Joint Effort
OSTM/Jason-2 is a joint effort by four organizations. The mission participants are:
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
- France’s Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES)
- European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT)
CNES provided the spacecraft, NASA and CNES jointly provided the payload instruments and NASA's Launch Services Program at the Kennedy Space Center was responsible for the launch management and countdown operations. After completing the on-orbit commissioning of the spacecraft, CNES handed over operation and control of the spacecraft to NOAA in October 2008.
CNES will process, distribute and archive the research-quality data products that will become available in 2009. EUMETSAT will process and distribute operational data received by its ground station to users in Europe and will archive the data. NOAA will process and distribute operational data received by its ground stations to non-European users and archive that data along with the CNES data products. NOAA and EUMETSAT will generate the near-real-time products and distribute them to users.
NASA will evaluate the performance of its instruments: the advanced microwave radiometer, the Global Positioning System payload, and the laser retroreflector assembly. In addition, NASA and CNES will validate scientific data products. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
Read more about this topic: Ocean Surface Topography Mission
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