Assessment of the Cycle-to-Cycle Noise Level of the Geosat Follow-On, TOPEX, and Poseidon Altimeters

Abstract The Geodetic Satellite (Geosat) Follow-On (GFO), Ocean Topography Experiment (TOPEX), and Poseidon altimeter white-noise levels have been evaluated using a technique based on high-pass filtering of 1-Hz sea surface height time series. High-pass filtering removes the geoid and oceanography signals while revealing the random noise. This filtering technique is simpler to use than the repeat-track method, gives essentially the same results, and makes it easier to analyze much larger amounts of data to investigate subtle variations in noise levels. The new noise-level measurements provided here all show stable noise-process characteristics from cycle to cycle, with a linear dependence of the noise level upon significant wave height (SWH). The GFO altimeter noise level is estimated to be 2.5 cm for an SWH of 2 m. The Poseidon noise level is estimated at 2.0 cm for the same value of 2 m SWH. The TOPEX altimeter noise level is 1.8 cm when the dual-frequency ionospheric correction is included; when this n...

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