Inter-calibration of multi-satellite altimetric missions Original Research Article

Precise studies of sea-level rise require accurate calibrations to avoid misinterpretation of any spurious drift. Calibrations of altimeters can be undertaken in the relative sense for concurrent missions or independently against in situ data. In this study tide gauge enhanced repeat pass data is used to investigate non-oceanic signatures within TOPEX/Poseidon and ERS-1 with the individual time series cross-calibrated by inclusion of tide gauge enhanced dual satellite crossovers. The procedure is general in the sense that non-concurrent altimetric missions may be inter-calibrated, the only requirement being well calibrated tide gauge time series spanning the operational lifetimes of the two satellites.