1. 1 A new set of tools for all altimetry users J. Benveniste (ESA), N. Picot (CNES), V. Rosmorduc (CLS) et al.

2. 2 Basic Radar Altimetry Toolbox & Tutorial A Joint project between ESA and CNES Statements: –16 years of altimetry available and at least as many data formats as satellites, –A growing number of non-expert users of the data, –Scientists also need easy-to-use data products and tools! Basic Radar Altimetry Toolbox (BRAT) –Data reading, processing and visualisation –All altimetry data from official data centres since ERS-1 (1991) Radar Altimetry Tutorial (RAT) –A tutorial describing altimetry, for the users –technique, applications and missions –Products fact sheets and data use cases Available on the web (http://www.altimetry.info, http://earth.esa.int/brat/), or on DVDhttp://www.altimetry.infohttp://earth.esa.int/brat/

3. 3 BRAT Data import & export Output NetCDF Ascii dump possible Image export (png, tif, jpg, bmp) ERS-1 ERS-2 Topex/Poseidon GFO Jason-1 Envisat Cryosat Sensor data Along-track Gridded data

4. 4 Radar Altimetry Tutorial Applications –Geodesy & solid Earth –Ocean –Ice –Climate –Weather –Hydrology & land –Coastal Data use cases Altimetry –How it works –Data flow –Future improvements Altimetry missions –Past missions –Current missions –Future missions Products –Data –Software –Documentation –Toolbox http://www.altimetry.info http://earth.esa.int/brat/

5. 5 Basic Radar Altimetry Toolbox software Windows & Linux Open source Data read & processed: From several satellites ERS-1 and 2, Topex/Poseidon, Geosat Follow-on, Jason-1, Envisat, and the future Cryosat missions. From several data centres ESA, Aviso, JPL/PoDaac, Noaa Of several processing levels from Sensor Geophysical Data Record to gridded merged data Present version: v1.0.2

6. 6 Software accessible at different levels Data reading.exe files GUI core functions (available from C, Fortran, Matlab, IDL APIs) Select, compute and visualise data using command line mode with parameter files Graphical User Interface (GUI): use the toolbox through a windowed interface

7. 7 Formulas: saving expressions and selections Formulas are combinations of data fields and functions (including arithmetic operators, + - / *) Use: –as a ‘data expression’: to compute a combination of data fields (e.g. Sea Surface Height) –or as a data selection: to do a complex selection on the data fields Pre-defined formulas can be used (Sea Surface Height, Sea Level Anomalies, ocean data editing for all satellite GDRs are built-in) User-made formulas can be saved and re-used in either the same workspace, or imported in another one  Formulas can be exchanged between users

8. 8 Maps (different projections) Data visualisation Curves

9. 9 Data quick-look & visualisation

10. 10 Data visualisation

11. 11 Statistics Mean Sea Level Anomalies for November 1997 + Minimum, Maximum

12. 12 Hurricane Katrina Jason-1 & T/P Envisat GFO

13. 13 Southern swell, May 2007 Jason-1 OSDR, 12 May 2007

14. 14 Ocean variability (SLA standard deviation over 15 years)

15. 15 Sea level anomaly seasonal variations Autumn Spring Summer Winter + 15 cm- 15

16. 16 Zoom Kinetic Energy on 17 August 2005

17. 17 For more information www.altimetry.info www.altimetry.info with a mirror on earth.esa.int/brat/