USER MANUAL
ALES for ENVISAT FDR4ALT
Owner: Marcello Passaro – Deutsches Geodätisches Forschungsinstitut – Technical University of Munich
The P-PRO On-Demand Service ALES (Adaptive Leading Edge Subwaveform) for ENVISAT FDR4ALT, is a web platform that provides the capability to process on line and on demand ENVISAT FDR4ALT (Fundamental Data Records for Altimetry) data.
ALES is a subwaveform retracker for open ocean and coastal zone altimetry applications. It adopts the Brown-Hayne functional form (which is the functional form for pulse-limited altimetry) on a selected portion of the waveform containing the leading edge of the signal, which is optimised for coastal applications while guaranteeing the quality of the estimations in the open ocean as well.
A specific sea state bias correction is also computed and shall be used when correcting the estimated range to compute the sea surface height.
In its current version, ALES for ENVISAT FDR4ALT does not implement a variable tracking gate as according to the section 6.2.8 of the FDR4ALT User Guide and therefore may show offsets in a small fraction of data for cycles 14,15 and 20.
ALES is an algorithm under active research & development, and therefore is subject to updates.
The development of ALES has been supported through several ESA-funded projects, including:
* Sea Level Climate Change Initiative (ESA Contract No. 4000126561/19/I-NB)
* Baltic+ Sea Level (ESA Contract No. 4000126590/19/I/BG)
* HYDROCOASTAL (ESA Contract No. 4000129872/20/I-DT)
Feedbacks on the algorithm can be provided to its author, Marcello Passaro (marcello.passaro@tum.de).
- Marcello Passaro, Paolo Cipollini, Stefano Vignudelli, Graham D. Quartly, Helen M. Snaith, ALES: A multi-mission adaptive subwaveform retracker for coastal and open ocean altimetry, Remote Sensing of Environment, Volume 145, 2014, Pages 173-189, ISSN 0034-4257, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2014.02.008.
- Further information on this algorithm can be found at http://doi.org/10.5270/esa.BalticSEAL.ATBDV1.1.
- When using the output of ALES+ SAR Retracker – TUM for any scientific abstract/publication, please also cite Passaro et al. (2018):
- Passaro, M., Rose, S. K., Andersen, O. B., Boergens, E., Calafat, F. M., Dettmering, D., & Benveniste, J. (2018). ALES+: Adapting a homogenous ocean retracker for satellite altimetry to sea ice leads, coastal and inland waters. Remote Sensing of Environment, 211, 456–471.
To request access to this service:
- Log in to the EarthConsole® portal.
- Request a free membership to the Heritage Missions Virtual Lab.
- Complete this mandatory service request form.
- Once we receive your form, we will coordinate with ESA to request the authorization to assign you 100 processing hours.
- Once ESA will approve, you will receive an email confirming the activation of the requested service with a credit of 100 free processing hours. If you will need additional hours, you can request an extension for another 100 free processing hours, subject to ESA approval. Should you require more than 200 hours in total, the ESA Network of Resources option is available for further support free of charge.
Should you need any further clarification or support please contact us info@earthconsole.eu.
