Jason-3 successfully launched
The Jason-3 high-precision ocean altimetry satellite was successfully launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 19:42 CET (10:42 California time) on a Falcon 9 launcher procured by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as the acquisition agent for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
22 October 2020
17 January 2016
Control of the satellite was then taken over by the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES ), the French space agency, which over the next three days will perform early orbit phase operations such as configuration of the platform and the payload.
Jason-3 will secure the continuity of the unique climate data record of the mean sea level initiated by Topex-Poseidon in 1992 and continued by Jason-1 and Jason-2.
Also, the Jason-3 measurements of ocean waves and ocean surface topography will be essential inputs to numerical forecasts of sea state and ocean currents and to other applications in the areas of marine meteorology and operational oceanography.
Jason-3 measurements will also be ingested by numerical prediction models coupling the atmosphere and the oceans used for seasonal forecasting.
To ensure consistency of the measurements and climate data records from the Jason orbit, Jason-3 will be cross-calibrated with Jason-2 before routine operations.
About Jason-3
Jason-3 is the result of an international partnership between EUMETSAT, the French Space Agency (CNES), the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the European Union, which funds European contributions to Jason-3 operations as part of its Copernicus Programme.
Within Copernicus, Jason-3 is the reference mission for cross-calibrating Sentinel-3 observations of sea surface height and the precursor to the future cooperative Sentinel-6/Jason-CS mission also implemented in partnership between Europe and the United States.
EUMETSAT, CNES and NOAA will process data from Jason-3, with EUMETSAT being responsible for data services to users of the EUMETSAT and EU Member States, on behalf of the EU Copernicus Programme. Data access in Europe will be secured via the multi-mission infrastructure available at EUMETSAT and CNES, including EUMETSAT’s EUMETCast real-time data dissemination system, Earth Observation Portal and archives, as well as CNES’s AVISO data system.
