Fransisco Mir Calafat, Damien Desbruyères, Giuseppe Foti, William Llovel, Florence Marti, Benoît Meyssignac, Marco Restano, and Jérôme Benveniste
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-236, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-236, 2023
Preprint withdrawn
Short summary
Short summary
The estimation of regional Ocean Heat Content (OHC) is crucial for climate analysis and future climate predictions. In our study, we accurately estimate regional OHC changes in the Atlantic Ocean using satellite and in situ data. Findings reveal significant warming in the Atlantic basin from 2002 to 2020 with a mean trend of 0.17W/m², representing 230 times the power of global nuclear plants. The product has also been successfully validated in the North Atlantic basin using in situ data.
Youjiang Shen, Karina Nielsen, Menaka Revel, Dedi Liu, and Dai Yamazaki
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 2781–2808, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-2781-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-2781-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Res-CN fills a gap in a comprehensive and extensive dataset of reservoir-catchment characteristics for 3254 Chinese reservoirs with 512 catchment-level attributes and significantly enhanced spatial and temporal coverage (e.g., 67 % increase in water level and 225 % in storage anomaly) of time series of reservoir water level (data available for 20 % of 3254 reservoirs), water area (99 %), storage anomaly (92 %), and evaporation (98 %), supporting a wide range of applications and disciplines.
Monica Coppo Frias, Suxia Liu, Xingguo Mo, Karina Nielsen, Heidi Ranndal, Liguang Jiang, Jun Ma, and Peter Bauer-Gottwein
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 27, 1011–1032, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-1011-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-1011-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
This paper uses remote sensing data from ICESat-2 to calibrate a 1D hydraulic model. With the model, we can make estimations of discharge and water surface elevation, which are important indicators in flooding risk assessment. ICESat-2 data give an added value, thanks to the 0.7 m resolution, which allows the measurement of narrow river streams. In addition, ICESat-2 provides measurements on the river dry portion geometry that can be included in the model.
Youjiang Shen, Dedi Liu, Liguang Jiang, Karina Nielsen, Jiabo Yin, Jun Liu, and Peter Bauer-Gottwein
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 5671–5694, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-5671-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-5671-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
A data gap of 338 Chinese reservoirs with their surface water area (SWA), water surface elevation (WSE), and reservoir water storage change (RWSC) during 2010–2021. Validation against the in situ observations of 93 reservoirs indicates the relatively high accuracy and reliability of the datasets. The unique and novel remotely sensed dataset would benefit studies involving many aspects (e.g., hydrological models, water resources related studies, and more).
Stefania Camici, Gabriele Giuliani, Luca Brocca, Christian Massari, Angelica Tarpanelli, Hassan Hashemi Farahani, Nico Sneeuw, Marco Restano, and Jérôme Benveniste
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 6935–6956, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-6935-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-6935-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
This paper presents an innovative approach, STREAM (SaTellite-based Runoff Evaluation And Mapping), to derive daily river discharge and runoff estimates from satellite observations of soil moisture, precipitation, and terrestrial total water storage anomalies. Potentially useful for multiple operational and scientific applications, the added value of the STREAM approach is the ability to increase knowledge on the natural processes, human activities, and their interactions on the land.
Martin Horwath, Benjamin D. Gutknecht, Anny Cazenave, Hindumathi Kulaiappan Palanisamy, Florence Marti, Ben Marzeion, Frank Paul, Raymond Le Bris, Anna E. Hogg, Inès Otosaka, Andrew Shepherd, Petra Döll, Denise Cáceres, Hannes Müller Schmied, Johnny A. Johannessen, Jan Even Øie Nilsen, Roshin P. Raj, René Forsberg, Louise Sandberg Sørensen, Valentina R. Barletta, Sebastian B. Simonsen, Per Knudsen, Ole Baltazar Andersen, Heidi Ranndal, Stine K. Rose, Christopher J. Merchant, Claire R. Macintosh, Karina von Schuckmann, Kristin Novotny, Andreas Groh, Marco Restano, and Jérôme Benveniste
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 411–447, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-411-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-411-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Global mean sea-level change observed from 1993 to 2016 (mean rate of 3.05 mm yr−1) matches the combined effect of changes in water density (thermal expansion) and ocean mass. Ocean-mass change has been assessed through the contributions from glaciers, ice sheets, and land water storage or directly from satellite data since 2003. Our budget assessments of linear trends and monthly anomalies utilise new datasets and uncertainty characterisations developed within ESA's Climate Change Initiative.
Florence Marti, Alejandro Blazquez, Benoit Meyssignac, Michaël Ablain, Anne Barnoud, Robin Fraudeau, Rémi Jugier, Jonathan Chenal, Gilles Larnicol, Julia Pfeffer, Marco Restano, and Jérôme Benveniste
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 229–249, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-229-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-229-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
The Earth energy imbalance at the top of the atmosphere due to the increase in greenhouse gases and aerosol concentrations is responsible for the accumulation of energy in the climate system. With its high thermal inertia, the ocean accumulates most of this energy excess in the form of heat. The estimation of the global ocean heat content through space geodetic observations allows monitoring of the energy imbalance with realistic uncertainties to better understand the Earth’s warming climate.
Michael G. Hart-Davis, Gaia Piccioni, Denise Dettmering, Christian Schwatke, Marcello Passaro, and Florian Seitz
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 3869–3884, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-3869-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-3869-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Ocean tides are an extremely important process for a variety of oceanographic applications, particularly in understanding coastal sea-level rise. Tidal signals influence satellite altimetry estimations of the sea surface, which has resulted in the development of ocean tide models to account for such signals. The EOT20 ocean tide model has been developed at DGFI-TUM using residual analysis of satellite altimetry, with the focus on improving the estimation of ocean tides in the coastal region.
Denise Dettmering, Felix L. Müller, Julius Oelsmann, Marcello Passaro, Christian Schwatke, Marco Restano, Jérôme Benveniste, and Florian Seitz
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 3733–3753, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-3733-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-3733-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
In this study, a new gridded altimetry-based regional sea level dataset for the North Sea is presented, named North SEAL. It is based on long-term multi-mission cross-calibrated altimetry data consistently preprocessed with coastal dedicated algorithms. On a 6–8 km wide triangular mesh, North SEAL provides time series of monthly sea level anomalies as well as sea level trends and amplitudes of the mean annual sea level cycle for the period 1995–2019 for various applications.
Julius Oelsmann, Marcello Passaro, Denise Dettmering, Christian Schwatke, Laura Sánchez, and Florian Seitz
Ocean Sci., 17, 35–57, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-17-35-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-17-35-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Vertical land motion (VLM) significantly contributes to relative sea level change. Here, we improve the accuracy and precision of VLM estimates, which are based on the difference of altimetry tide gauge observations. Advanced coastal altimetry and an improved coupling procedure of along-track altimetry data and high-frequency tide gauge observations are key factors for a greater comparability of altimetry and tide gauges in the coastal zone and thus for more reliable VLM estimates.
Yvan Gouzenes, Fabien Léger, Anny Cazenave, Florence Birol, Pascal Bonnefond, Marcello Passaro, Fernando Nino, Rafael Almar, Olivier Laurain, Christian Schwatke, Jean-François Legeais, and Jérôme Benveniste
Ocean Sci., 16, 1165–1182, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-16-1165-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-16-1165-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
This study provides for the first time estimates of sea level anomalies very close to the coastline based on high-resolution retracked altimetry data, as well as corresponding sea level trends, over a 14-year time span. This new information has so far not been provided by standard altimetry data.
Cited articles
Buchhaupt, C.: Model Improvement for SAR Altimetry, PhD Thesis, University of Darmstadt, https://tuprints.ulb.tu-darmstadt.de/9015/ (last access: 24 December 2023), 2019.
Buchhaupt, C., Fenoglio-Marc, L., Dinardo, S., Scharroo, R., and Becker, M.: A fast convolution-based waveform model for conventional and unfocused SAR altimetry, Adv. Space Res., 62, 1445–1463, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2017.11.039, 2018.
Davis, C. H.: A robust threshold retracking algorithm for measuring ice-sheet surface elevation change from satellite radar altimeters, IEEE T. Geosci. Remote, 35, 974–979, https://doi.org/10.1109/36.602540, 1997.
Dinardo, S., Fenoglio, L., Buchhaupt, C., Becker, M., Scharroo, R., Fernandes, J. M., and Benveniste, J.: Coastal SAR and PLRM altimetry in German Bight and West Baltic Sea, Adv. Space Res., 62, 1371–1404, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2017.12.018, 2017.
Earth Console: Homepage, https://earthconsole.eu/knowledge-base/ (last access: 24 December 2023), 2021.
Egido, A. and Smith, W. H. F.: Fully Focused SAR Altimetry: Theory and Applications, IEEE T. Geosci. Remote, 55, 392–406, https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2016.2607122, 2017.
ESA: Guidelines for the SAR (Delay-Doppler) L1b Processing, https://earth.esa.int/eogateway/documents/20142/37627/Guidelines-for-the-SAR-Delay-Doppler-L1b-Processing.pdf (last access: 24 December 2023), 2013.
ESA: The DeDop toolbox, ESA [code], https://dedop.org/ (last access: 24 December 2023), 2017.
Guccione, P., Scagliola, M., and Giudici, D.: 2D Frequency Domain Fully Focused SAR Processing for High PRF Radar Altimeters, Remote Sens.-Basel, 10, 1943, https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10121943, 2018 (code available at: https://github.com/cls-obsnadir-dev/SMAP-FFSAR, last access: 24 December 2023).
Müller, F., Passaro, M., Dettmering, D., and Baltic+ SEAL: Algorithm Theoretical Baseline Document (ATBD), Version 2.1. Technical report delivered under the Baltic+ SEAL project, https://doi.org/10.5270/esa.BalticSEAL.ATBDV2.1, 2020.
Nielsen, K., Zakharova, E., Tarpanelli, A., Andersen, O. B., and Benveniste, J.: River levels from multi mission altimetry, a statistical approach, Remote Sens. Environ., 270, 112876, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2021.112876, 2022.
Passaro, M., Müller, F. L., Oelsmann, J., Rautiainen, L., Dettmering, D., Hart-Davis, M. G., Abulaitijiang, A., Andersen, O. B., Høyer, J. L., Madsen, K. S., Ringgaard, I. M., Särkkä, J., Scarrott, R., Schwatke, C., Seitz, F., Tuomi, L., Restano, M., and Benveniste, J.: Absolute Baltic Sea Level Trends in the Satellite Altimetry Era: A Revisit, Front. Mar. Sci., 8, 647607, https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.647607, 2021.
Raney, R. K.: The delay/Doppler radar altimeter, IEEE T. Geosci. Remote, 36, 1578–1588, https://doi.org/10.1109/36.718861, 1998.
Ray, C., Martin-Puig, C., Clarizia, M. P., Ruffini, G., Dinardo, S., Gommenginger, C., and Benveniste, J.: SAR Altimeter Backscattered Waveform Model, IEEE T. Geosci. Remote, 53, 911–919, https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2014.2330423, 2015.
Xu, N., Zheng, H., Ma, Y., Yang, J., Liu, X., and Wang, X.: Global Estimation and Assessment of Monthly Lake/Reservoir Water Level Changes Using ICESat-2 ATL13 Products, Remote Sens.-Basel, 13, 2744, https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13142744, 2021.
Short summary
This paper presents the RDSAR, SAR/SARin & FF-SAR altimetry processors available in the ESA Altimetry Virtual Lab (AVL) hosted on the EarthConsole® platform. An overview on processors and features as well as preliminary analyses using AVL output data are reported to demonstrate the quality of the ESA Altimetry Virtual Lab altimetry services in providing innovative solutions to the radar altimetry community. https://earthconsole.eu//
This paper presents the RDSAR, SAR/SARin & FF-SAR altimetry processors available in the ESA...
