Sea Level Indices

First-of-their-kind Sea Level Indices (SLI) exploit cutting edge NASA ocean satellite data enabling organizations and governments to risk manage rising sea levels for the first time

Global regional Sea Level Indices (SLI) benchmarks administered at the highest international standards, could be used as the basis for a forward curve underpinning a SLI derivative market. Creating instruments at the intersection of climate change and financial markets to risk manage rising sea levels and to generate the right incentives will be helpful for governments, society, and the planet.

There are several research centers that generate global mean sea level (“GMSL”) estimates from altimetry however there is currently no internationally recognized Sea Level Index (“SLI”) benchmark. Accordingly, there is no method by which governments and organizations can effectively risk manage or quantify the impact of rising sea levels.

Sea level rise is uneven due to ocean dynamics and Earth’s uneven gravity field, which suggests that a hedge for a global mean sea level index may be less useful for end users than the development of a subset of regional indices. For example, sea level change experienced on the East Coast of the U.S. is different to that of the West coast.

Global regional SLI benchmarks administered at the highest international standards, which could be used as the basis for a forward curve underpinning a SLI derivative market. Creating instruments at the intersection of climate change and financial markets to risk manage rising sea levels and to generate the right incentives will be helpful for governments, society, and the planet.

The Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich is a radar altimeter satellite (“Sentinel-6”) developed in partnership between several European and American organizations. The Sentinel-6 mission is part of the Copernicus program initiative, the primary objective of the Sentinel-6 mission is to measure sea surface topography with high accuracy and reliability to support ocean forecasting systems, environmental monitoring, and climate monitoring. Near real time (“NRT”) data from Sentinel-6 could potentially be used to construct internationally recognized, data driven, trusted, global SLI’s that would be updated daily.

As at end of March 2022, The Sentinel-6 satellite data was still undergoing verification procedures. This will be completed soon, and the data will be released in the next couple of months. It is the latest in a series of satellite missions dedicated to monitoring sea level rise following TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1, Jason-2, and Jason-3. The instrument technology is constantly improving, and the reprocessing of the historical sea level record as altimeter range corrections and geophysical models improve results in improved GMSL accuracies.

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