Sea Level Change
Global sea levels are changing at rates that are unprecedented over the past 2,500 years. Explore how sea level change has increased over time and learn how Earth data are helping communities plan for changing sea levels.
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The effects of sea level change have been observed across the world. Hazards such as coastal flooding can pose health and safety risks for seaside residents.
At the local scale, scientists study a variety of factors that contribute to regional sea level change including periodic change in sea level due to storm surges, ice melt, the amount of water stored on land (including rivers, lakes and aquifers), land subsistence and changes in water temperature and salinity. At the global scale, loss of ice through melting glaciers and icesheets, thermal expansion from heat trapped in oceans and changes in the amount of water stored on land all influence the amount of change in sea level observed. Understanding how these factors change on a global scale also allows us to better understand changes in Earth's atmosphere and oceans.
Using a combination of space-based observations, ground-based monitoring and modeling, federal agencies work with local organizations across the country and internationally to prepare for and mitigate the impacts of sea level change.
The cumulative increase in ocean heat content from 1957 to 2020, measured in zettajoules. The orange line represents the trend in ocean heat content, showing a significant and consistent rise, particularly from the 1980s onward. The background map highlights the global distribution of the oceans, emphasizing the widespread impact of increasing heat content across different ocean basins.
NASA and Sea Level Change
The city of Mobile, AL is working with NASA's Sea Level Change Team to plan for future infrastructure projects and to protect Mobile's coastal resources. When sea levels rise, coastal cities feel the effects of more frequent and more severe storms and flooding. NASA's sea level change data, in conjunction with NOAA data, helps Mobile and other coastal communities plan for a more resilient future.
Related Data Visualizations
Global Sea Surface Currents and Temperature
This visualization shows sea surface current flows. The flows are colored by corresponding sea surface temperature data. This visualization is rendered for display on very high resolution devices like hyperwalls or for print media. This visualization was produced using model output from the joint MIT/JPL project entitled Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean, Phase II (ECCO2) (http://ecco2.org/). ECCO2 uses the MIT general circulation model (MITgcm) to synthesize satellite and in-situ data of the global ocean and sea-ice at resolutions that begin to resolve ocean eddies and other narrow current systems, which transport heat and carbon in the oceans. The ECCO2 model simulates ocean flows at all depths, but only surface flows are used in this visualization.\nVisualizations by: Greg Shirah\nFor more information or to download this public domain video, go to https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3912
