SSH and SST - Global

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich Launch footage

Our planet is changing. Our ocean is rising. And it affects us all. That’s why a new international satellite will continue the decades-long watch over our global ocean and help us better understand...

TOPEX/Poseidon Launch

Sea Level Isn't Level - Why it matters

SSH and SST - Indian Ocean

Decades of Discovery - How altimeters help us every day.

OSTM/Jason-2 - All instruments plus data animation

Oceans of Climate Change

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

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...

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...

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

TOPEX/Poseidon Instruments

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 4 at Vandenberg Air Force Base carrying the Jason-3 spacecraft. Liftoff was at 10:42 a.m. PST (1:42 p.m. EST).

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...

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...

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...

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

SSH and SST - Pacific Ocean