Source/Sensor: Radar Altimeter, 13.8 GHz, KU Band
Coverage: Apr 14, 1992 to Dec 20, 1993, Global Oceans
Abstract: The list under General Information applies to all Altimeter Ocean Pathfinder data sets which PO.DAAC is providing. For example, when referencing "Description of Sea Surface Height Data", you will find links to TOPEX/POSEIDON, ERS1, ERS2, and GFO.
The European Remote Sensing Satellite, ERS-1, operated by the European Space Agency (ESA), was launched July 17, 1991, and was the first European radar altimetry satellite . The ERS-1 satellite was in a sun-synchronous circular orbit and had a mean altitude of 780 Km and an inclination of 98.5o, thus making it a retrograde orbit.
This Version 1 dataset was produced for the 35 day repeat cycle, multidisciplinary Phase C.
Data coverage is from 81.5o south to 81.5o north latitude. The mission duration was July, 1991 (launch) to July, 1996 (end of mission)
The ERS-1 was turned off in June 1996 and formally retired in March 2000, ending a very successful mission.
For a list of the descriptions of the Satellite Phases and each of the Phase Characteristics click here.
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 75.4 MBytes. Unzipped volume is approximately 178 MBytes.
Anonymous FTP Site: podaac.jpl.nasa.gov
Directory: ftp://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/sea_surface_height/altimeter_ocean_pathfinder/
ers1_adjusted_phase_c_v10
Smallest Order: One file containing cycles 1-18.
Standard Product: Gzipped files on ftp. See README.
Formats: Unix byte order, binary data. Data Organization
