The first of two satellites in a billion-dollar NASA-European project to precisely measure rising sea levels, a major consequence of global warming, streaked into orbit from California Saturday atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

By timing how long it takes cloud-penetrating radar beams to bounce back from the ocean 830 miles below, the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite can track sea levels to an accuracy of less than half an inch to help scientists chart the ongoing effects of global warming over extended periods.

The second stage, meanwhile, carried out two engine firings to put the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite in its required orbit.

The Sentinel-6 satellites will continue a decades-long effort by NASA, the European Space Agency, the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to monitor sea levels over the past 30 years.

With the launch of Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich and Sentinel-6B, those measurements will be extended into the 2030s.

More than 90% of the heat trapped by greenhouse goes into warming the world's oceans.

"So the oceans warm, the water expands, that's about one third of sea level rise, the rest is from melting glaciers and ice sheets that are reacting to the warming environment," Willis said.

But the primary mission is monitoring sea levels across 90% of the world's oceans.

"The dynamic balance that persisted before the industrial revolution has been upset by the almost instantaneous combustion of huge reserves of carbon as our society has developed," said Craig Donlon, the European Space Agency project scientist.