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(The Guardian) Australians play key role in new space mission
Not far from Los Angeles, one of Elon Musk’s rockets is about to blast off carrying a satellite with extraordinary capabilities.
It’s a piece of kit scientists have dreamt about for decades and will be used to survey nearly all the water on the surface of Earth for the very first time.
The data will provide an unprecedented depth of knowledge about the substance covering 70% of the planet: things like the height of oceans, rivers and lakes, and ocean functions linked to climate change.
And two experts in Australia will be front and centre, making sure the SWOT satellite, short for surface water and ocean topography, is beaming back accurate data.
Dr Christopher Watson, from the University of Tasmania, and the CSIRO’s Dr Benoit Legresy say the advanced radar satellite is ground-breaking. Designed and built at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory near LA, it will fill huge gaps in ocean monitoring by surveying the planet’s surface at least once every 21 days. It will measure rivers, lakes and reservoirs whose water volumes and flow rates have not been observed before and offer a view of ocean features such as currents and eddies, and ocean height with unprecedented clarity.
The satellite will also provide information about how the ocean is taking up atmospheric heat and carbon dioxide. It’s a process that moderates climate change but can’t continue forever and humanity needs to know when the tipping point will come.
Dr Legresy said Australia stood to gain much from the SWOT mission. -- It will help us better understand where we are in the climate system, monitoring how the ocean around us stores the extra heat from climate change - 90% of it goes into the oceans. And the majority of this goes in the southern side of the ocean.
A Falcon 9 rocket, owned and operated by billionaire Elon Musk’s commercial launch company SpaceX, will carry the satellite into orbit. The launch is expected to occur late on Friday, Australian time, at the Vandenberg US Space Force Base, northwest of Los Angeles.
Not far from Los Angeles, one of Elon Musk’s rockets is about to blast off carrying a satellite with extraordinary capabilities.
It’s a piece of kit scientists have dreamt about for decades and will be used to survey nearly all the water on the surface of Earth for the very first time.
The data will provide an unprecedented depth of knowledge about the substance covering 70% of the planet: things like the height of oceans, rivers and lakes, and ocean functions linked to climate change.
And two experts in Australia will be front and centre, making sure the SWOT satellite, short for surface water and ocean topography, is beaming back accurate data.
Dr Christopher Watson, from the University of Tasmania, and the CSIRO’s Dr Benoit Legresy say the advanced radar satellite is ground-breaking. Designed and built at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory near LA, it will fill huge gaps in ocean monitoring by surveying the planet’s surface at least once every 21 days. It will measure rivers, lakes and reservoirs whose water volumes and flow rates have not been observed before and offer a view of ocean features such as currents and eddies, and ocean height with unprecedented clarity.
The satellite will also provide information about how the ocean is taking up atmospheric heat and carbon dioxide. It’s a process that moderates climate change but can’t continue forever and humanity needs to know when the tipping point will come.
Dr Legresy said Australia stood to gain much from the SWOT mission. -- It will help us better understand where we are in the climate system, monitoring how the ocean around us stores the extra heat from climate change - 90% of it goes into the oceans. And the majority of this goes in the southern side of the ocean.
A Falcon 9 rocket, owned and operated by billionaire Elon Musk’s commercial launch company SpaceX, will carry the satellite into orbit. The launch is expected to occur late on Friday, Australian time, at the Vandenberg US Space Force Base, northwest of Los Angeles.
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