The Noaa Geosat Program: Monitoring Tropical Sea Level With Satellite Altimetry

The U.S. Navy GEOSAT altimeter satellite has operated successfully for more than four years. Tropical Pacific sea level variations, and all wind speed and wave height values from the initial 18-month classified mission have been computed and released. The Exact Repeat Mission (ERM), which began November 8, 1986, has produced nearly thre:e years of additional data which are routinely processed into unclassified Geophysical. Data Records (GDR's) by the National Ocean Service of NOAA and distributed to more than 40 institutions worldwide. In addition, GEOSAT sea level data in the tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans are being processed in near-real time (I-month delay) and are distributed in map form as an operational NOAA product.