Sentinel-6A MF: Low-Resolution Ocean Topography from Radar Altimeter

Global ocean surface data provides low-resolution, short time critical measurements with a 36-hour latency. The dataset includes sea surface height anomaly, significant wave height, and wind speed, derived from 1 Hz and 20 Hz radar altimeter measurements. It is analogous to the Jason-3 IGDR product and includes environmental range and instrument corrections.

Use Cases

• Monitoring sea-level rise trends based on sea surface height anomaly measurements.
• Forecasting marine weather and wave conditions using significant wave height and wind speed data.
• Calibrating and validating ocean circulation models with geophysical model outputs.
• Analyzing short-term ocean variability from the 36-hour latency STC product.

Strengths

• Provides near-real-time data with a defined 36-hour latency for time-critical applications.
• Includes multiple measurement frequencies (1 Hz and 20 Hz) from the radar altimeter for detailed analysis.
• Contains a suite of corrected geophysical parameters, including environmental range and instrument corrections.

Limitations

• Metadata completeness is low; specific column names, row counts, and precise temporal coverage are not provided.
• License information is ambiguous, listed only as 'other-license-specified' without clear terms.
• Data freshness is unclear; the last updated date (2026-04-09) appears to be a future placeholder, conflicting with reliability.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Satellite measurements from the Sentinel-6A MF (Jason-CS) radar altimeter.

Freshness

2026-04-09 22:05:08.592859

Geography

Global ocean surface