Birol F. auteur aut IRD Nino Fernando auteur aut IRD text journalArticle eng text/pdf born digital access The strong increase in altimeter measurement errors near land surfaces is a limiting factor for coastal applications. We analyze the performance of the new Ka-band SARAL/AltiKa (SRL) mission in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea. SRL sea surface height (SSH) measurements are compared with those from the Jason-2 Ku-band satellite mission. The results show a significant increase in both quantity and quality of SSH data available near coastlines when using SRL data. Available edited data are 95.1% of SRL compared with 88.6% for Jason-2. Closer than 10km to the coastline, available SRL data are still about 60% and only about 31% for Jason-2. Comparisons of the altimeter sea level variations are made with available coastal tide gauge data. The differences obtained between altimeter and tide gauge SLA time series are reduced for SRL (3.3cm in average) compared with Jason-2 (4.2cm in average), especially closer than 30km to the land. It results in higher correlations (by 30%) obtained with SRL data. The coastal circulation derived from altimetry using SRL data shows an offshore meandering, which is more stable in time and with larger velocities close to the coast than that derived from Jason-2 observations. specialized Coastal dynamics Northern Current northwestern Mediterranean Sea satellite altimetry sea surface observations MEDITERRANEE 032 126 38 1 313-327 2015 0149-0419 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010065332 10.1080/01490419.2015.1034814 0149-0419 [F B010065332] https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010065332 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/intranet/publi/2015/10/010065332.pdf Accès réservé (Intranet de l'IRD) IRD - Base Horizon / Pleins textes 2015-11-06 2017-08-23 fdi:010065332 fre