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NASA-SSH Along-Track Sea Surface Height from Standardized Reference Missions Version 1

Published by NASA/JPL/PODAAC | National Aeronautics and Space Administration | Catalog Last Checked: June 25, 2026 at 01:44 PM | Dataset Last Updated: June 23, 2026
The NASA-SSH Along-Track Sea Surface Height from Standardized Reference Missions Version 1 dataset produced by NASA provide observations of sea surface height, or sea level, anomaly measured using radar altimeter satellites in the reference mission orbit. These include TOPEX/Poseidon, the Jason series, and Sentinel-6. The data begin in Oct 1992, with data from TOPEX/Poseidon, and continues to the present. In this data set all missions have been referenced to a common baseline, additional quality control has been performed, and errors with wavelengths around one orbital cycle have been reduced. The data consist of along-track observations of sea surface height, collected approximately once per second (1 Hz), and are parsed into files containing one day’s worth of data per file. A flag variable is included to allow users to easily select only valid observations, and a variable containing sea surface height with the flag applied and a small amount along track smoothing (~20 km), is suggested for most users. Additionally, a “basin” flag variable is provided, along with a table defining it. This allows users to easily select all observations from a specific body of water. The basin flag assigns a number to each point corresponding to a specific ocean basin or lake. A table is included with a text description of each basin number. A text version of that table is available (https://archive.podaac.earthdata.nasa.gov/podaac-ops-cumulus-docs/web-misc/nasa-ssh/basin_name_table.txt). The basin definitions can be downloaded as a shape file from https://archive.podaac.earthdata.nasa.gov/podaac-ops-cumulus-docs/web-misc/nasa-ssh/basin_polygon_files.tar.gz, or as a kml file https://archive.podaac.earthdata.nasa.gov/podaac-ops-cumulus-docs/web-misc/nasa-ssh/NASA-SSH_Basins.kmz. New data will be released approximately once per week, with a latency of a few weeks.

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Complete Metadata
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description The NASA-SSH Along-Track Sea Surface Height from Standardized Reference Missions Version 1 dataset produced by NASA provide observations of sea surface height, or sea level, anomaly measured using radar altimeter satellites in the reference mission orbit. These include TOPEX/Poseidon, the Jason series, and Sentinel-6. The data begin in Oct 1992, with data from TOPEX/Poseidon, and continues to the present. In this data set all missions have been referenced to a common baseline, additional quality control has been performed, and errors with wavelengths around one orbital cycle have been reduced. The data consist of along-track observations of sea surface height, collected approximately once per second (1 Hz), and are parsed into files containing one day’s worth of data per file. A flag variable is included to allow users to easily select only valid observations, and a variable containing sea surface height with the flag applied and a small amount along track smoothing (~20 km), is suggested for most users. Additionally, a “basin” flag variable is provided, along with a table defining it. This allows users to easily select all observations from a specific body of water. The basin flag assigns a number to each point corresponding to a specific ocean basin or lake. A table is included with a text description of each basin number. A text version of that table is available (https://archive.podaac.earthdata.nasa.gov/podaac-ops-cumulus-docs/web-misc/nasa-ssh/basin_name_table.txt). The basin definitions can be downloaded as a shape file from https://archive.podaac.earthdata.nasa.gov/podaac-ops-cumulus-docs/web-misc/nasa-ssh/basin_polygon_files.tar.gz, or as a kml file https://archive.podaac.earthdata.nasa.gov/podaac-ops-cumulus-docs/web-misc/nasa-ssh/NASA-SSH_Basins.kmz. New data will be released approximately once per week, with a latency of a few weeks.
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identifier 10.5067/NSREF-AT0V1
keyword 
[
  "earth-science-sea-surface-topography-oceans-sea-surface-height"
]
license https://www.usa.gov/government-works
modified 2026-06-23
programCode 
[
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]
publisher 
{
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spatial 
"["CARTESIAN", [{"NorthBoundingCoordinate": 90, "SouthBoundingCoordinate": -90, "WestBoundingCoordinate": -180, "EastBoundingCoordinate": 180}]]"
temporal 1992-10-25/2026-06-15
theme 
[
  "Earth Science"
]
title NASA-SSH Along-Track Sea Surface Height from Standardized Reference Missions Version 1

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