CEOS EO HANDBOOK – INSTRUMENT SUMMARY
- POSEIDON-3C Altimeter
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Full Name
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Positioning Ocean Solid Earth Ice Dynamics Orbiting Navigator (Single frequency solid state radar altimeter)
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Status
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Operational
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Instrument Agencies
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NASA
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Maturity
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Instrument Type
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Radar altimeters 
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Geometry
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Nadir-viewing
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Instrument Technology
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Radar altimeter
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Sampling
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Sounding
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Data Access
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Open Access
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Data Format
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NetCDF
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Measurements and Applications
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Nadir viewing sounding radar for provision of real-time high precision sea surface topography, ocean circulation and wave height data.
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Resolution Summary
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Basic measurement: 1/sec (6 km along track), Raw measurement: 20/sec (300 m along track)
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Swath Summary
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On baseline TOPEX/POSEIDON orbit (10 day cycle): 300 km between tracks at equator
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Accuracy Summary
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Sea level: 3.4 cm, Significant wave height: 0.4 m, Horizontal sea surface wind speed: 1.5 m/s
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Waveband Summary
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Microwave: Ku-band (13.575 GHz), C-band (5.3 GHz)
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| Ku-Band (12.5 to 18 GHz) |
| C-Band (8 - 4 GHz) |
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Instrument Measurements
Measurements Overview
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Instrument Missions
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