Abstract:We obtain lake elevations on the Tibetan plateau and Tianshan using CryoSat-2 baseline C level 2 products(SIR_SIN_L2I) in SARIn mode and with ICESat level 2 products, finding a bias of tens of meters between them. The bias must be removed before joint analysis of multi-mission data. Using classic waveform retracking method, the new elevation measurements are obtained from CryoSat-2 L1b products in SARIn mode. Results show that waveform retracking can remove the bias. We find that the bias is caused by a wrong window delay that is used during the production of the SARIn level 2 products. We conclude that current CryoSat-2 baseline C level 2 products in SARIn mode cannot be directly used in joint analysis of multi-mission data, and either waveform retracking or a bias correction should be added to level 2 products.