Cryo-TEMPO: a CryoSat-2 Thematic Product over Land Ice

Since its launch in 2010, CryoSat-2 has continued the long-term radar altimeter record, and provided over a decade of measurements with which to monitor and understand the polar ice sheets. Although these datasets have historically been distributed by ESA as Level-2 products, following consultations with the wider glaciological community, it has become increasingly clear that there is significant untapped value that can be realised by expanding the user-base through the development of a dedicated L2 Thematic Land Ice Product. Crucially, this requires simplified, agile and state-of-the-art products and processing flows, which are updated regularly, and deliver an easy-to-use dataset whilst maintaining the native along-track sampling of the original Level-2 products. Thus, ESA has embarked on a new path towards developing CryoSat-2 Thematic Products, which aim to drive further innovation and exploitation, and have created a model that has now been replicated across other radar altimeter missions.

Here, we present the latest Cryo-TEMPO Land Ice product. The over-arching objectives of Cryo-TEMPO are (1) to implement dedicated, state-of-the-art processing algorithms, (2) to develop agile, adaptable processing workflows, that are capable of rapid evolution and processing at high cadence, (3) to create products that are driven by, and aligned with, user needs; thereby opening up the data to new communities of non-altimetry experts, and (4) to deliver transparent and traceable uncertainties. We provide an overview of the Land Ice product, a review of the current generation of this thematic product, and look ahead to the evolutions planned for the next phase of the study.