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Full catalog/JASON_CS_S6A_L2_ALT_LR_STD_OST_NTC_G01_UNVALIDATED
JASON_CS_S6A_L2_ALT_LR_STD_OST_NTC_G01_UNVALIDATED·vG01·dataset

Sea surface height, low-resolution standard, unvalidated (Sentinel-6A)

Sentinel-6A MF Jason-CS L2 P4 Altimeter Low Resolution (LR) NTC Ocean Surface Topography (Unvalidated) G01
ocean NASA POCLOUD Level 2 netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. Sea surface height and height anomalies, significant wave height, plus supporting details like satellite altitude, timing, water vapor, and wind speed, at both coarse and fine sampling rates. The data are flagged as unvalidated.

How it's made. A standard Level-2 low-resolution product from the Poseidon-4 altimeter on Sentinel-6A in the delayed, reprocessed (60-day latency) form, with corrections and onboard radiometer data applied.

How & where you'd use it. Used for tracking sea level, ocean currents, and wave conditions; the fuller standard release suits research, with the caveat that it is not yet validated.

What's measured

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

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2020-11-30 → 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 reprocessed L2 low resolution (LR) non-time critical (NTC; 60-day 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 NTC product is analogous to the Jason-3 GDR product.

Get the data

jason_cs_s6a_l2_alt_lr_std_ost_ntc_g01_unvalidated_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="JASON_CS_S6A_L2_ALT_LR_STD_OST_NTC_G01_UNVALIDATED",
    version="G01",
    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.