Watch the latest water satellite unfold itself in space

Watch the latest water satellite unfold itself in space
This illustration shows the SWOT spacecraft with its antenna mast and solar arrays fully deployed. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite launched into Earth orbit on Friday, Dec. 16, from Vandenberg Space Force Base in central California, and engineers are working to prepare the mission to begin measuring the height of water on over 90% of Earth's surface, providing a high-definition survey of our planet's water for the first time.

But before it can do that, the satellite would need to unfold its large mast and antenna panels (see above) after successfully deploying the solar panel arrays that power the spacecraft. The mission monitors and controls the satellite using telemetry data, but it also equipped spacecraft with four customized commercial cameras to record the action.

The fully deployed shortly after launch, taking about 10 minutes.

Two cameras aboard the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite captured the large mast and antenna panels of the spacecraft’s main science instrument deploying over four days, a process that was completed on Dec. 22, 2022. The masts, which unfold from opposite sides of the spacecraft, can be seen extending out from the spacecraft and locking in place, but the cameras stopped short of capturing the antennas at the ends of the masts being fully deployed (a milestone the team confirmed with telemetry data). This video places the two camera views side by side. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/CNES

The antennas successfully deployed over four days, a process that was completed on Dec. 22. The two cameras focused on the KaRIn antennas captured the mast extending out from the spacecraft and locking in place but stopped short of capturing the antennas being fully deployed (a milestone the team confirmed with telemetry data.)

Thirty-three feet (10 meters) apart, at either end of the mast, the two antennas belong to the groundbreaking Ka-band Radar Interferometer (KaRIn) instrument. Designed to capture precise measurements of the height of water in Earth's freshwater bodies and the ocean, KaRIn will see eddies, currents, and other ocean features less than 13 miles (20 kilometers) across. It will also collect data on lakes and reservoirs larger than 15 acres (62,500 square meters) and rivers wider than 330 feet (100 meters) across.

This series of images shows the deployment of the solar arrays that power the international Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite. The mission, led by NASA and the French space agency Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES), captured the roughly 10-minute process with two of the four commercial cameras aboard the satellite (the same type used to capture NASA’s Perseverance rover landing on Mars). SWOT launched Dec. 16, 2022, at 3:46 a.m. PST from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, and the arrays started their deployment at 5:01 a.m. PST. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/CNES

KaRIn will do this by bouncing radar pulses off the surface of water on Earth and receiving the signals with both of those antennas, collecting data along a swath that's 30 miles (50 kilometers) wide on either side of the .

The data SWOT provides will help researchers and address some of the most pressing climate questions of our time and help communities prepare for a warming world.

Citation: Watch the latest water satellite unfold itself in space (2022, December 29) retrieved 7 March 2024 from https://phys.org/news/2022-12-latest-satellite-unfold-space.html
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