In just a few months, NASA’s $1.2 billion water research satellite will revolutionize hydrology

Tram Ho

For a long time, we have not properly appreciated ocean eddies. Ranging from a few kilometers to a few hundred kilometers in diameter, the curves of water on the ocean’s surface are generated by large ocean currents that simultaneously dissipate heat and carbon dioxide (CO2) into the deeper ocean layers. An ocean whirlpool can be imagined as a line of water born from invisible spoons, stirring a mixture of coffee and milk.

They are one of the outstanding features of the ocean, and are required for scientists to successfully build simulated climate models. However, they are invisible to the vast majority of satellites we have, except when the ocean eddies stir up a layer of green phytoplankton.

Chỉ vài tháng nữa thôi, vệ tinh nghiên cứu nước trị giá 1,2 tỷ USD của NASA sẽ cách mạng hóa ngành thủy văn học - Ảnh 1.

The Baltic Sea in 2019, when phytoplankton emerges and shows the flow of ocean eddies – Photo: European Space Agency (ESA).

The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the French Space Agency (CNES) plan to change that. Not only the ocean eddies, the flow direction of rivers and lakes on the ground will be clearly visible under the sharp eyes of the SWOT satellite – short for Surface Water and Ocean Topography. On the ground). It is expected that before December 15, the satellite will be airborne from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.

On SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, the $1.2 billion satellite will carry equipment that can measure the altitude of the water surface with centimeter accuracy, thereby helping scientists to calculate accurately. movements of water. “ We expect the changes that SWOT will bring about will be extremely dramatic ,” said J. Thomas Farrar, an expert at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI).

For ocean researchers, SWOT will be like a pair of vision-enhancing glasses to help them see through the shape of water. The advanced satellite will record eddies with a diameter of only 7 kilometers, and will observe water over the entire surface of the Earth every 21 days.

Chỉ vài tháng nữa thôi, vệ tinh nghiên cứu nước trị giá 1,2 tỷ USD của NASA sẽ cách mạng hóa ngành thủy văn học - Ảnh 2.

Illustrator of satellite SWOT – short for Surface Water and Ocean Topography – Photo: NASA.

The SWOT will also record the entire water level of more than 6 million lakes on Earth, and track the flow of rivers with a distance of only 100 meters or less. The SWOT satellite will revolutionize hydrology with unprecedented precision data.

“It will help us understand how the water life cycle plays out in the Arctic and in Africa – locations where we have no field data so far .” The above is the opinion of Tamlin Pavelsky, a hydrologist at the University of North Carolina, who is also the co-director of the freshwater science team of the SWOT project.

For nearly four decades now, NASA and CNES have launched a series of radar altimeter satellites. They yielded data on the gradual rise of sea levels during periods of global warming, which is an indicator that helps meteorology predict climate change. By measuring the height of water bodies on the ocean’s surface, the old series of satellites also help scientists track ocean currents flowing around the Earth. However, the satellite’s resolution is still low, making data on rivers and ocean eddies still hidden from science.

The SWOT satellite obtains a sharp image with the help of two poles up to 5 meters long, each carrying an antenna that records the series of radio waves emitted by the SWOT and bounced back when it hits the water. SWOT will obtain data related to ocean eddies that are hidden in the old satellite eyes.

Chỉ vài tháng nữa thôi, vệ tinh nghiên cứu nước trị giá 1,2 tỷ USD của NASA sẽ cách mạng hóa ngành thủy văn học - Ảnh 3.

NASA describes how SWOT works – Photo: NASA.

The new data will help hydrology observe how rivers and lakes change with the seasons, and explain how short-term climate change events (such as El Niño) affect river flows. fuse. For oceanographers, the SWOT will help document how man-made dams change river levels and habitats. SWOT can also observe the water ripples of rivers, large and small lakes to describe in detail the evolutionary process of a river.

And yet, the SWOT will also monitor the flood water flowing downstream. This information will help experts build more accurate flood models, but the data isn’t coming back fast enough to assist communities in evacuating floods.

Precious data on ocean eddies is what defines the revolution of the SWOT satellite. For example, it will help scientists predict the effect that occurs when thousands of ocean eddies also occur at the same time. Vortexes just a few kilometers in diameter play an important role in regulating heat and greenhouse gases in subpolar ocean areas.

The SWOT will also draw a panorama picture of the coasts, specifically the effect of sea level rise on saltwater intrusion. Besides, the SWOT will show even small whirlpools capable of warming a large sea area, potentially increasing the destructive power of tropical storms.

We’re not just locking down temperatures at the sea surface, but also in the deeper ocean layers, ” said Rosemary Morrow, a research fellow at the Laboratory of Space Research, Geophysics and Oceanography. determined.

SWOT will provide valuable answers, help improve the quality of life of sea-bound populations as well as describe exactly how the “capillaries” of the Earth flow rhythmically to the rhythm of life.

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Source : Genk