Source/Sensor: GEOSAT Radar Altimeter, single frequency (13.5 GHz) with 3.5 cm precision

Coverage: November 8, 1986 to September 30, 1989, global oceans

Abstract: The list under General Information applies not only to the GEOSAT dataset, but to other Altimeter Ocean Pathfinder data sets which PO.DAAC will be providing in the near future. For example, when referencing "Description of Sea Surface Height Data", you will find links to TOPEX/POSEIDON, ERS1, ERS2, and GFO. GEOSAT (GEOdetic SATellite) was launched March 12, 1985 and the mission ended Jan, 1990. The prime mission was to measure the marine geoid for the U.S. Navy. Once this mission was accomplished, the satellite was put into a 17 day repeat orbit in November, 1986 for altimetry (thus the name GEOSAT Exact Repeat Mission [ERM]), and lasted 3 years. Its altitude was 880 Km with a 108 deg inclination. The GEOSAT was the only altimeter operating during the 1987 El Nino. The Production History provides a chronology of the current and previous versions of this product. The Data Editing gives criteria used in deriving the sea surface height.

Data Set Volume: The data on the PO.DAAC ftp site are gzipped and the volume is approximately 161 MBytes. Unzipped volume is approximately 389 MBytes.

 

Anonymous FTP Site: podaac.jpl.nasa.gov

 

Directory: ftp://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/sea_surface_height/altimeter_ocean_pathfinder/geosat_erm_v40

 

Smallest Order: One file containing cycles 1 - 62.

 

Standard Product: Gzipped files on ftp. See README

 

Formats: Unix byte order, binary data. See Data Organization