Today, June 20, 2018, the OSTM/Jason-2 mission (Ocean Surface Topography Mission) marks its 10th year in orbit. Jason-2 has now completed 47,000 orbital revolutions of our planet, acquiring measurements of unequaled precision from more than 300 million radar pulses.
Jason-2 has enabled numerous scientists all over the world to gain new insights into the ocean phenomena playing a key role in our planet’s changing climate. Extending the long series of measurements started in 1992 with TOPEX/Poseidon and then continued by Jason-1, it has quantified and provided evidence for the mean rise in sea level of three millimeters a year, which today is undisputable and a crucial indicator for assessing and planning for the impacts of climate change that are proving dramatic for certain coastal regions and islands.
