New satellite to Enhance Maritime Safety,Extend Key Sea Level Record
PASADENA,calif. – A new U.S.-European satellite, Sentinel-6B, is poised to โคbolster โmarine weather forecasting and safeguard shipping routes โคby providing more thorough ocean surfaceโ height data. Launched to extend a critical, three-decade-long record of sea level measurements, theโฃ satellite will offer improved โspatial coverage, particularly in areas โคnot routinely monitored, delivering essential facts for accurate forecasts โขrelied upon by mariners.
The Sentinel-6B mission, โa collaborative effort between ESA, EUMETSAT, NASA, and NOAA, builds โuponโข the success of its predecessor, Sentinel-6 โMichael Freilich. Together, they will maintain โฃa continuous โstreamโฃ of precise sea level observations, calibrated against previous missions dating back to 1992. This continuity ensures measurements with centimeter-level accuracy โthat remain stable over time.
“As 1992, โขwe have launchedโฃ a series of satellites that have provided consistent sea level โฃobservationsโค from โฃthe same orbit in space. This continuity allows โeach โฃnew โฃmission to be calibrated against its predecessors, providing measurementsโฃ with centimeter-level accuracy that don’t drift over time,”โฃ explained Severine Fournier, Sentinel-6B deputy project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
this โคlong-term dataset has โbecome theโข benchmark for sea level measurements fromโ space, serving as aโฃ crucial reference point for โขvalidating data from otherโ satellites and establishing โa โbaseline for tracking oceanโข condition changes. “This kind of data โcan’t be easily replaced,” stated Dr. Leela Mehra,โข a researcher involved in theโ project.
Sentinel-6B’s โnear-real-time data โwill directly โขimprove marine weatherโ predictions, while its continued observations willโ extend the existingโ sea level record beyond โค30 โขyears. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) contributed threeโข key science instruments toโฃ each Sentinel-6 satellite: the Advancedโ Microwaveโ Radiometer, the Global Navigation Satellite System – โradio Occultation,โข and theโ Laser Retroreflector Array. NASA also provides launch services, โground systems, and data processing support.
More โคinformation about the Sentinel-6/Jason-CS mission is available at: https://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/jason-cs-sentinel-6