Our Rising Seas

TOPEX/Poseidon Fact Sheet

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

El Niño/La Niña

CNES Jason Logo

TOPEX/Poseidon Poster (no text)

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...

Variability of Ocean Dynamic Topography

Water & Energy

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

Pacific Decadal Oscillation flyer

How We Fly Our Satellite- JPL Open House '99 Display

Jason-1 with 3 Ships

Jason-1 Pin

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.

El Niño is characterized by unusually warm ocean temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific. The warmer water associated with El Niño displaces colder water in the upper layer of the ocean caus...

El Niño Series

Launched on January 17, 2016, Jason-3 is a partnership that includes NOAA, NASA, CNES, and EUMETSAT.  The map shown here was generated using sea surface height measurements from the first 10 days (...

Sea Surface Height

Wave Height

Altimeter Applications - JPL Open House '99

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...

The Legacy of Topex/Poseidon

TOPEX/Poseidon JPL Open House '99 Display

A Year in the Life Of El Niño

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.