NASA NTRS1994
The ability to determine accurate global sea level variations is important to both detection and understanding of changes in climate patterns. Sea level variability occurs over a wide spectrum of temporal and spatial scales, and precise global measurements are only recently possible with the advent of spaceborne satellite radar altimetry missions. One of the inherent requirements for accurate determination of absolute sea surface topography is that the altimetric satellite orbits be computed with sub-decimeter accuracy within a well defined terrestrial reference frame. SLR tracking in support of precision orbit determination of altimetric satellites is significant. Recent examples are the use of SLR as the primary tracking systems for TOPEX/Poseidon and for ERS-1 precision orbit determination. The current radial orbit accuracy for TOPEX/Poseidon is estimated to be around 3-4 cm, with geographically correlated orbit errors around 2 cm. The significance of the SLR tracking system is its ability to allow altimetric satellites to obtain absolute sea level measurements and thereby provide a link to other altimetry measurement systems for long-term sea level studies. SLR tracking allows the production of precise orbits which are well centered in an accurate terrestrial reference frame. With proper calibration of the radar altimeter, these precise orbits, along with the altimeter measurements, provide long term absolute sea level measurements. The U.S. Navy's Geosat mission is equipped with only Doppler beacons and lacks laser retroreflectors. However, its orbits, and even the Geosat orbits computed using the available full 40-station Tranet tracking network, yield orbits with significant north-south shifts with respect to the IERS terrestrial reference frame. The resulting Geosat sea surface topography will be tilted accordingly, making interpretation of long-term sea level variability studies difficult.