Most of the satellite altimeter data for the study came from NASA’s Topex-Poseidon and Jason satellite series missions. Satellite altimetry measures sea level rise by bouncing radar pulses off the surface of the ocean at particular points and calculating the round-trip time it takes the pulse to return to the spacecraft, said Leben, also a faculty member of CU-Boulder’s Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research, or CCAR.
A 2010 study led by CU-Boulder’s Han published in Nature Geoscience concluded that greenhouse gases were responsible for rising seas in parts of the Indian Ocean. The changes are believed to be at least partially a result of the roughly 1 degree Fahrenheit increase in the Indo-Pacific warm pool – an enormous, bathtub-shaped area stretching from the east coast of Africa to the International Date Line in the Pacific – during the past 50 years.
Click here to read/download the Full Study – “Uncovering an Anthropogenic Sea Level Rise Signal in the Pacific Ocean”.
Source: CU-Boulder.
