Rising and sinking land across California could affect sea levels in the state over the next few decades, according to an analysis by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory researchers.
The researchers studied satellite radar data to capture the vertical motion of more than a thousand miles (1,610 kilometers) of land off the California coast. Comparing the data with historical observations of the same location, the team found that land was down at levels much higher than regional estimates.
The team's research (published last month in Science Advances) uses data from the European Space Agency's Sentinel-1 satellite and ground receiving station to promote ground motion, which is part of the Global Navigation Satellite System. The data were collected between 2015 and 2023, showing the decline and sinking in different regions across the state. In the picture below, the blue area fades away while the red area is rising (the darker the red, the faster the rise).
According to the release of NASA JPL, the San Francisco Bay area is more than 0.4 inches (10 mm) per year, which is largely due to sediment compaction. The team proposed in the study that due to settlement, local sea levels may rise by more than 17 inches (45 cm) by 2050, at least on San Rafael, Cote Madeira, Foster City and Bay Farm Island The lowest area of San Raphael.
“In many parts of the world, like the recycling ground below San Francisco, this land moves downward faster than the sea itself,” said Marin Govorcin, a scientist at NASA JPL, the study’s lead author, published in an institution.
The team also discovered hot spots for the uplift (a few millimeters per year) in the Santa Barbara Groundwater Basin and Long Beach.
In parts of Los Angeles and San Diego County, the team found that human land movement drivers increased uncertainty by 15 inches (40 cm) in sea level forecasts; human activities, including groundwater extraction and hydrocarbon production, make it possible to It is harder to predict the movement of the land.
Meanwhile, the team observed downward movements in landslides related to landslides, such as the Cape Verde Peninsula south of Los Angeles.
JPL's Opera project (the end user observation product through remote sensing analysis) will contribute to future observations of elevation changes throughout North America. With the joint efforts of NASA and ISRO of the Indian Space Agency, Opera will collect data on North American altitudes to ensure that the ever-changing surfaces of our continent can be carefully monitored.
