Jason-3 is a follow-on altimetric mission to the TOPEX/Poseidon mission, Jason-1, and Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason-2. It is a joint mission between NASA and the Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES), the French space agency.

It launched January 17, 2016, and began data collection on February 12, 2016. Jason-3 is capable of measuring significant wave height, sigma naught (sigma0), and dry and wet troposphere and ionosphere, which can be used to calculate sea surface height, sea surface height anomalies, and total electron content.