This study presents the first azimuth cutoff analysis in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) altimetry, aiming to assess its applicability in characterizing sea-state dynamics. In SAR imaging, the azimuth cutoff serves as a proxy for the shortest waves, in terms of wavelength, that can be detected by the satellite under certain wind and wave conditions. The magnitude of this parameter is closely related to the wave orbital velocity variance, a key parameter for characterizing wind-wave systems. We exploit wave modulations exhibited in the tail of fully-focused SAR waveforms and extract the azimuth cutoff from the radar signal through the analysis of its along-track autocorrelation function. We showcase the capability of Sentinel-6A in deriving these two parameters based on analyses in the spatial and wavenumber domains, accompanied by a discussion of the limitations. We use Level-1A high-resolution Sentinel-6A data from one repeat cycle (10 days) globally to verify our findings against wave modeled data. In the spatial domain analysis, the estimation of azimuth cutoff involves fitting a Gaussian function to the along-track autocorrelation function. Results reveal pronounced dependencies on wind speed and significant wave height, factors primarily determining the magnitude of the velocity variance. In extreme sea states, the parameters are underestimated by the altimeter, while in relatively calm sea states and in the presence of swells, a substantial overestimation trend is observed. We introduce an alternative approach to extract the azimuth cutoff by identifying the fall-off wavenumber in the wavenumber domain. Results indicate effective mitigation of swell-induced errors, with some additional sensitivity to extreme sea states compared to the spatial domain approach.@en

ESA’s Earth explorer mission CryoSat-2 has an ice-monitoring objective, but it has proven to also be a valuable source of observations for measuring impacts of climate change over oceans. In this paper, we report on our long-term ocean data analysis and validation and give our final words on CryoSat-2’s Geophysical Ocean Products (GOP) Baseline-C. The validation is based on a cross comparison with concurrent altimetry and with in situ tide gauges. The highlights of our findings include GOP Baseline-C showing issues with the ionosphere and pole tide correction. The latter gives rise to an east–west pattern in range bias. Between Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and Low-Resolution Mode (LRM), a 1.4 cm jump in range bias is explained by a 0.5 cm jump in sea state bias, which relates to a significant wave height SAR-LRM jump of 10.5 cm. The remaining 0.9 cm is due to a range bias between ascending and descending passes, exhibiting a clear north–south pattern and ascribed to a timing bias of +0.367 ms, affecting both time-tag and elevation. The overall range bias of GOP Baseline-C is established at −2.9 cm, referenced to all calibrated concurrent altimeter missions. The bias drift does not exceed 0.2 mm/yr, leading to the conclusion that GOP Baseline-C is substantially stable and measures up to the altimeter reference missions. This is confirmed by tide gauge comparison with a selected set of 309 PSMSL tide gauges over 2010–2022: we determined a correlation of R = 0.82, a mean standard deviation of (Formula presented.) cm (common reference and GIA corrected), and a drift of 0.17 mm/yr. In conclusion, the quality, continuity, and reference of GOP Baseline-C is exceptionally good and stable over time, and no proof of any deterioration or platform aging has been found. Any improvements for the next CryoSat-2 Baselines could come from sea state bias optimization, ionosphere and pole tide correction improvement, and applying a calibrated value for any timing biases.

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Absolute sea-level rise has become an important topic globally due to climate change. In addition, relative sea-level rise due to the vertical land motion in coastal areas can have a big societal impact. Vertical land motion (VLM) in Southeast Asia includes a tectonically induced component: uplift and subsidence in plate boundary zones where both Peninsular and East Malaysia are located. In this paper, the relative sea-level trends and (seismic cycle-induced) temporal changes across Malaysia were investigated. To do so, the data (1984–2019) from 21 tide gauges were analyzed, along with a subset (1994–2021) of nearby Malaysian GNSS stations. Changes in absolute sea level (ASL) at these locations (1992–2021) were also estimated from satellite altimetry data. As a first for Peninsular and East Malaysia, the combination ASL minus VLM was robustly used to validate relative sea-level rise from tide-gauge data and provide relative sea-level trend estimates based on a common data period of 25+ years. A good match between both the remote and in situ sea-level rise estimations was observed, especially for Peninsular Malaysia (differences < 1 mm/year), when split trends were estimated from the tide gauges and GNSS time series to distinguish between the different VLM regimes that exist due to the 2004 Sumatra–Andaman megathrust earthquake. As in the south of Thailand, post-seismic-induced negative VLM has increased relative sea-level rise by 2–3 mm/year along the Andaman Sea and Malacca Strait coastlines since 2005. For East Malaysia, the validation shows higher differences (bias of 2–3 mm/year), but this poorer match is significantly improved by either not including data after 1 January 2014 or applying a generic jump to all East Malay tide gauges from that date onwards. Overall, the present relative sea-level trends range from 4 to 6 mm/year for Malaysia with a few regions showing up to 9 mm/year due to human-induced land subsidence. @en

In the Arctic Ocean, obtaining water levels from satellite altimetry is hampered by the presence of sea ice. Hence, water level retrieval requires accurate detection of fractures in the sea ice (leads). This paper describes a thorough assessment of various surface type classification methods, including a thresholding method, nine supervised-, and two unsupervised machine learning methods, applied to Sentinel-3 Synthetic Aperture Radar Altimeter data. For the first time, the simultaneously sensed images from the Ocean and Land Color Instrument, onboard Sentinel-3, were used for training and validation of the classifiers. This product allows to identify leads that are at least 300 meters wide. Applied to data from winter months, the supervised Adaptive Boosting, Artificial Neural Network, Naïve-Bayes, and Linear Discriminant classifiers showed robust results with overall accuracies of up to 92%. The unsupervised Kmedoids classifier produced excellent results with accuracies up to 92.74% and is an attractive classifier when ground truth data is limited. All classifiers perform poorly on summer data, rendering surface classifications that are solely based on altimetry data from summer months unsuitable. Finally, the Adaptive Boosting, Artificial Neural Network, and Bootstrap Aggregation classifiers obtain the highest accuracies when the altimetry observations include measurements from the open ocean.

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The Peninsular Malaysia Geodetic Vertical Datum 2000 (PMGVD2000) inherited several deficiencies due to offsets between local datums used, levelling error propagations, land subsidence, sea level rise, and sea level slopes along the southern half of the Malacca Strait on the west coast and the South China Sea in the east coast of the Peninsular relative to the Port Klang (PTK) datum point. To cater for a more reliable elevation-based assessment of both sea level rise and coastal flooding exposure, a new epoch-based height reference system PMGVD2022 has been developed. We have undertaken the processing of more than 30 years of sea level data from twelve tide gauge (TG) stations along the Peninsular Malaysia coast for the determination of the relative mean sea level (RMSL) at epoch 2022.0 with their respective trends and incorporates the quantification of the local vertical land motion (VLM) impact. PMGVD2022 is based on a new gravimetric geoid (PMGeoid2022) fitted to the RMSL at PTK. The orthometric height is realised through the GNSS levelling concept H = h^GNSS–N^fit_PTK–N_RMDT, where N_RMDT is a constant offset due to the relative mean dynamic ocean topography (RMDT) between the fitted geoid at PTK and the local MSL datums along the Peninsular Malaysia coast. PMGVD2022 will become a single height reference system with absolute accuracies of better than ±3 cm and ±10 cm across most of the land/coastal area and the continental shelf of Peninsular Malaysia, respectively.

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This article shows the first spectral analysis of fully-focused Synthetic Aperture Radar (FFSAR) altimetry data with the objective of studying backscatter modulations caused by swells. Swell waves distort the backscatter in altimetry radargrams by means of velocity and range bunching. These swell signatures are visible in the tail of the waveform. By locally normalizing the backscatter and projecting the waveforms on an along-/cross-track grid, satellite altimetry can be exploited to retrieve swell information. The analysis of FFSAR spectra is supported by buoy-derived swell-wave spectra of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration network. Using cases with varying wave characteristics, we discuss the altimetry-derived spectra and relate them to what is known from side-looking SAR imaging systems. Besides having a vast amount of additional data for swell-wave analysis, altimeter data can also help us to better understand the side-looking SAR spectra.

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A devastating tsunami struck Palu Bay in the wake of the 28 September 2018 M_w = 7.5 Palu earthquake (Sulawesi, Indonesia). With a predominantly strike-slip mechanism, the question remains whether this unexpected tsunami was generated by the earthquake itself, or rather by earthquake-induced landslides. In this study we examine the tsunami potential of the co-seismic deformation. To this end, we present a novel geodetic data set of Global Positioning System and multiple Synthetic Aperture Radar-derived displacement fields to estimate a 3D co-seismic surface deformation field. The data reveal a number of fault bends, conforming to our interpretation of the tectonic setting as a transtensional basin. Using a Bayesian framework, we provide robust finite fault solutions of the co-seismic slip distribution, incorporating several scenarios of tectonically feasible fault orientations below the bay. These finite fault scenarios involve large co-seismic uplift (>2 m) below the bay due to thrusting on a restraining fault bend that connects the offshore continuation of two parallel onshore fault segments. With the co-seismic displacement estimates as input we simulate a number of tsunami cases. For most locations for which video-derived tsunami waveforms are available our models provide a qualitative fit to leading wave arrival times and polarity. The modeled tsunamis explain most of the observed runup. We conclude that co-seismic deformation was the main driver behind the tsunami that followed the Palu earthquake. Our unique geodetic data set constrains vertical motions of the sea floor, and sheds new light on the tsunamigenesis of strike-slip faults in transtensional basins.

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Temporal changes in vertical land motion (VLM) in and around Phuket Island in southern Thailand following the great 2004 Sumatra–Andaman megathrust earthquake have impacted the relative sea-level change estimates based on tide-gauge (TG) records. To better monitor the VLM, two new continuous global navigation satellite system (GNSS) stations have been installed in the past 5 years, situated on bedrock both near and at the Koh Taphao Noi Island TG in Phuket, which together with older global positioning system (GPS) data provides a clear insight in the VLM of Phuket Island from 1994 onward. In addition, satellite altimetry (SALT) data has been analyzed since 1992. The VLM (GPS) position and relative (TG) and absolute (SALT) sea-level change time series were successfully combined in pairs to validate each independent result (e.g., SALT − GNSS = TG): prior to the 2004 earthquake, the relative sea-level rise in Phuket was 1.0 ± 0.7 mm/yr, lower by 2.4 ± 0.2 mm/yr than the absolute sea-level rise caused by VLM. After the earthquake, nonlinear post-seismic subsidence has caused the VLM to drop by 10 cm in the past 17 years, resulting, by the end of 2020, in a relative sea-level rise by up to 16 cm. During the same period, other TG stations in south Thailand recorded similar sea-level increases. Combination with SALT further suggests that, prior to 2005, uplift (5.3 ± 1.4 mm/yr) of the coastal region of Ranong (north of Phuket) resulted in a relative sea-level fall, but since then, post-seismic-induced negative VLM may have significantly increased coastal erosion along the entire Andaman Sea coastline@en

ESA’s Earth Explorer CryoSat-2 precisely measures the changes in the thickness of marine ice floating on the polar oceans and variations in the thickness of the vast ice sheets that overlie Greenland and Antarctica. The data delivered by the CryoSat-2 mission completes the picture to determine and understand the ice role in the Earth system in general and climate change in particular. For this, the quality of the satellite orbit, the measurements of the altimeter, and all required corrections have to meet the highest performance; not only over the ice caps and sea-ice surface but also over the oceans. As Cryosat-2 ocean products continuously evolve they need to be quality controlled and thoroughly validated via science-oriented diagnostics based on multi-platform in situ data, models and other (altimeter) satellite missions. The rationale for this is based on the new CryoSat-2 scientific roadmap, which specifically addresses the key technical and scientific challenges related to the long-term monitoring of sea-level and ocean circulation changes in the context of Global Warming. This also involves opportunities for synergy with missions like ICESAT-2 and the upcoming Copernicus CRISTAL mission. In this context, the objective of our research is the long-term monitoring of the level-2 CryoSat-2 Geophysical Ocean Product (GOP), by evaluating the stability of the measurement system and identifying potential biases, trends and drifts over the ocean, through calibration and comparisons with concurrent ocean altimeter data, supported by the Radar Altimeter Database System (RADS). Independently, we also address this by comparing the GOP geophysical parameters with external models and in situ measurements such as the ones from selected sets of tide gauges. The very precise determination of the orbital height is part of the research activity but dealt with in a separate paper. For our activity we persistently monitor, analyze and identify systematic errors in the observations, estimated (trends in) biases in range, significant wave height, backscatter, wind speed and sea state bias, and timing biases. An important finding is that GOP CryoSat-2 Baseline C data seem to have a range bias of -2.82 cm and no apparent drift w.r.t. altimeter (Jason) reference missions (< 0.1 mm/yr). The comparison with tide gauges is based on monthly averaged sea level from the PSMSL archive, for which we conclude that GOP data has a correlation of better than 0.84 with a selected set of 185 PSMSL tide gauges, a mean standard deviation better than 5.8 cm, and an average drift of -0.19 mm/yr, which translates to an overall drift of +0.11 mm/yr when taking a global GIA correction of +0.3 mm/yr into account. We conclude that Cryosat-2 GOP represents a (long-term) stable measurement.@en

With Mars colonisation becoming a reality for the near future, it is of importance to analyse how crew and cargo can be transported between Earth and a colony on Mars. This article is a feasibility and design study of a launch vehicle whose mission is to shuttle crew and cargo from Low Mars Orbit to a colony on the Martian surface. A single-stage reusable rocket has been selected to fulfil this mission, code-named Charon. The mission profile of such a vehicle was created, leading to a Maximum Growth Allowance (MGA) Delta-V budget of 6.2 km/s. With the mission profile in mind, each subsystem underwent a preliminary design. With reliability and maintainability in mind, subsystems were designed for redundancy and modularity, and an abort system was included for an added level of safety. The iterative design process resulted in a vehicle with a MGA mass of 198.7 tons, capable of transporting 1200 kg of cargo and a crew of 6 people to a 500 km orbit and back. The preliminary design of the vehicle is deemed safe. Following a fault tree analysis, the Single Launch Loss of Mission, Vehicle and Crew (SL-LOM, SL-LOV, SL-LOC) probabilities are computed to be of 0.975%, 0.12%, and 0.079%. Finally, from the vehicle’s constraints on the base, the feasibility of the project has been reflected upon. It is deemed that such a concept is of high interest only when the base is already operational, due to the launch and maintenance infrastructure that it requires, as well as the power it requires from the Martian base.@en

Observing the universe in the Ultra-Long Wavelength (ULW) regime has been called the ‘last frontier in astronomy’—real imaging capabilities here are yet to be achieved. Obtaining an image of the sky in this frequency band can be done by employing a swarm of satellites that together act as an interferometer and collect the required imaging information pieces throughout the course of their operational life. Meeting the mission objective is challenging for such a swarm, since this imposes restrictions on the operational environment and the relative position and velocity vectors between the swarm elements. This work proposes an orbit solution in a Heliocentric Earth-Leading Orbit (HELO) for an autonomous CubeSat swarm with chemical thrusters. A distributed formation flying algorithm is used to aid the collection of the required imaging information pieces. Furthermore, the estimated total mission launch mass is reduced by optimising cost functions and finding favourable position and velocity at start of operational life, as well as by finding favourable thrust manoeuvre patterns. The results show that the mission objective—obtaining a 3D map of the Universe in ULW—can be achieved with 68 6U spacecraft (S/C). Moreover, the swarm can remain in a Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) quiet zone of >5 × 10⁶ km, whilst not drifting further than ~ 6.6 × 10⁶ km from Earth for an operational life of one year.

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Since 8 April 2010 ESA's Earth Explorer mission CryoSat-2 has been measuring marine and land ice thickness variations with a dedicated altimeter. With the effects of a fast-changing climate becoming apparent, it is increasingly important to understand exactly how Earth's ice fields are responding and regulate climate and sea level. It is therefore of utmost importance that the quality of the CryoSat-2 altimeter data meets the highest accuracy and precision level, not only over the ice caps and sea-ice surface but over the oceans as well. The SIRAL altimeter of CryoSat-2 is capable of measuring high-resolution geophysical parameters from the open ocean to the coast. In this paper, we validate the CryoSat-2 geophysical ocean product, Baseline-B (GOP). The analyses focus on long-term monitoring, validation, and cross-calibration of these ocean altimeter data with all the concurrent altimeter data in the Radar Altimeter Database System RADS and with independent in-situ tide gauge measurements from the Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level PSMSL. The objective is to evaluate the stability of the CryoSat-2 measurement system and the identification and explanation of biases and bias drifts. A persistent monitoring of these biases in time is important to establish the data's usefulness for investigation of long-term sea level and ice topography/volume changes. The results constitute the final status of the GOP baseline-B product for use as essential climate variables. GOP ocean data has a -6.3±0.2 cm range bias w.r.t. to all calibrated satellites in RADS and a drift of 0.14 mm yr⁻¹ w.r.t. Jason-2. GOP data has significant wave height and sea state biases close to that of the Jasons’, and seems to be better handling the LRM-SAR transitions than the RADS CryoSat-2 product. GOP data w.r.t. PSMSL tide gauge data has an average correlation of R = 0.83, a mean st. dev. of σ = 6.30 cm, and a drift of 0.11 mm yr⁻¹, equivalent to 40 Gt yr⁻¹ ice sheet mass loss. It is concluded that GOP CryoSat-2 performs better than RADS CryoSat-2, which seems to suffer from a 480-day platform temperature cycle. GOP is also on a par with the altimeter data from the Jason reference missions, and well suited for ocean and climate studies.

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In 2018 we celebrated 25 years of development of radar altimetry, and the progress achieved by this methodology in the fields of global and coastal oceanography, hydrology, geodesy and cryospheric sciences. Many symbolic major events have celebrated these developments, e.g., in Venice, Italy, the 15th (2006) and 20th (2012) years of progress and more recently, in 2018, in Ponta Delgada, Portugal, 25 Years of Progress in Radar Altimetry. On this latter occasion it was decided to collect contributions of scientists, engineers and managers involved in the worldwide altimetry community to depict the state of altimetry and propose recommendations for the altimetry of the future. This paper summarizes contributions and recommendations that were collected and provides guidance for future mission design, research activities, and sustainable operational radar altimetry data exploitation. Recommendations provided are fundamental for optimizing further scientific and operational advances of oceanographic observations by altimetry, including requirements for spatial and temporal resolution of altimetric measurements, their accuracy and continuity. There are also new challenges and new openings mentioned in the paper that are particularly crucial for observations at higher latitudes, for coastal oceanography, for cryospheric studies and for hydrology. The paper starts with a general introduction followed by a section on Earth System Science including Ocean Dynamics, Sea Level, the Coastal Ocean, Hydrology, the Cryosphere and Polar Oceans and the “Green” Ocean, extending the frontier from biogeochemistry to marine ecology. Applications are described in a subsequent section, which covers Operational Oceanography, Weather, Hurricane Wave and Wind Forecasting, Climate projection. Instruments’ development and satellite missions’ evolutions are described in a fourth section. A fifth section covers the key observations that altimeters provide and their potential complements, from other Earth observation measurements to in situ data. Section 6 identifies the data and methods and provides some accuracy and resolution requirements for the wet tropospheric correction, the orbit and other geodetic requirements, the Mean Sea Surface, Geoid and Mean Dynamic Topography, Calibration and Validation, data accuracy, data access and handling (including the DUACS system). Section 7 brings a transversal view on scales, integration, artificial intelligence, and capacity building (education and training). Section 8 reviews the programmatic issues followed by a conclusion.@en

In recent years, the space market has been pushing towards decreasing costs of launching spacecraft by reusing parts of the launchers. The purpose of this article is to present a feasibility study of a recovery system for the engine and engine frame of an existing, expendable heavy launch vehicle and present recommendations for further research. The concept developed is verified based on the Ariane 6. The recovery of the Vulcain Aft Bay (VuAB) is initialised by separation from the first stage at 157.7 km altitude while travelling at 6930 m/s. The study investigates an inflatable aeroshell for protection and deceleration during re-entry, after which it is proposed to further decelerate the VuAB using drogue parachutes. The final part of the concept entails retrieval of the VuAB by a helicopter in mid-air. To enable a controlled gliding flight during retrieval a parafoil is proposed. At launch, the recovery system will weigh 2789 kg with a payload penalty of 720 kg. The system can be integrated into the existing design of the launcher and will not interfere with nominal operations of the launcher. Implementing the recovery system can reduce the cost per launch of an Ariane 6 by 15%

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We investigated the sensitivity of fully focused SAR (FF-SAR) processing of Cryosat-2 altimeter data to Earth rotation. Earth’s rotation causes scatterers at varying cross-track locations to have a different relative velocity with respect to the satellite. This second-order effect of Earth rotation on the phase is currently not corrected for in FF-SAR processing of altimetry data. The difference is largest near the poles, where the satellite flies parallel to the equator. Not correcting for the second-order effect yields a parabolic shape in the counter-rotated phase, which increases with the cross-track distance. Its effect is, however, limited by the time-in-view of the scatterer, which is shorter at the edge of the altimeter footprint, and therefore destructive interference will not occur when using Cryosat-2 data. For Cryosat-2, the only expected effect is a reduction in power and along-track resolution in the waveform tail and in the grating lobes. If the FF-SAR processor focuses on one point, and there is a bright scatterer at another, then there is a residual parabolic phase, whose sign and shape depend on the cross-track distance and whether the signal is left or right of the chosen focal point. In theory, if the viewed scene only has few bright coherent scatterers, then it might be possible to determine the cross-track position of each. In practice, however, natural targets are rarely coherent over the integration time.@en

This paper applies the Fully-Focussed SAR (FF-SAR) algorithm to CryoSat-2 full-bit-rate data to measure water levels of lakes and canals in the Netherlands, and validates these measurements by comparing them to heights measured by gauges. Over Lake IJssel, a medium-sized lake, the FF-SAR height is biased about 6 cm below the gauge height, and a similar bias is found at six sites where CryoSat-2 crosses rivers and canals. The precision of the FF-SAR measurements depends on the extent of multi-looking (incoherent averaging along-track) applied. Over Lake IJssel the precision varies from 4 to 11 cm, decreasing as multi-looking increases. The precision of FF-SAR with 100 m of multi-looking is equivalent to that of the standard delay/Doppler processing, which has an along-track resolution of about 300 m. The width and orientation of rivers and canals limits the maximum available multi-looking. After removing the 6 cm bias, FF-SAR heights of rivers and canals have an accuracy between 2 cm and several decimeters, primarily depending on the presence of other water bodies lying within the cross-track measurement footprint, as these contaminate the waveform. We demonstrate that FF-SAR processing is able to resolve and measure small ditches only a few meters in width. The visibility of these signals depends on the angle at which CryoSat-2 crosses the ditch and on whether or not the ditch remains straight within CryoSat-2’s field of view. In the best-case scenario, straight ditches at nearly 90° to the CryoSat-2 ground track, the ditch signal has high enough signal-to-noise to allow sub-decimeter accuracy of FF-SAR height measurement.

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Macro-tidal coral reefs are particularly sensitive to medium to long-term changes in sea-level. Vertical motions of the seabed contribute to both lower or higher relative sea-level changes, particularly in tectonic plate boundary deformation zones along active subduction trenches. Phuket Island in Southern Thailand is subject to both horizontal and vertical land deformations during the seismic cycle of mega thrust earthquakes along the Sumatra and Andaman trenches. The relative sea-level changes in this region were historically monitored using the space geodetic techniques GPS and satellite altimetry alongside the traditional tide-gauge measurements over a period of almost 25 years. The GPS results show that the south of Thailand is still undergoing post-seismic deformations from the 2004 Mw 9.2 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake, after a significant change in the vertical motion of Phuket: from stable quasi-linear uplift at 2.5 ± 0.2 mm/yr, to (temporary) non-linear subsidence rates of 5–10 mm/yr in the past 14 quake aftermath years. The satellite altimetry data estimates the absolute sea-level rise in the Andaman Sea around the island at 3.9 ± 0.5 mm/yr. Therefore relative sea-level changes in Phuket appear to have been slightly positive until the end of 2004, followed by a significant increase averaging ~9 mm/yr that accumulated in 12 ± 1 cm by the end of 2018. Tide-gauge data gives a very similar result. The increased sea-level rise from 2005 onwards, due to tectonic land subsidence, correlates with the enhanced shallow coral reef growth and swift recoveries from bleaching events reported by long-term coral studies in this area.

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Effects of combined rising sea temperature and increasing sea level on coral reefs, both factors associated with global warming, have rarely been addressed. In this ~40 y study of shallow reefs in the eastern Indian Ocean, we show that a rising relative sea level, currently estimated at ~11 mm y−1, has not only promoted coral cover but also has potential to limit damaging effects of thermally-induced bleaching. In 2010 the region experienced the most severe bleaching on record with corals subject to sea temperatures of >31 °C for 7 weeks. While the reef flats studied have a common aspect and are dominated by a similar suite of coral species, there was considerable spatial variation in their bleaching response which corresponded with reef-flat depth. Greatest loss of coral cover and community structure disruption occurred on the shallowest reef flats. Damage was less severe on the deepest reef flat where corals were subject to less aerial exposure, rapid flushing and longer submergence in turbid waters. Recovery of the most damaged sites took only ~8 y. While future trajectories of these resilient reefs will depend on sea-level anomalies, and frequency of extreme bleaching the positive role of rising sea level should not be under-estimated.@en

We investigated the sensitivity of Fully-Focussed SAR (FF-SAR) processing of CryoSat-2 altimeter data to Earth rotation and exploit it to decontaminate waveforms in coastal zones. Earth's rotation causes scatterers at varying cross-track locations to have a different relative velocity with respect to the satellite. This second-order effect of Earth rotation on the phase is currently not corrected for in FF-SAR processing of altimetry data. The difference is largest near the poles, where the satellite flies parallel to the equator. We show when not correcting for this second-order effect it yields a parabolic shape in the counter rotated phase, which increases with the cross-track distance. If the FF-SAR processor focusses on one point, and there is a bright scatterer at another, then there is a residual parabolic phase, whose sign and shape depend on the cross-track distance and on whether the signal is left or right of the chosen focal point. In theory, if the viewed scene only has few bright coherent scatterers, then it might be possible to determine the cross-track position of each. In practice though, natural targets are rarely coherent over the integration time. The incoherent property of natural targets can, however, also be exploited to decontaminate waveforms in coastal tracks from land signals, by differencing two radargrams computed with two different focal points. If the cross-track distance between the focal points is set correctly, the speckle signal from the ocean becomes quasi-independent, while the land signal is similar in both radargrams and can subsequently be removed.@en

The European Sentinel-3A satellite, launched by ESA in February 2016, followed by Sentinel-3B in April 2018, as a part of the Copernicus programme, is the second satellite to operate a SAR mode altimeter. SRAL is operated in SAR mode over the whole ocean and promises increased performance w.r.t. conventional altimetry. SCOOP (SAR Altimetry Coastal & Open Ocean Performance) is a project funded under the ESA SEOM (Scientific Exploitation of Operational Missions) Programme Element, to characterise the expected performance of Sentinel-3 SRAL SAR mode altimeter products, and then to develop and evaluate enhancements to the baseline processing scheme in terms of improvements to ocean measurements. Another objective is to develop and evaluate an improved Wet Troposphere correction for Sentinel-3. We present results from the SCOOP project that demonstrate the excellent performance of SRAL at the coast in terms of measurement precision, with noise in Sea Surface Height 20Hz measurements of less than 5cm to within 5km of the coast. We then report the development and testing of new processing approaches designed to improve performance close to the coast, including, for L1B to L2: Application of zero-padding Application of intra-burst Hamming windowing Exact beam forming in the azimuthal direction Restriction of stack processing to within a specified range of look angles. Along-track antenna compensation And for L1B to L2 Application of alternative re-trackers for SAR and RDSAR. Based on the results of this assessment, a second test data set was generated and we present an assessment of the performance of this second Test Data Set generated, and compare it to that of the original Test Data Set. Regarding the WTC for Sentinel-3A, the correction from the on-board MWR has been assessed by means of comparison with independent data sets such as the GPM Microwave Imager (GMI), Jason-2, Jason-3 and Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) derived WTC at coastal stations. GNSS-derived path Delay Plus (GPD+) corrections have been derived for S3A. Results indicate good overall performance of S3A MWR and GPD+ WTC improvements over MWR-derived WTC, particularly in coastal and polar regions. Based on the outcomes of this study we provide recommendations for improving SAR mode altimeter processing and priorities for future research. @en