This data visualization shows sea surface heights off the northern California coast in August as measured by the Surface Water and Ocean Topography satellite. Red indicates higher-than-average heights, due to a marine heat wave and a developing El Niño, while blue signals lower-than-average heights. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The international
Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission is able to measure ocean features,
like El Niño, closer to a coastline than previous space-based missions.
Warm ocean waters from the developing El
Niño are shifting north along coastlines in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Along
the coast of California, these warm waters are interacting with a persistent marine heat wave that recently influenced the development of
Hurricane Hilary. The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite is able to spot the movement
of these warm ocean waters in unprecedented detail.
A collaboration between NASA and the
French space agency, CNES (Centre National d’Études Spatiales), SWOT is
measuring the height of nearly all water on Earth’s surface, providing one of the most
detailed, comprehensive views yet of the planet’s oceans and fresh water lakes
and rivers.
Water expands as it warms, so sea levels tend to be higher in
places with warmer water. El Niño – a periodic climate phenomenon that can affect
weather patterns around the world – is characterized by higher sea levels and
warmer-than-average ocean temperatures along the western coast of the Americas.
The image above shows sea surface heights off the U.S. West Coast, near the
California-Oregon border, in August. Red and orange indicate
higher-than-average ocean heights, while blue and green represent
lower-than-average heights.
The SWOT science team made the
measurements with the Ka-band Radar Interferometer (KaRIn) instrument. With two
antennas spread 33 feet (10 meters) apart on a boom, KaRIn produces a pair of
data swaths as it circles the globe, bouncing radar pulses off the water’s
surface to collect water-height measurements. The visualization combines data
from two passes of the SWOT satellite.
“SWOT’s ability to measure sea surface so
close to the coast will be invaluable for researchers but also forecasters
looking at things like the development and progress of worldwide phenomena like
El Niño,” said Ben Hamlington, a sea level researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Southern California.
In its September
outlook, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast a
greater than 70% chance for a strong El Niño this coming winter. In addition to
warmer water, El Niño is also associated with a weakening of the equatorial
trade winds. The phenomenon can bring cooler, wetter conditions to the U.S.
Southwest and drought to countries in the western Pacific, such as Indonesia
and Australia.
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About the Mission
Launched on Dec. 16, 2022, from Vandenberg Space Force
Base in central California, SWOT is now in its operations phase, collecting
data that will be used for research and other purposes.
SWOT was jointly developed by NASA and
CNES, with contributions from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the UK Space
Agency. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed for the agency by
Caltech in Pasadena, California, leads the U.S. component of the project. For
the flight system payload, NASA provided the KaRIn instrument, a GPS science
receiver, a laser retroreflector, a two-beam microwave radiometer, and NASA
instrument operations. CNES provided the Doppler Orbitography and Radioposition
Integrated by Satellite (DORIS) system, the dual frequency Poseidon altimeter
(developed by Thales Alenia Space), the KaRIn radio-frequency subsystem
(together with Thales Alenia Space and with support from the UK Space Agency),
the satellite platform, and ground operations. CSA provided the KaRIn
high-power transmitter assembly. NASA provided the launch vehicle and the
agency’s Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy Space Center, managed the
associated launch services.
To learn more about SWOT, visit: https://swot.jpl.nasa.gov/
Jane J. Lee / Andrew Wang
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Source: Water-Watching Satellite Monitors Warming Ocean off California Coast | NASA
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