The beaches and dunes alongside launch facilities in Wallops Island, Virginia, have been built up, washed away, and built up again several times in the past decade. Acquired January 6, 2014. (Photo by NASA/Bill Ingalls)
By Mike Carlowicz, NASA / Earth Observatory;
This is an excerpt from Sea Level Rise Hits Home at NASA.
For the past two centuries, two trends have been steady and clear around the United States. Sea level has been rising, and more people have been moving closer to the coast.
Global mean sea level has risen by 8 inches (20 centimeters) since 1870. The rate of sea level rise is faster now than at any time in the past 2,000 years, and that rate has doubled in the past two decades. That has not stopped people from buying and building along the coast. About 55 to 60 percent of U.S. citizens live in counties touching the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico or the Great Lakes.
The nation’s problem is also NASA’s problem, and not just because several satellites and hundreds of Earth scientists are monitoring the rising seas. Sea level rise hits especially close to home because half to two-thirds of NASA’s infrastructure and assets stand within 16 feet (5 meters) of sea level. With at least $32 billion in laboratories, launch pads, airfields, testing facilities, data centers and other infrastructure spread out across 330 square miles (850 square kilometers)—plus 60,000 employees—NASA has an awful lot of people and property in harm’s way.
According to global climate models (GCMs), sea levels are expected to rise at least 5 inches (13 centimeters) for most NASA centers by the 2050s. Those numbers rise significantly if ice sheets continue to melt rapidly…
Rising Seas Threaten Everything from Wallops to Resorts, DelmarvaNow (03-21-2015)
Erosion Threatens Iconic NASA Launch Pads, USA Today, (06-20-2015)
Encroaching Tides, A Report By The Union of Concerned Scientists (10-08-2014)
Reuters’ Water’s Edge Report – Part I And Part II (09-19-2014)
