Watching Our Oceans

SSH and SST - Indian Ocean

Sea Surface Height 01/2006-04/2010

Decades of Discovery - How altimeters help us every day.

OSTM/Jason-2 - All instruments plus data animation

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

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

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.

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...

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,...

Recorded live launch broadcast of Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich

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...

It's hard to "see" sea level rise by just looking at the ocean, but its effects are very real.

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

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

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...

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...

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

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 ...

SSH and SST - Global

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...

Jason-3 Animation

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

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.

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

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