NASA Launches New Mission to Study Earth's Surface Water in greater depth

• Image Credit: Internet

• Dec 14, 2022 | Kabir Chakraborty

The mission is called Surface Water and Ocean Topography, according to NASA (SWOT). It will provide a three-dimensional perspective of rivers, lakes, and oceans. 

Digital Desk: According to NASA, an international satellite project will launch from southern California on December 15 and will record the planet's surface water resources more accurately than ever before. This is part of a major earth science endeavour to conduct the first comprehensive survey of the world's oceans, lakes, and rivers.

The mission is called Surface Water and Ocean Topography, according to NASA (SWOT). It will provide a three-dimensional perspective of rivers, lakes, and oceans. "SWOT promises to increase our understanding of the Earth's water cycle and the role of the seas in climate change, as well as help us respond more effectively to drought and flooding," the space agency noted. SWOT will provide researchers with measurements of the volume of flowing and changing water, allowing us to better understand how much freshwater is accessible, the risk of flooding, and how climate change works.

SWOT is scheduled to go into orbit on Thursday before daybreak from the Vandenberg US space force base, about 170 miles (275 kilometres) northwest of Los Angeles, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

The project, which has been under development for nearly 20 years, will use cutting-edge microwave radar technology to collect high-definition height-surface data of oceans, lakes, reservoirs, and rivers throughout 90 percent of the earth, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. One of the mission's primary goals is to investigate how oceans absorb atmospheric heat and carbon dioxide as a natural mechanism that lowers world temperatures and slows climate change.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Los Angeles designed and built the satellite. SWOT is a joint project of NASA and France's Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, with support from the Canadian Space Agency and the United Kingdom Space Agency.