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Jason 3
For the world’s oceanographers, the Jason series of altimetry satellites is a vital resource. TOPEX/Poseidon, launched in 1992, Jason-1 in 2001, and then Jason-2 in 2008 have revealed that the global sea level is rising at an average rate of 3 mm per year. They have also helped scientists to better understand the vast system of deep and surface ocean currents. Today, they have become a benchmark for other altimetry satellites like SARAL, CryoSat, HY-2A and SWOT, and their operational applications are burgeoning.
Jason-3 ensures vital continuity of the ocean data record in the current context of global warming until at least 2020, while also developing operational services. Like its predecessors, it operates in a high-inclination 1,336-km orbit from which it covers 95% of the globe’s ice-free oceans every 10 days. Its instruments are installed on a Proteus spacecraft bus supplied by CNES. In 2020 and 2026, two new Jason satellites—respectively Jason-CS-A/Sentinel-6A and Jason-CS-B/Sentinel-6B—will join it in the same orbit.
Mission's news feed
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Continued high precision measurements of Earth’s sea level is assured
January 21, 2019
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European space cooperation, CNES and ESRIN meet to discuss Earth-observation programmes
Tuesday 18 July, CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall met ESA Director of Earth Observation Joseph Aschbacher at ESRIN, the European Space Research INstitute, to discuss the Earth...
July 18, 2017
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Science Programmes Committee Meeting focuses on innovation, climate and exploration
A meeting of CNES’s Science Programmes Committee (CPS) was held at CNES headquarters in Paris on Wednesday, 31 May 2017. The CPS advises the CNES Board of Directors on matters...
May 31, 2017