Jason-3

Jason-3 helps improve global atmosphere and ocean forecasting

Jason-3 altimeter data is part of the Copernicus programme and is used by the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS).

Last Updated

02 September 2022

Published on

28 July 2020

As the altimetry reference mission, Jason-3 links up the other altimeter missions — Sentinel-3, Altika, Cryosat-2 and HY-2A — by precisely determining any bias between them and by adjusting them against the Jason-3 reference mission.

Jason-3 provides data on the decadal (10-yearly) oscillations in large ocean basins, such as the Atlantic Ocean; mesoscale variability, and surface wind and wave conditions. This data is vital to our understanding of weather forecasting and climate change monitoring. Jason-3 measurements contribute to the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) satellite data assimilation, helping improve global atmosphere and ocean forecasting.

Altimetry data from Jason-3 helps in the creation of detailed decade-long global observations and analyses of the El Niño and La Niña phenomena, providing insights int ocean circulation and its effects on climate; ocean tides; turbulent ocean eddies, and marine gravity.

Launched: 17 January 2016, Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 launcher.
Operational: 14 October 2016.
Orbit: Non-sun-synchronous low Earth orbit at 66° inclination and 1336km altitude, optimised to eliminate tidal aliasing from sea surface height and mean sea level measurements.
Built on the same cooperation as Jason-2, involving EUMETSAT, NOAA, CNES and NASA, with Copernicus expected to support the European contribution to operations, as part of its HPOA activity, which also covers contributions to the Jason-CS programme.

Short-range ocean forecasts

Short range ocean forecasts are useful in a variety of applications:

Sustainable management of ocean resources.
Monitoring of fishing vessel and merchant shipping fleets.
Safety of people and property at sea.
Environmental protection.
Harbour management.
Sizing of port and maritime structures.
Management and monitoring of coastal resources and environments.
Tourism.

Seasonal forecasting and climate monitoring

Seasonal forecasting aims to provide useful information about the climate that can be expected in the coming months. Having a precise knowledge of the ocean state is essential when trying to forecast what the climate will be like six months ahead, thus, altimetrsource of vital data for seasonal forecasting models.

Changes in the energy balance between the oceans and atmosphere play an important role in the planet's climate change. From the seasonal to the decadal, or even the centennial timeframe, knowledge about the ocean state and its influence upon the atmosphere is one of the keys to climate forecasting. Jason-3 aids a better understanding of how oceans and climate interact.