ECMWF has upgraded their operational meteorological models significantly (see their <link http: www.ecmwf.int products changes ifs_cycle_40r1 _blank external-link-new-window>news).

These changes became active on 19 November and have and will have impacts on the production of all Jason-2 and SARAL data (OGDRs first, then also IGDRs and GDRs). 

EUMETSAT made an analysis of the impacts and it showed significant changes in the model wet and dry tropospheric correction fields up to about ±5 cm, which are expected to result in improvements of these fields. While the changes from the previous ECMWF cycle 38r2 to 40r1 are significant, they are only about one third of the differences between analysed and predicted fields. Hence we do not expect any adverse impact on the data quality. In fact, we expect to see improvements.

Sorry for this inconvenience,