The ocean plays a major role in tropical storm generation, their frequency, duration and intensity against a backdrop of a warming world.

We are increasing the amount of water in the oceans, but we are also heating the ocean, which means water will expand leading the water column to rise.

In the Atlantic and Northeast Pacific, hurricanes form as a result of warm air and warm seawater interacting.

Altimeter data can tell us something about the heat content in the water column, which in turn helps predict the intensity of hurricanes and where they might go.

Featured Educators:

• Dr Remko Scharroo

Explore the data

EUMETSAT Oceans MOOC Data Viewer

View featured satellites on the satellite tracking app

• Sentinel-3

Don’t forget you can download the video and transcript with the links on the right.