An Innovative Approach for the Calibration of Wide Swath Altimeters

Wide Swath altimetry can produce high resolution images of global water surface height rapidly, and would play an important role in oceanography and hydrology. However, the sea surface height error is extremely sensitive to the roll angle of the platform. In this paper, an innovative approach to calibrate the roll-induced height error is proposed. A GNSS buoy array can be deployed across-track, and the height derived from the different buoys can be jointly utilized to reconstruct the relationship between the roll angle and height difference. Using this technology the roll-induced height error can be compensated to centimetric level.