Subject: [ids.analysis.forum] GFZ SEAVAR precise orbits of altimetry satellites ERS-1, ERS-2, GEOSAT and TOPEX/Poseidon
From: Sergei Rudenko <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2010 17:21:56 +0200

Dear colleagues,

precise orbits of altimetry satellites ERS-1 (August 1, 1991 - June 5, 1996),
ERS-2 (May 16, 1995 - February 27, 2006), GEOSAT (March 24, 1985 -
December 28, 1989) and TOPEX/Poseidon (September 23, 1992 - October 8, 2005)
were derived at the time spans given at Helmholtz Centre Potsdam GFZ German
Research Centre for Geosciences within the project "Sea Level Variations -
Prospects from the Past to the Present" (SEAVAR) using "Earth Parameter and
Orbit System - Orbit Computation (EPOS-OC)" software and the Altimeter
Database and processing System (ADS, http://adsc.gfz-potsdam.de/ads/)
developed at GFZ. The orbits were computed in the same (ITRF2000) terrestrial
reference frame for all satellites using common, most precise models and
standards available.

The orbit files are available in Product Specification Document (PSD) orbit
format via anonymous ftp at

ftp://ftp.gfz-potsdam.de/pub/home/kg/orbit/SEAVAR/ERS1/   for ERS-1 orbit,
ftp://ftp.gfz-potsdam.de/pub/home/kg/orbit/SEAVAR/ERS2/   for ERS-2 orbit,
ftp://ftp.gfz-potsdam.de/pub/home/kg/orbit/SEAVAR/GSAT/   for GEOSAT orbit,
ftp://ftp.gfz-potsdam.de/pub/home/kg/orbit/SEAVAR/TOPX/   for TOPEX/Poseidon
orbit.

Files are UNIX-compressed. File names are given as SATE_YYYYMMDD_VERS.Z,
where SATE is abbreviation (ERS1, ERS2, GSAT, TOPX) of the satellite name,
YYYY stands for 4-digit year, MM stands for month, DD stands for day
of the beginning of the file, and VERS is orbit version name.

The PSD orbit format description is given in the file
ftp://ftp.gfz-potsdam.de/pub/home/kg/orbit/SEAVAR/PSD_format_ver_01.pdf.

This description is available as file
ftp://ftp.gfz-potsdam.de/pub/home/kg/orbit/SEAVAR/Readme_GFZ_SEAVAR_orbits.

To reference these orbits in publications please use the following citation:

Rudenko S., Schoene T., Gendt G., Zhang F., Thaller D. (2007): Precise
orbits of altimetry satellites and analysis of GPS data at tide gauges
for sea level research, Observations of the System Earth from Space: status
seminar, 22-23 November 2007, Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities,
Munich, Programme & Abstracts, GEOTECHNOLOGIEN Science Report No. 11,
pp. 41-46.

The paper is available at
http://www.geotechnologien.de/portal/cms/Geotechnologien/Oeffentlichkeit/Download/Science+Reports
as
http://www.geotechnologien.de/portal/cms/Geotechnologien/Ressourcen/Dokumente/Science+Report/SR11?binary=true&status=300&langu
age=en
(pages 52-57 of the PDF-file).

Use of data from the International Laser Ranging Service, the International
DORIS Service, the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service
is acknowledged. GEOSAT Doppler data were kindly provided by C.K. Shum. Radar
Altimetry data were provided by ESA for ERS-1 and ERS-2, by NASA/CNES for
TOPEX/Poseidon, and by NOAA for GEOSAT. I would like to acknowledge the
contributions of the co-authors Tilo Schoene and Jean-Claude Raimondo,
as well as useful discussions with the colleagues of GFZ Section 1.2
"Geomonitoring and Gravity Field". This research was supported by the German
Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) and the German Research
Foundation (DFG) within GEOTECHNOLOGIEN geoscientific research and
development programme (grant 03F0434A).

In case of questions please contact Sergei Rudenko or Tilo Schoene:

[email-masked]
[email-masked]

Apologies for the duplicate posts.

With kind regards,
Sergei Rudenko
(On behalf of the co-authors)

---
Dr. Sergei Rudenko
Helmholtz Centre Potsdam
GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences
Department 1: Geodesy and Remote Sensing
Section 1.2: Global Geomonitoring and Gravity Field
Telegrafenberg
D-14473 Potsdam
Germany

E-mail: [email-masked]
Phone:  +49-8153-281578
Fax:    +49-8153-281735
http://www.gfz-potsdam.de/portal/-?$part=GFZ&$event=profile&username=rudenko