Alejandro Egido, NOAA / GST Inc., STAR/SOCD/Laboratory for Satellite Altimetry, College Park, MD, United States, Thomas W. K. Armitage, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, Rachel Tilling, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, United States and Laurence N Connor, NOAA/NESDIS/STAR, College Park, MD, United States