30 YPRA

Background:

15, 20, 25 and 30 Years of Progress in Radar Altimetry Symposia are scientific events. Conceived just after the Envisat launch by an ESA requirement to organize a Radar Altimetry Workshop (as done for the other Envisat sensors), the first was "15 Years of Progress in Radar Altimetry Symposium" (15YPRA), March 2006, Venice, Italy, co-chaired by Jérôme Benveniste (ESA) and Yves Ménard (CNES), 15 years after the launch of ERS-1 and TOPEX/Poseidon. Following the success and the eagerness of the participants to have a sequel 5 years later , the second symposium, 20YPRA, was organized in 2012 in Venice as well, co-chaired by Jérôme Benveniste (ESA) and Rosemary Morrow (LEGOS for CNES). For the third Symposium (25YPRA), co-chaired by Jérôme Benveniste (ESA) and Pascal Bonnefond (Observatoire de Paris – SYRTE for CNES), we moved in the middle of the Atlantic, in the Azores, on 24-27 September 2018.

This scientific Symposium series is traditionally co-organized with CNES to unite these infrequent events with the annual meeting of the Ocean Surface Topography Science Team (OSTST). Note that the Progress in Radar Altimetry symposium series covers also non-ocean themes. The logistics of these events are coordinated by ESA.

The outcome of the Symposia includes a "Summary and Recommendations" document. These documents are milestones and prospective tools gathering Community requirements for the shaping of the future of altimetry:

The web site for 15YPRA is found at http://earth.esa.int/venice06.
The web site for 20YPRA is archived at http://altimetry.esa.int/20ypra/
The web site for 25YPRA is found at: http://www.altimetry2018.org/

Outcomes of the past events have been published in various forms:

Proceedings of the 15YPRA is on CD-Rom and at: http://www.esa.int/esapub/conference/toc/tocSP614.pdf
Proceedings of the 20YPRA is on CD-Rom. Summary and recommendations from the “20 Years of Progress in Radar Altimetry” symposium, by Jérôme Benveniste, Rosemary Morrow, Jean-Louis Fellous and Albert Fischer is available at: https://earth.esa.int/eogateway/documents/20142/37627/20YPRA-session-summaries-SP710.pdf
For the 25YPRA a special issue “25 Years of Progress in Radar Altimetry” has been published in Advances in Space Research, Volume 68, Issue 2: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/advances-in-space-research/vol/68/issue/2

With 30 years of altimetry time-series since the first supply of ERS-1 and TOPEX/Poseidon data products, ESA is organizing the "30 Years of Progress in Radar Altimetry" Symposium in collaboration with CNES. As in the past, this a joint event with the Ocean Surface Topography Science Team (OSTST) and the International Doris Service (IDS), as well as other potential thematic workshops still to be organized; relevant topics are Sea Level Budget Closure for Climate, Ocean Dynamics at various scales, Polar Ocean, Coastal Zone, Space for Hydrology, Argo, Operational Oceanography and Hydrology, etc. These events will be held over 6 days, from 2 to 7 of September 2024, in Montpellier (France).