SeaLevels
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Hawaii defies Trump with law upholding Paris climate accord
Nearly 1,500 US local governments and companies have vowed to uphold the Paris climate deal, but Hawaii is the first state to make its defiance legally binding. Governor David Ige signed Senate Bill 559, committing the state to keep up its end, despite US President Trump opting out of the 195-nation deal. "Hawaii and other Pacific Islands are already experiencing the impact of rising sea levels and natural disasters," said Ige. "That means we need to be first when it comes to creating solutions."
Scientists plot sea levels using GPS satellites
Accurate sea level measurements are more critical than ever, but there are a limited number of radar satellites designed for that purpose. However, a team from the UK's National Oceanography Centre (NOC), University of Michigan and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have discovered a new way to do so using much cheaper and more plentiful GPS satellites. The technique is called GNSS-R, and involves bouncing low-powered signals from GPS satellites off of the ocean's surface and measuring the reflected signal with a GNSS-R receiver. That lets the sat-nav constellation act as a type of distance-measuring radar without disrupting its regular job -- guiding cars and airplanes.
