This dataset contains along-track sea level anomalies derived from satellite altimetry. Altimeter along-track sea level measurements from the Jason-1, Jason -2 and Jason-3 satellite missions have been processed to produce high resolution (20 Hz, corresponding to an along-track distance of ~300m) sea level anomalies, in order to provide long-term homogeneous sea level time series as close to the coast as possible in six different coastal regions (North-East Atlantic, Mediterranean Sea, Western Africa, North Indian Ocean, South-East Asia and Australia). These six time series cover the period from 15 January 2002 to 30 May 2018.

The product benefits from the spatial resolution provided by high-rate data, the Adaptive Leading Edge Subwaveform Retracker (ALES) and the post-processing strategy of the along-track (X-TRACK) algorithm, both developed for the processing of coastal altimetry data, as well as the best possible set of geophysical corrections.

The main objective of this product is to provide accurate altimeter Sea Level Anomalies (SLA) time series as close to the coast as possible in order to assess whether the coastal sea level trends experienced at the coast are similar to the observed sea level trends in the open ocean and to determine the causes of the potential discrepancies.

The product has been developed within the sea level project of the extension phase of the European Space Agency (ESA) Climate Change Initiative (SL_cci+). During the project, the product will be extended in spatial coverage and with additional altimeter missions. This version of the dataset is v1.1. (DOI: 10.5270/esa-sl_cci-xtrack_ales_sla-200206_201805-v1.1-202005)