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Full catalog/JASON_CS_S6A_L2_ALT_LR_RED_OST_STC_F
JASON_CS_S6A_L2_ALT_LR_RED_OST_STC_F·vF·dataset

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

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

What it measures. Sea surface height compared to normal, plus wave height and wind speed over the ocean, in a slimmed-down version of the standard product.

How it's made. Derived from the radar altimeter on the Sentinel-6A satellite at a coarser resolution, delivered within about 36 hours as a near-final reading.

How & where you'd use it. Handy for tracking sea level, currents, waves, and ocean winds when a compact, near-final dataset is all that's needed.

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 low resolution (LR) short time critical (STC; 36-hour latency) measurements of sea surface height anomaly (SSHA), Significant Wave Height (SWH), and Wind Speed. The STC product is analogous to the Jason-3 IGDR product.

Get the data

jason_cs_s6a_l2_alt_lr_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_LR_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.