Multi-Mission Satellite Altimeter Sea Surface Height Anomalies Version 5.2

NASA's Integrated Multi-Mission Ocean Altimeter dataset provides a continuous, homogeneous record of along-track sea surface height anomalies (SSHA) from September 1992 to the present. It combines calibrated data from five satellite missions—TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1, OSTM/Jason-2, Jason-3, and Sentinel-6A—interpolated to a common reference orbit. The dataset is produced by NASA-SSH investigators at Goddard Space Flight Center and Jet Propulsion Laboratory, with quarterly updates and refinements under the MEaSUREs program.

Use Cases

• Analyzing long-term sea level rise trends using the consistent SSHA time series from 1992 onward.
• Studying ocean mesoscale eddies and currents with along-track high-resolution sea surface height data.
• Calibrating and validating ocean models and other satellite missions with the cross-calibrated multi-mission record.
• Investigating seasonal to interannual climate signals like El Niño through basin-wide SSH anomalies.

Strengths

• Provides a continuous, cross-calibrated climate data record spanning over 30 years, from September 1992 to present.
• Integrates data from five major altimeter missions with consistent processing (e.g., GSFC std2006_cs21 orbit, GOT5.1 tide model) to ensure homogeneity.
• Updated approximately quarterly and incorporates incremental refinements, such as the version 5.2 revisions for Sentinel-6 and Jason-3 data.

Limitations

• Specific row counts, file sizes, and a complete column schema are not provided by any source platform.
• Sources disagree on license details, with one specifying 'other-license-specified' and another listing 'None'.

Provenance

Source

NASA Sea Surface Height (NASA-SSH) project investigators at Goddard Space Flight Center and Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Collection Method

Geophysical Data Records from each altimetry mission were interpolated to a common mean reference orbit with applied biases and cross-calibrations.

Time Range

September 1992 to present

Freshness

2026-03-13 01:26:08.517183

Geography

Global ocean coverage along satellite ground tracks.