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Near Real-time Altimetry

NOAA/NESDIS LSA CryoSat Interim Geophysical Data Record (IGDR)

CryoSat-2Since 9 December 2011, the NOAA/NESDIS Laboratory for Satellite Altimetry has been producing Level-2 near-real-time ocean wind speed, wave height, and sea surface height anomaly data from the European Space Agency's CryoSat mission. We retrack ESA's low-rate mode Level-1B products to generate Interim Geophysical Data Records (IGDRs) approximately 2 days after real time. These are intended for use in medium-range weather forecasting, seasonal forecasting, and ocean weather applications.

The IGDRs can be obtained in NetCDF format from either the LSA anonymous ftp site or the Radar Altimeter Database System (RADS). At present new IGDRs will be released each day at approximately 20:50 UTC. For more information on the CryoSat mission, please visit ESA's website.

We would like to acknowledge the generous support of ESA, CNES, and ECMWF for making it possible for us to create these products.

Technical Notes

Please see the technical notes, (PDF, 56 KB) for processing and data latency details.

References


Maps from the NOAA CryoSat IGDRs for 17 November to 13 December 2011

Sea level anomaly
Sea level anomaly from NOAA CryoSat IGDR
Significant wave height
Significant wave height from NOAA CryoSat IGDR
Wind speed
Wind speed from NOAA CryoSat IGDR


Radar Altimeter Database System

RADS logoThe Radar Altimeter Database System (RADS) is an effort of the Department of Earth Observation and Space Systems (DEOS) at TU Delft and the NOAA Laboratory for Satellite Altimetry to establish a harmonized, validated, and cross-calibrated sea level data base from satellite altimeter.


Data Use Policy

LSA data are distributed at no cost to the users to promote scientific utilization of the data with the stipulation that the users of the data agree to follow the policy described below:

  1. LSA data are produced on a best effort basis.
  2. In publications, presentations, or on web pages based on LSA data the following acknowledgment should be included.
    "Altimetry data are provided by the NOAA Laboratory for Satellite Altimetry."