Two new satellites will provide more detailed information about rising sea levels and other ocean changes on Earth.
Launching in November, the Sentinel-6/Jason Continuity of Service mission (Jason-CS) will be the longest-running Earth observation mission dedicated to studying the rising oceans. The spacecraft will provide the most sensitive water level measurements as it reveals details about rising oceans, helping to build nearly 40 years of sea level records.
A joint U.S.-European satellite mission, S6 follows in the footsteps of a trio of missions (TOPEX/Poseidon and Jason-1, Ocean Surface Topography/Jason-2, and Jason-3) that have measured how sea levels have risen over the past 30 years. The preceding spacecraft revealed that Earth’s oceans rose by an average of 0.1 inches (3 millimeters) in the 1990s, increasing to 0.13 inches (3.4 mm) today.
S6 will use two identical satellites (Sentinel-6A and Sentinel-6B) to continue that work by studying changes in ocean circulation, climate variability such as El Niño and La Niña, and weather patterns, including hurricanes and storms, in addition to rising oceans.
“Global sea level is, in a way, the most complete measure of how humans are changing the climate,” Josh Willis, the mission’s project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in a statement.
“If you think about it, global sea level rise means that 70% of the Earth’s surface is getting taller70 % of the planet is changing its shape and growing. So it’s the whole planet changing. That’s what we’re really measuring,” Willis said.
Since the Industrial Revolution, widespread fossil fuel usage has dumped significant amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into Earth’s atmosphere. Together, these gases have heated the planet’s atmosphere to increasingly high levels.
As they cover the bulk of Earth’s surface, the oceans help to stabilize the climate by absorbing over 90% of the heat trapped on the planet by excess greenhouse gas. As the water heats, it expands, increasing the volume of water. Trapped atmospheric heat also melts ice sheets and glaciers, contributing to the rising sea levels. Over the last 25 years, the rate at which the ocean levels rise has continued to increase.
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