AnDA for SWOT and nadir along-track Data

Current generation satellite altimetry missions have played a fundamental role in improving our understanding of sea surface dynamics, despite only being able to provide measurements along the satellite track.In this respect, the future SWOT altimetry mission will be the first mission to produce complete two-dimensional wide-swath satellite observations. With a view towards the upcoming SWOT mission launch, we explore the potential of SWOT observations to improve the reconstruction of high-resolution sea level anomaly (SLA) fields from satellite-derived data. Given the ever-increasing availability of multi-source datasets that supports the exploration of data-driven alternatives to classical model-driven formulations, we focus here on recently introduced data-driven models for the interpolation of geophysical fields. Using an Observing System Simulation Experiment (OSSE), we demonstrate the relevance of SWOT observations to better constraint data-driven interpolation models in order to improve the reconstruction of mesoscale features. Reported results suggest that SWOT observations can provide more information than currently available nadir along-track altimetry observations and show an additional SLA reconstruction performance improvement when the joint assimilation of SWOT and nadir along-track observations is considered. Related paper: Lopez Radcenco et al., Analog Data Assimilation for Along-track Nadir and SWOT Altimetry Observations in the Western Mediterranean Sea. IEEE JSTARS, 2019 (link)