Jason-1: Assessment of the System Performances

• Published in: Marine geodesy Vol. 26; no. 3-4; pp. 147 - 157
• Main Authors: Perbos, J, Escudier, P, Parisot, F, Zaouche, G, Vincent, P, Menard, Y, Manon, F, Kunstmann, G, Royer, D, Fu, L-L
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.12.2003
• Subjects: INE, USA, California; World Ocean
• ISSN: 0149-0419
• DOI: 10.1080/714044515

On 7 December 2001, Jason-1 was successfully launched by a Boeing Delta II rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The Jason-1 satellite will maintain the high accuracy altimeter service provided since 1992 by TOPEX/Poseidon (T/P), ensuring the continuity in observing and monitoring the Ocean Dynamics (intraseasonal to interannual changes, mean sea level, tides, etc.). Despite one-fourth the mass and power, the Jason-1 system has been designed to have basically the same performance as T/P, measuring sea surface topography at a centimetric level. This new CNES/NASA mission also provides near real-time data for sea state and ocean forecast. The first two months of the Jason-1 mission have been dedicated to the assessment of the overall system. The goals of this assessment phase were: to assess the behavior of the spacecraft at the platform and payload levels (Jason-1 being the first program to call on the PROTEUS versatile multimission platform for Low and Medium Earth Orbit Missions developed in partnership between Alcatel Space and CNES); to verify that platform performance requirements are met with respect to Jason-1 requirements; to verify that payload instruments performance requirements evaluated at instrument level are met; and to assess the performance of the Jason-1 Ground System. This article will display the main outputs of the assessment of the system. It will demonstrate that all the elements of the on-board and ground systems are within the specifications. Provision of data to the Jason-1 Science Working Team started at the end of March 2002. This is the goal of a six-month phase after closure of the initial assessment phase to derive the error budget of the system in terms of altimetry user products.