Accurate Sea Surface heights from Sentinel-3A and Jason-3 retrackers by incorporating High-Resolution Marine Geoid and Hydrodynamic Models

Abstract One of the major challenges of satellite altimetry (SA) is to produce accurate sea surface heights data up to the shoreline, especially in geomorphologically complex sea areas. New advanced re-tracking methods are expected to deliver better results. This study examines the achievable accuracy of Sentinel-3A (S3A) and Jason-3 (JA3) standard retrackers (Ocean and MLE4) with that of improved retrackers adapted for coastal and sea ice conditions (ALES+ SAR for S3A and ALES+ for JA3). The validation of SA data was performed by the integration of tide gauges, hydrodynamic model and high-resolution geoid model. The geoid being a key component that links the vertical reference datum of the SA with other utilized sources. The method is tested in the eastern section of Baltic Sea. The results indicate that on average reliable sea surface height (SSH) data can be obtained 2–3 km from the coastline for S3A (for both Ocean and ALES+SAR) whilst an average distance of 7–10 km for JA3 (MLE4 and ALES+) with a minimum distance of 3–4 km. In terms of accuracy, the RMSE (with respect to a corrected hydrodynamic model) of S3A ALES+ SAR and Ocean retrackers based SSH were 4–5 cm respectively, whereas with the JA3 ALES+ and MLE4 associated SSH RMSE of 6–7 cm can be achieved. The ALES+ and ALES+ SAR retrackers show SSH improvement within a range of 0.5–1 cm compared to the standard retrackers. This assessment showed that the adaptation of localized retrackers for the Baltic Sea (ALES+ and ALES+SAR) produced more valid observation closer to the coast than the standard retrackers and also improved the accuracy of SSH data.