Title of my M.Sc. thesis at the University of Torino: „Formation of the solar system from incoming bodies“ (astronomy and celestial mechanics).

Title of fellowship study at Cerga: „Positionning of the GRASSE groundstation using TRANSIT satellites“ (celestial mechanics and geodesy)

Title of PhD thesis : „Sea Surface Determination with respect to European datums“.The study applied to local areas. Several topics in geodesy, altimetry and oceanography were considered. Topics was the computation of a mean sea surface and of a mean geoid and the interpretation of their difference as sea surface topography and errors.

Main aspects developed as part the PhD work :

Altimeter processing
A system has been build to process and analyse satellite altimeter data for geophysical and oceanographic applications

Single and dual crossover adjustment
Various methods were analysed and compared to compute the crossovers location and to solve for the radial orbit error.

Combined method involving altimetry and tide gauge data
Altimetry and tide gauge data are merged to compute a mean sea level surface in small ocean basins

Regional geoid improvement (gravimetric geoid)
Altimetry data are used as selection criteria for the gravity data

High-resolution mean sea surface from altimetric missions
ERS and Topex/Poseidon data are merged

In the post-PhD work:

Variability studies
Altimetry and tide gauge data are analysed for a long term sea level variation study

Re-tracking of altimetry near coast
Altimeter data in coastal regions are carefully analysed to detect improvements by ground-based retracking

mass variation and transport
altimetry, GRACE data and models are used in 2002-2007 to separate the components

1991-1993 Co-Investigator of ESA A0

1993-1997 Co-Investigator of ESA A1

1999- Member of the European Group of Altimeter Specialists.

1998- Co-Investigator in ESA Envisat A0

2003-2005 Responsible scientist for TUD in ESEAS-RI Project founded by the European Commission under contract EVRI-CT-2002-40025 http://www.eseas.org

2001-2002 Habilitandenstipendium GEPRIS DFG Project http://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/

2006- Member of Ocean Science Team Jason-1 (Project COSTALT)

2007- STREMP DFG Project: Webseite zu STREMP .

2007- RECOSETO DFG Project Altimetry

2008- Member of Ocean Science Team Jason-2 (Project STREMP-OST)

2008- Member of the International Group of coastal altimetry

2008- Member of Ocean Science Team Jason-2 (Project STREMP-OST)

2008- Co-investigator ESA GOCE AO

2009- STREMP 2 DFG Project: Webseite zu STREMP .

Spatial and Temporal Resolution Limits for Regional Mass Transport and Mass Distribution (STREMP)

The study estimates the regional mass transport and mass distribution in the Mediterranean and Black Sea catchments. Main topics are the coupling of continental hydrology with oceanography in coastal oceans and the water balance closure at the straits. It is based on a combination of altimetry, oceanography, hydrology and GRACE gravity fields.

The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission provides measurements of the time-variable Earth gravity field. Combined with simultaneous and complementary observations and model results, it enables to globally and locally quantify interactions between atmosphere, hydrosphere and geosphere. On land, it provides the change in terrestrial water storage and allows in hydrography to estimate the evapotraspiration from the terrestrial water. On sea, combined with satellite radar altimetry observations it provides the change in ocean water mass.

Satellite radar altimetry observes the total sea level variability, including both steric variations, due to temperature and salinity changes, and non-steric mass variations. The mass related (i.e. eustatic) sea level change is evaluated from the steric-corrected measurements. The GRACE derived time-variable mass change will be regionally compared to estimates of non-steric sea level change from altimeter observations. Environmental corrections for altimetry and GRACE data will be assessed and homogenized for the comparison of gravimetric and altimetric signals.

An ocean general circulation model with a high spatial resolution and realistic forcing will be applied to the Mediterranean-Black Sea region and run both with and without assimilation of altimeter data. It wil simulate steric and salinity contributions, flow and water mass characteristics and aims at an improved understanding of the basic physical controls. Finally, we will quantify the importance of using GRACE and later GOCE data regionally in areas dominated by continental shelf and steep topography breaks.

The region selected for the project includes both an ocean area, the couple of lagoon type (Mediterranean Sea) and estuarine (Black Sea) basins, and a land area, their corresponding watersheds.

Mediterranean Sea

The general circulation of the Mediterranean Sea is determined by the density gradients between the Atlantic and Mediterranean waters, by the air-sea interaction and by a strong mesoscale activity of eddies. The bottom topography controls the exchange of water between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, and between the Western and the Eastern Mediterranean. The Mediterranean Sea is very sensitive to changes in atmospheric forcing. The exchange with the Atlantic Ocean is governed by the high evaporation in the Mediterranean. The river runoff R is a small contribution to the Mediterranean freshwater budget (evaporation minus precipitation minus runoff (E-P-R)) and is comparable to E-P in spring.

Black Sea

The basic dynamical feature in the Black Sea is a cyclonic rim current with numerous mesoscale eddies near to the coast The general circulation seasonal variations are mainly wind-driven. Most of the seasonal mass change is due to the river runoff. The annual amplitude of the thermo-steric heights in the Black Sea is 2 cm. The Black Sea basin is sensitive to climate variability and amplifies large scale climatic signals by integrating the variations of global forcing over a vast catchment area. Evaporation exceeds precipitation and the freshwater budget (E-P-R) assumes both positive and negative values because of the river runoff. Its watershed is 5 times the area of the Black Sea itself (24 x 105 km2). The annual discharge of its biggest rivers (Danube, Dniepr, Dniestr, Southern Bug, Don and Kuban) is of the same order of magnitude of the discharge in the Mediterranean Sea. The sea level is subject to great seasonal, inter-annual and decadal variability and is the most important parameter controlling the exchange with the Mediterranean Sea.

Involved Institutes

1. Institut für Physikalische Geodäsie, Technische Universität Darmstadt
2. GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam
3. Physical Oceanography, Institut für Chemie und Biologie des Meeres (ICBM), Universität Oldenburg.

Coastal Areas are one of major challenges for Satellite Altimetry due to deterioration of altimeter signals and environmental corrections to altimetry near to the cost. The use of altimetry data in combination with tide gauge data for satellite altimeter calibration, sea level variability (SLV) determination and mutual validation of trends in sea levels is hindered by these coastal effects.

Topic of the proposal is the improved estimation of sea level variability in coastal areas. The aim is twofold a) to monitor the long-term sea level variability and b) to assess the applicability of altimeter techniques in coastal/marginal regions. Two regions with complementary characteristics are selected, namely the Gulf of Biscay on the Atlantic Ocean shelf and the north-western Mediterranean Sea in the semi-enclosed Mediterranean Sea basin.

The works are based on newly available altimetry data at high frequency (10 Hz of higher) and on improved altimeter corrections better suitable for coastal areas. With a combination of local corrections and dedicated waveform processing the accuracy of altimetric measurements in coastal region shall be improved. The standard 1-Hz data will be used and analized in addition. The combination of multi-satellite altimetry and tide gauge data shall improve the spatial and temporal resolution of the estimated sea level variability. The regional unification of multi-satellite altimeter data is addressed and discrepancies in the sea level height measurements are investigated. Tide gauge station data are used as ground truth to investigate both variability and absolute location of the sea level measurements. Correction from local barotropic and oceanographic models and of residual tidal effects from local tidal models are used to improve the agreement of altimetry measurements extrapolated to the tide gauge location using mean sea level, geoid and circulation models.

In the framework of this project methodologies will be developed to construct improved models of sea level variability and of mean dynamic topography by optimally combing the new altimetry dataset and the heterogeneous data from tide gauges and oceanographic models.

List of Publications and Presentations (extract, PDF format)

Fenoglio-Marc L., M. Becker, J. Kusche, R. Rietbroek (2007d).
Leakage of Continental Hydrology in seawater mass change estimations from Space in the Mediterranean and Black Sea, in Proceedings of the Second Space for Hydrology Symposium, ESA Publications Division

Fenoglio-Marc L., J. Kusche, M. Becker and I. Fukumori (2007a).
Comments on „On the steric and mass-induced contributions to the annual sea level variations in he Mediterranean Sea“ by D. Garcia et al., J. of Geoph. Res., Vol. 112, C12018,doi:10.1029/2007JC004196

Tsimplis M.N., A.G.P.S. Shaw, A. Pascual, M. Marcos, M. Pasaric, L. Fenoglio-Marc(2007c)
Can we reconstruct the 20th century sea level variability in the Mediterranean Sea on the basis of recent altimetric measurements? In Remote Sensing of the European Sea, Ed. A.Barale and M. Gade, Springer Science

Fenoglio-Marc L., J. Kusche, M. Becker (2007b).
Estimation of mass variation and mean dynamic topography in the Mediterranean Sea from altimetry and GRACE/GOCE geoids, in 3rd GOCE Users Symposium Proceedings, SP-627, ESA Publications Division

Fenoglio-Marc L., S. Vignudelli, A. Humbert, P. Cipollini, M. Fehlau, M. Becker (2007)
An accessment of satellite altimetry in proximity of the Mediterranean coastline, in 3rd ENVISAT Symposium Proceedings, SP-636, ESA Publications Division

Fenoglio-Marc L., J. Kusche, M. Becker (2006).
Mass Variation in the Mediterranean Sea from GRACE and its validation by altimetry, steric and hydrologic fields, Geoph. Res. Lett., Vol. 33, LXXXXX, doi:10.1029/2006GL026851

Tsimplis M.N., E.Alvarez-Fanjul, D.Gomis, L.Fenoglio, B.Perez (2005)
Mediterranean Sea level trends:atmospheric pressure and wind contribution, GRL, 32, 20, L20602

Fenoglio-Marc L., E.Groten, 2004:
Long-term sea level variability from multi-satelite altimetry in the European Seas, Proceedings of the ENVISAT Symposium, Salzburg 2004, ESA Editions CD

Fenoglio-Marc L., E.Tel, M.J. Garcia and N.Kjaer, 2004:
Inter-annual to decadal sea level change in the south-western Europe from satellite altimetry and in-situ measurements, IAG Geodesy Symposia, Proceedings GGSM2004 Porto, Springer Verlag

Fenoglio-Marc L., E.Groten and C.Dietz, 2004:
Vertical Land Motion in the Mediterranean Sea from altimetry and tide gauge stations, Marine Geodesy, 27, pp.683-701

Fenoglio-Marc L. 2003:
On the variability of mean sea level, in Allgemeine Vermessungs-Nachrichten N.2/2003, Wichmann Verlag, pp.140-146

Fenoglio-Marc L. 2003:
Comparison of altimetry and tide gauge data of the SIMN Italian Dataset in PC-Proceedings of the ENVISAT Calibration and Validation Team (CCVT)

Fenoglio-Marc L. 2002:
Long term sea level change in the Mediterranean Sea from multi-satellite altimetry and tide gauges Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Vol.27 , pp. 1419-1431

Fenoglio-Marc L. 2001:
Analysis and representation of regional sea level variability from altimetry and atmospheric-oceanic data, Geophysical Journal International, Vol. 145, pp. 1-18

Fenoglio-Marc L.. 2000:
Multi-mission data analysis and unification in the Mediterranean Sea Proceedings of the ERS-ENVISAT Symposium Gothenburg, SP-461, ESA Publication Division

Fenoglio-Marc L. and Groten E. 2000:
Modelling the sea level variations for the unification of altimetry missions, Proceedings of COSPAR 2000, Advances in Space Research, Elsevier

Fenoglio-Marc L. 2000:
El Nino 1997: main characteristics and interannual variability in Allgemeine Vermessungs-Nachrichten N.4/2000, Wichmann Verlag, pp.140-146

Fenoglio-Marc L., Wang Y. and Groten E. 1999:
Investigation at regional scales of sea level variability at low and medium frequencies, in Aviso Newsletter N.7, CNES, pp. 40-43

Wang Y., Yang L., Fenoglio-Marc L. and Groten E. 1998:
Separation of geoid and stationary sea surface topography and determination of mean sea level in western Mediterraea Sea, Progress in Geodetic Science at GW98, Ed. Freeden, Shaker Verlag,Aachen, pp. 190-197

Fenoglio L., Wang L. and Groten E. 1998:
Investigation of sea level variability at low and medium frequencies in European Seas, Progress in Geodetic Science at GW98, Ed. Freeden, Shaker Verlag,Aachen, pp. 57-64

Fenoglio L., 1997:
Altimetry data improvement by dual crossover method and along-track stationary sea surface topography in European seas, Allgemeine Vermessungs-Nachrichten, Wichmann

Fenoglio L., Groten E., 1997:
Geodetic aspects of long term sea level variations in european seas rom altimetry and tide gauge data, in ESA SP-414, pp 1103-1108, Proceedings of the Third ERS Symposium on Space at the service of our Environment, Florence, Italy 17-21 March 1997, http://earth.esa.int/workshops/ers97/papers/fenoglio1/121c.htm , March 1997.

Fenoglio L., 1996:
Sea Surface Determination with Respect to European Vertical Datums, PhD Thesis, Deutsche Geodaetische Kommission, Heft Nr. 464, Munchen

L. Wang and L.Fenoglio, 1997:
Study of tide gauge long term variations, May 1997, TUD Internal Report

L.Fenoglio, 2002:
Long term changes in the tropical Pacific, May 2002, TUD Internal Report

L.Fenoglio, 2002:
Long term changes in the Ionian Sea, September 2002, TUD Internal Report

Kjaer N., O.Andersen, P.Knudsen, L.Fenoglio-Marc, 2004:
Reports on sea level variations in the European Seas and the North Atlantic Ocean using satellite altimetry and tide gauges, ESEAS-RI WP3 Task 3.1, Annual Report 1st Year http://www.eseas.org/eseas-ri/deliverables/d3.1/ , January 2004. http://www.eseas.org/eseas-ri/management/status/wp3/tasks/t3.1/t3.1rep/ , January 2004.

L.Fenoglio-Marc, N.Kjaer,O.Andersen, P.Knudsen, M.J.Garcia, E.Tel, 2004:
Reports on interannual to decadal sea level variations using satellite altimetry and tide gauges, ESEAS-RI WP3 Task 3.2, Annual Report 2nd Years http://www.eseas.org/eseas-ri/deliverables/d3.2/ , December 2004.

L. Fenoglio-Marc, R. Rietbroek, S. Grayek, M. Becker, J. Kusche, E. Stanev
Integration of water mass variation in the Mediterranean – Black Sea and watershead system , IAG International Symposium on Gravity, Geoid and Earth Observation, 23-27 June 2008

L. Fenoglio-Marc, M. Fehlau, L. Ferri, Y. Gao, S. Vignudelli, M. Becker
Coastal sea surface heights from improved altimeter data in the Mediterranean Sea , IGARS Boston, July 2008