Our Rising Seas

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

El Niño Poster

TOPEX/Poseidon Fact Sheet

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...

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-1 Fact Sheet

Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich spacecraft logo

TOPEX/Poseidon Poster (no text)

Jason-1: First Image

Jason-1 Pin

Oceans' Role in Climate - Jason-1

Water & Energy

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...

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 (...

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

Whale Census and Habitat

OSTM/Jason-2 insignia for launch vehicle

Applications of Spaceborne Altimetry

Earth’s rising seas are some of the most visible signs of our warming planet. Over the last 23 years, NASA satellite missions have observed a steady rise in global sea levels as polar ice sheets me...

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

TOPEX/Poseidon Measurement System

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

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...

Natural Hazards

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...