1. Overview ABSTRACT As part of its Polar Satellite Program, NOAA operates the Jason-2 altimetry satellite and shares production of near real-time (NRT) products with EUMETSAT. The Jason series began with TOPEX/Poseidon (1992-2005) and Jason-1 (2001-present), which was a partnership between NASA and CNES. With the launch of Jason-2 in June 2008, the partnership was extended to include NOAA and EUMETSAT as the missions transitioned from research to operations. Jason-3 will be launched in early 2015, with NOAA and EUMETSAT assuming primary roles. The series will continue in 2019 with the Jason-CS (Continuity of Service) missions, adding the European Space Agency as a new partner. Production of the NRT Operational Geophysical Data Record (OGDR) is shared between NOAA and EUMETSAT, with each agency generating products from the telemetry downloaded through their ground stations. Product dissemination is provided by EUMETCAST, the Global Telecommunication System (GTS, in BUFR format), and through ftp sites at NOAA’s National Oceanographic Data Center, the Environmental Satellite Processing Center’s Data Distribution Server, and the Comprehensive Large Array-data Stewardship System archive. Operational applications of NRT altimetry include monitoring of high seas wind/wave conditions for maritime safety, improvement of hurricane intensity forecasting by inclusion of altimetric upper ocean heat content, and assimilation of sea surface heights into numerical ocean models for surface current and subsurface state predictions. Examples of these applications, as well as further information on data access, are provided in this poster. A companion poster by Leuliette et al. (W-11) discusses the primary application of Jason altimetry: monitoring global climate change and its regional variability via NOAA’s Sea Level Climate Data Record. The Jason Altimetry Missions - NOAA/EUMETSAT Operational Products & Applications John Lillibridge 1, David Donahue 2, Julia Figa-Saldaña 3, and Olivier Thépaut 3 1 NOAA/NESDIS Center for Satellite Applications and Research Laboratory for Satellite Altimetry, College Park, MD, 20740, U.S.A. 2 NOAA/NESDIS Office of Satellite and Product Operations Satellite Products Branch, College Park, MD, 20740, U.S.A. 3 EUMETSAT Technical and Scientific Support Department Remote Sensing and Products Division, Darmstadt 64295, GERMANY MissionTime Period TOPEX1992 – 2005 Jason-12001 – Jason-22008 – Jason-32015 – Jason-CS2019 – Science data processing, archive & Distribution, provision and maintenance of product processing facilities S/C Operations (Suitland, MD) EUMETSAT NASA/JPL NOAA CNES EUMETSAT – Usingen, Germany NOAA - Wallops/ Fairbanks - USA NASA Instrument Operations Operational NRT product processing & distribution (OGDRs) S/C Operations (Toulouse, France) Passengers Ops and mission centers CNES- JAXA Science Data archive & Distribution NODC/CLASS/DDS EUMETCASTAVISO Overview Partner Agencies: NOAA, EUMETSAT, NASA, CNES NOAA & EUMETSAT produce near real-time data Altimetry measures: Sea surface height Significant wave height Wind speed at ocean surface EUMETSAT: EUMETCast & FTP http://www.eumetsat.int/Home/Main/DataAccess NODC: FTP, DODS, THREDDS, LAS & OPeNDAP http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/SatelliteData/Jason2 JASON Data Access CLASS: FTP & HTTP (Full Mission Archive) http://www.class.noaa.gov Operational Altimetry Applications Maritime Wind/Wave Monitoring Surface Topography & Currents Assimilation in Coupled Ocean Models Deep Water Horizon Dispersion ProjectionsNOAA RTOFS Atlantic HYCOM model Assimilation in Ocean Wave Models NOAA WAVEWATCH III® model Hurricane Intensity Forecasting Katrina Track & Intensity vs. Ocean Heat Content