The Third National Climate Assessment notes that nearly five million people along the Nation’s coasts live within 4 feet of the local high-tide mark. The seas are rising now, and the report states that global sea level is expected to rise by 1 to 4 feet in the coming century, inundating some coastal areas and exacerbating storm surges. Sea level rises as oceans warm and expand, and as water is added from melting land ice of Antarctica, Greenland, and glaciers in Alaska and Canada. Since 1992, NASA has partnered with the French space agency (CNES) to monitor sea level through the TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1, and Jason-2 missions. NASA scientists also use GRACE satellite data, IceBridge airborne surveys, and other approaches to help the world better understand how much the melting of Earth’s land-based ice contributes to global sea level rise. Rising seas affect homes, businesses, roads, and other coastal infrastructure, as well as water supplies, nature reserves and habitats. Sea level rise even affects NASA: Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., and Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va., are all in coastal areas, and are planning for the future with sea level rise in mind. To learn more about the National Climate Assessment’s take on sea level rise, please visit:nca2014.globalchange.gov/report/our-changing-climate/sea-level-rise To learn more about Jason-2, currently in orbit, please visit:nasa.gov/mission_pages/ostm/overview/index.html#.U2lTfq1dVTc To learn more about GRACE, please visit: grace.jpl.nasa.gov/ To learn more about Operation IceBridge, please visit: nasa.gov/mission_pages/icebridge/ To learn more about other NASA missions that contribute to understanding climate change, visit: climate.nasa.gov
Posted on: Fri, 09 May 2014 15:14:17 +0000
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