News

05.08.2009 09:00 Age: 15 yrs

Public Release of the Jason-2 Geophysical Data Records

Category: News of the Jason-2 mission

The Jason-2/OSTM Geophysical Data Records (GDRs) are now available to the public after one year of calibration/validation.

The GDRs are Level 2 data, meaning, along-track altimetric measurements positioned and timed telemetry dated. They are expressed in physical units and qualified. These measurements are associated with the corrections to apply for overcoming measurement errors (instrumental, due to signal propagation in the atmosphere, perturbation by the sea surface state, etc.) and geophysical processes such as tides or load effects. The experts of the Ocean Surface Topography Science Team (OSTST) found that these GDRs are demonstrating excellent data quality, and consistency with the Jason-1 GDRs. As a result, at its June 2009 meeting in Seattle, the OSTST recommended the release of the Jason-2/OSTM GDRs. As a result, the public are invited to proceed with analyses based on the current version of the Jason-2 GDRs (version 'T'). All the GDRs products are now available since launch, 20-Jun-2008, from the following two sources:
1) CNES/AVISO's site : <link http: www.aviso.oceanobs.com>www.aviso.oceanobs.com/index.php  
2) NOAA's CLASS site : <link http: www.class.noaa.gov>www.class.noaa.gov These products are computed at CNES in NetCDF file format. 3 types of files are available:
- a GDR-T native NetCDF formatted datasets ("standard product");
- a reduced 1 Hz subset of the full dataset (SSHA-GDR-T);
- an expert sensor product containing the full radar-echo waveforms (SGDR-T). For details and limitations, please refer to:
www.aviso.oceanobs.com/fileadmin/documents/data/products/Jason-2_GDR_T_disclaimer.pdf