From TOPEX/Poseidon to Sentinel-6 MF, a long record of high-precision ocean altimetry data has been acquired over the same historical ground track. Jason-3 has given up its role as a reference mission over the year 2022 but keeps orbiting and contributing to the better understanding of the ocean.
Through the CNES SALP (Système d'Altimétrie et Localisation Précise) project, CLS has been in charge of the long-term monitoring of the various Jason altimetric missions. This activity provides an estimate of the concerned missions’ performances for oceanic applications such as climate studies.
As TOPEX/Jason/Sentinel-6 have all been reference missions used in operational applications and in delayed time studies (especially for the Global Mean Sea Level monitoring), focus has been given to the long-term stability of their Global Mean Sea Level (GMSL). The Jason-3 GDR-F data have been provided to users since cycle 171 (2020, September), and data reprocessing in standard “F” was performed during 2021 over the past. This reprocessing campaign had a twofold objective: improve the quality of the products and share common standards with Sentinel-6/Jason-CS, as Sentinel-6 datasets have followed standard “F” from its launch (in 2020, November) onwards.
To ensure a reliable content to all scientists involved in climate change studies as well as operational oceanography, it is essential to precisely observe Jason-3 data quality and errors. This monitoring of altimeter and radiometer parameters is even more important due to the ageing of the various instruments onboard. After seven years in orbit as a precise altimeter mission, this poster will give an update of Jason-3 data coverage and data quality, but also the performance of delayed and real time products (GDR, IGDR, OGDR) at mono-mission crossovers and along-track.