CoAuthors

Eva Jalabert (CNES, France); Alexandre Couhert (CNES, France); Flavien Mercier (CNES, France); Sabine Houry (CNES, France); Hanane Ait Lakbir (CSSI, France); Clément Masson (CSSI, France)

The NASA/CNES Jason-2 spacecraft was placed into a long-repeat orbit (LRO) beginning of July 2017. Along with Jason-3, the current altimeter reference mission, the EU Copernicus Sentinel-3A satellite complements the sea level data legacy for more than two years, while Sentinel-3B, the twin satellite of Sentinel-3A, has just been launched in April 2018. This new mission implements the last GDR-F POD Standards (like the Jason-3 and Sentinel-3A missions), which was endorsed at the previous OSTST meeting.

This paper presents a status of the CNES precise orbits for the OSTM/Jason-2 and Jason-3 missions, as well as first Sentinel-3B POD results. The two extreme missions of the Jason orbit time series, TOPEX/Poseidon and Jason-3, were reprocessed in the GDR-F POD Standards, and the performance of these reprocessed orbit solutions is assessed. Comparisons of the CNES orbits with available external solutions are shown, as a complement to independent SLR validations. Plans for reprocessing the Jason-1 and Jason-2 missions are also discussed.