Satellite Sea Level Measurements

One of the most significant potential impacts of climate change is sea level rise which can cause inundation of coastal areas and islands shoreline erosion and destruction of important ecosystems such as wetlands and mangroves satellite altimeter radar measurements can be combined with precisely known spacecraft orbits to measure sea level on a.
Satellite sea level measurements. What our tools are. Scientists are also developing gps buoys that can measure sea levels offshore potentially covering more of the oceans than coastlines gill adds. The data shown are the latest available with a four to five month lag needed for processing. A map of total sea level change since 1993.
Jason 2 the international oceanography satellite that has helped us map the ocean floor and measure global sea level rise marks its tenth year in orbit today. A more detailed version of the introductory material here is available at esa s radar altimeter tutorial. Together the spacecraft will join topex poseidon and the jason series of satellites which have been gathering precise sea level measurements for nearly three decades. The satellite s twin sentinel 6b will launch in 2025 to take over for its predecessor.
Nasa measures sea level around the globe using satellites. These accelerations in sea level is a cause for great concern. The second graph derived from coastal tide gauge data shows how much sea level changed from about 1870 to 2013. The measurement of long term changes in global mean sea level can provide an important corroboration of predictions by climate models of global warming.
The jason 3 satellite uses radio waves and other instruments to measure the height of the ocean s surface also known as sea level. Global geological sea level data from the common era last 2000 years global sea level data from tide gauge records since 1880 and now satellite sea level data from 1993 all show that the rate of sea level rise is accelerating. Use of satellite radar altimeters to measure global sea surface height ssh has come a long way since the brief seasat mission of 1978. The satellite has completed just over 47 000 trips around the earth since it was launched into space on june 20 2008.
It does this for the entire earth every 10 days studying how global sea level is changing over time.