NASA launch Saturday: satellite that will track sea level rise on Earth is ready to go

A launch livestream will be available to watch on the NASA website. The satellite will be launched on Saturday on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. If the launch is delayed, there will be more opportunities in the coming days.

For 30 years, satellites have helped monitor sea level on Earth. This satellite is the latest in this series, but it will collect the most accurate data to date on global sea level and how it is changing in response to climate change.

Sentinel-6 has a higher resolution for collecting measurements, which means it can track both large features, like the Gulf Stream, as well as smaller features like shoreline variations.

The satellite will collect data that can be used to improve weather forecasting, hurricane tracking and climate models, such as humidity and atmospheric temperature. Scientists can also use the data to predict areas where coasts may move.

This is a two-pronged mission and the satellite has a twin, Sentinel-6B, to be launched in 2025. Together, the two satellites will carry the tradition of continuous sea level rise monitoring into one. fourth decade.

“This mission is a global partnership necessary to study our planet because it belongs to all of us,” Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the Scientific Missions Directorate of NASA, told a press conference on Friday.

“To understand what climate change means for humanity, science must take a long-term view. This mission follows 30 years of uninterrupted measurements made by spacecraft that have circled the earth. We will have another decade of critical action in this perspective. We do this together as an international community and it makes us stronger. “

A legacy of studying our planet

The mission was renamed earlier this year for the late Michael Freilich, oceanographer and director of NASA’s Division of Earth Sciences from 2006 to 2019. Freilich passed away in August. The satellite was named in his honor to recall Freilich’s contributions to earth sciences and satellite oceanography and to advance space-based ocean measurements.

At Friday’s press conference, Zurbuchen reminded everyone of Freilich’s words and perspective on the importance of studying Earth from space.

“Humanity, not an agency, not a country, not a continent, but … humanity has been monitoring global sea level from space with exquisite precision for over 28 years.”

Sentinel-6 follows in the footsteps of Jason-3, a satellite launched in 2016. It currently still provides observations of the topography of the world’s ocean.

An overlap of satellites allows mission teams to ensure that they are receiving continuous data before the end of the previous mission.

After launch, Sentinel-6 will fly 30 seconds behind Jason-3. The team will cross-calibrate data from both satellites over the next year before Jason-3’s mission ends.

This long tradition of sea level monitoring satellites began with the original Jason series missions and its predecessor TOPEX / Poseidon, launched in 2001 and 1992 respectively.

It’s part of Copernicus, the European Union’s Earth observation program. This program maintains accurate sea level height data for over 90% of the Earth’s ocean. The data collected by this chain of satellites have contributed to climate studies, marine meteorology and oceanography.

Eyes on the ocean

Long-term, uninterrupted monitoring of global sea level is essential to understanding how our planet is responding to global warming and climate change. And when global sea level rises, it’s a clear indicator of global warming, according to climate experts.

Understanding global sea level can help scientists track ocean currents as they transfer heat across the planet. This ripple effect can influence our weather.

Coastlines are also shifting in response to rising sea levels due to climate change. As the planet warms, the ocean absorbs heat trapped by greenhouse gases, causing some of the expansion behind the rise in sea level. Melting glaciers and ice caps glacial accounts for the majority of the change.

The rate of sea level rise has increased over the past 25 years and will continue to do so in the future. This is an important factor to follow as coastal flooding caused by storms can reshape populated areas.

Freilich recognized that Earth’s sea level rise would require the cooperation of people around the world to understand and resolve.

The agency created the Sea Level Change Science Team in 2014 to unite people from NASA and other institutions to study glaciers, ice caps, the ocean, and land movements in order to get the best picture of the impacts of sea level rise.

“We are united by this great goal,” Nadya Vinogradova Shiffer, NASA’s program manager who oversees the team, said in a statement. “Sea level is influenced by these different factors that a single discipline does not cover – so we have to bring in experts to approach it from all angles.”

But this satellite can also contribute to a better understanding of how the Earth’s climate evolves as a whole, from its global ocean to the top of its atmosphere.