Seasat-A - A product of user interests

The paper describes how user requirements were integrated into the development of the Seasat-A program and shows how user requirements influenced sensor selection, mission planning, satellite systems design, and the end-to-end data system. User requirements included the measurement of ocean topography, surface winds, gravity waves, surface temperature, sea ice, salinity, and surface pressure. Particular attention is paid to the selection of sensors: compressed pulse radar altimeter, synthetic aperture imaging radar, microwave wind scatterometer, visible/infrared radiometer, and multispectral microwave radiometer.