CEOS Instrument: Positioning Ocean Solid Earth Ice Dynamics Orbiting Navigator (Single frequency solid state radar altimeter)
| Instrument: | POSEIDON-2 (SSALT-2) |
| Agency: | CNES |
| Mission: | Jason-1 |
| Status: | Operational |
| Type: | Radar altimeter |
| Description: | Nadir viewing sounding radar for provision of real-time high precision sea surface topography, ocean circulation and wave height data |
| Spatial Resolution: | Basic measurement: 1/sec (6 km along track), Raw measurement: 10/sec (600 m along track) |
| Swath Width: | On baseline TOPEX/POSEIDON orbit (10 day cycle): 300 km between tracks at equator |
| Wavebands: | Microwave: Ku-band (13.575 GHz), C-band (5.3 GHz) |
| Technology: | Radar altimeter |
| Description: | Nadir-viewing radar for very accurate ranging measurement between satellite and surface. The spread of echoes provides information on significant wave height, the intensity on the wind speed, the multi-temporal analysis the ocean dynamic topography and the geoid. The instantaneous field of view is ~ 25 km and moves along track. The radar altimeter operates in Ku-band (~ 13 GHz) with the support of C-band (~ 5 GHz) for correction from ionospheric rotation; and is associated to a nadir-pointing MW radiometer for water vapour correction. Applicable only in LEO. |
Measurement List:
| Wind speed over sea surface (horizontal) |
| Significant wave height |
| Sea level |
| Land surface topography |
| Geoid |
(select measurement name to view details)
CEOS Systems Engineering Office (SEO)
CEOS Data Base Version: 17 - Created: 2012-01-18