The SWOT satellite, a NASA and CNES collaboration, is monitoring the warm waters from the emerging El Niño in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Warm ocean waters from the establishing El Niño are moving north along coastlines in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite is able to spot the motion of these warm ocean waters in unmatched detail.
Water expands as it warms, so sea levels tend to be higher in places with warmer water. In addition to warmer water, El Niño is also associated with a weakening of the equatorial trade winds.
The SWOT satellite, a NASA and CNES partnership, is keeping an eye on the warm waters from the emerging El Niño in the eastern Pacific Ocean. This satellite offers insights into global weather condition patterns influenced by El Niño by providing in-depth views of Earths water surface areas. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The international Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission is able to determine ocean features, like El Niño, closer to a coastline than previous space-based objectives.
Warm ocean waters from the developing El Niño are shifting north along shorelines in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Along the coast of California, these warm waters are connecting with a consistent marine heat wave that recently affected the advancement of Hurricane Hilary. The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite has the ability to find the movement of these warm ocean waters in unmatched detail.
A collaboration in between NASA and the French area firm, CNES (Centre National dÉtudes Spatiales), SWOT is measuring the height of nearly all water on Earths surface, offering among the most detailed, extensive views yet of the planets oceans and freshwater lakes and rivers.
Understanding Sea Levels and El Niño
Water expands as it warms, so sea levels tend to be greater in locations with warmer water. El Niño– a periodic climate phenomenon that can impact weather patterns around the world– is characterized by higher sea levels and warmer-than-average ocean temperature levels along the western coast of the Americas.
The SWOT science team made the measurements with the Ka-band Radar Interferometer (KaRIn) instrument. With 2 antennas spread 33 feet (10 meters) apart on a boom, KaRIn produces a set of data swaths as it circles around the world, bouncing radar pulses off the waters surface to collect water-height measurements. The visualization combines data from two passes of the SWOT satellite.
This information visualization shows sea surface heights off the northern California coast in August as determined by the Surface Water and Ocean Topography satellite. Red shows higher-than-average heights, due to a marine heat wave and an establishing El Niño, while blue signals lower-than-average heights. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
” SWOTs ability to measure sea surface so close to the coast will be important for researchers but likewise forecasters taking a look at things like the development and progress of around the world phenomena like El Niño,” stated Ben Hamlington, a sea level researcher at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
El Niños Expected Impact
In its September outlook, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast a greater than 70% possibility for a strong El Niño this coming winter. In addition to warmer water, El Niño is likewise related to a weakening of the equatorial trade winds. The phenomenon can bring cooler, wetter conditions to the U.S. Southwest and dry spell to nations in the western Pacific, such as Indonesia and Australia.
The SWOT mission will gather info on the height of water in Earths lakes, reservoirs, oceans, and rivers. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/CNES/ Thales Alenia Space
More About the SWOT Mission
Launched on December 16, 2022, from Vandenberg Space Force Base in central California, SWOT is now in its operations stage, gathering information that will be used for research and other purposes.
SWOT was collectively developed by NASA and CNES, with contributions from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the UK Space Agency. NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which is managed for the firm by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, California, leads the U.S. part of the job.
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 offered 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 assistance from the UK Space Agency), the satellite platform, and ground operations.