{
  "id": 6440804,
  "title": "How 2 US, European Satellites Are Studying Hurricanes During El Niño",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/09/how-2-us-european-satellites-are-studying-hurricanes-during-el-nino",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-09T16:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "NASA Science",
    "slug": "nasa-science",
    "url": "https://www.nasa.gov/missions/jason-cs-sentinel-6/how-2-us-european-satellites-are-studying-hurricanes-during-el-nino/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Two US and European satellites, Sentinel-6B and Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, are studying hurricanes during the ongoing El Niño. Launched last November, these satellites are part of the Copernicus Sentinel-6/Jason-CS mission, which has been monitoring Earth's seas continuously since the early 1990s. The data collected by these satellites will help scientists better understand this year's El Niño and create more accurate hurricane predictions.\n\nJosh Willis, Sentinel-6B's project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, noted that this El Niño is a late-bloomer, kicking off in the middle of the year and already showing impacts similar to significant El Niños in 1997 and 2015. El Niños generally disrupt weather patterns, including hurricanes, and redistribute heat in the ocean, affecting sea level. Normally, Earth's warmest ocean waters are along the equator in the western Pacific, but during El Niño, heat spreads east toward South America, shifting hurricane activity from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.\n\nThe data from Sentinel-6B and Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich is being used to improve hurricane forecasts and protect infrastructure. These satellites measure ocean height, wave size, and marine wind speed using a radar altimeter, which bounces radar pulses off the crests and troughs of waves. The ocean height data, in particular, provides insight into the ocean's heat content, since warm water expands, helping forecast how fast hurricanes will grow. Sentinel-6B began delivering low-latency data for weather predictions on July 15, which will eventually be incorporated into hurricane tracking algorithms used by federal and state agencies.",
  "summary": "Last November, 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 now is 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…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "NASA",
        "title": "How 2 US, European Satellites Are Studying Hurricanes During El Niño",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/09/how-2-us-european-satellites-are-studying-hurricanes-during-el-nino-6440859",
        "published": "2026-09-09T16:00:00.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}