Our Rising Seas
Sea Level Through a Porthole
As the Earth warms and polar ice retreats, global average sea levels are steadily rising. While actual sea surface heights fluctuate due to local geography, long-term climate variation, and the influence of gravity and planetary motion, scientists track broader trends by referencing a consistent 22-year spatial and temporal mean.
In this NASA visualization scientists use the metaphor of a submerged porthole, to show a clear view of how much the oceans have risen between 1993 and 2025.
The impact of sea levels rise will have profound global consequences, not in some distant future, but within the lifetimes of most people living today.