O satellite SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography, or Oceanic and Surface Water Topography) was released this Thursday, the 13th, from Southern California. The mission seeks to carry out research on lakes, rivers and oceans of the planet Earth seen from space for the first time in history.
The radar satellite was built with the intention of providing an entirely new view of the waters corresponding to about 70% of our planet, facilitating the analysis of consequences derived from climate change, such as the much talked about warming global. According to scientist Ben Hamlignton, leader of NASA's sea level change team, "It is truly the first mission to observe nearly all of the water on the planet's surface."
see more
MCTI announces the opening of 814 vacancies for the next portfolio contest
The end of it all: scientists confirm date of when sun will explode and…
The satellite's structure is equivalent to the size of an SUV, and it will be launched by a Falcon 9 rocket, built and operated by Elon Musk's SpaceX, which was scheduled for launch this Thursday from U.S. Space Force Base Vanderberg, approximately 280 km northwest of Los Angeles. Angeles.
Satellite Setup
SWOT was constructed to accurately gauge differences in surface elevations close to eddies and currents, which is where scientists believe a lot of carbon and heat reduction takes place in the oceans. The current satellite is able to register these changes with a quality 10 times higher than the technologies that were previously available.
Taking about 20 years to build, the satellite uses microwave radar technology, which seeks to collect measurements of surface of lakes, reservoirs, rivers and oceans in detail and in high resolution, capturing this information in more than 90% of the planet.
Data will be produced over several months, with Earth scans being taken at least twice every 21 days to improve predictions. meteorological and climate data, as well as models of ocean circulation, will also help in measuring the scarce supplies of fresh water in relation to the regions that suffer from drought.
Still, another objective of the mission is to find out how the oceans absorb carbon dioxide and the atmospheric heat naturally, which controls climate change and temperatures around the world. globe.
Finally, SWOT was built on the Jet Propulsion Lab (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) of NASA with the collaboration of its counterparts in Canada and France. The satellite is one of 15 missions already listed by the National Research Council in relation to the projects that NASA intends to carry out within the next 10 years.
Lover of movies and series and everything that involves cinema. An active curious on the networks, always connected to information about the web.
