A new payload that Elon Musk’s SpaceX will deliver into orbit next month will play a pivotal role in measuring sea level increases, potentially helping to spare economies from billions of euros in damages by the end of this century.
The Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite lifts off Nov. 10 aboard a Falcon 9 rocket that will be launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Its mission will be to track how the accelerating rise of sea levels is changing coastlines, threatening the habitat of more than a third of the world’s population. The European Space Agency will provide details about the mission on Friday at 4 p.m. in Paris.
"Measurements of global and regional sea level have become a valuable tool for decision makers to assess one of the most compelling impacts of climate change and how to prepare for flooding of coastal areas,” said Paul Counet, strategy chief at EUMETSAT. His 30-nation meteorological consortium is in charge of operating Sentinel-6 and crunching the 300 gigabytes of data that will be produced daily by the satellite.