Gridded maps of sea surface height (SSH) have widespread use among the scientific and operational oceanography and climate science communities, including monitoring the global mean sea level. Since 2014, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has been producing SSH grids every 5 days from nadir-looking, along-track satellite radar altimetry available since 1992 (JPL MEaSUREs grids).

A new version of this gridded product is now available (v2205) and includes improvements such as the use of new versions of input data, updated corrections applied to the along-track altimeter observations as well as improvements in the gridding technique used.

The purpose of the MEaSUREs gridded SSH product is to provide a set of SSH grids, supported by NASA and using the latest corrections and most up to date altimeter products, with climate-quality accuracy from the mesoscale to the global scale. As observations are ongoing, grids will be updated regularly so that the product maintains relevance and utility.

This animation shows global sea surface height observations every 5 days from October 1992 to January 2022. Blue patterns show regions of low sea level while red patterns show regions of high sea level. These sea surface height grids find a variety of applications including global mean sea level and El Niño Southern Oscillation monitoring, tracking of eddies and Antarctic Circumpolar Current fronts, and estimating the transport of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, to name just a few.

Dataset NameProcessing
Level
Start/StopFormatSpatial ResolutionTemporal
Resolution
MEaSUREs Gridded Sea Surface Height Anomalies Version 22054 to PresentNETCDF-40.17 Decimal Degrees x 0.17 Decimal DegreesDaily - < Weekly