A detailed analysis on the effect of temporal allaying associated with TOPEX/Poseidon, Geosat, and ERS altimeters has been caried out. In the time domain, aliasing occurs when the original period of an oceanographic signal, To, is less than twice the satellite repeat orbit period, Ts. The most striking feature of temporal aliasing is that the alias period, To, appears as a quasi periodic &llke function with respect to Ts, and a non-periodic &-like function with respect to To. Histograms of Ta versus To suggest that signals wltb original periods between 0 and 2Ts are aliased onto periods ranging from 2Ts to with a rapidly decreasing probabilit3z The potential consequences of temporal aliasing in satellite altimetry are discussed in the context of orbit design and sampling strategy for geophysical applications.