NL-RIA downstream partners (HERMESS, FutureWater, Deltares), NLR and TUD had a joint meeting on 11th February 2019 at TUD campus to brainstorm on the priority needs for the altimetry user community and to relate them to the technological requirements raised by the TUD-promoted concepts.
Three short presentations were given at the meeting.
- HERMESS discussed the timeliness, resolution and footprint requirements for open sea application services, including weather forecasting, weather hindcasting, wave forecasting, wave hindcasting and tidal analysis.
- FutureWater introduced the requirements for inland water resources assessments with altimeter data, with applications mainly focused on the estimation of water levels of lakes and reservoirs and on the retrieval of river streamflow (this latter still in a scientific stadium).
- Peter Hoogeboom from TU-Delft discussed the performance of mini/cube satellite altimeter constellations operating in Ka and W bands, highlighting the benefits in costs, resolution and coverage, but also covering the challenges and the design trade-offs. These latter ideally requiring a clear direction to be sought in the user application needs.
Open debates on the user requirements and on their impact on the altimetry system design took place during the three contributes and were further developed in a closing discussion session.