Monitoring Topography of Coastal Lagoons Using Satellite Radar Altimetry

Satellite radar altimetry was initially designed to measure the marine geoid. Thanks to the improvement in the orbit determination from the meter to the centimeter level, this technique has been providing accurate measurements of the sea surface topography over the open ocean since the launch of Topex/Poseidon in 1992. In spite of a decrease in the performance over land and coastal areas, it is now commonly used over these surfaces. This study analyzes the ability of satellite radar altimetry to retrieve for the very first time the topography of the intertidal zone in coastal lagoons.