The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches a satellite that will measure sea level rise over the next 30 years

A US-European satellite designed to extend a decade-long measurement of global sea surface heights was launched into Earth orbit from California on Saturday.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the satellite took off from Vandenberg Air Force Base at 9:17 am and moved south over the Pacific Ocean.

The first stage of the Falcon returned to the launch site and landed for reuse.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is seen above takeoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Saturday morning

The rocket was carrying a joint American-European satellite that will monitor ocean levels over the next three decades

Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite was released from the second stage about an hour later.

Then he distributed his solar panels and made first contact with the controllers.

Named after a former NASA official who played a key role in the development of space oceanography, the satellite’s primary instrument is a highly accurate radar altimeter that will bounce energy off the sea surface as it crosses Earth’s oceans.

An identical twin, Sentinel-6B, will be launched in 2025 to ensure continuity of the record.

A camera attached to the rocket shows it above the launch point at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California

On Saturday morning the rocket took off and then veered south over the Pacific Ocean

NASA video shows Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite being released into orbit above Earth

The Sentinel 6 program consists of two identical satellites, with the first (seen in the rendering above) launched on this mission, they will monitor the sea level change from space

Sea level measurements from space have been uninterrupted since the 1992 launch of the US-France TOPEX-Poseidon satellite, followed by a number of satellites including the current Jason-3.

Sea surface heights are affected by the warming and cooling of water, allowing scientists to use altimeter data to detect weather conditions such as warm El Nino and cool La Nina.

The measurements are also important for understanding the overall sea level rise due to global warming that scientists warn is a risk to the world’s coasts and to billions of people.

“Our Earth is a closely related system of dynamics between land, ocean, ice, atmosphere and, of course, our human communities as well, and that system is changing,” Karen St. Germain, director of the company, said in a pre-launch. NASA’s Earth Sciences Division briefing Friday.

“Since 70% of the earth’s surface is made up of ocean, the oceans play a huge role in how the whole system changes,” he said.

The new satellite is expected to have unprecedented accuracy.

The Falcon 9 rocket then successfully landed on the launch pad for reuse

The dramatic image above shows the first stage booster returning to a target landing at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Saturday.

Europe and the United States share the $ 1.1 billion cost of the mission, which includes the twin satellite

“This is an extremely important parameter for climate monitoring,” Josef Aschbacher, director of Earth observation for the European Space Agency, told The Associated Press this week.

“We know the sea level is rising,” Aschbacher said.

The big question is: how much, how fast.

Other onboard instruments will measure how radio signals travel through the atmosphere, providing data on atmospheric temperature and humidity that can help improve global weather forecasts.

Europe and the United States share the $ 1.1 billion cost of the mission, which includes the twin satellite.