TOPEX/Poseidon Launch

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

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich spacecraft lifts off from Space Launch Complex 4 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, Nov. 21, 2020, at 9:17 a.m. PST

Recorded live launch broadcast of Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich

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.

Jason-1 Launch Configuration

Watching Our Oceans

Launch preparations are progressing! (11/21/01) Photos: Stacy Mitchell of John Hopkins APL/TIMED project

Launch preparations are progressing! (11/21/01) Photos: Stacy Mitchell of John Hopkins APL/TIMED project

OSTM/Jason-2 - Data/ground track animation

Jason-1 launch images

Jason-1 Spacecraft Animation

Our World: How High is the Ocean?

Jason-3 Launch

This artist's concept show Jason-3 over the Amazon.

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.

Jason-3 3D Model

SSH and SST - Global

Decades of Discovery - How altimeters help us every day.

Altimeter Mission Series

Jason-1 in full flight configuration

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

Spacecraft processing

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.

Jason-1: LRA instrument