NASA Launches a Mission to Survey Earth’s Water

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Bill Nelson, NASA Administrator, stated that climate change is causing a range of consequences for humanity. These include rising seas and extreme weather conditions, as well as more severe wildfires. “The climate crisis demands an all-hands-on deck approach. SWOT is the realization a long-standing international partnership which will ultimately better equip communities to face these challenges.”

SWOT will scan the entire Earth between 78° south and 78° north latitudes at least once every 21-days, returning approximately one terabyte worth of unprocessed data each day. The spacecraft’s scientific heart is an innovative instrument, the Ka-band radar interference (KaRIn), that marks a technological breakthrough. KaRIn receives the return signal from the spacecraft using two antennas. It bounces radar pulses off of the water’s surface. Engineers will be able to determine the water’s surface height using this arrangement: one signal and two antennas. Each swath is 30 miles (30 km) in diameter.

Karen St. Germain director of NASA Earth Science Division said, “We’re excited to see SWOT in practice.” “This satellite is a symbol of how science and technological innovation are improving Earth’s life. Innovation will give us the data we need to understand how Earth’s air and water interact and how humans can thrive on this changing planet.

The SWOT mission will offer many benefits, including a clearer picture about Earth’s freshwater resources. It will have data on over 95% of the world’s larger lakes (622,500 square meters) or rivers that are more than 330 feet wide (100 meters). Only a handful of thousand lakes are currently available for freshwater researchers around the globe. This number will rise to the millions with SWOT.