Welcome to the International Coastal Altimetry Community
In the last few years, considerable research has been carried out into extending the capabilities of current and future altimeters as close as possible to the coast, with the ultimate aim to integrate the altimeter-derived measurements of sea level, wind speed and significant wave height into coastal ocean observing systems. At the same time the major Space Agencies have recognized the importance of coastal altimetry and are sustaining coastal altimetry research through dedicated projects. This new coastal altimetry community, inherently interdisciplinary, has already had ten well-attended international workshops (see below and http://www.coastalaltimetry.org), and has produced a book on the subject, plus a Community White Paper for the OceanObs'09 conference.
DATASETS FOR COASTAL ALTIMETRY (table updated Jul 2019)
Our mailing list: COASTALT-SWT
The Coastal Altimetry Science Working Team (COASTALT-SWT) is an informal grouping of scientists around a mailing list [coastalt-swt] for quick and efficient exchange of information, results and news on Coastal Altimetry.
The list is hosted on the NOC server and has more than 200 international contacts. It is the most effective way of reaching out to the coastal altimetry community.
COASTALT-SWT reports informally to the Ocean Surface Topography Science Team, which we see a bit like our 'parent' group.
TO JOIN COASTAL-SWT OR POST AN ITEM:
The mailing list is moderated by Chris Banks at NOC so please contact Chris if you are interested in joining the mailing list. To post an item, send the message to Chris.
Our Workshops:
13th Coastal Altimetry Workshop - Universidad de Cádiz, Spain 6-10 February 2023 including Coastal Altimetry Training course see https://www.coastalaltimetry.org/
12th Coastal Altimetry Workshop -ESA/ESRIN 4-7 February 2020, including a one-day Coastal Altimetry Training course. More information is now avaiable here!
11th Coastal Altimetry Workshop -ESA/ESRIN 13-15 June 2018, preceded by a one-day Coastal Altimetry Training course on June 12.
10th Coastal Altimetry Workshop - Florence, Italy, 21-24 February 2017 – Programme – Extensive summary of the Workshop – Brief summary for AGU EOS. Presentations will be online soon
This included sessions on studies using the new Jason-3 and Sentinel-3 data, and special sessions jointly with the Altimetry for Regional and Coastal Models (ARCOM) community of GODAE COSS-TT, and the Sea Level community and data providers. The workshop was accompanied by a SAR Altimetry Training Course for the benefit of early career scientists and any satellite oceanographer who would like to get more familiar with the SAR mode on CryoSat-2 and Sentinel-3.
9th Coastal Altimetry Workshop - the 9th Coastal Altimetry Workshop was held on Sun 18 - Mon 19 October 2015 at the Hyatt Regency in Reston, VA, on the US East Coast - same location as OSTST which followed on Tue 20 to Fri 23 October
8th Coastal Altimetry Workshop - Lake Constance, Germany, 23-24 October 2014 - Agenda, Presentations and Posters and the Workshop summary talk given by Paolo at OSTST2014
7th Coastal Altimetry Workshop - Boulder (CO, USA) 7-8 October 2013 - Agenda, Presentations and Posters and a short summary of the Workshop.
6th Coastal Altimetry Workshop - Riva del Garda (Italy) 20-21 September 2012 - Agenda, Presentations and Posters and a short summary of the Workshop.
5th Coastal Altimetry Workshop - San Diego (USA) 16-18 October 2011 - Agenda, Presentations and Posters and Summary of the Workshop.
4th Coastal Altimetry Workshop - Porto (Portugal) 14-15 October 2010 - Agenda, Presentations and Posters
3rd Coastal Altimetry Workshop - Frascati (Italy) 17-18 Sept 2009 - Agenda, Presentations and Posters (follow link to "Programme")
2nd Coastal Altimetry Workshop - Pisa (Italy) 6-7 Nov 2008 - Agenda, Presentations and Posters
1st Coastal Altimetry Workshop - Silver Spring (USA) 5-7 Feb 2008 - Agenda and Presentations
Our book
Vignudelli, S., A. Kostianoy, P. Cipollini, J. Benveniste (eds.)(2011). Coastal Altimetry, Springer, doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-12796-0. See also a full table of contents.
Datasets for coastal altimetry - table from Cipollini et al., Surv. Geophys., 2017, updated as new dataset become available
| ID | Produced by | Altimeter | Product level | Posting | Coverage | Download from | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AVISO | CLS, CNES | e1,tx,e2, en, j1, j2, c2 (LRM/PRLM), sa, h2 | L2, L3, L4 | 1 Hz | Global + european regions + arctic + SW Indian | AVISO+ | Widely used reference dataset processed with standard techniques. Distribution of Global, Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea products is migrating to CMEMS during 2016 |
| CNES | also L4 | ||||||
| CMEMS | CLS | e1,tx,e2, en, j1, j2, c2 (LRM/PRLM), sa (s3a to be added soon) | L3 | 1 Hz | Global + european regions | marine.copernicus.eu | Marine Environment Monitoring Service of the EC/ESA Copernicus Programme, providing products and services for all marine applications |
| CNES | L3 for assimilation | ||||||
| CNES | |||||||
| PEACHI | CLS | sa, (j2 to be added soon) | L2 | 40 Hz | Global | AVISO+ | Experimental SARAL/AltiKa products including dedicated retracking and corrections leading to more accurate products for coastal zones, hydrology and ice. From 2017 expected to generate also j2 products |
| CNES | |||||||
| X-TRACK | LEGOS-CTOH | tx, j1, j2, gfo, en | L2, L3 | 1 Hz | 23 regions | CTOH | Specific processing using improved data screening and latest corrections available (see section 6) |
| 20Hz (test) | AVISO+ | ||||||
| RADS | EUMETSAT, NOAA, TUDelft | gs, e1, tx, pn, e2, gfo, j1, n1, j2, c2, sa | L2 | 1 Hz | Global | TUDelft | Widely used dataset, mirrored by tens of sites worldwide, with continuously updated corrections, but no specific coastal processing |
| ALES | NOC | j2, n1, (j1, j3 to be added soon) | L2 | 20 Hz | Global, <50 km from coast | PODAAC | Experimental products from the ALES processor included in SGDR-type files alongside the standard products and corrections. |
| ALES | TUM | j1,j2,j3,n1,sa,s3a,s3b | L3 | 1 Hz | Global | OpenADB | Along-Track Sea Surface Height computed with the ALES Processor and already corrected. |
| SL_cci+ XTRACK-ALES | ESA Sea Level Climate Change Initiative | j1, j2, j3, n1, sa | L2 | 20 Hz | Western Africa, Mediterranean Sea, North East Atlantic Ocean, North Indian Ocean, South-East Asia and Australia | http://www.esa-sealevel-cci.org/products | dataset with dedicated corrections and retracking, joining X-TRACK and ALES processing |
| SARvatore | ESA-ESRIN | c2 (SAR only) | L2 |
20 Hz |
SAR-mode regions | ESA GPOD | On-demand Processing service for the CryoSat-2 SAR mode data where the user can configure some processing parameters to meet specific requirements (for istance for the coastal zone) |
| COP | ESA | c2 (LRM/PLRM) | L2 | 20 Hz | Global | ESA | Global products for CryoSat-2 from an Ocean processor (output is in PLRM over the SAR mode regions) - but no specific coastal processing |
| The abbreviations used for the altimeters are gs: Geosat (1985-1989); e1: ERS-1 (1991-1996); tx: TOPEX (1992-2002); pn: Poseidon (1992-2002); e2: ERS-2 (1995-2011); gfo: Geosat Follow-On-1 (2000-2008); j1: Jason-1 (2002-2013); en: Envisat (2002-2012); j2: Jason-2 (2008-present); c2: CryoSat-2 (2010-present); sa: SARAL/AltiKa (2013-present); h2: HY-2A (2014-present); j3: Jason-3 (2016-present); s3a: Sentinel-3A (2016-present); s3b: Sentinel-3B (2018-present). For CryoSat-2 (c2) a further specification is added when data are only avaiable from the Low-Resolution Mode and Pseudo-Low Resolution Mode (LRM/PLRM) or only from the SAR-mode regions | |||||||
| Product levels: L2: along-track data with corrections; L3: data gridded on regular grids in space and time; L4: products derived from analysis of multiple measurements, such as climatologies | |||||||
Early initiatives
The ALTICORE project (site under maintenance)
