25 de junio de 2025
First accurate records offer insight for coastal community protection and climate resilience strengthening
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The world's first reliable network of 'virtual' coastal stations is now providing accurate sea-level measurements along vulnerable coastlines, where they're needed most. These groundbreaking stations – based solely on satellite observations – represent a major breakthrough in coastal monitoring achieved by ESA's Climate Change Initiative Sea Level Project.
For nearly three decades, satellite altimetry has transformed our understanding of global sea level rise. This monitoring technique has revealed that oceans have been rising at an accelerating rate, by an average of around 3 mm per year since 1993 to over 4 mm per year over the last ten years. However, a critical gap has persisted: satellite measurements become less reliable within 20 km of coastlines – due to interference from the land –precisely where accurate data is most urgently needed for the 680 million people living in low-lying coastal areas.
Under the scientific leadership of altimetry expert, Anny Cazenave, a team of researchers contributing to the ESA Climate Change Initiative, has overcome the long-standing coastal measurement challenges by reprocessing satellite data spanning close to two decades to create 1,647 virtual coastal stations worldwide. This network now provides systematic long-term measurements in remote coastal areas that were previously lacking tide gauges, thereby closing critical data gaps in climate science.
With sea level rise being one of the most serious consequences of climate change, where every additional centimetre puts three million more people at risk of annual flooding, these virtual coastal stations offer invaluable tools for developing localised climate adaptation strategies.
ESA Climate Change Initiative: Leading climate science through space
The Climate Change Initiative represents a cornerstone of ESA's climate activities, engaging over 500 leading scientific experts from across Europe to generate long-term satellite data records on key components of the climate system, known as Essential Climate Variables. Around two thirds of the total 56 ECVs defined by the Global Climate Observing System and used to characterise Earth’s climate are derived either entirely, or in large part from space. ESA's CCI is spearheading these efforts with an expanding suite of 28 satellite data records under development. These data records make reliable, timely, and actionable climate information possible. This unique scientific effort has contributed significantly to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Reports, with 950 peer-reviewed publications since 2009. This provides the observational foundation to understand climate processes and validate climate models, and enable governments, businesses, and communities to manage risk and plan for short- and long-term impacts.
Read more about how virtual coastal stations revealed the main drivers of sea level change at https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Space_for_our_climate/First_sea-level_records_for_coastal_community_protection