Abstract
The HY-2B satellite was successfully launched on 25 October 2018. One of the main payloads of the HY-2B was a radar altimeter. In the present study, the quality of the HY-2B along-track sea surface heights (SSH), significant wave heights (SWH), and sea surface wind speeds (SSWS) were assessed, including their precision and accuracy. In order to achieve this goal, the mono-mission metrics of the HY-2B were analyzed and compared with those of the Jason-2 and Jason-3 over the same periods of time. The results of both direct comparison and cross comparison methods were presented in this study. The comparison results indicated that the quality of the HY-2B satellite’s geophysical data records (GDRs) data was excellent, with 95% of the sea surfaces effectively observed between 82 degrees north and south latitudes. In addition, the standard deviation of the sea level anomalies (SLA) at the single mission crossovers was 4.6 cm to 5.8 cm, and at the dual-crossovers with Jason-3, the standard deviation was determined to be 5.1 cm to 5.8 cm. The accuracy levels of the significant wave heights and products of the HY-2B satellite radar altimeter were observed to be greater than 0.3 m and 1.4 m/s (STD), respectively. Therefore, it was concluded in this study that the data quality and system performance of the HY-2B satellite were excellent and stable, and could be widely utilized in such fields as global sea-level change monitoring, wave numerical assimilation predictions etc.
Highlights
The HY-2B (Haiyang-2B) satellite is the second marine dynamic environment satellite launched by China, the first being the HY-2A satellite
This study focused on the long-term monitoring of the HY-2B altimetry system using data from all of the available geophysical data records (GDRs) products so far, which accounted for more than 16 months worth of data
According to the comparison and analysis results obtained in this study, and based on the long-term monitoring and comparisons of the Level 2 GDR products of the Jason-3 satellite radar altimeter, it was concluded that the HY-2B altimeter data products displayed good stability and high accuracy
Summary
The HY-2B (Haiyang-2B) satellite is the second marine dynamic environment satellite launched by China, the first being the HY-2A satellite It is equipped with a dual-frequency radar altimeter (Ku and C bands), a microwave scatterometer, a microwave radiometer, a calibration microwave radiometer designed for altimeter wet troposphere corrections, a data collection system and an automatic identification system. This study focused on the long-term monitoring of the HY-2B altimetry system using data from all of the available GDR products so far (cycles 1 to 36, the latest data in cycle 36 is less than one cycle), which accounted for more than 16 months worth of data This included careful assessments of all the altimeter parameters, performance assessments, and cross-calibrations with Jason-3 measurements.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
