Enhanced resolution capability of SWOT sea surface height measurements and their application in monitoring ocean dynamics variability

Wang, Yong; Zhang, Shengjun; Jia, Yongjun

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/os-21-931-2025

Articles | Volume 21, issue 3

https://doi.org/10.5194/os-21-931-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/os-21-931-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 21, issue 3

Research article

|

19 May 2025

Research article |

| 19 May 2025

Enhanced resolution capability of SWOT sea surface height measurements and their application in monitoring ocean dynamics variability

Yong Wang, Shengjun Zhang, and Yongjun Jia

Data sets

SARAL/AltiKa geophysical data record (SGDR) AVISO https://www.aviso.altimetry.fr/en/data/products/sea-surface-height-products/global/gdr-igdr-and-ogdr.html

Sentinel-3A Along-track Sea Level Anomalies (L2P) AVISO https://www.aviso.altimetry.fr/en/data/products/sea-surface-height-products/global/along-track-sea-level-anomalies-l2p.html

SWOT level‐3 SSH expert (v1.0) AVISO/DUACS https://doi.org/10.24400/527896/A01-2023.018

Mean dynamic topography MDT CNES_CLS 2022 (version 2022) S. Jousset https://doi.org/10.24400/527896/a01-2023.003

Short summary

The distance-weighted averaging method was used to calculate the along-orbit sea surface height (SSH) wavenumber spectra of four satellites and to evaluate the along-track resolution capability of the four satellites. The results show that the resolution of Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) in the Kuroshio region is 25 km, which is twice the resolution of conventional satellites. A parameter was defined using the cross-power-spectrum approach and used to analyse the global ocean.