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NASA, International Partners To Measure Sea Levels

U.S., French and European agencies to study ocean climate effects

NASA signed an agreement April 10 with other U.S. and international agencies to launch the Ocean Surface Topography Mission in 2008.

Data from the satellite, Jason-2, will increase understanding of ocean circulation and improve climate forecasts and measurements of global sea-level change.

The agreement, said Eric Lindstrom of NASA, "substantially advances the continuation of a long-term record of sea-level measurements based on satellite measurements of sea level height, which are needed to understand ocean circulation and its long-term climate effects."

Topography is the surveying of the features of a place or region, and sea-level topography measures the heights and depths of the ocean surface on a global scale that takes waves and other local disturbances into consideration.

Sea-surface heights are a measure of how much heat is stored in the ocean below, and the normal slow, regular patterns of sea-surface height and temperature move up (warm) and down (cool) with the normal progression of the seasons.

The three- to five-year mission will extend ocean topography measurements collected since 1992, first by the satellite TOPEX/Poseidon and now by Jason-2, according to an April 11 NASA press release.

NASA is cooperating on the mission with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), France's Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES), and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT).

The mission also will study how ocean circulation varies from season to season, year to year and decade to decade. It will improve the measure of global sea-level change and models of tides in the open ocean.

Operational organizations and researchers will use the data in marine meteorology and sea-state forecasting, operational oceanography, seasonal forecasting, climate and ocean monitoring and Earth and climate research.

NASA will provide several science instruments and satellite launch services on a Boeing Delta II rocket. NOAA will provide a satellite-control center, stations for commanding the spacecraft and acquiring data, data processing and the infrastructure for archiving and distributing mission data.

After the satellite's launch and an engineering assessment, CNES will hand over management of the satellite to NOAA. CNES will provide a satellite platform, a payload module, several science instruments, a satellite command-and-control center, data processing and an infrastructure for archiving and distributing mission data.

EUMETSAT will provide a site and infrastructure for the European Earth terminal, which will be integrated into the EUMETSAT ground segment infrastructure, data processing, and an infrastructure for archiving and distributing mission data.

Source: U.S. Department of State

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