Why Stick Jason Up There, Anyway?

The TOPEX/POSEIDON satellite is and the Jason-1 satellite soon will be using all the equipment you just read about to measure and understand the complex and ever-changing topography of the ocean. Knowing the topography of the ocean and how it is changing enables (helps) meteorologists to predict the weather better and oceanographers to understand the way the ocean works and why. This helps fishers to fish better and boats to sail better. Even the Coast Guard uses this information. They use it to find boats and planes on the ocean floor (these, of course are boats and planes that have sunk!).

Understanding the topography of the ocean means understanding the shape of the surface of the ocean--the hills and valleys. It also means understanding the way heat flows in the ocean. The ocean holds most of the heat in the Earth's hydrosphere. The heat in the top three meters of the ocean is equal to the amount of heat stored in the whole atmosphere. This heat is pushed around by wind and the ocean currents. It affects the weather and climate considerably. It has always been a challenge to oceanographers to figure out how these currents move and how they affect the weather. These currents can be figured out by studying the topography of the ocean, which is the height of the ocean surface compared to the Earth's geoid (click on the "Satellite Altimetry" link to your left to see a picture of the geoid).