Oceans of Climate Change

Sea level rise is an indicator that our planet is warming. When ice on land, such as mountain glaciers or the ice sheets of Greenland or Antarctica, melts, that water contributes to sea level rise.

In many communities in the U.S., sea level rise is already a factor in people’s lives in the form of high-tide flooding.

El Niño/La Niña - (12/1996 - 01/2000)

The joint U.S.-European Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich is the next in a line of Earth-observing satellites that will collect the most accurate data yet on sea level and how it changes over time. With ...

Ice covers 10 percent of Earth's surface and helps moderate the planet's temperature.

Jason-CS/Sentinel-6 - How they will work

Fathoming the forces that determine global sea levels can be daunting. We present a guide to the basics of ocean surface topography.

After living in coastal Virginia and seeing the effects of climate change firsthand, Ben Hamlington is now researching sea level rise at NASA JPL.

QuickTime VR of TOPEX/Poseidon

It’s not only water processes that play a role in global sea level rise – ground movements can play a significant role as well.

TOPEX/Poseidon Instruments

The ocean-observing Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Nov. 21, 2020 at 12:17 p.m. EST

OSTM/Jason-2 - All instruments plus data animation

Changing conditions in the Pacific have stirred up Earth’s largest ocean and redistributed its heat, piling up warm waters along U.S. Western shores and raising sea level in the process.

TOPEX/Poseidon Ground Tracks

For NASA scientist Severine Fournier, studying our planet knows no borders.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 4 at Vandenberg Air Force Base carrying the Jason-3 spacecraft. Liftoff was at 10:42 a.m. PST (1:42 p.m. EST).

NASA and its partners announced the renaming of the mission, previously known as Sentinel-6A/Jason-CS.

OSTM/Jason-2 - Data/ground track animation

Global sea level rise is accelerating incrementally over time rather than increasing at a steady rate, as previously thought, according to a new study based on 25 years of NASA and European satelli...

The Argo stop-motion animation aims to inspire children (and adults) to engage with marine science. It is quirky, fun and informative at the same time. The animation explains what an Argo float is,...

The ocean is responsible for Earth's mild climate and makes life on Earth possible for all creatures.

A look at how NASA is dealing with the threat of sea level rise to its coastal infrastructure.

Here we provide side by side comparisons of Pacific Ocean sea surface height (SSH) anomalies of what is presently happening in 2015 with the Pacific Ocean signal during the famous 1997 El Niño.

One of the best ways to understand Earth's ocean is from the perspective of space.