Satellite launched to map the world’s oceans, lakes and rivers

(AP) – A French-American satellite that will map nearly every ocean, lake and river in the world was launched into orbit Friday.

The pre-dawn launch aboard a SpaceX rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California capped off a very successful year for NASA.

Called SWOT (short for Surface Water and Ocean Topography), the satellite is needed more than ever as climate change worsens droughts, floods and coastal erosion, scientists say. Cheers erupted at control centers in California and France as the spacecraft began its mission.

“It’s a pivotal moment, and I’m very excited about it,” said NASA program scientist Nadya Vinogradova-Shiffer. “We’re going to see Earth’s water like never before.”

About the size of an SUV, the satellite will measure the height of water over more than 90 percent of Earth’s surface, allowing scientists to track flow and identify potential areas of high risk It will also study millions of lakes and 2.1 million kilometers of rivers.

The satellite will fire radar pulses back to Earth, and the signals will be received back by a pair of antennas, one at each end of a 33-foot (10-meter) boom.

It should be able to distinguish currents and eddies less than 13 miles (21 kilometers) in diameter, as well as areas of the ocean where waters of different temperatures merge.

NASA’s current fleet of nearly 30 Earth-observing satellites cannot distinguish such small features. And while these older satellites can map the extent of lakes and rivers, their measurements aren’t as detailed, said Tamlin Pavelsky of the University of North Carolina, who is part of the mission.

Perhaps most importantly, the satellite will reveal the location and speed of rising sea levels and changing coastlines, key to saving lives and property. It will cover the world between the Arctic and Antarctic at least once every three weeks as it orbits more than 550 miles (890 kilometers) high. The mission is expected to last three years.

Laurie Leshin, director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, noted that while the agency is known for its Mars rovers and space telescopes, “this is the planet we care about most.”

“We have a lot of eyes on Earth,” with even more globe-trotting missions planned in the coming years, he added.

NASA and the French Space Agency collaborated on the $1.2 billion SWOT project, some 20 years in the making, with Britain and Canada participating.

Already recycled, the first stage propellant returned to Vandenberg eight minutes after liftoff to fly again one day. When the double sonic booms went off, “Everybody jumped out of their skin and it was exciting. What a morning,” said Taryn Tomlinson, director of Earth sciences at the Canadian Space Agency.

It’s the last milestone this year for NASA. Among the other highlights: glamorous pictures of the universe from the new Webb Space Telescope; the Dart spacecraft crashes into an asteroid in the first planetary defense test; and the recent return of the Orion capsule from the Moon after a test flight.

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