Elon Musk’s SpaceX to launch satellite that will track rising sea levels

Elon Musk’s SpaceX will launch a payload into the orbit next month that will help track the accelerating rise of sea levels.

The “Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich” satellite, designed to detect millimetre-scale changes in elevation, will map 95% of Earth’s ice-free ocean every 10 days.

According to Bloomsbergquint, Sentinel-6 will update maps of the oceans covering 70% of the planet every 10 days. The satellite is packed with powerful new digital altimeters, instruments that bounce electromagnetic pulses off the globe’s surface to detect millimeter-scale changes in elevation.

It will also collect data that will help improve weather forecasts and climate models.