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Ocean Surface Topography from Space
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OVERVIEW

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TECHNOLOGY

MISSIONS
- Who's Who
TOPEX/
POSEIDON
- Fact Sheet
- Launch
Jason-1
- Fact Sheet
- Launch
OSTM/Jason-2
- Fact Sheet
- Launch


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MISSIONS

Where are they now?

Where is it now - screen shot Have you ever looked up in the night sky to see a satellite? Have you wondered what satellite it was? Maybe it was TOPEX/Poseidon or Jason-1. Now you can find out. See where TOPEX/Poseidon and Jason-1 are right now.

To find out when you can view these satellites from your area, go to Heavens-Above and follow the directions below.

  1. Under Anonymous Users, Select your location from their huge database. If you want to enter your coordinates manually, follow the instructions on the site.
  2. Read the instructions and enter your town or village.
  3. If a list of towns are returned, select the correct one.
  4. Under Satellites, choose "Select a satellite from the database."
  5. In the Satellite Name: field enter topex for the TOPEX/Poseidon satellite, or jason for the Jason-1 satellite.
  6. From the Satellite Search Results list, select the satellite.
  7. In the upper right of the page, select Passes to see when you can view the satellite from your location.


Mission Basics

TOPEX/Poseidon
Launched: August 10, 1992
TOPEX/Poseidon data has revolutionized the way the global ocean is studied. For the first time, the seasonal cycle and other temporal variabilities of the ocean have been determined globally with high accuracy, yielding fundamentally important information for testing ocean circulation models. Major observations were made using TOPEX/Poseidon data on
  • Oceanic circulation including details on the movement of Rossby and Kelvin waves
  • Oceanic and coastal tides
  • El Niño, La Niña, and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation
  • El Niño-like circulation in the Atlantic Ocean
  • Oceanic seasons in the Mediterranean
  • Ocean floor topography from surface data used to refine the geoid model

Jason-1
Launched: December 07, 2001
Jason-1 continues the task of providing the important oceanographic data time-series originated by TOPEX/Poseidon, carrying updated versions of the same instruments. It will initially fly in tandem with TOPEX/Poseidon. (See the Tandem Mission Flash animation for more details).

GRACE
Launched: March 17, 2002
GRACE - Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, is flying two identical spacecraft about 220 kilometers apart in a 500-kilometer polar orbit, and over its 5-year lifetime will produce an accurate map of the geoid. The geoid, the manifestation of the Earth's gravity field, is the basic figure on which all altimetry data is based.

OSTM
Proposed Launch: 2008
OSTM - Ocean Surface Topography Mission, is a follow-on to Jason-1. It will take oceanographic studies of sea surface height into an operational mode for continued climate forecasting research and science and industrial applications.


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