Near-Real-Time GPS-Based Orbit Determination and Sea Surface Height Observations from the Jason-1 Mission

The Jason-1 Operational Sensor Data Record (OSDR) is intended as a wind and wave product that is aimed towards near-real-time (NRT) meteorological applications. However, the OSDR provides most of the information that is required to determine altimetric sea surface heights in NRT. The exceptions include a sufficiently accurate orbit altitude, and pressure fields to determine the dry troposphere path delay correction. An orbit altitude field is provided on the OSDR but has accuracies that range between 8-25 cm (RMS). However, tracking data from the on-board BlackJack GPS receiver are available with sufficiently short latency for use in the computation of NRT GPS-based orbit solutions. The orbit altitudes from these NRT orbit solutions have typical accuracies of < 3.0 cm (RMS) with a latency of 1-3 h, and < 2.5 cm (RMS) with a latency of 3-5 h. Meanwhile, forecast global pressure fields from the National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) are available for the NRT computation of the dry troposphere correction. In combination, the Jason-1 OSDR, the NRT GPS-based orbit solutions, and the NCEP pressure fields can be used to compute sea surface height observations from the Jason-1 mission with typical latencies of 3-5 h, and have differences with those from the 2-3 day latency Interim Geophysical Data Records of < 5 cm (RMS). The NRT altimetric sea surface height observations are potentially of benefit to forecasting, tactical oceanography, and natural hazard monitoring.