ZY-3 is the first civilian high resolution stereo mapping satellite, which has been launched on 9th, Jan, 2012. The aim of ZY-3 satellite is to obtain high resolution stereo images and support the 1:50000 scale national surveying and mapping. Although ZY-3 has very high accuracy for direct geo-locations without GCPs (Ground Control Points), use of some GCPs is still indispensible for high preci...

Applications involving multi-satellite altimetry (such as from ERS, TOPEX/Poseidon and, in the near future GFO) require that any differences between the altimetric databases are either negligible, resolvable by simple spatial approximations or eliminated by enhancement through dual satellite crossovers. Although orbit error for satellites such as ERS-2 has been considerably reduced over the yea...

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We examine the issue of sustained measurements of sea level in the coastal zone, first by summarizing the long-term observations from tide gauges, then showing how those are now complemented by improved satellite altimetry products in the coastal ocean. We present some of the progresses in coastal altimetry, both from dedicated reprocessing of the radar waveforms and from the development of imp...

The gravity field dedicated satellite missions like CHAMP, GRACE, and GOCE are supposed to map the Earth’s global gravity field with unprecedented accuracy and resolution. New models of Earth’s static and time-variable gravity field will be available every month as one of the science products from GRACE. Here we present an alternative method to estimate the gravity field efficiently using the i...

The development of the first AGGA (Advanced GPS/GLONASS ASIC) device was initiated within ESA’s Earth Observation Preparatory Programme (EOPP) in order to support the Earth observation applications of navigation signals. After prototyping iterations, the flight component known as AGGA-2 was manufactured under Atmel product code T7905E [0]. The AGGA-2 is a space-qualified digital integrated circ...

A method has been developed to monitor the surface velocity field by combining repeated acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) observations and satellite altimetry data. The geostrophic velocity anomaly is calculated from the sea surface height anomaly field estimated from the altimetry data by an optimal interpolation. It has been confirmed that this accurately observes the smoothed velocity...