Satellite sea surface heights (SSHs) are key observations used to monitor ocean dynamics. For each satellite altimeter mission, differing noise mixes with SSH signals preclude analysis of the smallest ocean scales. Using an adaptive filter, a new data set is produced for three altimeters, showing that SSH variability in the mesoscale 30–120 km wavelength band can now be more consistently resolved. For the first time, global small-scale ocean kinetic energy distributions are precisely monitored.