The Jason-1 Earth satellite, which for 11 years mapped sea level, wind speed and wave height for more than 95 percent of Earth's ice-free ocean, provided new insights into ocean circulation, tracked our rising seas and enabled more accurate weather, ocean and climate forecasts.
Jason 1 was decommissioned in July 2013 after the failure of its last remaining transmitter left it unable to send data to Earth.
Along with its predecessor, the NASA/CNES Topex/Poseidon mission, Jason-1 helped create a revolutionary 20-plus-year climate data record of global ocean surface topography. In 2008, a follow-on called the Ocean Surface and Topography Mission (OSTM/Jason 2) was launched to further Jason 1's studies and the U.S./European team is preparing to launch the next satellite in the series, Jason-3, in March 2015.