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Full catalog/saral-altika
saral-altika·dataset

SARAL/AltiKa — the India-France sea-level satellite

SARAL/AltiKa satellite altimetry
ocean ISRO/CNES ISRO MOSDAC active
In plain English

What it measures. The height of the sea surface to a few centimetres, which reveals sea-level change, ocean currents and wave height.

How it's made. A joint ISRO-CNES satellite carrying a Ka-band radar altimeter that times radar pulses bouncing off the ocean.

How & where you'd use it. Sea-level-rise monitoring along India's coast and ocean-circulation studies. Via ISRO MOSDAC / AVISO.

What's measured

altimetrysea leveloceanISROCNESsea surface heightcoastal

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2013-02-25 → ongoing
  • Spatial extent68, 6, 98, 37

What you can do with it

  • Watch sea-surface temperature and marine heatwaves
  • Spot algal blooms and ocean-colour shifts
  • Support fisheries and coastal monitoring
Official description

India-France radar altimeter measuring sea-surface height — sea level, ocean circulation and significant wave height around India. Via ISRO MOSDAC / AVISO.

Get the data

saral-altika_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="saral-altika",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from ISRO MOSDAC
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.