Global Statistical Assessment and Cross-Calibration with Jason-2 for Reprocessed HY-2A Altimeter Data

HY-2 A (Haiyang-2 A) satellite was launched on August 16, 2011 and radar altimeter is one of its main payloads. We reprocessed two years of HY-2 A altimeter sensor geophysical dataset records (SGDR) data. This paper presents the main results in terms of reprocessed HY-2 A altimeter data quality: verification of data availability and validity, monitoring several relevant altimeter parameters, and assessment of the HY-2 A altimeter system performances. A cross-calibration analysis of reprocessed HY-2 A altimeter data with Jason-2 was conducted. The reprocessed HY-2 A altimeter data show good quality and have a low level of noise with respect to Jason-2. The same geophysical correction methods were used to calculate the sea surface height (SSH) for the two missions. The mean standard deviations of the crossover differences for HY-2 A and Jason-2 are 5.24cm and 5.34cm, respectively. The mean standard deviation of the crossover differences between HY-2 A and Jason-2 is 5.37cm. These show that HY-2 A can provide SSH measurements at almost the same level of accuracy as Jason-2. The relative SSH bias between HY-2 A and Jason-2 due to the Ultra Stable Oscillator (USO) drift is obviously observed, and it can affect the calculation of mean sea level and should be further studied and corrected.