Benefits of the Adaptive algorithm for retracking altimeter nadir echoes: results from simulations and CFOSAT/SWIM observations
Résumé
The accuracy of sea surface parameters retrieved from altimeter missions is predominantly governed by the choice of the so-called "retracking" algorithm, i.e. the model and inversion method implemented to obtain the surface parameters from the backscattered waveform. For continuity reasons, the choice of space agencies is usually to apply the same retracker from one satellite mission to the other to ensure long time homogeneous series. Here, taking the opportunity of a new configuration of the nadir pointing measurements on-board the recently launched CFOSAT satellite with the SWIM (Surface Waves Investigation and Monitoring) instrument (Hauser et al, 2020), the retracking method was upgraded, by implementing a novel algorithm, called "Adaptive" retracker. It combines the improvements brought by Poisson et al (2018) for the estimation of surface parameters from peaked waveforms over sea-ice, improvements in the way the instrumental characteristics are taken into account in the model (mispointing, point target response) and a more accurate consideration of speckle statistics. In this paper, we first show from simulations carried out in the instrumental configuration of SWIM that the Adaptive algorithm has better accuracy and performances than the classical MLE4 algorithm. Then, the geophysical parameters obtained with real data from SWIM are analyzed with comparisons to reference data sets (model and products from altimeters). We show that this new algorithm has several benefits with respect to the classical MLE4 method: no need of look-up tables to correct biases, significant noise reduction on all geophysical variables especially the significant wave height, and performance of inversion over a large set of echo shapes, resulting from standard oceanic scenes as well as highly specular conditions such as over bloom or sea-ice.
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