This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: In November 2025, NASA and its European partners launched the Sentinel-6B satellite to improve hurricane forecasts, help protect infrastructure and benefit commercial industries, including shipping. The satellite is now flying 30 seconds behind its predecessor, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich.
Both satellites are providing precise sea level height measurements during what oceanographers expect to be a historic El Niño, a naturally occurring oceanic phenomenon in which warmer-than-usual Pacific waters shift global weather patterns. The two satellites make up the Copernicus Sentinel-6/Jason-CS (Continuity of Service) mission, the latest in a series of ocean-observing radar altimetry missions that have been monitoring Earth's changing seas continuously since the early 1990s. The data each satellite is collecting will not only allow scientists to better understand this year's El Niño but will also help them create more accurate hurricane predictions.
"This El Niño was a late bloomer," said Josh Willis, Sentinel-6B's project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. "It didn't kick off until the middle of the year and is just now reaching a strength similar to what we've seen in the satellite record during significant El Niños in 1997 and 2015. We expect it to be big, and it's already having big impacts." El Niños generally scramble weather patterns tied to rainfall and storms, including hurricanes.
They also redistribute heat in the ocean, which affects sea level. Normally, Earth's warmest ocean waters sit along the equator in the western Pacific. During El Niño, weakened winds, which usually blow westward along the equator, result in heat spreading east toward South America.
The change in ocean heat shifts hurricane activity from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. On July 15, Sentinel-6B began delivering low-latency data to scientists that could be used for weather predictions. Those data will take some time to work their way into the research models on which meteorologists and climate scientists rely, but when they do, the improved models could save lives.
Data from Sentinel-6 satellite missions feed into hurricane tracking algorithms used by federal and state agencies. Those predictions can activate disaster response efforts, mobilizing resources ranging from sandbag placement to National Guard activation. They also can lead to evacuation orders that require quick but well-informed decisions about logistics at the local level.
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