As part of the European Space Agency's (ESA) Climate Change Initiative (CCI) programme, the Sea Level CCI project has produced a set of gridded multi-satellite merged products relating to the Sea Level Essential Climate Variable (ECV). These consist of a) a time series of monthly gridded Sea Level Anomalies (SLA) and b) Oceanic Indicators describing the evolution of the sea level anomalies.

Sea surface heights are measured above (or below) some reference level by altimeter satellites, surface height being the difference between a satellites position in orbit with respect to an arbitrary reference surface (the Earth's centre or a rough approximation of the Earth's surface: the reference ellipsoid) and the satellite-to-surface range (calculated by measuring the time taken for the signal to make the round trip). Through sending a microwave pulse to the ocean's surface, the satellites measured the surface heights through measuring the time taken for the pulse to return.

The current version is v1.1, and covers the period January 1993 - December 2014, and has been derived from the main altimeter missions: ERS-1, ERS-2, Envisat, TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1, Jason-2 and Geosat-Follow-On. A detailed description of the SL CCI project and the products can be found in Ablain et al., 2014, and further information is also provided in the Product User Guide.

The following DOI can be used to reference the product database (all products in the V1.1 release (as of December 2015)): DOI:10.5270/esa-sea_level_cci-1993_2014-v_1.1-201512.

When using or referring to the SL_cci products, please mention the associated DOI (see above and the individual datasets) and also use the following citation where a detailed description of the SL_cci project and products can be found:

Ablain, M., Cazenave, A., Larnicol, G., Balmaseda, M., Cipollini, P., Faugère, Y., Fernandes, M. J., Henry, O., Johannessen, J. A., Knudsen, P., Andersen, O., Legeais, J., Meyssignac, B., Picot, N., Roca, M., Rudenko, S., Scharffenberg, M. G., Stammer, D., Timms, G., and Benveniste, J.: Improved sea level record over the satellite altimetry era (1993–2010) from the Climate Change Initiative project, Ocean Sci., 11, 67-82, doi:10.5194/os-11-67-2015, 2015.

For further information on the Sea Level CCI products, and to register your interest with the CCI team please email: info-sealevel@esa-sealevel-cci.org