Research progress of ocean satellite altimetry and its recovery of global marine gravity field and seafloor topography model

doi:10.11947/j.AGCS.2022.20220069

Abstract

Abstract: Marine satellite altimetry is very important in the fields of geodesy, such as global and regional geoid modeling, global marine gravity field inversion, seafloor bathymetry, sea level change monitoring and tectonic plate motion research and so on. This paper summarizes the brief history of marine microwave altimetry satellite, and focuses on the rich achievements of satellite altimetry in the global marine gravity field and global bathymetry model, in which the main models are compared and analyzed. Three advanced microwave altimetry technologies such as synthetic aperture radar altimeter, Ka-band radar altimeter and synthetic aperture radar interferometer are introduced, and their advantages and disadvantages are analyzed. It shows that these three technologies will be developed in parallel in the next few years. This paper systematically expounds the research trends of another new technology of ocean satellite altimetry, namely GNSS reflected signal measurement technology, and gives the development context and development trend of GNSS reflectometry (GNSS-R) experimental satellites. One of the development direction of satellite altimetry is using the observation network consisted of multiple altimetry satellites. It outlines several earlier and newly proposes constellation altimetry plans, and briefly introduces the two-satellite tandem mode altimetry plan proposed and being implemented in China. Finally, several main concerns in the development of satellite altimetry are pointed out, including two-dimensional sea surface height (or differential height) measurement using the two-satellite tandem mode altimetry or SWOT (surface water ocean topography) mission, the combination of bathymetry model derived from satellite altimetry and advanced topographic laser altimeter observation data and remote sensing satellite images , the carrier phase measurement of the centimeter-level sea surface height by on-board GNSS-R, and the potential application of artificial intelligence technology in satellite altimetry.

Key words: satellite altimetry, marine gravity field, seafloor bathymetry, microwave radar altimeter, GNSS reflectometry, two-satellite tandem altimetry mode

CLC Number:

P228:P223

SUN Zhongmiao, GUAN Bin, ZHAI Zhenhe, OUYANG Mingda. Research progress of ocean satellite altimetry and its recovery of global marine gravity field and seafloor topography model[J]. Acta Geodaetica et Cartographica Sinica, 2022, 51(6): 923-934.

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