End to end performances of a short baseline interferometric radar altimeter for ocean mesoscale topography

The swath radar altimeter concept has been revisited - in the framework of an ESA study - with the objective of defining an optimal functioning point with respect to mission performance while keeping the instrument complexity as low as possible. We show that a swath altimeter concept, with a shorter interferometric baseline than WSOA and moderate power can meet the requirements of mesoscale topography mapping. The paper presents a complete sea surface height (SSH) error budget for the mission