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Full catalog/MERGED_TP_J1_OSTM_OST_ALL_V52
MERGED_TP_J1_OSTM_OST_ALL_V52·v5.2·dataset

Full sea-level record for climate study (multi-satellite)

Integrated Multi-Mission Ocean Altimeter Data for Climate Research complete time series Version 5.2
ocean NASA POCLOUD Level 2 active netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. A consistent, long-term record of sea surface height (how high or low the ocean stands relative to a reference), tracked along the satellites' paths from 1992 to the present.

How it's made. Stitched together from a series of ocean-altimeter satellites (TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1/2/3, and Sentinel-6A), carefully cross-calibrated so the missions blend into one seamless climate record.

How & where you'd use it. A go-to dataset for studying long-term sea-level rise, ocean circulation, and climate change, since it combines decades of missions into a single comparable time series.

What's measured

OCEANS › SEA SURFACE TOPOGRAPHY › SEA SURFACE HEIGHT

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span1992-09-25 → ongoing
  • Measured byOSTM/JASON-2 (AMR, POSEIDON-3) · JASON-1 (JASON-1 Microwave Radiometer, POSEIDON-2) · TOPEX/POSEIDON (TMR) · JASON-3 (POSEIDON-3B) · Sentinel-6A
  • Processing levelLevel 2
  • Spatial extent-180, -66, 180, 66
  • 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

The Integrated Multi-Mission Ocean Altimeter Sea Surface Height (SSH) Version 5.2 dataset provides level 2 along track sea surface height anomalies (SSHA) from the TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1, OSTM/Jason-2, Jason-3, and Sentinel-6A missions geo-referenced to a mean reference orbit. It is produced by NASA Sea Surface Height (NASA-SSH) project investigators at Goddard Space Flight Center and Jet Propulsion Laboratory with support from NASA’s Physical Oceanography program, and was developed originally as an Earth System Data Record (ESDR) under the Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs) program, which supported forward processing and incremental refinements through version 5.1 (released in April 2022). Geophysical Data Records (GDRs) from each altimetry mission were interpolated to a common reference orbit with biases and cross-calibrations applied so that the derived SSHA are consistent between satellites to form a single homogeneous climate data record. The entire multi-mission data record covers the period from September 1992 to present; it is extended to include new observations approximately once each quarter. The previous release (version 5.1) integrated Jason-3 data and applied revised internal tides and pole tide across missions (GDR_F standard). The current release (version 5.2) includes the following revisions: a) GSFC std2006_cs21 orbit for all missions, b) GOT5.1 ocean tide model, c) TOPEX/Poseidon GDR_F data, d) Sentinel-6 LR version F08 data, e) Jason-3 re-calibrated radiometer wet troposphere correction. More information about the data content and derivation can be found in the v5.2 User’s Handbook (https://doi.org/10.5067/ALTUG-TJ152). Please note that this collection is the same data as https://doi.org/10.5067/ALTCY-TJA52 but with all cycles included in one netCDF file.

Get the data

merged_tp_j1_ostm_ost_all_v52_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="MERGED_TP_J1_OSTM_OST_ALL_V52",
    version="5.2",
    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.