Mobile version

Coastal applications

Many current studies are attempting to enhance the quality of altimetry data close to the coasts. New processing methods and applications can then be developed for littoral and shallow-water regions, some of the most fragile and important areas of the oceans.

The shortage of altimetry data near the coasts (or their inferior quality) is due to several factors:

  • the technique itself, since the radar echoes reflected off water, and off a combination of water and land are not identical, and basically only the former undergo processing by the ground segments. Other altimetry satellite measurements also suffer from the same problem, such as those from the radiometer (at a distance of about 50 km from the coast),
  • the fact that the basic distributed data (GDR) are mainly average over one second, thus covering about 7 km on the ground (data averaged over 1/20 s do exist, however),
  • the computation of some corrections. Tides, in particular, are much more complex near the shores than in the open sea, and require a highly precise knowledge of the coastal geography to be accurately computed. Moreover, rapid variations ("high frequency") must be taken into account in those areas (for the tides as well as for the atmospheric pressure). Wet tropospheric corrections, computed from radiometer measurements are also less precise, or even missing, near the coasts.

Such studies are leading to advances that will soon make it possible to use altimetry data close to the coasts. With new possibilities such as the use of individual altimetry echoes (as opposed to averaged ones today), we can at last hope for real coastal data.

Further information:

EnglishFrançais
Rss feedsContactPartnersFAQLexiconLegal noticePersonal Data Protection PolicyMobile
You must enable cookies in your browser preferences to save the modifications
You are using an older version of Internet Explorer, please update to take full advantage of Aviso+ features

Customize the home page

View all widgets
Reduce display
Public profile
User profile

Select/Deselect widgets

Discover AVISO+

Customizable home, reading tools, products search guide, etc.. Discover step by step the features of the new site AVISO+.

Customizable homepage

This home page is composed of blocks called "widgets".

Rearrange the blocks with a "Click & Drop".

Hide a widget with the cross at the top right. Reset or add a widget with the "wrench" icon. The "User" and "Public" profiles offer a predefined organization.

All the modifications are automatically saved as cookies on your machine so as to enable you to have your own specific AVISO+.

Reading tools

Ease your reading by choosing the page background colour (black/white) and/or by modifying the font size.

Browsing menu and breadcrum trail

To ease your browsing through AVISO+, you can use at any time the main banner items with the interactive submenus or use the browsing menu on the left side of the screen (it is open by default). For more readiness of the page contents, you can fold and unfold the browsing menu by clicking on the tab. At any time you can know where you are thanks to the browsing menu or the breadcrum at the top of the page.

Products search guide

The first submenu of the "Data" banner item leads you to a new search form enabling you to find quickier the product that suits your needs. The list of results is updated according to your selection criteria.

AVISO+ Multimedia

The first submenu of the "Multimedia" banner item leads you to AVISO+ collections of images and videos linked to altimetry and its applications. Have a nice visit!