2022 has been a huge year for NASA — it launched the Artemis moon mission, saw images from the James Webb Space Telescope, smashed into an asteroid, and more — but the year isn’t over yet. In the next few days, NASA and its partners are due to launch a mission that will give humanity its best look yet at nearly all of the water on the Earth’s surface.
The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite is slated to launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in the next day or two, from Space Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
Once in orbit, SWOT will measure the height of water in the ocean, as well as freshwater bodies, on more than 90% of Earth’s surface. Its innovative technology will deliver a 10x improvement in the spacial resolution of scientists’ measurements of water height.
“This is important because as the climate warms, oceans are rising,” Karen St. Germain, director of NASA’s Earth Science Division, told reporters. “Our coastlines are changing, and we’re seeing large fluctuations in inland water bodies — lakes, reservoirs and rivers.”
SWOT, she continued, will bring a “revolutionary advance” in our understanding of the water cycle — how water moves from the oceans to land through the atmosphere and then back to the ocean.
“The data from SWOT will inform communities around the world, from water managers and agriculture producers inland, to coastal communities who are dealing with the increased risk of flooding,” she said.
The SWOT mission is a joint effort between NASA and the French space agency Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES). The space agencies have also received assistance from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and United Kingdom Space Agency.
December 15, 2022
By Stephanie Condon