Geodesy and Geophysics Laboratory

Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason-2 (OSTM/Jason-2)

Class:

Status:

Past

Organizations:

Launch Date:

June 2008

WEBSITE:

The Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM), Jason-2 mission was launched from Vandenburg AFB on June 20, 2008. It is a joint mission with NASA, CNES (the French space agency), NOAA, and EUMETSAT. The prime payloads are an ocean radar altimeter, an Advanced Microwave Radiometer, a precision GPS receiver, a Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA), and a Doppler Orbitography Radiopositioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS) receiver. Jason-2 was launched into the same 9.91 day repeat orbit at 1336 km altitude used by its predecessors, Jason-1 and TOPEX/Poseidon. Its objective was to continue the synoptic mapping of ocean surface topography started in 1992 by TOPEX/Poseidon.

Key Staff
    Jason-2 Mission Logo showing the names of the mission participants: NASA, CNES (French Space Agency), NOAA, EUMETSAT