CP4O (Cryosat Plus For Oceans)
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News
ESA Web Story on CP4O
Arctic Tidal Atlas available here
Introduction:
CP4O
is a project funded under the ESA STSE (Support To Science
Element)
Programme to develop and evaluate ocean products from Cryosat-2
data.
CNES are also providing funding to support CLS participation.
The general
objectives
of the “Cryosat Plus for Oceans” (CP4O) project are:
- to build a sound scientific basis for new
scientific and
operational applications of Cryosat-2 data over the open ocean, polar
ocean, coastal seas and for sea-floor mapping.
- to generate and evaluate new methods and
products
that will enable
the full exploitation of the capabilities of the Cryosat-2 SIRAL
altimeter, and extend their application beyond the initial mission
objectives.
- to ensure that the scientific return of the
Cryosat-2 mission is maximised.
Click on the links for a CP4O project
brochure , the CP4O Main Contract
Final Report, the CCN01
Final Report, and the CCN02
Final Report
In addition there are specific objectives under
each of
the four
sub-themes
as follows:
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Theme 1: Open Ocean Altimetry
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The application and evaluation of Cryosat-2 Low
Rate
Mode (LRM) data in
the following applications:
- Generation of Mean Sea Surface and Mean Dynamic
Topography (through the use of the GOCE geoid model) and subsequent
analysis of mesoscale and large scale ocean features (e.g. boundary
currents, eddy kinetic energy)
- Assessment of ocean wind speeds and wave
heights,
and their contribution to existing operational and research
applications.
- The improvements to Cryosat-2 data offered by
application of specifically modelled ionospheric and wet troposphere
models to provide accurate estimates of radar path delay
The application and evaluation of Cryosat-2 SAR
Mode
data:
- Ability to detect short spatial scale open
ocean
features.
- The improvement of CryoSat-2 Oceanographic
products
through the application of new SAR retracking schemes.
- The application of the RDSAR technique to
convert
SAR Full Bit Rate data to LRM data and so to study the best method for
ensuring continuity in Sentinel-3 ocean products from the coastal zone
to the open ocean.
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Theme 2: Polar Ocean Altimetry
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To develop and evaluate processing schemes
applicable to
sea-ice
affected regions, so that Cryosat-2 SAR Mode data can be used to study
large scale polar ocean signals and so make a significant new
contribution to in the following important applications:
- Generation of Mean Sea Surface and Mean Dynamic
Topography and subsequent analysis of key polar ocean circulation
features
- Improvements of polar tide models
- Investigations into the coupling between wind
forcing and polar current patterns.
- Support investigations into critical Climate
Change
issues in the polar oceans such as ice-melting effects on circulation
and sea-level rise.
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Theme 3: Coastal Zone Altimetry
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The exploitation of Cryosat-2 SAR Mode data in the
Coastal Ocean to
demonstrate their finer spatial resolution, improved retrieval accuracy
and lower sensitivity to land contamination, and so deliver
high-quality altimeter measurements closer to the shore, to improve the
estimation of coastal sea level changes, the detection of coastal
features (coastal current jets, coastal wave set up, coastal tides) and
the characterisation of inshore wave conditions.
The demonstration of the potential of Cryosat-2 SARIn mode data to help
discriminate and mitigate land contamination signals from off-nadir
land targets (e.g. steep cliffs) in SAR and LRM waveforms over coastal
regions.
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Theme 4: Sea-Floor Altimetry
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The potential offered by the higher resolution and
improved Signal to
Noise Ratio of Cryosat-2 SAR Mode data to resolve short-wavelength sea
surface signals caused by sea-floor topography elements and to map
uncharted sea- mounts/trenches.
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