As glaciers flow outward from the Greenland Ice Sheet, what lies beneath them offers clues to their role in future ice thinning and sea-level rise contribution.

New NASA research is helping the City of San Francisco plan measures to adapt to sea level rise. (Image credit: Dave R/Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0))

At this year's American Geophysical Union (AGU), researchers are highlighting how an ice-measuring mission is helping to understand aspects of our home planet far beyond what it was intended to do.

Launched on a Falcon 9 rocket Nov. 21, the U.S.-European satellite will measure the world's ocean with unprecedented accuracy.

High-tide flooding is an increasing fact of life for U.S. coastal areas. A new tool developed with NASA funding projects its annual frequency for 97 U.S. cities and how it will change over time. (Image credit: B137, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, the world's latest sea level satellite, is safely in orbit and ready to begin critical ocean measurements for the next five-and-a-half years.