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Coastal Altimetry pp 331–366Cite as

Satellite Altimetry Applications in the Caspian Sea

Abstract

The Caspian Sea is the largest continental water body on the Earth. Owing to its size and geographical location, the sea is truly a large-scale climatic and ecological indicator. One of the most important parameters of the state of the Caspian Sea is significant interannual sea level changes that puzzle the scientists of many countries. Significant water level fluctuations have serious consequences for the region, leading to displacement of thousands of shoreline inhabitants and damaging industrial constructions and infrastructure. Continuous weather-independent observations from radar altimetry are a natural choice to complement the existing in situ sea level observations and to provide new information for open sea regions that have never been covered by direct sea level observations. The Caspian Sea can be considered as an intermediate target between the Open Ocean and closed lakes; it is therefore an interesting object to evaluate the potential of satellite altimetry for enclosed water bodies.

Keywords

  • Altimetry
  • Caspian Sea
  • Ice cover
  • Kara-Bogaz-Gol Bay
  • Sea level
  • Volga River
  • Wave height
  • Wind speed

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Abbreviations

ALTICORE:

ALTImetry for COastal REgions

CERSAT:

Center for Satellite Exploitation and Research

COAPS:

Center for Ocean Atmospheric Prediction Studies

ECMWF:

European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts

FAS:

Foreign Agricultural Service

GC RAS:

Geophysical Center of Russian Academy of Sciences

GCOS:

Global Climate Observing System

GDR:

Geophysical Data Record

GFO:

Geosat Follow-On

GLOSS:

Global Sea Level Observing System

GPS:

Global Positioning System

GTOS:

Global Terrestrial Observing System

IFREMER:

Institut Français de Recherche et d’Exploitation de la MER

INTAS:

International Association for the promotion of co-operation with scientists from the New Independent States of the former Soviet Union

IPCC:

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

ISADB:

Integrated Satellite Altimetry Data Base

LEGOS:

Laboratoire d’Études en Géophysique et Océanographie Spatiales

MACE:

Multidisciplinary Analysis of the Caspian Sea Ecosystem

MODIS:

Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer

MSS:

Mean Sea Surface

NCEP:

National Center for Environmental Prediction

NOAA:

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

RADS:

Radar Altimeter Database System

RMS:

Root Mean Square

RA:

Radar Altimeter

SMMR:

Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer

SSH:

Sea Surface Height

SSM/I:

Special Sensor Microwave/Imager

T/P:

TOPEX/Poseidon

T-UGO 2D:

Toulouse Unstructured Grid Ocean model 2D

USDA:

US Department of Agriculture

WGS 84:

World Geodetic System 1984

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the Centre de Topographie des Océans et de l’Hydrosphère (CTOH, www.legos.obs-mip.fr/observations/ctoh) at LEGOS (Toulouse, France) for providing the initial altimetric data. MODIS images of 11 June 2005 (used for the definition of coastline position) and 3 December 2001 are courtesy of MODIS Rapid Response Project at NASA/GSFC. This work was partially supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research grants No. 10-05-00097-a, 08-05-97016, 10-01-00806, 10-05-01123.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. UPS (OMP-PCA), LEGOS, Universite de Toulouse, 14 av. Edouard Belin, F-31400, Toulouse, France

    A. V. Kouraev & J.-F. Crétaux

  2. St. Petersburg branch, State Oceanographic Institute, Vasilyevskiy ostrov, 23 liniya,2a, St. Petersburg, Russia

    A. V. Kouraev

  3. LEGOS, CNES, F-31400, Toulouse, France

    J.-F. Crétaux

  4. Geophysical Center, Russian Academy of Sciences, 3 Molodezhnaya Str., 119296, Moscow, Russia

    S. A. Lebedev

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  1. A. V. Kouraev
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  2. J.-F. Crétaux
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  3. S. A. Lebedev
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  4. A. G. Kostianoy
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  12. M. Bergé-Nguyen
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Correspondence to A. V. Kouraev .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Ist. Biofisica, CNR Pisa, Via G. Moruzzi 1, Pisa, 56124, Italy

    Stefano Vignudelli

  2. , P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Nakhimovsky Pr. 36, Moscow, 117997, Russian Federation

    Andrey G. Kostianoy

  3. Lab. Satellite Oceanography, Ocean Observing & Climate Res. Group, National Oceanography Centre, European Way, Southampton, SO14 3ZH, United Kingdom

    Paolo Cipollini

  4. Directorate of Earth Observation Program, European Space Agency /ESRIN, Via Galileo Galilei, Frascati (Roma), 00044, Italy

    Jérôme Benveniste

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Kouraev, A.V. et al. (2011). Satellite Altimetry Applications in the Caspian Sea. In: Vignudelli, S., Kostianoy, A., Cipollini, P., Benveniste, J. (eds) Coastal Altimetry. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-12796-0_13

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