The Global Ocean - NASA Science

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Where Does NASA Fit?

The last few years have set the stage for a revolution in ocean science. With the launch of the SWOT and PACE satellites, we can now see and study the planet’s entire ocean surface at a level of detail that we couldn’t before. Meanwhile, other long-lived NASA satellites measure sea surface temperatures, polar ice, and ocean height, key components to understanding our dynamic planet. Our global view complements and adds context to the regional views that oceanographers get from ships, buoys, and other instruments.

The PACE Mission

The SWOT Mission

Show Me the Data

Current Research

Missions and Campaigns

Additional Information

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Our Oceans From Space

NASA helps lead the way in ocean research.

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Sea Stories

A woman stands to the right of the image, facing the left side. She is wearing a black baseball cap with her dark hair tied up. She also has on a teal shirt and black pants. She is holding a small instrument in her hands and is looking at it closely. Behind her are the blue green colors of the ocean, flat without waves. The woman is standing at the edge of a boat with a blue container in front of her.

Why is NASA Tracking Seaweed from Space?

In the open ocean, Sargassum is essential habitat, but can cause a whole host of issues when it washes up on Caribbean coastlines. So where is this seaweed coming from? And how is NASA tracking it?

NASA Analysis Shows Irreversible Sea Level Rise for Pacific Islands

clear bright blue waters are shown, a white boat on the right. a whiter spot under water is highlighted as a coral bleaching among the greater horseshoe reef.

Confronting Florida’s Coral Collapse

After a brutally hot summer in 2023 that caused widespread bleaching and coral death, summer 2024 was more favorable for the state’s vulnerable reefs.

Featured Mission: PACE

NASA's PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) mission provides global data on microscopic life in the ocean and particles in the air, advancing our understanding of fisheries health, harmful algal blooms, air pollution, wildfire smoke and more.

PACE Mission Home

Photo of red tide along florida coast

Video: An Ocean in Bloom

By identifying and examining harmful algal blooms around the world, PACE will inform communities ranging from local fishermen to large corporations on what is occurring in their backyard and beyond.

NASA’s PACE Data on Ocean, Atmosphere, Climate Now Available

NASA’s newest Earth-observing satellite provides first-of-its-kind measurements of ocean health, air quality, and the effects of a changing climate.

Read about PACE

Ocean Color Countdown

The color of our oceans, lakes and rivers can tell us a lot about what's going on just beneath the surface.

Featured Mission: SWOT

The SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography) mission measures the height of water in Earth’s ocean, lakes, reservoirs, and rivers, providing information about freshwater resources, storm surges, and ocean currents to communities around the world.

SWOT Mission Home

See SWOT Mission’s Unprecedented View of Global Sea Levels

Cutting-Edge Satellite Tracks Lake Water Levels in Ohio River Basin

International SWOT Satellite Spots Planet-Rumbling Greenland Tsunami

How NASA Helps

From space, planes, and ships, NASA is observing the ocean while studying the causes and effects of our rising waters.

Rising Waters: How NASA is Monitoring Sea Level Rise

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Ocean News

Going with the Flow: Visualizing Ocean Currents with ECCO

Next-Generation Water Satellite Maps Seafloor From Space

NASA Researchers Study Coastal Wetlands, Champions of Carbon Capture

Show Me the Data

View of Earth from space focused on the Americas, showing swirling ocean currents across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in white against a blue ocean background, highlighting global ocean circulation patterns.

Ocean Data and Tools

NASA data span the geophysical parameters that characterize the global ocean and the physical processes operating within its depths and at its surface. Our datasets and tools help researchers translate these interconnected data points into actionable knowledge.

Current Research

Topographic depiction of the ocean floor around South Georgia Island with outline of A-23A location located below and left of the island on the edge of a 350 topographic line.

Iceberg A23a Grounded Near South Georgia Island

This image was captured on Mar 4, 2025, by the MODIS instrument aboard the Aqua satellite.

Satellite view of the Gulf of Oman and surrounding land. The land is all a shade of brown, ranging from reddish, to khaki to a non-descript light brown. The water of the gulf of oman is completely green in this image, at it's most dense it is a forest green color. To the northwest the Persian Gulf waters that feed the Gulf of Oman start to show a light shade of greening near the Strait of Hormuz. As the Gulf of Oman opens up into the Indian Ocean the shade of green lightens and disperses into vibrant blue waters in a series of eddies. Greening can also be seen along much of the included coastline away from the gulf as well. Some light cirrus clouds can be seen with the densest surrounding the Persian Gulf in the top left corner.

High Chlorophyll a Concentrations in the Gulf of Oman and Arabian Sea

This image was captured on Feb 15, 2025, by the OCI instrument aboard the PACE platform.

Missions and Campaigns

PACE-PAX

The Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem Postlaunch Airborne eXperiment (PACE-PAX) was a September 2024 field campaign to gather data for the validation of the recently launched PACE mission.

Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich

Designed to measure the height of the ocean - a key component to understanding how Earth's climate is changing - the mission consists of two identical satellites that will be launched five years apart. Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich launched in 2020 and Sentinel-6B is slated to launch in 2025.

Topex/Poseidon

Launched in 1992, TOPEX/Poseidon was a joint venture between CNES and NASA that measured ocean surface topography to an accuracy of 4.2 cm, enabled scientists to forecast the 1997-1998 El Niño, and improved understanding of ocean circulation and its effect on global climate.

GRACE-FO

GRACE Follow-On (GRACE-FO) is continuing GRACE’s legacy of tracking Earth’s water movement across the planet. Monitoring changes in ice sheets and glaciers, underground water storage, the amount of water in large lakes and rivers, and changes in sea level provides a unique view of Earth’s climate and has far-reaching benefits for its people.

Jason-3

Jason-3 is the fourth mission in U.S.-European series of satellite missions that measure the height of the ocean surface.

Sea WiFS Project

The purpose of the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) Project is to provide quantitative data on global ocean bio-optical properties to the Earth science community.

Aqua Earth-observing Satellite Mission

Aqua, Latin for water, is a NASA Earth Science satellite mission named for the large amount of information that the mission is collecting about the Earth's water cycle, including evaporation from the oceans, water vapor in the atmosphere, clouds,precipitation, soil moisture, sea ice, land ice, and snow cover on the land and ice.

Additional Information

In the blue-green ocean a small island sits to the left portion of the image. The green island is outlined with a bright somewhat yellow border of beach and has an inland pond connected to the ocean.

Feeding the Sea

Phytoplankton fuel ocean life by feeding other plankton, fish, and ultimately bigger creatures.

Swirling distinct shades of light and medium blue as well as green are suspended in the deep blue Argentine sea all around the Falkland Islands in the lower right. Some thin cloud coverage appears in the upper left and one opaque white cloud sits in the lower right corner.

What are Phytoplankton?

swirling deep green in a field of near black blue Gulf of Oman. The center of the swirl is labeled bloom.

EO Kids: Ocean Green, Blooming Oceans

EO Kids, a publication from the Earth Observatory, highlights science stories for a younger audience. In our new edition, we explore the swirling seas of phytoplankton blooms and create your own NASA science visualization by making a flipbook.