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High quality measurements of sea level variability are available from three currently operational satellite altimeters: The European ERS-1 with a 35-day repeat data record for the periods April 1992 to December 1993 and March 1995 to the present, the joint U.S.-French TOPEX/POSEIDON with a 10-day repeat data record from October 1992 to the present and the European ERS-2 with a 35-day repeat data record from August 1995 to the present. These three simultaneous altimeter missions are providing a wealth of data for studies of mesoscale and large-scale variability of the near-surface ocean circulation. The U.S. Navy GEOSAT Follow-On altimeter with an expected launch in late 1996 and a TOPEX/POSEIDON Follow-On altimeter with a hoped-for launch in 1999 promise the opportunity to extend ongoing studies to investigate interannual variability.
Recent results obtained from satellite altimeter data will be summarized in this overview. The topics to be presented include the geographical variability and wavenumber characteristics of eddy kinetic energy and horizontal Reynolds stresses, equatorial Kelvin and Rossby waves on time scales from intraseasonal to interannual, extra-tropical planetary waves on seasonal and longer time scales, steric sea level variations on predominantly annual time scales, variations of the near-surface eastern and western boundary currents, and basin-scale variations of the gyre circulations.
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