On January 17, NOAA announced a successful launch of Jason-3, a U.S.-European satellite mission to track global sea level rise. Every 10 days, the satellite will employ a radar altimeter to monitor 95% of the world’s oceans. The radar altimeter bounces signals off the water to measure sea-surface height. Jason-3 continues a legacy of global sea-level rise observations, which began with the Topex/Poseidon satellite mission in 1992. Since 1992, observations by researchers have indicated global sea-level rise is occurring at a rate of 3 mm a year.
Jason-3 will also be used to help understand hurricane intensity and the forecasting of tides, currents, El Niño and La Niña. Jason-3 is part of the NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (NESDIS). The mission is a joint project of NOAA-NESDIS and EUMETSAT – the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites to maintain a long-term observational record of global sea surface height.