Watching Our Oceans

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.

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

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

A key ocean observation satellite has been named after Earth scientist Michael Freilich

Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich will join a long-standing family of Earth observing satellites from NASA and European partners.

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 ...

TOPEX/Poseidon Launch

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

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

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.

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.

This animation illustrates the evolution of sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies (relative to the respective normal state) in the Pacific Ocean associated with the 2015-2016 El Niño.

QuickTime VR of TOPEX/Poseidon

The Jason-2 satellite sees something brewing in the Pacific. Researchers say it could be a significant El Niño with implications for global weather and climate.

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...

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

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...

Sea levels across the globe are rising as a result of a changing climate — and the rate at which they are rising is accelerating. NASA Science Live was recorded Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2020, and featured...

Growing up in landlocked Zimbabwe, NASA JPL engineer Shailen Desai was far from the ocean but still experienced its effects on the climate. Now, he is contributing to an international effort to tra...

OSTM/Jason-2 - Data/ground track animation

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...

Our World: How High is the Ocean?

SSH and SST - Global

TOPEX/Poseidon Ground Tracks

OSTM/Jason-2 - All instruments plus data animation