An important scientific question that we have is the separation of natural sea level change versus anthropogenic.

There's been a number of papers that have come out that have discussed the emergence of that forced or anthropogenic signal and the altimeter data that's still up for some debate.

So with this longer record, we're gonna be ableto better understand, to provide a better view of what long term sea level rise might be and how it's expressed in the satellite data.

For nearly 30 years, a host of US European satellites have been working together together climate data, which has been instrumental in tracking big changes in climate phenomena like El Nino or monitoring ocean features like the Gulf Stream.

But these satellites couldn't capture the tiny changes in these environments, and this is where Sentinel six Mission comes in.

It's part of the EU's Copernicus program, the world's largest earth monitoring system, which has worked to measure the environment, and the role human caused climate change is having on it.

The mission is made up of two identical satellites.

Sentinel six, Michael Frolik, which takes off in November 2020 and Sentinel six B that launches in 2025.

It's an international effort between NASA, the European Space Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites and France's National Center for Space Studies.

During its roughly 5.5 year endeavor, the satellite will map more than 90% of our oceans, down to a few centimeters every 10 days.

Thes measurements will be of high resolution, sea level variations.

The mission will also monitor atmospheric temperature and humidity, which will improve weather forecasts.

So the longer the record, the better chance we have of separating out the different processes and the contributions of those processes to sea Level One Focus area for Satellite Sentinel six Michael Frolik will be coastal cities and the risk of flooding because, based on current estimates, places like the Southern Tip of Manhattan could flood between 20 to 40 times a year by the 20 thirties.

On that rate, of flooding could more than double that by 2100.

So having precise, uninterrupted data is crucial, especially since global sea levels, on average, have risen by 3.2 millimeters per year since the 19 nineties.

And I know it's just three millimeters that's tiny.

How could that have such a big effect?

Well, turns out an annual three millimeter sea level rise is huge.

If we look at one millimeter of sea level rise globally, it's about 100 trillion gallons of water for one millimeter of sea level rise.

So if you adjust that, then we have about 300 trillion gallons of water that increases from year to year.

So it's really an incredible amount of water that we're talking about.

So to gather this crucial data, the spacecraft has a suite of next generation instruments, starting with its radar altimeter, which will measure sea surface properties like wave height and wind speeds.

The ultimate ER will work in tandem with a microwave Radiometer to account for the water vapors levels.

While those tools will focus on capturing C level data, another instrument will focus on recording tiny changes in Earth's atmosphere, using a technique called radio Occultation, it will collect data on global temperature and humidity rates.

And finally, the last three instruments will help to exactly locate the spacecraft in orbit.

One of the major and most exciting improvements from the past missions is the reduced latency and data delivery times of the ultimate ER data.

It's expected to be accessible within three hours of collection, providing some near real time applications.

So what can we expect on launch day?

The Sentinel six.

Michael Frolik will hitch a ride on Space X's Falcon nine rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in November 2020.

From there, the rocket will make its way into orbit and release the satellite at an altitude of about 1300 kilometers, where it will begin its journey to help us in better understanding our changing world.

That's happening now.

So, ah, a lot of times we think about sea level rise and coastal flooding is a future problem.

But for coastlines around the world, we're already seeing the effects of sea level rise.

So it's a now problem.

It's not really a future problems, so it's critical that we make steps to improve our scientific understanding and certainly the satellite Pacific role in that.

For more rocket launches.

Check out our countdown to launch Siri's here.

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Thanks for watching.

Then I'll see you next time.