Abstract:
Upon the release of the previously classified data from the U.S. Navy GEOSAT satellite in July 1995, researchers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography and NOAA's National Ocean Service Office of Ocean and Earth Science have created a detailed map of marine gravity anomalies from the satellite altimeter data.
The satellite measured the distance from the satellite to sea surface from March 1985 to October 1986. The distance data have been processed to depict small changes in the force of gravity throughout the oceans. These changes in gravity are the result of geologic features on the ocean floor. Because the previously classified Navy data are highly accurate (the altimeter measured distances of 500 miles accurate to 1 inch), and because of the GEOSAT mission's dense coverage, the gravity anomalies provide a view of the seafloor with unprecedented detail. To make the map, the GEOSAT data was combined with data from the European Space Agency's ERS-1 Satellite.
The data are useful in studies of navigation, ocean bathymetry, undersea volcanoes, plate tectontics, petroleum geology, and lithosphere structure.
The raw GEOSAT data are available on 4 CD-ROMs from the National Oceanographic Data Center: "http://www.nodc.noaa.gov"
The processed marine gravity anomaly data are available from Scripps in 2-minute or 3-minute grids: "ftp://baltica.ucsd.edu/pub"
The marine gravity anomaly maps and more information can be found on the World Wide Web at the National Geophysical Data Center: "http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/announcements/announce_predict.html"
Hardcopy posters are available for $40 (check payable to Regents of the University fo California) from Scripps: University of California at San Diego Geological Data Center-0223 9500 Gilman Drive La Jolla CA 90293-0223
[The information provided here was condensed from the NGDC WWW pages.]
Name:
GEOLOGICAL DATA CENTER Contact Address:
University of California at San Diego
Geological Data Center-0223
9500 Gilman Drive City:
La Jolla
Province or State:
CA
Postal Code:
90293-0223
Country:
USA
Name:
NODC
USER SERVICES Phone:
301-713-3277
Fax:
301-713-3302
Email:
NODC.Services at noaa.gov
Contact Address:
National Oceanographic Data Center
User Services Branch
NOAA/NESDIS E/OC1
SSMC3, 4th Floor
1315 East-West Highway City:
Silver Spring
Province or State:
MD
Postal Code:
20910-3282
Country:
USA
DAVID
T.
SANDWELL Role:
INVESTIGATOR
Phone:
619-534-7109
Fax:
619-534-9873
Email:
sandwell at geosat.ucsd.edu
Contact Address:
Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Univ. of California at San Diego City:
LA JOLLA
Province or State:
CA
Postal Code:
92093-0225
Country:
USA
WALTER
H.F.
SMITH Role:
INVESTIGATOR
Phone:
301-713-2857 x126
Fax:
301-713-4598
Email:
walter at amos.grdl.noaa.gov
Contact Address:
NOAA National Oceanographic Data Center
Laboratory for Satellite Altimetry
E/OC2, SSMC3, Room 3620
1315 East West Highway City:
SILVER SPRING
Province or State:
MD
Postal Code:
20910
Country:
USA
