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National Aeronautics and Space Administration (view source)
Revision as of 02:13, July 2, 2008
, 02:13, July 2, 2008TOPEX/Poseidon
:The prime mission ended six years ago, after two years of orbiting Jupiter. NASA extended the mission three times to continue taking advantage of Galileo's unique capabilities for accomplishing valuable science. <ref> http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/news/release/press030921.html </ref>
:The prime mission ended six years ago, after two years of orbiting Jupiter. NASA extended the mission three times to continue taking advantage of Galileo's unique capabilities for accomplishing valuable science. <ref> http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/news/release/press030921.html </ref>
*'''TOPEX/Poseidon''', launched in 1992, is a joint venture between CNES and NASA to map ocean surface topography. While a 3-year prime mission was planned, with a 5-year store of expendables, TOPEX/Poseidon has delivered an astonishing 10+ years of data from orbit. It has made the following contributions:
:-Measured sea levels with unprecedented accuracy to better than 5 cm
:-Continuously observed global ocean topography
:-Monitored effects of currents on global climate change and produced the first global views of seasonal changes of currents
:-Monitored large-scale ocean features like Rossby and Kelvin waves and studied such phenomena as El Niño, La Niña, and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation
:-Mapped basin-wide current variations and provided global data to validate models of ocean circulation
:-Mapped year-to-year changes in heat stored in the upper ocean
:-Produced the most accurate global maps of tides ever
:-Improved our knowledge of Earth's gravity field <ref>http://topex-www.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/topex.html</ref>