Compatible Sea Surface Height Anomaly Records for TOPEX/Poseidon and Jason-1 Missions

The Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center at JPL (JPL PO.DAAC) has developed two new products for sea level residual measurements. These are the sea surface height anomalies for TOPEX/Poseidon (TPSSHA) and for Jason-1 (J1SSHA). These residuals are calculated by editing the data from the PO.DAAC Merged GDR (MGDRB) for TOPEX/Poseidon and from the Jason-1 (I)GDR data series and are currently available through the JPL PO.DAAC web site, http://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/. To calculate the sea surface height anomaly, TPSSHA uses Jason-1 compatible tide, mean sea surface, electromagnetic bias, wet correction, and inverse barometer parameters. Consequently, the entire data set for TOPEX/Poseidon, beginning in October, 1992, will be available with these Jason-1 compatible parameters to provide a long-standing data record. In particular, the TPSSHA and J1SSHA will provide compatible measurements of the sea level residuals during the tandem TOPEX/Poseidon and Jason-1 missions, which began in mid September, 2002.