This week, a NASA-led international satellite mission is scheduled to launch from Southern California and perform the first-ever complete survey of the world's oceans, lakes, and rivers.
In order to shed new light on the mechanisms and effects of climate change, a significant Earth science project will make use of the Surface Water and Ocean Topograph (SWOT), an advanced radar satellite. SWOT is intended to provide scientists with an unprecedented view of the life-giving fluid covering 70% of the planet.
In order to get SWOT into orbit, a Falcon 9 rocket owned and operated by Elon Musk, a billionaire, is scheduled to launch on Thursday before dawn from the Vandenberg Space Force Base, some 275 kilometers (170 miles) northwest of Los Angeles.
Within a few months, if everything goes according to plan, the satellite should produce research data.
The development of SWOT, which makes use of cutting-edge microwave radar technology, took over 20 years. Scientists predict that it will gather in-depth height-surface data of rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and seas over 90% of the planet.
According to researchers, the information, which was gathered via radar scans of the earth at least twice every 21 days, would improve ocean circulation models, support weather and climate predictions, and help manage restricted freshwater supplies in drought-stricken areas.Analysis of the natural process through which oceans absorb carbon dioxide and heat from the atmosphere to regulate global temperatures is one of the mission's primary objectives.
The satellite is made to record minute variations in surface elevations near smaller currents and eddies, which are thought to be where much of the oceans' absorption of heat and carbon dioxide takes place. According to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which created and built the satellite, SWOT can perform this task with a resolution that is ten times higher than that of current technologies.
Scientist at JPL Ben Hamlington, who also heads NASA's team studying sea level change, said, "It's truly the first mission to survey practically all water on the planet's surface."
What is the tipping point at which oceans start releasing enormous amounts of heat back into the atmosphere rather than absorbing it and accelerating global warming, rather than limiting it, asks Nadya Vinogradova Shiffer, SWOT's programme scientist at NASA in Washington. Researching the mechanism by which that occurs will help climate scientists find the answer to this question.
SWOT is equipped to monitor nearly all rivers wider than 100 meters (330 feet), as well as more than one million lakes and reservoirs larger than 62,500 square meters, which are another important area of concentration (15 acres).
Researchers will be able to better trace fluctuations in the planet's rivers and lakes throughout seasonal shifts and severe weather events by repeatedly taking inventory of the planet's water resources over the course of SWOT's three-year mission.
Tamlin Pavelsky, NASA's SWOT freshwater science lead, compared gathering such data to "taking the pulse of the world's water system, so we'll be able to detect when it's slow and when it's racing."
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