Over the past century, the Hampton Roads area of the Chesapeake Bay region has experienced one of the highest rates of relative sea level rise on the Atlantic coast of the United States. This rate of relative sea level rise results from a combination of land subsidence, which has long been known to be present in the region, and rising seas associated with global warming on long timescales and exacerbated by shifts in ocean dynamics on shorter timescales. An understanding of the current-day magnitude of each component is needed to create accurate projections of future relative sea level rise upon which to base planning efforts. The objective of this study is to estimate the land component of relative sea level rise using interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) analysis applied to ALOS-1 synthetic aperture radar data acquired during 2007–2011 to generate high-spatial resolution (20–30 m) estimates of vertical land motion. Although these results are limited by the uncertainty associated with the small set of available historical SAR data, they highlight both localized rates of high subsidence and a significant spatial variability in subsidence, emphasizing the need for further measurement, which could be done with Sentinel-1 and NASA’s upcoming NISAR mission.

Hampton Roads is among the regions along the U.S. Atlantic Coast experiencing high rates of relative sea level rise. Partly to mitigate subsidence from aquifer compaction, Hampton Roads is injecting treated wastewater into the underlying aquifer. However, the GPS (Global Positioning System) station spacing (∼30 km) is too coarse to capture the spatial variability of subsidence and potential uplift from the injection. We present a cost-effective workflow for generating an InSAR (interferometric synthetic aperture radar) and GPS combined displacement product. We leverage a live, open-access archive of InSAR products generated from Sentinel-1 data. We find an overall subsidence rate of −3.6 ± 2.3 mm/year with considerable spatial variability. The effects of groundwater injection are currently below detection. The workflow presented here is an asset for sustained monitoring of the injection effort and regional subsidence that is applicable along the U.S. coasts for assisting in mitigation and adaptation of relative sea level rise. Plain Language Summary Hampton Roads in coastal Virginia is among the regions experiencing high rates of relative sea level rise. This rate exceeds the global average primarily due to ongoing land subsidence. In part to reduce this subsidence, Hampton Roads has begun injecting treated wastewater into the underlying aquifer. However, the rate of subsidence and potential uplift from the injection is not uniform but varies spatially, such that the existing network of sensors is unsuitable for monitoring. Here we implement a cost-effective approach for ongoing monitoring that leverages publicly available data products derived from the Sentinel-1 satellite. Overall, we find that Hampton Roads is sinking at a rate of −3.6 ± 2.3 mm/year, with considerable differences at the neighborhood scale. The effects of the injection cannot yet be seen but will have a larger impact at the surface as more wastewater is injected at full-scale facilities later this year. The workflow presented here is a valuable asset for sustained monitoring of the injection effort and regional subsidence that can be applied along the U.S. coasts for assisting in mitigation and adaptation of relative sea level rise.

With its increasing record length and subsequent reduction in influence of shorter-term variability on measured trends, satellite altimeter measurements of sea level provide an opportunity to assess near-term sea level rise. Here, we use gridded measurements of sea level created from the network of satellite altimeters in tandem with tide gauge observations to produce observation-based trajectories of sea level rise along the coastlines of the United States from now until 2050. These trajectories are produced by extrapolating the altimeter-measured rate and acceleration from 1993 to 2020, with two separate approaches used to account for the potential impact of internal variability on the future estimates and associated ranges. The trajectories are used to generate estimates of sea level rise in 2050 and subsequent comparisons are made to model-based projections. It is found that observation-based trajectories of sea level from satellite altimetry are near or above the higher-end model projections contained in recent assessment reports, although ranges are still wide.

<p>Major geological hazards can devastate essential infrastructure and result in widespread injury and death. Understanding the underlying processes that can lead to these hazards and providing analysis-ready datasets in a timely fashion is crucial for hazard monitoring and disaster response and recovery efforts. In support of NASA's vision, we are committed to an open-source science initiative enabling the transparency, inclusivity and accessibility, and reproducibility of  Earth observation data – all fundamental to the pace and quality of scientific progress. Under a NASA ACCESS effort, we have: 1) significantly lowered the latency of delivering displacement products, i.e. the Sentinel-1 Geocoded Unwrapped (S1-GUNW) products, and 2) enabled the expansion of the displacement data archive to over one million S1-GUNW products, currently making ARIA one of the largest open InSAR archives spanning continental scales across most major active tectonic and volcanic regions (Sangha et al., 2022). The scientific analysis of these products is streamlined via the open-source ARIA-tools, which simplifies the download and preparation of S1-GUNWs for time-series analysis through the open-source MintPy software (Yunjun et al., 2019). The derived datasets can support science applications as well as timely science-driven decision-making efforts, particularly, after or during disaster and recovery periods.</p> <p>Here we demonstrate how our updated infrastructure, driven by an open-source Hybrid Pluggable Processing Pipeline (HyP3) cloud architecture, can be leveraged to support open science and disaster response applications ranging from analysis of volcanic unrest and earthquakes, to characterizing broader-scale tectonic processes.</p>

Sea‐level rise is an important indicator of ongoing climate change and well observed by satellite altimetry. However, observations from conventional altimetry degrade at the coast where regional sea‐level changes can deviate from the open‐ocean and impact local communities. With the 2018 launch of the laser altimeter onboard ICESat‐2, new high‐resolution observations of ice, land, and ocean elevations are available. Here we assess the potential benefits of sea level measured by ICESat‐2 by comparing to data from Jason‐3 and tide gauges. We find good agreement in the linear rates computed from the independent observations, with an absolute average residual of 3.60 ± 0.03 cm yr−1 between global ICESat‐2 and Jason‐3 observations at a 1° posting. The recent La Niña is clearly evident in ICESat‐2 observations, as well as small‐scale features. By demonstrating the quality of the ICESat‐2‐measured sea level, we provide support for integrating it into the existing suite of sea‐level observations.