Feasibility of maintaining satellite altimetry calibration site based on qianliyan islet at the Yellow Sea

The calibration of the sea surface height(SSH)measured by satellite altimeters is essential to understand altimeter biases.Many factors affects the construction and maintenance of a permanent calibration site.In order to calibrate Chinese satellite altimetry missions,the feasibility of maintaining a calibration site based on the Qianliyan islet in Yellow Sea of China is taken into account.The related calibration facilities,such as the permanent tide gauge,GNSS reference station and meteorological station,were already operated by the Ministry of Natural Resources of China.The data could be fully used for satellite altimeter calibration with small fiscal expenditure.In addition,the location and marine environments of Qianliyan were discussed.Finally,we used the Jason-3 mission to check the possibility of calibration works.The result indicates that the brightness temperatures of three channels measured by microwave radiometer(MWR)and the derived wet tropospheric correction varies smoothly,which means the land contamination to MWR could be ignored.The high frequency waveforms at the Qianliyan site present no obvious difference from the normal waveforms received by satellite radar altimeter over the open ocean.In conclusion,the Qianliyan islet will not influence satellite altimetry observation.Following these analyses,a possible layout and mechanism of the Qianliyan calibration site are proposed.

Bathymetry predicting using the altimetry gravity anomalies in South China Sea

In South China Sea(112°E-119°E, 12°N-20°N), 81159 ship soundings published by NGDC(National Geophysics Data Center) and the altimetry gravity anomalies published by SIO(Scripps Institute of Oceanography) were used to predict bathymetry by GGM(gravity-geologic method) and SAS(Smith and Sandwell) method respectively. The residual 40576 ship soundings were used to estimate precisions of the predicted bathymetry models. Results showed that: the standard deviation of difference between the GGM model and ship soundings was 59.75 m and the relative accuracy was 1.86%. The SAS model is60.07 m and 1.87%. The power spectral densities of the ETOPO1, SIO, GGM and SAS models were also compared and analyzed. At last, we presented an integrated bathymetry model by weighted averaging method, the weighted factors were determined by precisions of the ETOPO1, SIO, GGM, and SAS model respectively.

A Two-step Estimation Method of Troposphere Delay with Consideration of Mapping Function Errors

Mapping function errors are usually not taken into consideration, when space geodetic data observed by VLBI, GNSS and some other techniques are utilized to estimate troposphere delay, which could, however, probably bring non-ignorable errors to solutions. After analyzing the variation of mapping function errors with elevation angles based on several-year meteorological data, this paper constructed a model of this error and then proposed a two-step estimation method of troposphere delay with consideration of mapping function errors. The experimental results indicate that the method put forward by this paper could reduce the slant path delay residuals efficiently and improve the estimation accuracy of wet tropospheric delay to some extent.

Downward continuation of airborne gravimetry data based on Poisson integral iteration method

The research and application of airborne gravimetry technology has become one of the hottest topics in gravity field in recent years. Downward continuation is one of the key steps in airborne gravimetry data processing, and the quality of continuation results directly influence the further application of surveying data. The Poisson integral iteration method is proposed in this paper, and the modified Poisson integral discretization formulae are also introduced in the downward continuation of airborne gravimerty data. For the test area in this paper, compared with traditional Poisson integral discretization formula, the continuation result of modified formulae is improved by 10.8 mGal, and the precision of Poisson integral iteration method is in the same amplitude as modified formulae. So the Poisson integral iteration method can reduce the discretization error of Poisson integral formula effectively. Therefore, the research achievements in this paper can be applied directly in the data processing of our country＇s airborne scalar and vector gravimetry.

Feasibility Analysis of Performance Validation for Satellite Altimeters Using Tide Gauge and Deep-ocean Bottom Pressure Recorder

Independent of traditional approach of satellite altimeter calibration, the feasibility of altimeter validation using tide gauge located on solitary island at open sea (TGSI) and deep-ocean bottom pressure recorder (DBPR) separately is initially studied. Bias of Jason-3 sea surface height (SSH) and relative SSH bias (Δbias) between Jason-2 and Jason-3 is calculated using the data of tide gauge on Harvest oil platform, tide gauge No. 1890000 and DBPR No. 21419. The standard deviations of calculated SSH bias sequence are 3.98 cm, 2.87 cm and 8.61 cm respectively, and Δbias (Jason-3—Jason-2) is -3.62± 2.17 cm , -2.58±1.97 cm and -2.60±1.30 cm respectively. Comparing to the results reported by international calibration sites, the results show that Jason-3 SSH is 3.0 cm lower than that of Jason-2, the selected DBPR is appropriate to the calculation of relative SSH bias between Jason-2 and Jason-3, but it is not suitable for calibration or validation of single satellite, TGSI is appropriate to both.