Poseidon 2/3

Poseidon 2/3

Satellites

Jason-1 (Poseidon -2) and Jason-2 (Poseidon-3)

Status

Operational – Utilised in the period 2001 to ~ 2015

Mission

Ocean topography, significant wave height, wind speed

Instrument type

Two-frequency (5.3 and 13.58 GHz) radar altimeter

Scanning technique

Nadir-only viewing, sampling at 30 km intervals along track

Coverage/cycle

Global coverage in 1 month for 30 km average spacing, or in 10 days for 100 km average spacing

Resolution

30 km IFOV

Resources

Mass: 70 kg - Power: 78 W - Data rate: 22.5 kbps