(ORDO NEWS) — The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite has arrived at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California for final preparations for a December launch.
The satellite will launch into space on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex-4.
SWOT is the first satellite mission to observe almost all of the water on the Earth‘s surface, measuring water heights in the planet’s lakes, rivers, reservoirs and oceans.
NASA‘s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California sent a payload to France in June 2021, where a multinational team integrated a Ka-band radar interferometer (KaRIn) and other finely tuned instruments with a satellite bus.
On October 16, SWOT arrived in Vandenburg from France aboard a US Air Force C-5 Galaxy aircraft and moved to the Astrotech Space Operations Center to begin preparations for launch.
Once in orbit, SWOT will collect data from the ocean, helping researchers better understand how sea water absorbs atmospheric heat and carbon.
This process affects global temperatures and climate change. 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 bodies of water, as well as their surface area and extent.
Tracking the change in water volume over time will allow scientists and water managers to better control how much water enters the Earth’s freshwater bodies.
—
Online:
Contact us: [email protected]
Our Standards, Terms of Use: Standard Terms And Conditions.