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Projects: Ocean Currents from Space

"Ocean Currents" was a 9-month project funded under the BNSC Service Mission Support (SMS) programme that began in February 2002 and ran until October 2002. The two objectives of Ocean Currents were:

• to complete a technical evaluation of the different methods that have been put forward in the last few years for providing more frequent updates on changing patterns of ocean currents;
  
  
• to evaluate the requirements of routine marine operations over and above the research requirements, taking special account of the need for comparatively fast delivery, and to assess the likely cost, technical complexity and overall suitability of each system to deliver operational products within an acceptable timeframe.

The first part of the project (WP2) assessed user requirements for information on ocean currents, both from the perspective of operational users and research institutions. This was completed at the end of June 2002.

The second part of the project (WP3) consisted of a technical evaluation of different satellite methods for measuring ocean currents (either directly or indirectly). This was divided into 3 subworkpackages. The first (WP31) describes the state of the art with regards to precise orbit determination, presenting various options that could be considered when devising a new satellite mission. The second subworkpackage (WP32) considered the role of sea surface temperature (SST) methods in retrieving ocean current measurements. Finally, the major subworkpackage (WP33) considered microwave systems for measuring ocean currents under the categories of altimetry (conventional and advanced), radar interferometry (along-track and cross-track) and passive radar methods (such as GPS reflectometry).

The final part of the project (WP4) considered the different systems in the light of user requirements and made recommendations for a dedicated service mission to measure ocean currents.

Project reports are available for download below.

WP2 - User requirements

WP2 report - Operational and research requirements (3.2MB word document)

WP3 - Candidate systems

WP31 report - Orbit determination (1.2Mb pdf document)

WP32 report - Role of SST measurements (6.4Mb word document)

WP33 report - Comparison of candidate systems (1.2Mb pdf document)

WP333 report - GPS reflectometry (2Mb pdf document)

WP4 - System vs requirements

WP4 report - Systems vs. requirements, product delivery approach and outline business plan. Includes a summary of WP2 and WP3 and overall project conclusions (164Kb pdf document)