NASA launches satellite that had no analogues
2022.12.16 03:35
NASA launches satellite that had no analogues
Budrigannews.com – A joint U.S.-French satellite was scheduled for early Friday launch from California. It was designed to carry out the first global survey of Earth’s surface waters, providing new insight into the mechanisms and effects of climate change.
At 3:46 a.m. PST (1146 GMT), the Falcon 9 rocket, which is owned and operated by billionaire Elon Musk’s commercial launch company under a NASA contract, was scheduled to launch from Vandenberg U.S. Space Force Base, which is approximately 170 miles (275 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles.
On Thursday, favorable weather conditions were predicted for liftoff, which is being managed by a NASA launch services team. After inspectors discovered moisture in two of the rocket’s nine main engines, the countdown was delayed for 24 hours on Thursday. However, NASA stated that the issue was resolved after additional analysis.
The Surface Water and Ocean Topography satellite, or SWOT for short, is the rocket’s payload. It uses cutting-edge microwave radar technology to take high-definition measurements of oceans, lakes, reservoirs, and rivers in more than 90% of the world.
According to the researchers, the data, which were gathered through radar sweeps of the globe at least twice every 21 days, will be used to improve ocean circulation models, improve weather and climate forecasts, and help manage the limited supply of freshwater in drought-prone areas.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NYSE:) built the majority of the SUV-sized satellite’s components. JPL) and the French space agency CNES, both close to Los Angeles.
Almost 20 years being developed by the U.S. space organization with commitments from its partners in Canada and England, SWOT was one of 15 missions recorded by the Public Exploration Chamber as activities NASA ought to attempt in the approaching ten years.
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The mission’s main focus is on learning how oceans naturally regulate global temperatures and have contributed to reducing climate change by absorbing heat and carbon dioxide from the air.
More than 90% of the excess heat trapped in Earth’s atmosphere by human-caused greenhouse gas emissions is thought to have been absorbed by the oceans.
SWOT will be able to precisely measure the surface elevation differences around the smaller currents and eddies where scientists believe a significant portion of the ocean’s drawdown of heat and carbon occurs by scanning the seas from orbit.
A crucial question can be answered by comprehending the mechanism by which that occurs: When oceans begin to release rather than absorb large amounts of heat back into the atmosphere, accelerating global warming, what is the tipping point?
The ability of SWOT to identify smaller surface features will also be useful in analyzing the effects that rising ocean levels will have on coastal areas.
Storm surge flooding and saltwater intrusion into estuaries, wetlands, and aquifers could be predicted with the assistance of more precise data along tidal zones.
With the ability to track the entire length of nearly all rivers wider than 330 feet (100 meters) and more than one million lakes and reservoirs larger than a few New York City blocks, freshwater bodies are another important focus of SWOT.
Over the course of SWOT’s three-year mission, researchers will be able to better track changes in Earth’s rivers and lakes during major weather events and seasonal changes by repeatedly taking inventory of the planet’s water resources.
The main radar instrument used by SWOT operates at the so-called Ka-band frequency of the microwave spectrum, which enables its scans to penetrate cloud cover and darkness across significant portions of the Earth’s surface. Scientists are now able to cover larger areas more quickly and accurately in two dimensions thanks to this, regardless of the weather or the time of day.
Data from river or ocean gauges or satellites that could only track measurements along a one-dimensional line were used in previous studies of water bodies, necessitating extrapolation to fill in the data gaps.
On the off chance that all goes as expected, the SWOT satellite will start delivering research information soon.
