Type of dataset: SWOT KaRIn Low Rate Sea Surface Height products (L2_LR_SSH)

DOI:
- SWOT_L2_KaRIn_SSH_Basic: 10.24400/527896/a01-2023.013  -  more metadata
- SWOT_L2_KaRIn_SSH_WindWave: 10.24400/527896/a01-2023.014  -  more metadata
- SWOT_L2_KaRIn_SSH_Expert: 10.24400/527896/a01-2023.015  -  more metadata
- SWOT_L2_KaRIn_SSH_Unsmoothed: 10.24400/527896/a01-2023.016  -  more metadata

Disclaimer:

October 2024:
- PGC0 for reprocessed version C products spanning March 30, 2023 to January 25, 2024 (repeat cycles 475-578 of calibration phase, and repeat cycles 1-9 of science phase).
- PIC0 for forward-processed version C products spanning January 25, 2024 to October 15, 2024 (repeat cycle 10 to part of repeat cycle 22 of science phase).
- PIC2 for forward-processed version C products spanning October 16, 2024 (part of cycle 22 of science phase) onward.

August 2024:
L2_LR_SSH version 2.0 (version C) products declared as validated by the SWOT project.

March 2024:
Production and distribution of the pre-validated L2_LR_SSH version 2.0 (or version C) products:
- PIC0 for forward-processed version C products.
- PGC0 for reprocessed version C products.

November 2023:
The beta pre-validated L2_LR_SSH version 1.0 product (summer 2023 reprocessing release) is available only for the 1-day CalVal orbit phase, from March 29 to July 10, 2023, and the 21-day Science orbit phase from September 7 to November 21, 2023.

Condition of access: SWOT_L2_LR_SSH product is distributed by the SWOT project (NASA/JPL and CNES) in collaboration with the SWOT Science Team. Note that this product is subject to the standard AVISO+ license agreement.

Users are strongly encouraged to read and refer to the respective product description Document, available here.

Contents:The L2_LR_SSH product provides ocean topography measurements from the low rate data stream of the KaRIn instrument, spanning 60 km on either side of the nadir altimeter with a nadir gap. The L2_LR_SSH product is available continuously and globally, although different versions of the product may be produced at different latencies and/or through different reprocessing with refined input data. Note that L2_LR_SSH does not include SSH data from the SWOT nadir altimeter.

Use: High resolution global ocean altimetry, coastal currents and processes, oceanic mesoscale and sub-mesoscale processes, ocean bathymetry. Further information about the L2_LR_SSH product can be found here.

Description: The SWOT_L2_LR_SSH product is organized in four files:

• Basic L2_LR_SSH, which includes corrected sea surface height (SSH), sea surface height anomaly (SSHA), data quality flags, geophysical reference fields, and height correction information on a 2 km geographically fixed grid.
• WindWave L2_LR_SSH, which includes measured significant wave height (SWH), normalized radar cross section (NRCS or backscatter cross section or sigma0), wind speed derived from sigma0 and SWH, wind and wave model information, and quality flags on a 2 km geographically fixed grid.
• Expert L2_LR_SSH, which includes copies of all variables in the Basic and WindWave files, plus more detailed information on the KaRIn instrument and environmental corrections, radiometer data, and geophysical models on a 2 km geographically fixed grid.
• Unsmoothed L2_LR_SSH, which includes sea surface height (SSH) and sigma0 without additional smoothing relative to the native KaRIn downlink resolution on a ~250 m native (center-beam) grid. The Unsmoothed file contains two groups, left and right, each of which contains the data for half (one side from nadir) of the KaRIn swath.

Citation Basic L2_LR_SSH: “The SWOT L2_LR_SSH data product is produced and made freely available by the joint SWOT (NASA/JPL and CNES) project. L2_LR_SSH product quality is not final and will be affected by some evolutions as the SWOT project team makes progress on science data processing algorithms and instrument calibrations”. SWOT project, 2023. SWOT Level-2 KaRIn Low Rate SSH Basic (v2.0) [Data set]. CNES. https://doi.org/10.24400/527896/A01-2023.013.

Citation WindWave L2_LR_SSH: “The SWOT L2_LR_SSH data product is produced and made freely available by the joint SWOT (NASA/JPL and CNES) project. L2_LR_SSH product quality is not final and will be affected by some evolutions as the SWOT project team makes progress on science data processing algorithms and instrument calibrations”. SWOT project, 2023. SWOT Level-2 KaRIn Low Rate SSH WindWave (v2.0) [Data set]. CNES. https://doi.org/10.24400/527896/A01-2023.014.

Citation Expert L2_LR_SSH: “The SWOT L2_LR_SSH data product is produced and made freely available by the joint SWOT (NASA/JPL and CNES) project. L2_LR_SSH product quality is not final and will be affected by some evolutions as the SWOT project team makes progress on science data processing algorithms and instrument calibrations”. SWOT project, 2023. SWOT Level-2 KaRIn Low Rate SSH Expert (v2.0) [Data set]. CNES. https://doi.org/10.24400/527896/A01-2023.015.

Citation Unsmoothed L2_LR_SSH: “The SWOT L2_LR_SSH data product is produced and made freely available by the joint SWOT (NASA/JPL and CNES) project. L2_LR_SSH product quality is not final and will be affected by some evolutions as the SWOT project team makes progress on science data processing algorithms and instrument calibrations”. SWOT project, 2023. SWOT Level-2 KaRIn Low Rate SSH Unsmoothed (v2.0) [Data set]. CNES. https://doi.org/10.24400/527896/A01-2023.016.

Geographic coverage: global