NASA to Study Water around the World from Space
2022-12-17
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1A NASA-led international mission launched a radar satellite from southern California early on Friday.
2The satellite will be involved in a major project to research the world's oceans, lakes and rivers.
3The satellite is called SWOT, short for Surface Water and Ocean Topography.
4It is designed to give scientists a never-before-seen view of Earth's water, which covers 70 percent of the planet.
5About the size of a car, the satellite uses advanced microwave radar technology to collect detailed height and surface measurements of all bodies of water.
6The data will provide researchers with more information on the effects of climate change.
7Data will be taken from radar readings of the planet at least two times every 21 days.
8The information will help study ocean currents, predict the weather, and control freshwater supplies in areas with little rain, researchers said.
9The satellite took nearly 20 years to develop by NASA along with the French and Canadian space agencies.
10It was designed and built at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Los Angeles.
11"It's really the first mission to observe nearly all water on the planet's surface," said JPL scientist Ben Hamlington.
12One major goal of the mission is to research how oceans absorb atmospheric heat and carbon dioxide - the natural process that moderates temperatures and climate change.
13SWOT is designed to measure small differences in surface heights around smaller currents, where much of the oceans' reduction of heat and carbon is believed to happen.
14And SWOT can do so with 10 times greater detail than existing technologies, JPL says.
15The world's oceans are estimated to have absorbed more than 90 percent of the extra heat trapped in the Earth's atmosphere by human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.
16Studying how that happens will help climate scientists answer an important question:
17"What is the turning point at which oceans start releasing, rather than absorbing, huge amounts of heat back into the atmosphere...?" said Nadya Vinogradova Shiffer.
18She is SWOT's program scientist at NASA in Washington.
19The satellite will also be used to study the effect of rising ocean levels.
20And it will be able to measure all rivers wider than 100 meters, as well as more than 1 million lakes and bodies of water larger than 6.25 hectares.
21Tamlin Pavelsky is leading SWOT's freshwater research team.
22He said collecting data on freshwater bodies is like "taking the pulse of the world's water system, so we'll be able to see when it's racing and we'll be able to see when it's slow."
23SWOT's radar instrument can also read through cloud cover and darkness over wide areas of the Earth.
24This permits scientists to accurately map their observations no matter the weather or time of day and to cover large areas far more quickly than before.
25I'm Dan Novak.
1A NASA-led international mission launched a radar satellite from southern California early on Friday. The satellite will be involved in a major project to research the world's oceans, lakes and rivers. 2The satellite is called SWOT, short for Surface Water and Ocean Topography. It is designed to give scientists a never-before-seen view of Earth's water, which covers 70 percent of the planet. 3About the size of a car, the satellite uses advanced microwave radar technology to collect detailed height and surface measurements of all bodies of water. The data will provide researchers with more information on the effects of climate change. 4Data will be taken from radar readings of the planet at least two times every 21 days. The information will help study ocean currents, predict the weather, and control freshwater supplies in areas with little rain, researchers said. 5The satellite took nearly 20 years to develop by NASA along with the French and Canadian space agencies. It was designed and built at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Los Angeles. 6"It's really the first mission to observe nearly all water on the planet's surface," said JPL scientist Ben Hamlington. 7One major goal of the mission is to research how oceans absorb atmospheric heat and carbon dioxide - the natural process that moderates temperatures and climate change. 8SWOT is designed to measure small differences in surface heights around smaller currents, where much of the oceans' reduction of heat and carbon is believed to happen. And SWOT can do so with 10 times greater detail than existing technologies, JPL says. 9Oceans' 'turning point' 10The world's oceans are estimated to have absorbed more than 90 percent of the extra heat trapped in the Earth's atmosphere by human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. 11Studying how that happens will help climate scientists answer an important question: "What is the turning point at which oceans start releasing, rather than absorbing, huge amounts of heat back into the atmosphere...?" said Nadya Vinogradova Shiffer. She is SWOT's program scientist at NASA in Washington. 12The satellite will also be used to study the effect of rising ocean levels. And it will be able to measure all rivers wider than 100 meters, as well as more than 1 million lakes and bodies of water larger than 6.25 hectares. 13Tamlin Pavelsky is leading SWOT's freshwater research team. He said collecting data on freshwater bodies is like "taking the pulse of the world's water system, so we'll be able to see when it's racing and we'll be able to see when it's slow." 14SWOT's radar instrument can also read through cloud cover and darkness over wide areas of the Earth. This permits scientists to accurately map their observations no matter the weather or time of day and to cover large areas far more quickly than before. 15I'm Dan Novak. 16Dan Novak adapted this story for VOA Learning English based on reporting by Reuters. 17_____________________________________________________________ 18Words in This Story 19microwave - n. a very short wave of electromagnetic energy 20absorb - v. to take in in a natural or gradual way 21greenhouse gas - n. gas that cause the warming of the earth's atmosphere 22emission - n. the act of producing or sending out something 23pulse - n. the regular movement of blood through your body that is caused by the beating of your heart and that can be felt by touching certain parts of your body