The Radar Altimeter Database System project RADS

The Radar Altimeter Database System project is part of the Netherlands Earth Observation NETwork (NEONET), an Internet facility, funded by the Dutch government, for exploitation of remote-sensing expertise and data (http://www.neonet.nl). In the frame of RADS, The Delft Institute for Earth-Oriented Space Research DEOS is building a data base that contains validated and verified altimeter data products that are consistent in accuracy, format, correction and reference system parameters. The availability of such a data base will attract users with less altimetry expertise like advisory councils, water management authorities and even high schools. Much effort has been put in calibrating and validating the raw data, i.e. harmonization of geophysical corrections, of secondary data, and of the measurements themselves. The validation includes editing, tide experiments, radiometer-model collocation, and Rossby and Kelvin waves propagation analysis. This paper introduces RADS, and deals with cal/val aspects and how to use/access the data.