Sea level

What it is

The map is the NOAA Laboratory for Satellite Altimetry regional sea-level trend for 1992.96-2025.10, from the TOPEX, Jason, and Sentinel-6 reference series. The colour is millimetres per year. The global mean used on this site, about 3.7 millimetres per year in 2006-2018, is the IPCC AR6 figure. The NASA Sea Level Change Portal publishes that global mean as a time series, with the Sea Level Explorer and the AR6 projection tool.

Why it is on this shelf

One global number hides the places where the surface is rising faster or falling. Sea level is separate from surface temperature, salinity, and pollution.

How to read it

Red is a faster rise. Blue is a slower rise or a fall. Currents, winds, and the vertical motion of the land make regional rates differ from the global mean. The NASA time series is the global average. This map is the regional rate over the altimeter record, not a single tide-gauge day and not a map of a future coastline.

Sources

• NOAA LSA: Sea Level Rise maps
• NASA Sea Level Change Portal: hub
• NASA: Global Mean Sea Level (vital signs)
• NASA: Sea Level 101 introduction
• NASA: Assessment tools
• NASA: IPCC AR6 Sea Level Projection Tool
• NASA: Sea Level Explorer
• Copernicus Marine: Ocean Climate Portal / Sea Level (secondary)
• Copernicus Marine: Ocean Monitoring Indicators
• Copernicus Marine: Global OMI sea-level anomalies product
• Copernicus Marine: Ocean Climate Portal hub
• IPCC AR6 WG1 report (global mean, about 3.7 mm/yr, 2006-2018)

Open source map →