HR: 17:20h
AN: U24A-03    [Abstracts]
TI: A Decade-Long Record of Global Sea-Surface Height from Satellite Altimetry: Status and Outlook
AU: * Fu, L
EM: llf@pacific.jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, MS 300-323, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109 United States
AB: The decade of the 1990s has seen a breakthrough in the capability of observing the global oceans with satellite radar altimeters. The US/ France TOPEX/Poseidon (T/P) Mission improved the measurement accuracy by an order of magnitude and began making observations of the sea-surface height of the global oceans every 10 days since October 1992. This data record was continued by the follow-on mission, Jason, which began operating in January 2002 while T/P continues operating in a Tandem Mission up to the present. The T/P-Jason data record was complemented by the observations from the altimeters flown on the ERS-1 and -2 satellites (by ESA), the Geosat-Follow-On (by the US Navy), and the ENVISAT (by ESA). This suite of measurements has led to merged data sets with spatial resolutions higher than achievable by a single satellite. For the first time, the oceanography community is being served by a long data record that allows the study of ocean dynamics at scales ranging from mesoscale to basin-wide scales. An overview will be given on the findings from the data, revealing basin-wide changes in the circulation patterns of the global oceans and their relations with the atmospheric variability. This data record serves as the start of a new benchmark for monitoring and understanding the long-term changes of the global oceans. The outlook of the continuation of the data record into the future by the international community of operational oceanography will be discussed.
DE: 4504 Air/sea interactions (0312, 3339)
DE: 4512 Currents
DE: 4556 Sea level: variations and mean (1222, 1225, 1641)
SC: Union [U]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005