SSH and SST - Pacific Ocean

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

Sea Level Isn't Level - Why it matters

SSH and SST - Global

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

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.

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...

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...

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.

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.

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.

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

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...

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...

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

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

For NASA engineer Shannon Statham, building spacecraft is all about being creative.

El Niño/La Niña - (12/1996 - 01/2000)

TOPEX/Poseidon Instruments

SSH and SST - Indian Ocean

TOPEX/Poseidon Ground Tracks

The Jason-3 satellite, launched on January 17, 2016, is allowing scientists to continue a 23-year record of crucial ocean monitoring.

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...

Decades of Discovery - How altimeters help us every day.

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.

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