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Full catalog/JASON_CS_S6A_L2_ALT_HR_STD_OST_STC_F
JASON_CS_S6A_L2_ALT_HR_STD_OST_STC_F·vF·dataset

Sea-surface height and wave height, high-detail, from ESA's Sentinel-6A satellite

Sentinel-6A MF Jason-CS L2 P4 Altimeter High Resolution (HR) STC Ocean Surface Topography
ocean NASA POCLOUD Level 2 netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. Provides the height of the sea surface and how far it departs from average (anomalies), plus wave height, at high resolution along the satellite track. This near-final version arrives within about 36 hours.

How it's made. Derived from the Poseidon-4 radar altimeter on the Sentinel-6A Michael Freilich satellite, processed to give measurements at both coarse and fine sampling rates.

How & where you'd use it. Used for ocean and sea-level monitoring and forecasting where reasonably quick, accurate data is needed, before the fully finalized product is released.

What's measured

OCEANS › SEA SURFACE TOPOGRAPHY › SEA SURFACE HEIGHTOCEANS › OCEAN WAVES › SIGNIFICANT WAVE HEIGHT

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2020-12-07 → ongoing
  • Measured bySentinel-6A (Poseidon-4 Radar Altimeter, AMR-C, DORIS, GNSS RECEIVER)
  • Processing levelLevel 2
  • Spatial extent-180, -66.15, 180, 66.15
  • FormatsnetCDF-4
  • StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

  • Watch sea-surface temperature and marine heatwaves
  • Spot algal blooms and ocean-colour shifts
  • Support fisheries and coastal monitoring
Official description

Provides L2 high resolution (HR) short time critical (STC; 36-hour latency) altimetry from the Poseidon-4 SAR altimeter on the Sentinel-6A Michael Freilich spacecraft. It contains Sea Surface Height (SSH), Sea Surface Height Anomalies (SSHA) and Significant Wave Height (SWH), along with 1 Hz and 20 Hz Ku-band measurements processed from L1B altimetry including the range, orbital altitude, time, and water vapour. It also includes altimetry corrections, significant wave height and wind-speed from the AMR-C. This standard product release provides the geophysical parameters at both 1 and 20 Hz. The S6A STC product is analogous to the Jason-3 IGDR product.

Get the data

jason_cs_s6a_l2_alt_hr_std_ost_stc_f_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="JASON_CS_S6A_L2_ALT_HR_STD_OST_STC_F",
    version="F",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from POCLOUD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.