NASA knows a thing or two about sea level changes. They’ve been measuring ocean heights via satellite since 1992. Here’s what they have learned:
The global sea level rises about 0.13 inches (3.3 millimeters) a year. That’s 30% more than when NASA began measuring ocean heights in 1992.
Around two-thirds of global sea level rise is due to meltwater from glaciers and ice sheets that cover Antarctica and Greenland.
Ice sheet melt contributed about 1.2 millimeters to annual sea-level rise between 2002 to 2017.
318 gigatons of ice has melted per year from the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica.
Just 1 gigaton is enough to cover New York City’s Central Park in 1,000 feet of ice. The top 2,300 feet (700 meters) of the ocean has been warming since the 1970s.
NASA’s GRACE and GRACE-FO satellites have tracked changes in Earth’s gravity field for 18 years to measure the total mass lost from land ice.
Satellite altimeters have measured the height of the world's oceans and seas since 1993.
These altimeters show that sea levels have risen globally by about 4 inches (93 millimeters) to as much as 6 inches (150 millimeters) in some places.
— Source: NASA