The latest oceanography satellite is circling Earth today after its launch on Friday. The Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason 2 satellite is a NASA-French space agency project. It flew into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Its mission is to continue charting sea level, a vital indicator of global climate change. It’s hoped the data it gathers will improve weather, climate and ocean forecasts.

“Sea-level measurements from space have come of age,” said Michael Freilich, director of the Earth Science Division in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. “Precision measurements from this mission will improve our knowledge of global and regional sea-level changes and enable more accurate weather, ocean and climate forecasts.”

Measurements of sea-surface height, or ocean surface topography, reveal the speed and direction of ocean currents and tell scientists how much of the sun’s energy is stored by the ocean.

OSTM/Jason 2’s expected lifetime of at least three years will extend into the next decade the continuous record of these data started in 1992 by NASA and the French space agency Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, or CNES, with the TOPEX/Poseidon mission.

To learn more about OSTM/Jason 2, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ostm

Photo Credit: Artist’s concept of OSTM/Jason-2 in space (NASA/JPL-Calech)