International Sea Level Satellite Observes El Niño Precursor
International Sea Level Satellite Observes El Niño Precursor

Description Sea level height data from the international Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite collected from March to May 2026 show higher, warmer water moving from the western Pacific Ocean to just off the coast of Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. This phenomenon is known as a warm Kelvin wave, signified in this animation of the data by […]

NASA-European Sea Level Mission Homes in on El Niño
NASA-European Sea Level Mission Homes in on El Niño

Sea level data from a satellite launched by NASA and European partners shows that a swell of warm water hundreds of miles wide has arrived in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of South America, a sign that El Niño will likely emerge later in the year. Because water expands as it warms, a rise […]

NASA Analysis Shows La Niña Limited Sea Level Rise in 2025
NASA Analysis Shows La Niña Limited Sea Level Rise in 2025

A mild La Niña caused greater rainfall over the Amazon basin, which offset rising sea levels due to record warming of Earth’s oceans. The rise in the global mean sea level slowed in 2025 relative to the year before, an effect largely due to the La Niña conditions that persisted over most of the year. […]