Watching Our Oceans

SSH and SST - Global

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.

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

Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich Launch footage

El Niño/La Niña - (12/1996 - 01/2000)

On the left is Sea Surface Height Anomalies (SSHA) relative to the sea level mean (1993-2018). On the right is Global Mean Sea Level (GMSL) with the sea level trend as the straight line. The data a...

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.

TOPEX/Poseidon Ground Tracks

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

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

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.

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...

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 ...

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

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...

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...

TOPEX/Poseidon Launch

B-roll for media. The Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich is an Earth-observing satellite that will collect data on sea level and how it changes over time. By measuring sea surface height, scientists world...

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...

This visualization shows total sea level change between 1992 and 2019, based on data collected from the TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1, Jason-2, and Jason-3 satellites. Blue regions are where sea level ha...

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

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

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

Recorded live launch broadcast of Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich

NASA Climate Watcher Waves Goodbye