Watching Our Oceans

Earth’s global sea levels are rising – and are doing so at an accelerating rate.

Greenland and Antarctica are home to most of the world's glacial ice – including its only two ice sheets – making them areas of particular interest to scientists.

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

Recorded live launch broadcast of Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich

Jason-3 Animation

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.

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

NASA and its U.S. and international partners have teamed up to launch a new Earth-observing satellite called Sentinel-6B that will measure sea surface height of most of the planet’s ocean. These ob...

SSH and SST - Indian Ocean

El Niño is characterized by unusually warm ocean temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific. The warmer water associated with El Niño displaces colder water in the upper layer of the ocean caus...

OSTM/Jason-2 - All instruments plus data animation

SSH and SST - Pacific Ocean

On Aug. 26, 2015 at 9:30 a.m. PT, NASA hosted a media teleconference to discuss recent insights on sea level rise and the continuing challenge of predicting how fast and how much sea level will ris...

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

Jason-1 Spacecraft Animation

OSTM/Jason-2 - Data/ground track animation

Sea Surface Height 01/2006-04/2010

TOPEX/Poseidon Launch

Earth’s rising seas are some of the most visible signs of our warming planet. Over the last 23 years, NASA satellite missions have observed a steady rise in global sea levels as polar ice sheets me...

Karl and Seymour learn how carbon dioxide is formed in this sketch from The Lollygaggers, a global warming sketch comedy.

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

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

For NASA JPL engineer Parag Vaze, studying Earth’s rising ocean has been a career three decades in the making.

For over 20 years NASA has been tracking the global surface topography of the ocean in order to understand the important role it plays in our daily lives. Climate change is causing our Ocean to war...

To provide scientists with essential information about global and regional changes in the seas, NASA will launch the Jason-3 satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.