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Past

Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason-2 (OSTM/Jason-2)

The Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM), Jason-2 mission was launched from Vandenburg AFB on June 20, 2008. It is a joint mission with NASA, CNES (the French space agency), NOAA, and EUMETSAT. The prime payloads are an ocean radar altimeter, an Advanced Microwave Radiometer, a precision GPS receiver, a Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA), and a Doppler Orbitography Radiopositioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS) receiver. Jason-2 was launched into the same 9.91 day repeat orbit at 1336 km altitude used by its predecessors, Jason-1 and TOPEX/Poseidon. Its objective was to continue the synoptic mapping of ocean surface topography started in 1992 by TOPEX/Poseidon.

Launch Date

May 2008

Class

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Key Staffs

The Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM), Jason-2 mission was launched from Vandenburg AFB on June 20, 2008. It is a joint mission with NASA, CNES (the French space agency), NOAA, and EUMETSAT. The prime payloads are an ocean radar altimeter, an Advanced Microwave Radiometer, a precision GPS receiver, a Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA), and a Doppler Orbitography Radiopositioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS) receiver. Jason-2 was launched into the same 9.91 day repeat orbit at 1336 km altitude used by its predecessors, Jason-1 and TOPEX/Poseidon. Its objective was to continue the synoptic mapping of ocean surface topography started in 1992 by TOPEX/Poseidon.

Related Publications

2025. "Trends in the M2 ocean tide observed by satellite altimetry in the presence of systematic errors.", Journal of Geodesy, 99 (2): 11 [10.1007/s00190-025-01935-9] [Journal Article/Letter]

2022. "Wave setup at the Minamitorishima tide gauge.", Journal of Oceanography, 79 13-26 [10.1007/s10872-022-00659-0] [Journal Article/Letter]

2020. "Satellite-based remote sensing data set of global surface water storage change from 1992 to 2018.", Earth System Science Data, 12 (2): 1141-1151 [10.5194/essd-12-1141-2020] [Journal Article/Letter]

2022. "Enhancement of a global lake and reservoir database to aid climate studies and resource monitoring utilizing satellite radar altimetry.", Journal of Great Lakes Research, 48 (1): 37-51 [10.1016/j.jglr.2021.11.013] [Journal Article/Letter]

2021. "Altimetry for the future: Building on 25 years of progress.", Advances in Space Research, [10.1016/j.asr.2021.01.022] [Journal Article/Letter]