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Sea level data

Our satellite altimeter data holdings

Summary of our current holdings of satellite altimeter data

More details:

1. "Along-track" data sets

These data sets are organised in the following way:

  • one file for each satellite pass
  • a time series of heights at a number of latitude grid points
  • spacing of the latitude grid points is similar to that in the raw data supplied to us (e.g. .05° for TOPEX/Poseidon)
  • data files are in a simple binary format. There are a number of programs around for reading these data files.

Note that all of these data sets are located in directory /home/datalib/observations/rs/altimetry/along-track.
The locations given in the table are subdirectories of that - e.g. the GEOSAT data is in /home/datalib/observations/rs/altimetry/along-track/geosat/a.

Mission

Start and end dates

Cycle length (days)

 Location on disk

GEOSAT

08-Nov-1986 → 05-Oct-1989

17

 geosat/a

GFO

07-Jan-2000 → 13-Sep-2008

17

 gfo/a

TOPEX/Poseidon

23-Sep-1992 → 15-Aug-2002

10

 topex/b

TOPEX/Poseidon (Reprocessed)

23-Sep-1992 → 15-Aug-2002

10

 topex/c

TOPEX/Poseidon
Tandem Mission

20-Sep-2002 → 08-Oct-2005

10

 topex_tandem

Jason-1

15-Jan-2002 → 26-Jan-2009

10

 Jason-1/c

Jason-2/OSTM

12-Jul-2008 →13-Mar-2013

10

 Jason-2/a

ERS-1 phases C & G

06-Oct-1992 → 23-Dec-1993
and
24-Mar-1995 → 02-Jun-1996

35

 ers1/b

ERS-2 phase A

15-May-1995 → 07-Jul-2003

35

 ers2/cor &
 ers2/raw

Envisat

10-Oct-2002 →21-Oct-2010

35

 envisat/upd
  • GEOSAT and GFO are on the same ground track.
  • TOPEX/Poseidon (up to August 2002) and Jason-1 are on the same ground track.
  • The reprocessed TOPEX/Poseidon data set has a number of improvements. For most users the most significant change is probably the improved tide model that has been used.
  • ERS-1 phases C & G, ERS-2 and Envisat are on the same ground track.

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2. Gridded data sets

These data sets are organised in the following way:

  • one netCDF file for the whole dataset
  • data has been mapped and gridded to the specified grid

Data set

Grid spacing

Spatial range

Time range

 Data file name*

Australian region

0.33° Mercator grid

82°S → 15°N
80°E → 180°E

14-Oct-1992 →21-Nov-2012

 sat_alt_msla_aus.nc

Global

1° Mercator grid

82°S → 82°N
0°E → 360°E

14-Oct-1992 →21-Nov-2012

sat_alt_msla_global.nc

These data files are in /home/datalib/observations/rs/altimetry/gridded/MSLA

Contact Neil White for further information about these data sets.

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Website owner: Neil White | Last modified 16/05/13


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