Page 3 - Spec Tech Vol 1 Issue 11
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Image Credit: NASA
to understand climate change," she said in SWOT will be responsible for tracking nearly 1.3
response to a question asked by million miles (2.1 million km) of rivers and
Space.com. "What SWOT will do is give us millions of lakes, and it will be capable of
a 10-fold improvement in the spatial monitoring coastal sea levels to provide oceanic
resolution of our measurement of water data in corroboration with other on-orbit sources.
height." To help sort through the incredible amount of
data, NASA plans to make the mission's
"If we really want to understand [the water
cycle] in ways that are important for us, we information publicly available and is developing
need to be able to think about it not just tools to make it easier to access.
conceptually, but in terms of volumes," "With the SWOT data, we can give really
SWOT hydrology science lead Tamlin important information to a wide variety of
Pavelsky explained during a SWOT science stakeholders," Benjamin Hamlington, research
briefing on Tuesday (Dec. 13). "How much scientist for the Sea Level and Ice Group at
water is there, and how is it flowing from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern
place to place? SWOT is going to allow us California, said during Tuesday's briefing.
to do that." "Really, anyone who cares about water should
be concerned about what SWOT can provide."
According to Pavelsky, before SWOT, the
bulk of satellite data available to scientists Hamlington predicts that SWOT data will be
studying Earth's surface water has been useful for coastal communities, civil engineers,
derived from other experiments' readings. water resource professionals, scientists
researching flooding and drought, and more.
"We're constantly having to come up with
ways of using data from satellites that "Some locations have too much water; others
weren't designed for what we want to do," don't have enough," he said. "We're seeing more
he said. "We're repurposing other people's extreme droughts, more extreme floods;
data, and we're able to do cool things with precipitation patterns are changing. It's really
that. But SWOT is the first satellite that's important that we try to understand exactly what
specifically designed to study rivers and is happening using the SWOT data.”
lakes, and it's going to be a real game
changer."
Space Explorer 2022 3
