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Full catalog/JASON_CS_S6A_L2_ALT_HR_RED_OST_STC_F
JASON_CS_S6A_L2_ALT_HR_RED_OST_STC_F·vF·dataset

Sea-surface height, high-res, near-final (Sentinel-6A)

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

What it measures. High-resolution sea-surface height, height anomalies, and wave height along the satellite track, delivered relatively quickly (within about 36 hours).

How it's made. Produced from the Poseidon-4 radar altimeter on the Sentinel-6A Michael Freilich satellite, processed to a near-final 'short time critical' product (trimmed to the 1-per-second data).

How & where you'd use it. Near-real-time ocean monitoring and forecasting; this faster, lighter version suits users who need timely sea-height data over the full detail.

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 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 release is reduced to exclude the 20 Hz observations that are included in the standard product. The S6A STC product is analogous to the Jason-3 IGDR product.

Get the data

jason_cs_s6a_l2_alt_hr_red_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_RED_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.