ALTIMETER USES IN COASTAL REGIONS: TWO APPROACHES

STRUB, P. T., SARACENO, M., JAMES, C., KOSRO, P. M.

Orlando, Florida, EEUU

Congreso; Ocean Science Meeting; 2008

Two approaches are described to improve fields of altimeter SSH within 50km of the coast. One problem in this region occurs when the altimeter footprint hits land. A second class of problems involves the corrections applied to the radar travel time, especially the wet troposphere correction. One approach to overcoming problems with the corrections is to substitute alternate corrections, usually based on models of the coastal atmosphere or ocean. Here we use model-based wet troposphere corrections, allowing us to retrieve alongtrack SSH data between ~60km to 20km from the coast, where land reflections begin. To produce SSH fields that reach the coast, we simply ignore altimeter data within 40km of the coast, then interpolate between tide gauge SSH data at the coast and the offshore altimeter data. Examples of both approaches will be presented, with suggestions for improvements.