Sea-level rise is an important indicator of ongoing climate change and well observed by satellite altimetry. However, observations from conventional altimetry degrade at the coast where regional sea-level changes can deviate from the open-ocean and impact local communities. With the 2018 launch of the laser altimeter onboard ICESat-2, new high-resolution observations of ice, land, and ocean elevations are available. Here we assess the potential benefits of sea level measured by ICESat-2 by comparing to data from Jason-3 and tide gauges. We find good agreement in the linear rates computed from the independent observations, with an absolute average residual of 3.60 ± 0.03 cm yr−1 between global ICESat-2 and Jason-3 observations at a 1° posting. The recent La Niña is clearly evident in ICESat-2 observations, as well as small-scale features. By demonstrating the quality of the ICESat-2-measured sea level, we provide support for integrating it into the existing suite of sea-level observations
