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Full catalog/JASON_CS_S6A_L1A_ALT_HR_STC_F
JASON_CS_S6A_L1A_ALT_HR_STC_F·vF·dataset

Raw altimeter calibration data for sea height (Sentinel-6A)

Sentinel-6A MF Jason-CS L1A P4 Altimeter High Resolution (HR) STC Intermediate Outputs with Instrument Calibrations
ocean NASA POCLOUD Level 1A netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. Raw radar echoes used to measure sea surface height, recorded as bursts of Ku-band signal with the instrument's own calibration adjustments already applied. It captures the detailed return waveforms before they are turned into actual height numbers.

How it's made. Comes from the Poseidon-4 radar altimeter on the Sentinel-6A Michael Freilich satellite, delivered within about 36 hours as an early-stage intermediate product.

How & where you'd use it. A building-block input for producing finished sea-level measurements; most people use the higher-level height products rather than this raw calibration data.

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, GNSS-RO RECEIVER, Star Tracker)
  • Processing levelLevel 1A
  • 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 L1A high resolution (HR) short time critical (STC; 36-hour latency) altimetry intermediate outputs from the Poseidon-4 SAR altimeter on the Sentinel-6A Michael Freilich spacecraft, which are geo-located bursts of Ku-band echoes (at ~140 Hz) with all instrument calibrations applied and full rate complex waveforms for delay/Doppler or HR processing. The S6A STC product is analogous to the Jason-3 IGDR product.

Get the data

jason_cs_s6a_l1a_alt_hr_stc_f_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="JASON_CS_S6A_L1A_ALT_HR_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.