The Story of GANDER

GANDER – for Global Altimeter Network Designed to Evaluate Risk – was anidea that was probably ahead of its time. Conceived at a time when ocean observingsatellites were sometimes 10 years in the planning stage, the concept of affordable fastersampling through the use of altimeter-carrying microsats was primarily advanced as a wayof detecting and tracking storms at sea on a daily basis. But, of course, a radar altimetermonitors changes in sea-level as well as surface wave height and wind speed. Here then is asystem which, flown with more precise missions such as JASON 2, could meet the needs ofocean modellers by providing the greater detail required for tracking mesoscale eddies,whilst servicing forecasting centres and units at sea with near real-time sea state information.A tsunami mode, instantly activated when an undersea earthquake is detected by the globalnetwork of seismic stations, could also be incorporated.