NASA and European Partners Utilize Satellites to Enhance Hurricane Forecasting Amidst Strong El Niño
NASA, in collaboration with its European partners, is employing the Sentinel-6B satellite and its predecessor, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, to gather precise sea level height measurements. This initiative is crucial for understanding and predicting the impacts of a stronger-than-normal El Niño event, which began in the middle of the year and is now reaching significant strength, comparable to events in 1997 and 2015. The satellites are part of the Copernicus Sentinel-6/Jason-CS mission, which has continuously monitored Earth's changing seas since the early 1990s. Data collected by these satellites, including ocean height, wave size, and marine wind speed, is being used to improve hurricane forecasts and understand how El Niño redistributes ocean heat, affecting sea levels and hurricane activity. Sentinel-6B began delivering low-latency data to scientists on July 15, which will eventually be integrated into research models to enhance weather predictions.
