Organization

The JASON-3 Programme is led by the operational agencies EUMETSAT and NOAA, with CNES making a significant in-kind contribution and acting at technical level as the system coordinator. NASA in conjunction with EUMETSAT, NOAA and CNES will support science team activities.

MOU Mission Partnership Responsibilities:

• CNES
  
  • Provides an in-kind contribution: system engineering and associated human resources, standard flight worthy PROTEUS platform, CNES human resources as part of the operations.
  • Conducts and coordinates with the partners the preparation and release of relevant Research Announcements.
  • Conducts, in coordination with EUMETSAT, the selection of European Investigators.

• EUMETSAT
  
  • Leads with NOAA the JASON-3 Programme.
  • Provides support to the overall system engineering.
  • Funds the European payload consisting of the Poseidon3B altimeter and the DORIS orbithography receiver package, the payload module and its integration.
  • Provides and operates near real-time data processing for data collected by European ground stations.
  • Provides dissemination of all near real-time data products (NOAA and EUMETSAT).
  • Funds a command and control centre for the satellite, a European Earth Terminal and the offline data processing, archiving and dissemination for the Programme.
  • Supports the relevant Research Announcement process, and assesses the relevance of investigation results for future operational services.

• NASA
  
  • Conducts and coordinates with the partners the preparation and release of relevant Research Announcements.
  • Conducts, in coordination with NOAA, the selection of U.S. Investigators.

• NOAA
  
  • Leads with EUMETSAT the Jason-3 Programme.
  • Provides support to the overall system engineering.
  • Provides the U.S. payload consisting of the AMR radiometer, a LRA retro reflector and a GPSP positioning receiver package.
  • Provides launch services compatible with the Jason-3 satellite and the mission requirements.
  • Provides and operates a command and control centre for the satellite, command and data acquisition stations.
  • Provides and operates near real-time data processing for data collected by NOAA ground stations.
  • Provides dissemination of all near real-time data products (NOAA and EUMETSAT) and offline data products.
  • Provides a long-term archive of all near real-time and offline data products including telemetry, orbital and auxiliary data sets.
  • Supports the relevant Research Announcement process, and assesses the relevance of investigation results for future operational services.

Mission Partnership Activities:

• CNES
  
  • Project Management
  • Satellite, Proteus bus
  • Payload
    
    • Nadir Altimeter POS3B
    • DORIS
    • CARMEN3 - LPT
  • Ground System & Operations
    
    • Satellite Control Command Centre (CCC)
    • OFL product processing and distribution
    • All archiving
    • Ground network
    • Satellite Operations before handover
    • Navigation, Guidance, Expertise for all mission
  • System integration & test
  • Mission Operation support for CNES instruments
  • System Coordination for all mission phases
  • User interface

• EUMETSAT
  
  • Project Management
  • Ground System & Operations
    
    • Earth Terminal
    • NRT product processing, archiving and distribution
    • Ground network
  • User interface

• NASA
  
  • Project Management
  • Launch vehicle
  • Payload
    
    • Advanced Microwave Radiometer (AMR)
    • GPS Receiver (GPSP)
    • Laser Retro-reflector Array (LRA)
  • JPL Payload integration and test
  • Mission Operation support for JPL instruments

• NOAA
  
  • Project Management
  • Ground System & Operations
    
    • Satellite Operations Control Centre (SOCC)
    • CDA Stations
    • NRT product processing
    • All product distribution
    • All archiving
    • Ground network
    • Satellite operations after handover
  • User interface

Furthermore, the development and execution of the Carmen2/LPT (Light Particle Telescope) experiment is the subject of a specific agreement between CNES/JAXA.

CNES/JAXA cooperation on LPT/Carmen3 is broken down as follows:

• CNES
  
  • is responsible for this experiment with regards to the three JASON-3 partners,
  • supplies the Carmen2 instrument,
  • carries out engineering studies required to host the instruments and integrate them into the satellite,
  • processes data.

• JAXA
  provides the LPT instrument, supports its integration on the satellite, and
  processes data.

High-level management of the project is provided by the “Joint Steering Group” (JSG), made up of representatives from the four agencies CNES/EUMETSAT/NASA/NOAA. This group is responsible for monitoring scheduling activities of the JASON-3 mission and high-level decisions.

• Role of OSTST

To conclude, an international group of scientists, the "Ocean Surface Topography Science Team" (OSTST), provides an independent assessment of scientific objectives and advances, and contributes to wider distribution of advances achieved in an international context.