Jason – 2, the new satellite developed to help with the understanding of climate change was launched today on top of a Delta – 2 rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base.

Its main objectives will be to measure the world’s oceans and also observe the movement of the masses of water, using a set of instruments that will reduce the margin for errors to only 4 centimeters. The interest for this type of research is connected to the agencies’ need for making better forecasts demanded by their upcoming space launches and other activities.

The project was co-founded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) using their Thales Alenia Space agency in collaboration with two of the organizations studying the climate from orbit, U.S.’s Noaa and Europe’s Eumetsat.

The satellite will record every ten days a topographic map of about 95 percent of the Earth’s oceans, showing the locations of hills and valleys where the sea’s level differs with as much as two meters in height. This was a very exciting discovery, as many believed that the sea level was flat without any sort of irregularities.

Mikael Rattenborg, the director of operations at Eumetsat, explained for BBC News that the ocean is considered the main lead in unveiling and studying the past climate system and the only way of making dependable predictions of the weather over days, months and years is to find a better way of understanding the oceans.

Jason – 2 is the third step in the observation program started in 1992 with the Topex/ Poseidon mission and continued with 2001’s launch of Jason – 1.