Objectives

The objectives of the Workshop

Thursday, 20 Jan 2011, Morning:

Session 1: "Satellite Altimetry Calibration" Convener: P. Bonnefond (OCA, France), S. Mertikas (TUC). Objective: To summarize the highlights of satellite and coastal altimetry calibration. Partnering Organizations and Institutes will take active role in this International Technical Workshop and will provide a presentation on their established methodologies for calibrating satellite altimetry missions. The objective of these presentations is to share lessons learnt in the calibration and validation of satellite altimeters, and work towards the collective improvement of the calibration process. The Session seeks to prompt discussion on methods and common standards, to better facilitate inter-comparison of results and the generation of appropriate and realistic error budgets. Approaches taken thus far for altimeter calibration, including the use of transponders, will be discussed with an emphasis on describing the major technical decisions that have been made, together with their justification. Round-table discussion will follow the presentations in the afternoon.

Thursday, 20 Jan 2011, Afternoon:

Session 2: "Round-table discussions" Convener: P. Bonnefond (OCA, France) & O. Andersen (DSC, Denmark). Objective: Synthesise from today’s presentations appropriate tools, techniques and innovative ideas to develop future plans for achieving calibration and validation of new and different altimetry missions that involve measuring techniques and technology of interferometry, delay-Doppler and wide-swath altimetry.

Friday, 21 Jan 2011, Morning:

Session 3: "Deformation Monitoring with GNSS"
Convener: A. Kenyeres, (Hungary) & P. Willis (France). Objective: Deformation monitoring by continuous Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) will be addressed. The characteristics of the permanent GNSS networks in Europe, and elsewhere, as well as the models, reference systems and methods used for obtaining reliable horizontal as well as vertical coordinates will be described. Software packages for processing GNSS observations and their solutions will be analyzed. Finally, salient features present in the GNSS signals, used to detect the deformation, will be presented. Approaches to establish absolute height coordinates for calibrating satellite altimeters will also be addressed.

Friday, 21 Jan 2011, Afternoon:

Session 4: "Round-table discussions"

Convener: A. Kenyeres, (Hungary) & P. Willis (IGN, France). Objective: To work together in close collaboration for understanding the salient but weak signals present in the deformation signals, the atmospheric delays, the absolute reference systems and their relation to satellite altimeter calibration.