Satellite to study Earth's water arrives at launch site

The international SWOT mission will view Earth's ocean and surface water on land with unprecedented clarity.

The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite arrived at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, where teams will begin final preparations for the spacecraft's launch in December on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Center-4 East.

SWOT is the first satellite mission that will observe nearly all water on Earth's surface, measuring the height of water in the planet's lakes, rivers, reservoirs, and the ocean. SWOT's instruments will be able to resolve ocean features like currents and eddies less than 60 miles (100 kilometers) across, lakes and reservoirs larger than 15 acres (6 hectares), and rivers wider than 330 feet (100 meters) across.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California built the scientific payload. In June 2021, JPL shipped the payload to France, where a multinational team integrated the Ka-band Radar Interferometer (KaRIn) and other finely tuned instruments with the satellite bus.

On Oct. 16, SWOT arrived at Vandenburg from France aboard a U.S. Air Force C-5 Galaxy aircraft and moved to the Astrotech Space Operations facility to begin launch processing. In the coming weeks, SWOT will undergo many steps in preparation for liftoff. Teams must encapsulate the satellite in a protective payload fairing, mate it to the rocket, and transport it to the launch pad before it's ready to rocket into space.

Once in orbit, SWOT will collect data from the ocean, helping researchers better understand how seawater absorbs atmospheric heat and carbon, a process that affects global temperatures and climate change. This data will also help researchers better understand coastal sea levels and, ultimately, how sea surface height will interact with a changing climate to affect things like storm surges.

SWOT will also provide the first comprehensive global survey of freshwater lakes, rivers, and reservoirs from space. The satellite will measure the height of the water in these water bodies, as well as their surface area, or extent. By helping track changes in water volume over time, the data will better equip scientists and water resource managers to monitor how much water flows into and out of Earth's freshwater bodies.

SWOT is a collaboration between NASA and the French space agency Centre National d'Etudes Spatial (CNES), with contributions from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the UK Space Agency. NASA's Launch Services Program, based at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is managing the launch service.

Related Links
Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT)
Water News - Science, Technology and Politics

Tweet

Thanks for being there;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.

SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5+ Billed Monthly

paypal only

SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once

credit card or paypal

Timely study on rising groundwater offers hope for drought-stricken East Africa
Bristol UK (SPX) Oct 21, 2022
New research indicates better groundwater supply management could hold the key to help combat the impact of climate change in East Africa, where countries are currently facing the worst drought and food insecurity in a generation. The study, led by the University of Bristol, looked at changes in rainfall within the two rainy seasons in the Horn of Africa - a region hard hit by frequent drought and water and food scarcity - over the past 30 years. Findings showed the total rainfall within the ... read more