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Absolute calibration of HY-2A and Jason-2 altimeters for sea surface height using GPS buoy in Qinglan, China

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Abstract

GPS buoy methodology is one of the main calibration methodologies for altimeter sea surface height calibration. This study introduces the results of the Qinglan calibration campaign for the HY-2A and Jason-2 altimeters. It took place in two time slices; one was from August to September 2014, and the other was in July 2015. One GPS buoy and two GPS reference stations were used in this campaign. The GPS data were processed using the real-time kinematic (RTK) technique. The final error budget estimate when measuring the sea surface height (SSH) with a GPS buoy was better than 3.5 cm. Using the GPS buoy, the altimeter bias estimate was about −2.3 cm for the Jason-2 Geophysical Data Record (GDR) Version ‘D’ and from −53.5 cm to −75.6 cm for the HY-2A Interim Geophysical Data Record (IGDR). The bias estimates for Jason-2 GDR-D are similar to the estimates from dedicated calibration sites such as the Harvest Platform, the Crete Site and the Bass Strait site. The bias estimates for HY-2A IGDR agree well with the results from the Crete calibration site. The results for the HY-2A altimeter bias estimated by the GPS buoy were verified by cross-calibration, and they agreed well with the results from the global analysis method.

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7 Acknowledgment

We would like to thank a number of people for contributing to this work, including LIN Mingsen, Bonnefond P, MA Chaofei, XU Xiyu, SHEN Hua, ZHANG Xiaoxu, and ZHANG Qian for useful discussions. We thank the NSOAS of the Ministry of Natural Resources for providing HY-2A RA IGDR data. We also grateful to CNES-AVISO for providing free access to the Jason-2 GDR-D data. We thank Michael Luetchford, BTech, from Liwen Bianji, Edanz Group China (https://doi.org/www.liwenbianji.cn/ac), for editing the English text of a draft of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), National Ocean Technology Center, Tianjin, 300112, China

    Chuntao Chen, Jianhua Zhu, Wanlin Zhai, Longhao Yan, Yili Zhao, Xiaoqi Huang & Weiwei Yang

Authors
  1. Chuntao Chen
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  2. Jianhua Zhu
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  3. Wanlin Zhai
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  4. Longhao Yan
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  5. Yili Zhao
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chuntao Chen.

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6 Data Availability Statement

The HY-2A altimeter IGDR data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the National Satellite Ocean Application Service (NSOAS); they were used under license for the current study and are not publicly available. However, data are available from the authors upon reasonable request and with the permission of NSOAS. Jason-2 GDR-D data were produced and distributed by Aviso+ (https://doi.org/www.aviso.altimetry.fr/) as part of the SSALTO ground processing segment. GPS Buoy data are available on request from the corresponding author. The GPS buoy data have not been made publicly available at the request of the organizations that funded this study.

Supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2016YFC1401003), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41406204, 41501417), and the Marine Public Welfare Project of China (No. 201305032-3)

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Chen, C., Zhu, J., Zhai, W. et al. Absolute calibration of HY-2A and Jason-2 altimeters for sea surface height using GPS buoy in Qinglan, China. J. Ocean. Limnol. 37, 1533–1541 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-019-8216-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-019-8216-8

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