Authors:
Christine Gommenginger(1), Paolo Cipollini(1), Cristina Martin-Puig(2), Jose Marquez(2), P. David Cotton(3), Keith Raney(4) & Jérôme Benveniste(5)
Date of publication:
2008The application of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) techniques to classical radar
altimetry at nadir offers a potential solution to significantly enhance the precision
and along-track resolution of ocean surface topography mapping and the ability to
obtain altimeter measurements closer to the coast. The main objective of the ESA
SAMOSA project: "Development of SAR Altimetry Studies and Applications over
Ocean, Coastal zones and Inland waters" is to better quantifying the improvement of
SAR altimetry (aka Delay Doppler Altimetry, or DDA) with respect to conventional
pulse-limited altimetry over water. This paper will provide an overview of the objectives
and methodology in the SAMOSA project, and will present its latest results. In
concrete, the project will use CRYOSAT CRYMPS numerical simulations for a variety
of water surface scenarios to estimate the improvement in altimetric precision in
SAR mode. These will be compared with previous theoretical and numerical finding
by Jensen & Raney (1998) and Raney (1998).
