The numbers didn’t add up. Even as Earth grew warmer and glaciers and ice sheets thawed , decades of satellite data seemed to show that the rate of sea-level rise was holding steady—or even declining. Now, after puzzling over this discrepancy for years, scientists have identified its source: a problem with the calibration of a sensor on the first of several satellites launched to measure the height of the sea surface using radar.
Adjusting the data to remove that error suggests that sea levels are indeed rising at faster rates each year. “The rate of sea-level rise is increasing, and that increase is basically what we expected,” says Steven Nerem, a remote-sensing expert at the University of Colorado Boulder who is leading the reanalysis. He presented the as-yet-unpublished analysis on 13 July in New York City at a conference sponsored by the World Climate Research Programme and the International Oceanographic Commission, among others. Nerem’s team calculated that the rate of sea-level rise increased from around 1.8 millimetres per year in 1993 to roughly 3.9 millimetres per year today as a result of global warming. In addition to the satellite calibration error, his analysis also […]
Full article: Satellite Snafu Masked True Sea Level Rise for Decades
From Atlantic City to Key West: 21 beach towns that will soon be under water
Final call to save the world from ‘climate catastrophe’
Three newspapers confront one challenge: Sea-level rise is real
Fast and Getting Faster: The Verdict on Sea Level Rise from the Latest National Climate Assessment
Water World: Sea Level Rise, Coastal Floods and Storm Surges
The lesser-known threat from sea-level rise? Saltwater intrusion into Florida’s freshwater wells.
‘Sunny day flooding’ worsens at NC beaches — a sign sea rise is decades too soon
Glacier depth affects plankton blooms off Greenland
Interfaith Leaders From Across The World Pledge To Protect Rivers, Glaciers
First the Arctic melted, then Bolivian water dried up, then…
Los Angeles residents at a section of the Los Angeles River cleanup in Los Angeles,…
Over the past decade, about 67 million gallons of fire retardant have been dropped on…
Photo: Golden Trout Wilderness Seeking blue, seeing gold The Kern Plateau features a chain of…
For the first time in more than a century, a salmon was observed swimming through Klamath…
New turnout facility from the California Aqueduct on Monday, Oct. 23, 2023. Officials say the…
Over the past century, humans have constructed major transportation infrastructure like highways, bridges, railroads, and…