Coastal sea level from inland CryoSat-2 interferometric SAR altimetry

Adili Abulaitijiang, Ole Baltazar Andersen, Lars Stenseng

    Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

    Abstract

    The European Space Agency's CryoSat-2 satellite can operate in a novel synthetic aperture radar interferometric (SARIn) mode where its nominal footprint (swath) is observed by two antennas and the phase difference between the signals is used to determination the exact location of the scatterer through an off-nadir correction. The potential of SARIn for sea level determination is investigated over the fjords of Eastern Greenland. In principle the satellite should only track sea level within its nominal footprint of 7km across track, but we observe that scattering targets (fjords) within twice its nominal footprint are frequently observed but mislocated in CryoSat-2 due to phase wrapping. We devised a way to relocate the observations and correct the range accordingly. When CryoSat-2 is flying inland we consequently observed that the satellite occasionally provide valid sea level in fjords up to 13km away in the across-track direction.
    Original languageEnglish
    JournalGeophysical Research Letters
    Volume42
    Issue number6
    Pages (from-to)1841-1847
    ISSN0094-8276
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2015

    Keywords

    • Altimetry
    • SAR interferometry
    • Interferometry
    • Satellites
    • Space-based radar
    • Synthetic aperture radar
    • Coastal sea level
    • European Space Agency
    • Interferometric SAR
    • Phase difference
    • Phase wrapping
    • Track direction
    • Sea level

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Coastal sea level from inland CryoSat-2 interferometric SAR altimetry'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this