GAVDOS/west crete cal-val site: Over a decade calibrations for Jason series, SARAL/Altika, cryoSat-2, Sentinel-3 and HY-2 altimeter satellites

This work presents and compares the latest altimeter calibration results for the Sentinel-3, Jason series, as well as the SARAL/AltiKa and the Chinese HY-2 missions, conducted at the Gavdos/Crete calibration/validation facilities. At first, the Jason altimeter calibration values will be given for the ascending Pass No.109 and the descending Pass No.18, based on the the GDR-E (Jason-1) and GDR-D (Jason-2) products. Secondly, these values will be cross-examined against the altimeter bias for the SARAL/AltiKa (GDR-T) satellite at Gavdos Cal/Val using its reference ascending orbit No. 571. The Chinese HY-2 satellite altimeter bias will be presented using the CRS1 permanent site in south west Crete for the descending HY-2 Pass No. 280, at 20 Hz based on SGDR data products. Finally, values will be compared against the Sentinel-3 altimeter. Additionally, altimeter biases as determined by locally developed Mean Sea Surface model will be presented and compared with the conventional sea-surface calibration methodology.