Jason 2 satellite will record role of oceans in climate change Jason 2, a French-U.S. satellite that will provide the most accurate monitoring ever of rising sea levels and track the effects of climate change, was launched into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on Friday. The liquid-oxygen-fuelled rocket sent an explosive arc of light into the night sky, some 256 km northwest of Los Angeles, as it launched the satellite on a three-year journey to track virtually the entire oceanic surface of Earth and extend the record of sea-level study from space to two decades. Jason 2 is a 510-kg oceanography space lab designed to provide precise monitoring of rising sea levels and currents, which are among the most serious consequences of global warming, threatening dozens of island-nations and highly populated delta regions, especially in Asia and Africa. The improved technology will allow Jason 2 to achieve a sea-level measurement accuracy of within 2.5 cm (1 inch), compared with 3.3 cm (1.3 inches) for its predecessor Jason 1, said NASA. Data from previous missions showed sea levels have risen on average by 0.3 cm per year since 1993, or twice as much as they did in the whole of the 20th century, according to marine measurements. But 15 years of data is not enough to draw accurate long-term conclusions, said scientists. The latest mission would help create the first multidecade global record of the role of the ocean in climate change, according to scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. It would also provide more accurate forecasts of seasonal weather patterns, and near real-time data on ocean conditions. "Without this data record, we would have no basis for evaluating change," said the mission's project scientist, Lee-Lueng Fu. Mr. Fu compared the sea-level record begun in 1992 with the continuous measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide initiated in the 1950s at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. "The Mauna Loa data proved that carbon dioxide levels were indeed rising as had been predicted, and they were the basis for our understanding of the greenhouse effect," he said. "The height of the ocean is another fundamental measurement of our climate. The key is to have rigorous, well-calibrated data collected over a long period of time," he added. The oceans act as the planet's thermostat, and absorb more than 80 per cent of the heat from global warming, with the rest absorbed by the atmosphere, land and glaciers, NASA scientists have found. Warming water and melting ice are the two main factors contributing to rising sea levels.