Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Topex-Poseidon

 1992-052A


NASA/JPL's Topex Ocean Topography Experiment was combined with the CNES Poseidon experiment on a Fairchild MMS satellite bus. The 2185 kg satellite carried 217 kg of fuel for a launch mass of 2402 kg. (www.tsgc.utexas.edu gives 2388 f 2169 em).

By early 1995, TOPEX/Poseidon measurements indicated a global sea level rise of 3 mm per year and provided data on global ocean tides, as well as studying the El Nino phenomenon. In Aug 1995 JPL reported that the spacecraft had completed its three year primary mission. In 2002, T/P manuevered to match the orbit of Jason.


Topex/Poseidon 
 

DateTimeEventOrbit  

1992 Aug 10  2308  Launch by Ariane 
 2313  T+5:35 St 2 sep 
 2325  T+17:37 H10 cutoff 
 2327  H10 sep from Topex (T+19:29) 
 2331  KITSAT, S80 sep from ASAP (T+23:36)  
1992 Aug 12    112.12 1316 x 1331 x 66.1 
1992 Aug 22    112.26 1328 x 1333 x 66.1 
1992 Aug 27  1825Plane change burn to 66 deg 
1992 Sep 2  
In-plane burn 2 due 
1992 Sep 14  
In-plane burn 3 due 
1992 Sep 21  1943  Trim burn 
1999 Feb   Primary altimeter off 
1999 Mar Side B altimeter on 
2002 Aug 8    112.42 1331 x 1344 x 66.04 
2002 Aug 15   Orbit adjust to match Jason-1 
2002 Aug 19   Orbit adjust to match Jason-1 
2002 Aug 23   Orbit adjust to match Jason-1 
2002 Aug 29   112.44 1332 x 1345 x 66.04 
2002 Nov 10   112.42 1331 x 1343 x 66.05 


Payload:

  • ALT NASA TOPEX Radar altimeter 13.6/5.3 GHz

  • POSEIDON SSALT CNES radar altimeter 13.65 GHz Solid state altimeter

  • TMR NASA TOPEX Microwave radiometer 18, 21, 38 GHZ, tropospheric H2O

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