Data From Newest Ocean Satellite Ready for Their 'Close-up'

Following a year of calibration and validation by an international team of scientists, fully-validated, research-quality sea surface height data from the NASA/French Space Agency Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason-2 satellite are now available to the public. These “geophysical data record” products, as they are known, will be used primarily by climate researchers for climate monitoring and modeling.

These data are the most accurate of the three global OSTM/Jason-2 data products available to users worldwide. They are available within 60 days of being recorded, and are distributed jointly by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and France’s Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales.

Launched June 20, 2008, OSTM/Jason-2 is extending the climate data record begun by the NASA/French Space Agency Topex/Poseidon satellite and continued by the NASA/French Space Agency Jason-1 satellite, providing a long-term survey of Earth’s ocean. It measures changes in the height of the sea surface.

These are used to understand shifts in ocean currents as well as sea level rise—both critical parts of global climate change. The data are used around the world to improve weather, climate and ocean forecasts.