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Full catalog/MERGED_TP_J1_OSTM_OST_CYCLES_V52
MERGED_TP_J1_OSTM_OST_CYCLES_V52·v5.2·dataset

Sea-level height combined across missions, for climate

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

What it measures. Tracks how high the sea surface stands relative to a reference, along the satellite tracks, in 10-day cycles, stitched together from several altimeter missions into one consistent record.

How it's made. Built by NASA from the TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1/2/3, and Sentinel-6A satellites, all carefully cross-calibrated and put on a common reference orbit so the missions agree.

How & where you'd use it. The go-to record for studying sea-level rise and ocean change from 1992 to today, designed specifically for long-term climate research.

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) for 10-day cycles 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 contains the same data as https://doi.org/10.5067/ALTTS-TJA52, re-organized into one netCDF file per cycle for convenience.

Get the data

merged_tp_j1_ostm_ost_cycles_v52_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="MERGED_TP_J1_OSTM_OST_CYCLES_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.