TOPEX/POSEIDON: Global Ocean Altimeter Data with Sea Surface Height Measurements

The TOPEX/POSEIDON mission launched in August 1992. The Geophysical Data Record (GDR) provides global coverage altimeter data, containing sea surface height, significant wave height, ionospheric correction, tides, and other geophysical corrections. Data is arranged in 10-day cycles separated into 254 passes, each about 56 minutes.

Use Cases

• Retracking ocean waveforms based on the Sensory Data Record (SDR) containing raw waveforms.
• Calculating sea surface height anomalies based on altimeter range and environmental corrections.
• Analyzing global ocean topography and significant wave height patterns based on dual-frequency altimeter measurements.
• Studying ionospheric effects on satellite signals based on the provided correction data.

Strengths

• Contains measurements from two altimeters: a NASA dual-frequency (Ku and C band) instrument and a CNES solid-state (Ku band) altimeter.
• Mission objective specifies a sea surface height measurement precision of 3 cm and a sea-level measurement accuracy of —13 cm.
• Data is structured in 10-day cycles with 254 passes, providing a systematic temporal coverage.

Limitations

• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Analysis software and calculation of derived metrics are the responsibility of the user.

Provenance

Source

NASA and the French space agency (CNES) TOPEX/POSEIDON mission.

Collection Method

Satellite altimeter measurements from the TOPEX/POSEIDON spacecraft.

Time Range

Mission launched in August 1992; specific temporal coverage of this record is not specified.

Freshness

Last updated date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Geography

Global coverage.