Organization

As for Jason-1, the Jason-2 mission is being executed with international partners. However, this cooperation has  been extended in the United States, where NOAA is working with NASA and in Europe, where EUMETSAT is working with CNES. The sharing of responsibility for the OSTM/JASON-2 mission is the same as that adopted for Jason-1 whilst taking account of the projects extension to the two operational agencies, NOAA and EUMETSAT.

The development and execution of the Carmen2/LPT (Light Particle Telescope) experiment is also the subject of a specific agreement between CNES and JAXA.

A more detailed breakdown of this cooperation is found below:

• CNES
  
  • is responsible for the overall management of the project and the system,
  • is the prime contractor for the satellite system that uses the PROTEUS spacecraft bus,
  • contributes to the payload by supplying the POSEIDON3 nadir altimeter, the DORIS onboard system, the
  • technological "passengers" T2L2, Carmen2 and LTP,
  • provides the satellite control centre and a ground station in Germany for EUMETSAT,
  • is responsible for the definition and execution of all system tests,
  • operated the satellite during the in-flight acceptance phase and the critical phases, and provides steering controls and orbit control and satellite expertise throughout the satellite's entire service life,
  • processes, archives and distributes science data,
  • archives operational data.

• EUMETSAT
  
  • supplies and maintains the infrastructure for the ground station,
  • processes and distributes operational data,
  • acts as an interface between operational users.

• NASA
  
  • supports CNES in the overall management of the system,
  • supplies the launcher, launch operations and associated infrastructures,
  • contributes to the payload by supplying the UHF radiometer (designed for tropospheric corrections), the GPS receiver and the laser retroreflector (for precise orbit determination).

• NOAA
  
  • supplies two ground stations,
  • suppliers an operations centre and conducts routine operations on the satellite after transfer to the CNES control centre,
  • processes and distributes operational data,
  • acts as an interface with operational users,
  • archives and distributes scientific data.

CNES/JAXA cooperation on LPT/Carmen-2 breaks down as follows:

• CNES
  
  • is responsible for this experiment with regards to the three JASON-2 partners,
  • supplies the Carmen2 instrument,
  • carries out engineering studies required to host the instruments and integrate them with the satellite,
  • process data.

• JAXA
  
  • provides the LPT instrument, supports its integration on the satellite,
  • processes data.

High-level management of the project is provided by the “Joint Steering Group” (JSG), made up of representatives from the four agencies (CNES/EUMETSAT/NASA/NOAA). This group is responsible for monitoring scheduling activities of the JASON-2 mission and high-level decisions.

• Role of OSTST

To conclude, an international group of scientists, the Ocean Surface Topography Science Team (OSTST), provides an independent assessment of science objectives and contributes to wider distribution of advances achieved in an international context.