Satellites Are Slowly Getting Better at Measuring Sea-Level Rise

摘要

As the planet warms, the increase in sea levels threatens to uproot more than a third of the world’s population. Understanding exactly how fast and by how much they’re rising is crucialinformation for policy makers trying to protect communities that live near the coast, and for scientists modeling the effects of global warming.In order to predict how sea level will rise in the future, scientists need data over a long period of time. Earth observation satellites are the best tool we have to do so. We’ve been launchingthem into space for nearly three decades, where they orbit the earth and track data that can be used to estimate sea-level rise. But the technology they employ has remained largely thesame over the years, according to NASA scientist Josh Willis.