TOPEX/Poseidon Instruments

NASA Climate Watcher Waves Goodbye

To provide scientists with essential information about global and regional changes in the seas, NASA will launch the Jason-3 satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

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.

Karl and Seymour learn how carbon dioxide is formed in this sketch from The Lollygaggers, a global warming sketch comedy.

El Niño/La Niña - (12/1996 - 01/2000)

Watching Our Oceans

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...

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...

Launching aboard the joint U.S.-European Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite is NASA’s next instrument that will help improve weather forecasting.

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

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

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,...

SSH and SST - Pacific Ocean

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.

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

Sea Surface Height - Global Average from 1993 - 2011.

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...

Recorded live launch broadcast of Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich

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

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...

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

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

Oceans of Climate Change

Watch the Jason-3 Mission Briefing from Friday, Jan 15, 2016 - panelists gave an overview of the Jason-3 mission.