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Full catalog/JASON_CS_S6A_L1B_ALT_LR_STC_F
JASON_CS_S6A_L1B_ALT_LR_STC_F·vF·dataset

Raw low-resolution sea-height radar waveforms (Sentinel-6A)

Sentinel-6A MF Jason-CS L1B P4 Altimeter Low Resolution (LR) STC Geolocated Waveforms
ocean NASA POCLOUD Level 1B netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. Low-resolution radar power echoes from the sea surface, geo-located and fully calibrated. These are intermediate radar signals used to derive sea surface height.

How it's made. A low-level Level-1B product from the Poseidon-4 radar altimeter on Sentinel-6A, in the lower-resolution, faster (36-hour latency) processing version.

How & where you'd use it. An input product for producing sea surface height and ocean measurements; mainly used by researchers and algorithm developers rather than directly.

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)
  • Processing levelLevel 1B
  • 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 L1B low resolution (LR) short time critical (STC; 36-hour latency) altimetry data from the Poseidon-4 SAR altimeter on the Sentinel-6A Michael Freilich spacecraft which include the geolocated, fully-calibrated pulse-limited LR power echoes. The S6A STC product is analogous to the Jason-3 IGDR product.

Get the data

jason_cs_s6a_l1b_alt_lr_stc_f_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="JASON_CS_S6A_L1B_ALT_LR_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.