The Jason Continuity of Service (Jason-CS) mission on the Sentinel-6 spacecraft will extend a decades-long record of earth observation data. How?
Jason-CS/Sentinel-6 will:
Send pulses to Earth's surface...
...and measure how long they take to return to the satellite.
Measure water vapor along the path.
Find its position using GPS...
...and ground-based lasers...
...along with a special network called "DORIS."
Use a reference surface to track its altitude in orbit...
...and determine sea surface height.
All of this technology is needed to measure the height of the ocean...
...with an accuracy of about one inch...
...from 800 miles above Earth.
In addition, Jason-CS/Sentinel-6 will conduct "occultation" experiments.
Watching GPS satellites...
...as they disappear over the horizon...
...will tell us about layers in our atmosphere.
To get the job done, Jason-CS/Sentinel-6 will also carry other instruments to determine the satellite's position (Star Trackers), downlink data (S-band and X-band Antennas), and supply power (Solar Array).
Jason-CS/Sentinel-6 includes two satellites scheduled to launch in 2020 and 2025, extending critical global data records beyond three decades.