With the first of the Sentinel satellites being readied for launch next spring, scientists are looking ahead to the third mission in the series to ensure the highest quality data possible.

For decades, scientists have disagreed about whether the sea is higher or lower heading north along the east coast of North America. Thanks to precision gravity data from ESA's GOCE satellite, this controversial issue has now been settled. The answer? It's lower.

An anticlockwise rotation of sea-surface height patterns has been observed near Norway's west coast. Archived data from radar altimeters on the ERS-1, ERS-2 and Envisat satellites show the wave-like motion around the centre of the Lofoten Basin.

Scientists have gathered in the 'floating city' this week to talk about radar altimetry - measuring the heights of the global sea surface, freshwater bodies, land and ice using spaceborne sensors.

Piracy may be a topic of schoolboy adventure stories, but it’s still a dangerous and costly problem for merchant shipping and tourism in some parts of the world. In the pirate-ridden waters of the Indian Ocean, satellites show that environmental conditions have limited recent pirate activity.

Earth from Space is presented by Kelsea Brennan-Wessels from the ESA Web-TV virtual studios. In this edition, phytoplankton highlight the whirls of ocean currents in spectacular shades of blue and green.

Forecasting the state of the sea is important for shipping, offshore and coastal engineering, management of coastal zones and tourism...

Prediction of the maximum wave height of extreme events is of tremendous benefit to the marine world. A considerable amount of progress in wave modelling has been achieved in the past 20 years or so and there are definite reasons for further development. A global wave prediction model has been in operations at ECMWF since 1992.

The generation of internal solitary waves in the ocean is presently a subject of active investigation and generally recognized as not well documented. High resolution satellite images have provided important insights...