Geosat Geodetic Mission Sensor Data Records (SDR) for September, 1986 (NCEI Accession 0002550)

This accession contains one month of sensor data records (SDRs) from the GEOSAT Geodetic Mission (GM) for the time period of September 01, 1986 to Setpember 30, 1986. Parameters include: time, orbit, latitude/longitude, and sea surface height. Corrections to the data include: sea level, wind and wave data, tides, dry and wet troposphere, ionosphere, height bias, altimeter crossover differences, altimeter sea surface measurement, and spacecraft orientation. These data were submitted by the U.S. Navy via National Oceanic Service.

The US Navy Geosat (Geodetic Satellite) radar altimeter mission lasted for nearly 5 years (March 1985 to January 1990) and collected approximately 750 million measurements of sea level, wave height, and wind speed over the global oceans. During the Geodetic Mission (March 1985 to September 1986), the satellite did not repeat its ground track for the duration of the mission. The orbit of the satellite was changed in October 1986 to begin the Exact Repeat Mission (ERM) which lasted from November 8, 1986 until the satellite quit functioning in January 1990. During the ERM, the satellite repeated its ground track every 17 days. Data were initially processed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, MD in coordination with the NOAA/NOS Satellite Altimeter Group. Data products were transferred to the NOAA National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) for distribution. Data products are archived at the NODC.