SpaceX Successfully Launched Satellite Set to Measure Sea Levels

SpaceX launched the first of two satellites in a billion-dollar joint effort between NASA & the European Space Agency.

Posted On: November 21, 2020

SpaceX launched the first of two satellites in a billion-dollar joint effort between NASA & the European Space Agency. The satellite is set to precisely measure changing sea levels.

The launch of the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite occurred on Saturday at 12:17 p.m. ET at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and utilized a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

The satellite will record precise ocean level data by measuring the timing delay of cloud-penetrating radar that bounces back from the ocean surface. It will be capable of tracking sea levels to an accuracy of less than half an inch.

Josh Willis at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said that “five years from now we’ll launch its successor, Sentinel-6B.”

“This is a huge deal for us climate scientists, because it means we get to look at the oceans for a full 10 years in an unbroken record,” he said. “And it’s the first time we’ve been able to build two in a row so that we can launch them back to back and extend the record much farther than we’ve been able to so far.”

The Sentinel-6 satellite will also monitor temperature and humidity in the atmosphere.

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