Abstract
Sentinel-3 A&B radar altimeters yield sea surface height measurements
in both a high-precision Synthetic Aperture Radar Mode (SARM), and a
Pseudo-Low Resolution Mode (PLRM). We stacked repeat cycles from both
missions and in both modes to compare their resolution of small
seamounts. Stacking entailed removing non-geoidal heights and height
errors, testing for consecutive measurements over ocean, aligning to
common locations at 1 km intervals along a synthetic track, and forming
a median height profile. These profiles are available from the National
Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) data repository. Global
maps show that, over the oceans, the median height is usually derived
from more than 49 cycles, and the typical error in an individual PLRM
measurement is approximately 1.9 times greater than an individual SARM
measurement. We applied a seamount detection bandpass filter to the
median profiles and compared their spectral resolution to that of the
Satellite for ARgos and AltiKa (SARAL) AltiKa mission. Small seamounts
are similarly resolved by Sentinel-3 A&B SARM data and by the
SARAL/AltiKa data.