The Impact of Altimetry Corrections of Sentinel-3A Sea Surface Height in the Coastal Zone of the Northwest Atlantic

Corrections to altimeter-measured sea surface height anomalies (SSHA) have a larger proportional effect for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) altimetry than conventional, pulse-limited because of lower range noise. Here, we quantified the impact current generation altimeter corrections in coastal zone Northwest Atlantic, region with significant dynamic activity. In this study, used level variance analysis determine change corrections—range, geophysical, and mean surface—compared baseline. We also evaluated performance two retrackers, ALES (empirical) SAMOSA++ (fully analytical), against SSHA from Radar Altimeter Database System (RADS), which uses standard SAR retracker. Tide caused largest variance, followed by wet tropospheric state bias. Most non-standard failed reduce performed markedly worse closer coast. Coastal retrackers showed higher deviation coast, especially when backscatter coefficient was high wave low. conclude that further development is needed. Contrary our prior expectation, found appear perform as well alternative more advanced/tailored corrections.