The Jason-3 mission was determined as part of an agreement between four partners: CNES, NASA, NOAA and EUMETSAT.
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.

NOAA responsibilities for the ground system are to:

• Provide and operate a Satellite Operations Control Center (SOCC) for the satellite routine operations, and 2 Command and Data Acquisition (CDA) stations.
• Provide and operate near real-time (NRT) data processing for data collected by NOAA ground stations.
•  Provide dissemination of all near real-time data products (NOAA and EUMETSAT) and offline data products.
•  Provide a long-term archive of all near real-time and offline data products including telemetry, orbital and auxiliary data sets.

EUMETSAT responsibilities for the ground system are to:

• Provide an European Earth Terminal (TTCET) ground station
• Provide and operate near real-time (NRT) data processing for data collected by the European ground station.
• Provide dissemination of all near real-time data products (NOAA and EUMETSAT)
• Provide a long-term archive of all near real-time data products

 
CNES responsibilities for the ground system are to :

• Provide a Satellite Command Control Center (J3CCC)
• Operate the Satellite Command Control Center (J3CCC) for the satellite LEOP and Assessment phase operations before the Routine phase
• Provide the Navigation, Guidance, Expertise of the satellite for all the mission
• Provide the offline data products processing for all data collected by NOAA and EUM ground stations
• Provide dissemination of all the offline data products.
• Provide a long-term archive of all near real-time and offline data products including telemetry, orbital and auxiliary data sets.
• Control the mission CNES core instruments
• Provide a Mission Operation support for CNES instruments
• Ensure System Coordination for all mission phases 

NASA responsibilities are to:

•    Control the mission JPL core instruments
•    Provide a Mission Operation support for JPL instruments