English: TOPEX/Poseidon was the first space mission that allowed scientists to map ocean topography with sufficient accuracy to study the large-scale current systems of the world's oceans.

The total relief of ocean topography shown in this image is about 2 meters. The color scale corresponds to the grades of the relief in centimeters. The vertical scale is greatly exaggerated to illustrate the three-dimensional perspective of the topography. In this image, the maximum sea level (shown in white) is located in the western Pacific Ocean and the minimum sea level (indicated by magenta and dark blue) is shown around Antarctica. In the northern hemisphere, ocean currents flow clockwise around the highs of ocean topography and counterclockwise around the lows; this process is reversed in the southern hemisphere. These highs and lows are the oceanic counterparts of atmospheric circulation systems. While the basic structure of these ocean systems is constant, the details of the systems are constantly changing.

Although this image was constructed from only 10 days of TOPEX/Poseidon data (October 3 to October 12, 1992), it reveals most of the current systems that have been identified by shipboard observations collected over the last 100 years.