A multi-subwaveform parametric retracker of the radar satellite altimetric waveform and recovery of gravity anomalies over coastal oceans

Abstract

The quality of satellite radar altimetric data is very important in studies of geodesy, geophysics, and oceanography. Over coastal oceans, altimeter waveforms are contaminated by the terrain and physical environments so that the accuracy of altimeter data is lower than that over open oceans. Here we develop a new multi-subwaveform parametric retracker (MSPR) to improve the quality of altimeter data for the recovery of gravity anomaly in coastal oceans. The least squares collocation method is used to recover the residual gravity anomaly over the coastal water from altimetric data. The waveform data records from Geosat/GM around Taiwan Island are practically retracked with MSPR. When compared with the Taiwan geoid height, the results retracked by MSPR are more accurate than those retracked by the well-known beta-5-parmeter method and from the geophysical data records (GDRs). The gravity anomalies over Taiwan coastal waters are calculated from the retracked altimeter data with the least squares collocation. When we compared gravity anomalies computed using altimeter GDRs with the ship-borne gravity data over Taiwan coastal ocean, we found that the results from retracked data are more accurate than those from GDRs.