Seasat Mission Overview

Born, George H.; Dunne, James A.; Lame, D. B.

doi:10.1126/science.204.4400.1405

Cited by 126 publications

(47 citation statements)

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“…Over the past several years, two orbiting radar altimeters, GEOS 3 and SEASAT, have made precise measurements of sea surface undulations over most of the world's oceans [Stanley, 1979;Born et al, 1979]. Except for the 1-2 m sea surface undulations associated with geostrophic flow and tides, the geoid and sea surface coincide.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A detailed view of the South Pacific geoid from satellite altimetry

Sandwell¹

1984

J. Geophys. Res.

108

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Images of sea surface undulations in the South Pacific have been constructed from GEOS 3 and SEASAT altimeter data. Height discrepancies at crossover points, associated with long‐wavelength radial orbit error, were suppressed by taking along‐track derivatives of the ascending and descending profiles. These geoid slopes were then rotated and scaled to produce the north and east components of the deflection of the vertical. Finally, the results are displayed by using the hill shading technique, where gray‐tone images represent the innner product of the deflection vector with an assigned sun vector. Less apparent sea surface undulations can be enhanced by varying the sun's zenith and azimuth. Shorterwavelength sea surface undulations reflect seafloor topography. For instance, fracture zones (FZ's) appear as elongated sharp steps in the sea surface, while seamounts produce circular bumps. Since large areas of the South Pacific are unsurveyed, many previously undetected features appear on the images. Comparisons with bathymetric charts reveal 72 uncharted seamounts having geoid expressions greater than or equal to Easter Island's expression. The dominant features in the images, however, are the large age‐offset FZ's such as the Eltanin and Udintsev FZ's. The images reveal that the Eltanin FZ is connected to the Louisville Ridge; combined they produce a continuous geoid signature across most of the South Pacific. This supports the hypothesis of Hayes and Ewing (1968) that the Louisville Ridge is the northwest extension of the Eltanin FZ.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A detailed view of the South Pacific geoid from satellite altimetry

Sandwell¹

1984

J. Geophys. Res.

108

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“…From Fig. 1, these three image characteristics can be easily derived as S == h/3/cos20= Ah/W cos2e , (1) where h is the platform altitude, 0 is the beam center direction relative to normal, which is usually called the look angle, /3 is the antenna beamwidth in range, which is equal to the ratio A / W of the radar wavelength A to the antenna width W.…”

Section: Principle Of Imaging Radarsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spaceborne imaging radars

Elachi

1991

Int J Imaging Syst Tech

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The Seasat and Shuttle imaging radars flown in the 1970s and 1980s established a strong scientific and technical base for a number of imaging radars that are flying or under development. Recent advances in understanding wave-surface interactions, utilization of multispectral and polarimetric data, a s well as advances in microwave and electronic technology, are allowing the development of a new generation of multiparameter imaging radars that will allow quantitative measurements of surface and near-surface geophysical parameters and monitoring of surface processes over long-term duration. This article is an overview of spaceborne imaging radars presently flying or under development.

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“…Preliminary results for this experiment are described by Jones, et al (1979). Two workshop reports, Born, et al (1979) and Barrick, et al (1979), plus a summary of conventional data analyses, ,give additional details.…”

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%