Assessment of reprocessed sea surface height measurements derived from HY-2A radar altimeter and its application to the observation of 2015–2016 El Niño

Haiyang-2A (HY-2A) is China’s first ocean dynamic environment satellite and the radar altimeter is one of its main payloads. One of the main purposes of the radar altimeter is to measure the sea surface height (SSH). The SSH determined from the altimeter range measurements includes some range and geophysical corrections. These corrections largely affect the accuracy of the SSH measurements. The range and the geophysical corrections are reprocessed and the altimeter waveforms in HY-2A sensor interim geophysical data set records (S-IGDR) are retracked from June 1, 2014 to June 14, 2014, and the accuracy of the reprocessed SSH measurements is evaluated. The methods of the range and geophysical corrections used to reprocess HY-2A altimeter data are validated by using these methods to reprocess the Jason-2 range and geophysical corrections and comparing the results with the range and geophysical corrections in Jason-2 geophysical dataset records (GDR) product. A crossover analysis is used to evaluate the accuracy of the reprocessed HY-2A SSH measurements. The standard deviation (STD) of the crossover SSH differences for HY-2A is around 4.53 cm while the STD of the SSH differences between HY-2A and Jason-2 is around 5.22 cm. The performance of the reprocessed HY-2A SSH measurements is significantly improved with respect to the SSH measurements derived from HY-2A interim geophysical dataset records (IGDR) product. The 2015–2016 El Niño has been the strongest El Niño event since 1997–1998. The range and the geophysical corrections in HY-2A IGDR are reprocessed and sea level anomalies are used to monitor the 2015–2016 El Niño. The results show that the HY-2A altimeter can well observe the 2015–2016 El Niño.