The Cryosphere
The Cryosphere
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Articles | Volume 20, issue 1
Articles | Volume 20, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-397-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-397-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Articles | Volume 20, issue 1
Research article
 | 
20 Jan 2026
Research article |  | 20 Jan 2026

First arctic-wide assessment of SWOT swath altimetry with ICESat-2 over sea ice

Felix L. Müller, Denise Dettmering, and Florian Seitz

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Felix L. Müller, Stephan Paul, Stefan Hendricks, and Denise Dettmering
The Cryosphere, 17, 809–825, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-809-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-809-2023, 2023
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Cited articles

Andersen, O. B.: DTU21 Mean Sea Surface, Technical University of Denmark [data set], https://doi.org/10.11583/DTU.19383221.v2, 2022. a
Andersen, O. B., Rose, S. K., Abulaitijiang, A., Zhang, S., and Fleury, S.: The DTU21 global mean sea surface and first evaluation, Earth System Science Data , 15, 4065–4075, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-4065-2023, 2023. a, b, c
Armitage, T. W. and Kwok, R.: SWOT and the ice-covered polar oceans: An exploratory analysis, Advances in Space Research, 68, 829–842, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2019.07.006, 2021. a, b
Dibarboure, G., Ubelmann, C., Flamant, B., Briol, F., Peral, E., Bracher, G., Vergara, O., Faugère, Y., Soulat, F., and Picot, N.: Data-Driven Calibration Algorithm and Pre-Launch Performance Simulations for the SWOT Mission, Remote Sensing, 14, https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14236070, 2022. a, b
Dierking, W.: Sea Ice Monitoring by Synthetic Aperture Radar, Oceanography, 26, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2013.33, 2013. a
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This study evaluates Arctic-wide sea surface height observations by the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission by comparing them with laser altimetry and radar imagery. Using data from over 550 crossovers, the analysis shows good agreement, with mean absolute water differences of around 5 cm, but also larger discrepancies during winter and early melt. These results illustrate both the potential but also arising problem areas of swath altimetry in the polar regions.
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