GAVDOS/west crete cal-val site: over a decade calibrations for Jason series, SARAL/Altika, cryoSat-2, Sentinel-3 and HY-2 altimeter satellitesGAVDOS/west crete cal-val site: over a decade calibrations for Jason series, SARAL/Altika, cryoSat-2, Sentinel-3 and HY-2 altimeter satellites Πλήρης Δημοσίευση σε Συνέδριο Conference Full Paper 2018-10-022016enThis work presents and compares the latest altimeter calibration results for Jason series, the SARAL/AltiKa the Chinese HY-2 missions and the ESA missions of CryoSat-2 and Sentinel-3, conducted at the Gavdos/Crete calibration/validation facilities. At first, the Jason altimeter calibration values will be given for the ascending Pass No.109 and the descending Pass No.18, based on the GDR-E (Jason-1), GDR-D (Jason-2) and GDR-T (Jason-3) products. Secondly, these values will be cross-examined against the altimeter bias for the SARAL/AltiKa (GDR-T) satellite at Gavdos Cal/Val using its reference ascending orbit No. 571. The Chinese HY-2 satellite altimeter bias will be presented using the CRS1 permanent site in southwest Crete for the descending HY-2 Pass No. 280, at 20 Hz based on SGDR data products. Finally, values will be compared against the Sentinel-3 altimeter. Additionally, altimeter biases as determined by locally developed Mean Sea Surface models, will be presented and compared with the conventional sea-surface calibration methodology.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ESA Living Planet Symposium 2016European Space Agency, (Special Publication) ESA SP Mertikas Stelios Μερτικας Στελιος Donlon, Craig J Mavrocordatos, Constantin Tziavos, Ilias N Galanakis Dimitrios Γαλανακης Δημητριος Vergos Georgios S. Andersen Ole Baltazar Tripolitsiotis Achilleas Τριπολιτσιωτης Αχιλλεας Frantzis Xenofon Φραντζης Ξενοφων Lin Mingsen Qiao Fangli European Space Agency Altimeter calibration