Satellite Data Tracks Sinking Land, Rising Seas | Weather.com
NASA Study Uses Satellite Data To Track Connection Between Sinking Land, Rising Seas
The research team used satellite data to track land subsidence, or sinking, along the coast of California. Sinking can happen for many reasons, including groundwater extraction, tectonics and other environmental conditions.
The Connection Between Sinking Land And Rising Seas
New research led by NASA shows that, when it comes to flooding along coastlines, what happens on land can be just as important as what happens in the ocean.
“In many parts of the world, like the reclaimed ground beneath San Francisco, the land is moving down faster than the sea itself is going up,” lead author Marin Govorcin, a remote sensing scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said in a news release.
The research team used satellite data to track land subsidence, or sinking, along the coast of California. Sinking can happen for many reasons, including groundwater extraction, tectonics and other environmental conditions.
And, when it occurs at the same time oceans are rising, even fractions of inches can make a big difference to a community’s risk.
|
Weather in your inbox
What The Study Found
-Some spots, especially around the San Francisco Bay area, are steadily sinking at a rate of more than .4 inches a year.
-Scientists already know that by 2050, sea levels in California are projected to rise between 6 and 14.5 inches. But with the sinking rate uncovered in the study factored in, projected sea level rise more than doubled in some of the most vulnerable locations.
-In other places, land is rising, highlighting the importance of tracking these dynamic changes.
-Previous studies on sea level rise projection mostly looked at tidal gauge data, which the researchers say only captures a portion of the picture.
Why This Matters
-Different research previously showed land subsidence in several places around the country at the same sea levels are rising. New York City, for example, is sinking under the weight of skyscrapers. Sinking land along Louisiana’s coast could expose New Orleans to further risk from rising seas and storm surge.
-Sea level rise is driven by ocean warming and higher atmospheric temperatures that cause ocean water to expand and glaciers and ice sheets to melt. The warmer temperatures, in turn, are driven by greenhouse gas emissions.
-Besides flooding, sea level rise can exacerbate storm surge, erosion worse and hurricane damage. It can also make flooding during high tides, known as “sunny day” flooding, worse.
MORE ON WEATHER.COM
-Does Climate Change Make Hurricanes Worse?
-Whiplash Between Extreme Dry, Wet Weather Is Happening More Often, New Study Shows
-Global Sea Ice Hits Record February Low
Weather.com senior writer Jan Childs covers breaking news and features related to weather, space, climate change, the environment and everything in between.