SWOT
SWOT mission launched December 16, 2022
This report on SWOT is a reprint from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, with edits by EarthSky.
We dwell on a water planet, with some 71% of the Earth’s surface water-covered. About 96.5% of Earth’s water is within the oceans. Earth additionally has water in rivers, lakes, icecaps and glaciers – within the floor as soil moisture and in aquifers – and within the air as water vapor. But, on a planet of 8 billion humans, almost all agree that water is a valuable useful resource. And, in a world getting steadily hotter, water within the type of floods and rising seas additionally carry a component of uncertainty, even hazard. Now there’s a brand new mission to look at almost all of the water on Earth’s floor. The mission is known as SWOT, which stands for Floor Water and Ocean Topography. It’s a satellite that lifted off on its technique to low-Earth orbit at 3:46 a.m. PST on Friday, December 16, 2022.
NASA is main the SWOT mission, together with the French space company CNES. There are additionally contributions from the Canadian Area Company (CSA) and the U.Ok. Area Company.
Why examine Earth’s water?
NASA reported on December 16:
The SWOT spacecraft launched atop a SpaceX rocket from Area Launch Advanced 4E at Vandenberg Area Power Base in California with a primary mission of three years. The satellite will measure the peak of water in freshwater our bodies and the ocean on greater than 90% of Earth’s floor. This info will present insights into how the ocean influences local weather change; how a warming world impacts lakes, rivers, and reservoirs; and the way communities can higher put together for disasters comparable to floods.
After SWOT separated from the second stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, floor controllers efficiently acquired the satellite’s sign. Preliminary telemetry stories confirmed the spacecraft in good well being. SWOT will now endure a collection of checks and calibrations earlier than it begins accumulating science information in about six months.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson commented:
Warming seas, excessive climate, extra extreme wildfires – these are solely a number of the penalties humanity is dealing with on account of local weather change. The local weather disaster requires an all-hands-on-deck strategy, and SWOT is the conclusion of a long-standing worldwide partnership that can finally higher equip communities in order that they’ll face these challenges.
SWOT sees Earth’s water from above
SWOT will cowl the whole Earth’s floor between latitudes 78 degrees south and 78 degrees north at the least as soon as each 21 days, sending again about one terabyte of unprocessed information per day.
The scientific coronary heart of the spacecraft is an progressive instrument referred to as the Ka-band radar interferometer (KaRIn), which marks a serious technological advance. KaRIn bounces radar pulses off the water’s floor and receives the return sign utilizing two antennas on both aspect of the spacecraft. This association – one sign, two antennas – will allow engineers to exactly decide the peak of the water’s floor throughout two swaths at a time, every of them 30 miles (50 km) large.
Karen St. Germain, NASA Earth Science Division director, mentioned:
We’re desirous to see SWOT in motion. This satellite embodies how we’re bettering life on Earth by science and technological improvements. The info that innovation will present is important to higher understanding how Earth’s air, water, and ecosystems work together – and the way individuals can thrive on our altering planet.
Among the many many advantages the SWOT mission will present is a considerably clearer image of Earth’s freshwater our bodies. It’s going to present information on greater than 95% of the world’s lakes bigger than 15 acres (62,500 sq. meters) and rivers wider than 330 toes (100 meters) throughout. Presently, freshwater researchers have dependable measurements for just a few thousand lakes world wide. SWOT will push that quantity into the thousands and thousands.
Alongside the coast, SWOT will present info on sea stage, filling in observational gaps in areas that don’t have tide gauges or different devices that measure sea floor peak. Over time, that information may help researchers higher monitor sea stage rise, which is able to straight impression communities and coastal ecosystems.
Cooperation between nations
NASA defined that such an bold mission is feasible due to the company’s long-standing dedication to working with different space businesses world wide on the examine of Earth and its local weather. For instance, NASA and the French space company CNES have constructed upon a decades-long relationship that began within the Nineteen Eighties to watch Earth’s oceans. This collaboration pioneered the usage of a space-based instrument referred to as an altimeter to review sea stage with the launch of the TOPEX/Poseidon satellite in 1992.
Caroline Laurent, CNES Orbital Methods and Purposes director, commented:
This mission marks the continuity of 30 years of collaboration between NASA and CNES in altimetry. It reveals how worldwide collaboration may be achieved by a breakthrough mission that can assist us higher perceive local weather change and its results world wide.
SWOT measurements will even assist researchers, policymakers, and useful resource managers higher assess and plan for issues, together with floods and droughts. By offering info on the place the water is – the place it’s coming from and the place it’s going – researchers can enhance flood projections for rivers and monitor drought results on lakes and reservoirs. Laurie Leshin, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory director, defined:
SWOT will present important info, given the pressing challenges posed by local weather change and sea stage rise. That SWOT will fill gaps in our information and inform future motion is the direct results of dedication, innovation, and collaboration going again a few years. We’re excited to get SWOT science underway.
Backside line: NASA’s Floor Water and Ocean Topography satellite – SWOT – launched on December 16, 2022. It’s a world mission to look at almost all of the water on Earth’s floor.
