Sea Level Space Watch – Monitoring Seasonal and Inter Annual Sea Level
Variability from Space
A Workshop to Review Requirements and Options for an Operational
Service
National Oceanography Centre, Southampton
Monday 30th March 09:30 – 17:00
Introduction
Sea Level Space Watch is a short-term project, funded by the UK Space Agency under
the Space for Smarter Government Programme. The project is developing a prototype
service, to support national flood defence planning, which will provide systematically
updated sea level advice around the UK using data from space-borne altimeters in
combination with tide gauges.
The initial phase of Sea Level Space Watch comprises a demonstration service based
on data from European Space Agency Envisat mission plus the current AltiKa altimeter,
covering the period 2003-2012. There is potential to extend the time series back in time
(to 1991) with ERS-1 and -2 data, and to bring it right up to date by adding data from
recent satellite missions and from future planned missions (e.g. Sentinel series) when
launched.
The UK Sea Level SpaceWatch service will complement and supplement the UK
Climate Projections (UKCP09) observed climate data for sea level and the MCCIP
(Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership) reports, providing the latest figures on
observed sea level around the UK in a rolling archive. The availability of shorter-term
(one year) estimates of the sea level rise rate next to the longer-term rates gives
planners the opportunity to verify the regional variability of sea level around the UK at
multiple time scales and the presence of any significant inter-annual changes.
Workshop Aims
At the workshop we will present the prototype Sea Level Space Watch service, review
its capability in the context of users needs, and discuss implementation of a possible
operational sea level advice service aimed at supporting long term planning and risk
management. We would also like to consider the potential for implementation overseas
at key locations at high risk from flooding / sea level rise.
Recent Spring Tides (West Kirkby 22 February 2015)
This project is funded by UK Space Agency on behalf of the
Space for Smarter Government Programme which is delivered in collaboration
with the Satellite Applications Catapult
Workshop Agenda
Welcome - Introduction to the Sea Level Space Watch Project:
David Cotton (SatOC
Session 1 – Context: Planning for coastal flooding in a changing climate
09:40-11:00
1. Variability of Sea Level in European Seas: Francisco Mir Calafat (NOC,
Southampton)
2. UK variability and sustained measurements: Angela Hibbert (NOC Liverpool)
3. UK planning and policy context: Owen Tarrant (Environment Agency) and Kathryn
Humphrey (Committee for Climate Change)
4. EO climate and the Space for Smarter Government Programme; Beth Greenaway
(UK Space Agency)
Break (11:00 – 11:30)
Session 2 - Sea Level Space Watch: Variability in Coastal Sea Level from
Satellite Altimetry
11:30 – 13:00
5. Recent Advances in Coastal Altimetry: Paolo Cipollini (NOC)
6. Coastal Altimetry - European Space Agency perspective: Craig Donlon (ESA)
7. Sea Level Space Watch Results: Seasonal and Inter-Annual variability in UK Coastal
Sea Level from Satellite data and tide gauges: Paolo Cipollini / Helen Snaith (NOC)
8. Demonstration of Sea Level Space Watch Web Service: Ellis Ash (SatOC)
9. Opportunity for short statements of interest from workshop attendees (NRW, ..)
Lunch 13:00 – 14:00
Session 3 - Breakout groups – Requirements / benefits for an operational
implementation
14:00 – 15:15
9. Potential / options for providing an operational national satellite sea-level service and
scope for international deployment. How to build and support a sustainable operational
service. Introduction of seed questions for breakout groups
10. Breakout groups to discuss seed questions
Session 4 - Conclusions
15:45 – 16:30
11. Breakout Group Rapporteurs: Report back from group discussions
12. Round up / next steps
This project is funded by UK Space Agency on behalf of the
Space for Smarter Government Programme which is delivered in collaboration
with the Satellite Applications Catapult
Workshop Arrangements:
The workshop will be held in the Seminar Room at the National Oceanography Centre.
To register for the meeting please complete the form at http://conference.noc.ac.uk/sealevel-space-watch, by 25 March. Note there is an opportunity to provide a short
statement of your interest in this work under Agenda item 9 – please let us know in
advance if you would like to contribute here.
In addition, we hope to be able to provide real time audio-visual streaming of the
workshop. Further details will be available closer to the date.
Details on how to find NOC are available at: http://noc.ac.uk/conference/travelling-nocsouthampton
Details of local hotels can be found at: http://noc.ac.uk/conference/hotels
This project is funded by UK Space Agency on behalf of the
Space for Smarter Government Programme which is delivered in collaboration
with the Satellite Applications Catapult