CryoSat Plus For Oceans (CP4O)

The “CryoSat Plus for Oceans” (CP4O) project, supported by the ESA Support to Science Element (STSE) Programme and by CNES, was dedicated to the exploitation of CryoSat-2 data over the open and coastal ocean. The general objectives of the CP4O project were: To build a sound scientific basis for new oceanographic applications of CryoSat­-2 data; to generate and evaluate new methods and products that will enable the full exploitation of the capabilities of the CryoSat-2 SIRAL altimeter, and to ensure that the scientific return of the CryoSat-­2 mission is maximised.

However, whilst the results from CP4O were highly promising and confirmed the potential of SAR altimetry to support new scientific and operational oceanographic applications, it was also apparent that further work was needed in some key areas to fully realise the original project objectives.

Thus, after the end of the Project in 2015,  additional work in four areas has been supported by ESA under a first Contract Change Notice (CCN):

• Developments in SARin data processing for Coastal Altimetry.
• Implementation of a Regional Tidal Atlas for the Arctic Ocean.
• Improvements to the SAMOSA retracker: Implementation and Evaluation & Optimised Thermal Noise Estimation.
• Extended evaluation of CryoSat­-2 SAR data for Coastal Applications.

This CCN ended in 2016 and was followed by a second Contract Change Notice, currently on-going, on the improvement of the arctic ocean bathymetry and regional tidal atlas.

A detailed description of the specific objectives under each of the four sub-themes (Open Ocean Altimetry, Polar Ocean Altimetry, Coastal Zone Altimetry & Sea-Floor Altimetry) can be found at http://www.satoc.eu/projects/CP4O/