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Three Decades of Precision Orbit Determination Progress, Achievements, Future Challenges and its Vital Contribution to Oceanography and Climate ResearchAlthough satellite altimetry has been around for thirty years, the last fifteen beginning with the launch of TOPEX/Poseidon (TP) have yielded an abundance of significant results including: monitoring of ENS0 events, detection of internal tides, determination of accurate global tides, unambiguous delineation of Rossby waves and their propagation characteristics, accurate determination of geostrophic currents, and a multi-decadal time series of mean sea level trend and dynamic ocean topography variability. While the high level of accuracy being achieved is a result of both instrument maturity and the quality of models and correction algorithms applied to the data, improving the quality of the Climate Data Records produced from altimetry is highly dependent on concurrent progress being made in fields such as orbit determination. The precision orbits form the reference frame from which the radar altimeter observations are made. Therefore, the accuracy of the altimetric mapping is limited to a great extent by the accuracy to which a satellite orbit can be computed. The TP mission represents the first time that the radial component of an altimeter orbit was routinely computed with an accuracy of 2-cm. Recently it has been demonstrated that it is possible to compute the radial component of Jason orbits with an accuracy of better than 1-cm. Additionally, still further improvements in TP orbits are being achieved with new techniques and algorithms largely developed from combined Jason and TP data analysis. While these recent POD achievements are impressive, the new accuracies are now revealing subtle systematic orbit error that manifest as both intra and inter annual ocean topography errors. Additionally the construction of inter-decadal time series of climate data records requires the removal of systematic differences across multiple missions. Current and future efforts must focus on the understanding and reduction of these errors in order to generate a complete and consistent time series of improved orbits across multiple missions and decades required for the most stringent climate-related research. This presentation discusses the POD progress and achievements made over nearly three decades, and presents the future challenges, goals and their impact on altimetric derived ocean sciences.
Document ID
20080045462
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Luthcke, Scott
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Rowlands, David
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Lemoine, Frank
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Zelensky, Nikita
(SGT, Inc. Greenbelt , MD, United States)
Beckley, Brian
(Raytheon Technical Services Co. Upper Marlboro, MD, United States)
Klosko, Steve
(SGT, Inc. Greenbelt , MD, United States)
Chinn, Doug
(SGT, Inc. Greenbelt , MD, United States)
Date Acquired
August 24, 2013
Publication Date
March 13, 2006
Subject Category
Oceanography
Meeting Information
Meeting: Radar Altimetry Symposium
Location: Venice
Country: Italy
Start Date: March 13, 2006
End Date: March 18, 2006
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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