- November 2, 2020
Changing Pacific Conditions Raise Sea Level Along U.S. West Coast
Alan Buis
Credit: Jon Sullivan, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Global sea level has risen an average of 0.13 inches (3.3 millimeters) a year since satellites began precisely measuring sea surface height following the 1992 launch of the Topex/Poseidon mission, a partnership between NASA and Centre National D’Etudes Spatiales in France. In the northeastern Pacific off the U.S. West Coast, however, sea level actually fell at a rate of around 0.04 inches (1 millimeter) per year during the 1990s and 2000s.
