Refinitiv Newscasts - NASA launches water-monitoring satellite 1

ConectiSys

16/12/2022 12:47

Click the following link to watch video: https://share.newscasts.refinitiv.com/link?entryId=1_qpkw4rme&referenceId=1_qpkw4rme&pageId=RefinitivNewscasts
Source: Reuters

Description: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches NASA's new SWOT satellite,
(SWOT is short for Surface Water and Ocean Topography), an international
mission designed to conduct the world's first comprehensive survey of Earth's
water surfaces, from oceans to lakes and rivers.
Short Link: https://refini.tv/3hq0b9P

Video Transcript:

>> You here, you are a research hydrologist with that group. So can you tell
me what are some of the applications of SWAT? >> Well, SWAT is amazing because
it has a really unique capability of measuring water levels over a bigger
area. And so for people that are water managers in particular, there's a lot
of excitement there because we really don't have this capability at present.
We have to do these things from the field, individual point measurements and
things like that that are very hard to make in the field. And so we have a lot
of interest from people that are municipal water agencies, state agencies for
dam safety, federal agencies, all really interested in getting their hands on
some water level data in particular and storage change. So be very exciting to
see it. >> It is very exciting and really right hear you saying is that SWAT
is changing the game. So what are some of those specific applications may be
agriculture or flood zones. How is it changing our lives and our own backyard?
>> Yeah. Well, so a few things that will change are, so for example, flood
risk. We really don't have a good sense of where flooding occurs and when and
why. So how much water requires a flooding to occur. So, for example, a good
place for that is on the coast. We don't really have very many gauges along
the coast at the freshwater and saltwater interface. And so I think we'll see
it a lot of changes there, a lot of changes inland or lakes and wetlands too.
>> Wow. It's really exciting. And I understand, Toby, you're also in this
group called the Early Adopters. What is that and who is in that? >> Yeah. So
the Early Adopters group is about 25 different organizations. They come from
all over the world. And these are people that are interested in SWOT data.
They've heard through the grapevine that there's some data coming out for
water level data. And these are agencies that are non-governmental
organizations, that are governmental organizations ranging from city level
water agencies, up to federal agencies. So a lot of excitement there from the
water community. >> Very exciting, Toby. Thank you so much for joining us.
Raquel, back to you. >> Thank you so much. This will be the last launch for
NASA's Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, Thomas
Zurbuchen. During Thomas's six years in the role, he's overseeing nearly 100
science missions, including SWAT, DART, the double asteroid redirection test,
the Mars 2020 mission, and the James Webb Telescope. He also co-authored and
authored more than 200 articles and received many agency awards.
Congratulations, Thomas. >> Congratulations, Thomas. Yes, Thomas will be
missed. He's known for his energy, dedication and scientific curiosity. When I
was doing my first lunch with him, Sentinel-6, Mike Fraley, who was very
supportive. So yeah, Thomas will be missed, but congratulations. Enjoy.
Well-deserved. >> Absolutely enjoy that. The President of France's Space
Agency, Connect, CNES, sent us this message about today's launch. >> The
result of NASA and CNES historic partnership in [inaudible 00:03:03] that all
started more than 30 years ago. We [inaudible 00:03:07] is really essential
and I'm very proud to send you this message and to be with you at least in
spirit for this launch. I want to say once again a few words, how proud CNES
and its team are to be involved in this ambitious international adventure
alongside NASA. SWAT is the first space mission to survey a planet's
freshwater resources on a global scale. The water elevation of lakes and water
courses, the discharge of rivers and the fine dynamics of the oceans are all
vital data that are going to help us better adapt to climate change. In this
respect, SWAT truly marks a evolution for space hydrology and we're proud to
be embarking on this endeavor with the French community of scientists, of
users, and of course with our industry. I wish you a successful launch and go
SWAT go. >> Go SWAT. Climate change is a topic front and center for everyone,
including NASA. Joining us now is NASA's Sandra Connelly. Thank you for
joining us, Sandra. >> Thank you for having me. >> Now as a leader in science,
what does it mean to be part of this mission? >> Man, this is such an exciting
mission. It's unprecedented and in many ways. It's going to be the mission
that for the first time ever, we're measuring surface water around the world.
Freshwater sources, saltwater sources, how they ebb and flow and move
in-between each other, how the energy is transferred across those water
bodies, and also with the environment, it's really going to help us improve
our weather forecasting ability and our climate prediction abilities. >> It's
real trailblazer. So why is a joint mission between NASA and CNES? Climate
change knows no boundaries. So why is it important for a mission to be an
international collaboration? >> So science knows no boundaries. So our
scientists are from all around the world and this partnership with CNES is
tremendously important. It spans over 30 years on ocean altimetry missions.
That's not even counting other partnerships that we have with CNES to achieve
our science. So we're looking forward to many, many more missions together
with them. >> Sandra, as you know, SWOT is the first science that is fully
compliant with open science requirement. Can you tell us more about NASA's
open science paradigm of how do we kick off the year of open science with
SWOT? >> That's a great question. So our space satellites give us a really
unique vantage point to observe the Earth. So we're able to look at as a
global system. And in the data that we've collected through our satellites
over the 50 years allow us to really look at the ground, the atmosphere and
the oceans. And what open science and open data is going to enable us to do is
to take that to the next level and give it to the individual user. Whether
they're decision-makers at the local level, at the regional level, or even
tribal communities, is to give that information to people, so that they can
make informed decisions regardless of their business. You don't need to
actually be a scientist or engineer moving forward to be able to leverage this
data and apply it to your day-to-day business. >> Looking forward to the data.
Thank you so much, Sandra. >> Thank you. >> Now, let's head over to our
commentators. We are t minus 7 minutes of launch of the Falcon 9 rocket from
Vandenberg Space Force Base. Meghan and Denton will navigate us through that
terminal count. >> Yeah. Just under eight minutes to lift off. And we're
looking fantastic for a launch, weather is a go. No collision concerns on the
range for our instantaneous opportunity to launch at 03:46:47 seconds Pacific
time. We see a live shot of the Falcon 9 sitting on launchpad 4 East here at
Vandenberg Space Force Base. This reusable two-stage rocket standing about 230
feet tall. The first stage is the bottom 2/3 of what you see there. That's
called the booster. And then on the right over that, you see this black piece
there. That's the interstate adapter, which connects the first and second
stage. And then at the very top, the payload fairing. And you see SWOT painted
on there. SWOT is tucked safely inside of it, folded up to about the size of a
midsize car. >> Engine shield. >> And we just heard the call out for a stage
one engine shield. And basically what that is, is just the getting the engine
ready for the flow of the cooler temperatures. So it's like if you imagine if
you were to jump into really cold pool, your muscles tense up and everything
else. And we don't necessarily want that what the engine. So we slowly start
to bleed in those liquid oxygen to bring it down to the temperature that it
will be seen during flight. And that's really what that is. It's really
preserving the stress on the engines and it's getting ready for flight. >>
Yeah. That was a great analogy. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. You made me cold thinking
about it. So we see some of that liquid oxygen venting off now, both the first
and second stages. >> Yeah. And you're seeing that because the boost is very,
very cold because that liquid oxygen is inside there. And so when you hear the
call out for stage 1 RP-1 leaks, they're wrapping up fueling of the stage 1
right now. And so we should hit call out here in a few seconds. >> Stage 1
locks load is complete. >> And so SpaceX is also loading helium gas into both
stages and will continue to top off until about a minute and a half before
launch. Falcon 9 uses helium as a pressure rinse. Meaning it uses helium to
maintain pressure in the tanks as liquid oxygen and RP-1 are consumed by the
engines during ascent. The first stage has nine Merlin engines, hence the name
Falcon 9. The second stage has a single Merlin vacuum or M-Vac engine. So
you'll often hear references to M-Vac throughout the count. Next call our will
come and just a couple of seconds. You'll hear that the spacecraft is on
internal power and configured for a launch. That just means that the
spacecraft is now running on batteries versus getting power from the strong
back you see there. >> Time pressing for strong back retract. >> And the
strong back is getting ready to retract. The strong back is that mechanical
structure you see just to the right of the vehicle. And they're just pressing
up the tanks and getting ready for that. You'll see it tilt back slightly
initially and then when we get closer to launch, you will see it tilt of about
45 degrees back. Get out of the way. So the Falcon 9 can clear the bed with no
issues. >> And that tilt starts when you see that cradle. It's like a hug
around. Just at the base of the payload fairing there, you'll see those arms
start to open and that will allow for the strong back to start tilting
backwards. >> That is correct. >> And you can see from the video, you can see
that that cradles open it up. And then you will see slightly few seconds after
that's completed, the strong backward tilt back slaving. >> And now we're
going to pause for an upcoming poll here. >> MLM on count down one. MLM
copies. >> MLM is NASA launch manager for this mission. Again, we see that
strong back retracting and you see those connections between the strong back
and the rocket. Those are umbilicals and that's what continues to feed the
rocket with liquid, electricity, gases right up until launch, right? >> That
is correct. And what we were waiting to hear right now is just the SpaceX team
confirming with the NASA launched manager that the team is ready to go. >> LV
MLM count now one. >> Shall we go ahead? >> FS go for SWAT launch. >> Perfect.
>> There you go. Perfect news. >> Stage 1 locks load complete. Stage 1 pogo.
>> When you heard the team has all good to go. And so right now Stage 1 locks
load is complete. At this point in time, the Stage 1 is completely filled with
fuel. We just waiting for them to top off the stage to tank. >> And today
we're going to be treated to some sonic booms since the booster will land
right back here at Vandenberg Space Force Base just about 1,000 feet from
where it's going to launch. >> Yes. Which is always exciting to see. It's just
so fascinating that the booster is going to land basically very close to where
it took off from. >> Yeah, that's going to be great. And as you said again,
because there is visibility, so greatly we won't just see the launch. We're
also going to see that booster coming back to land. >> Yeah,. It's taking
everything I have to stay inside and not go outside and see this with my own
two eyes. >> No. You have to sit in here with me. And in these last few
minutes, Falcon 9 is performing final health checks on its primary
communications, avionics and propulsion systems and preparation for flight. >>
This is the Rock ranger is green. >> you just heard that call out that the
range is good. And surely we should be hearing call out for that Stage 2,
locks load is complete and then that point, all of the propellant to be loaded
on. >> Stage 2 lock load complete. >> You just heard that call up. So all the
propellant are downloading. And at this point in time we just getting gearing
up for Falcon 9 to go into startup, which is basically the computer taken over
and going through his last set of configurations and checks to make sure that
we are good for launch leading into T 0. >> And I remember how Denton was
telling us earlier. We see the amount of liquid oxygen coming off of the
rocket fluctuating throughout the counts here. That's what we're seeing again,
to maintain that pressure, the correct pressure in both stages. >> And what
you're seeing right now is them venting the locks that was in the umbilical
tower. So it's venting that out and getting it all ready for it to go for
locks. >> Falcon 9 is in startup. >> And we just heard that call up, Falcon 9
is in startup, which means the [inaudible 00:13:45] computer has taken over
and just preparing for its initial launch sequence. >> And now both stages are
pressurizing for launch. Next call out and just a couple of seconds. >>
Director, go for launch. >> SpaceX, launch director confirming go for launch.
Range remains go weather is go. This launch will mark the 100th first mission
of NASA's launch services program based at Kennedy Space Center. >> [inaudible
00:14:25] 15 seconds. >> Here we go. >> Ten, Nine. >> 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2,
1, engine ignition and liftoff. Liftoff of SWAT, our first global survey of
Earth's surface water to study how this ever-changing resource affects our
climate. >> There we get a nice view from the ground camera and also we will
switch to the onboard camera. >> Now, Denton, you didn't go outside to see the
launch, but now we're feeling it inside here and the mission director center,
the rumble all around us from lauch. >> Absolutely. And now you're getting a
good. Look at the onboard camera looking down towards the end of the rockets
and you could see the merlin engines come into life there. >> And this room
coming to life. Really lots of rumble going on in here. And we're soon going
to hear that the rocket is supersonic, meaning it's going faster than the
speed of sound, followed by Falcon 9 reaching what's called Max Q. The moments
of peak mechanics stress on the rocket. >> We're getting a nice view. >>
Falcon 9 supersonic. >> Just her to call off a supersonic. Getting a good shot
of looking at the onboard camera there. >> Max Q. >> We just stepped through
max Q. >> And back engine chill. >> And back engine chill , which means
getting the second stage engine ready to start. And so which means we will be
coming up on stage separation shortly and followed by Stage 2 ignition. >> We
see this beautiful shot of all of the Merlin engines. All nine of them lit up.
>> That's what 1.7 million pounds of thrust look like. >> Lots of thrust. So
the next callouts are going to come in quick succession. So let me walk
through them really quick. So at t plus 2 minutes and 15 seonds, we're going
to have main engine cutoff. That's Mico. Meaning of the nine Merlin engines on
the first stage are going to shut down. And then a few seconds after that,
Stage 1 and 2 will separate. Stage 1, we'll do a flip and do a boost back burn
to orient itself back towards Earth for that landing here at the Space Force
Base. >> And there we get a good shot of looking at the entire stage.
Basically, the camera is looking up towards the state. >> Second sparation
confirmed. >> And we just and there you go. >> Live video of Stage 1 and 2
separation. >> And back ignition. >> And there's a good look at end back
engine coming to life. >> That's great. You are seeing the Stage 1 booster do
its flip. And now the engine bell of the MVAC engine lit up. This is camera
shot of Stage 1 here, again on its way back to Earth. >> And just a couple of
seconds we're going to see the payload fairing jettison. >> Bearing separation
confirmed. >> We just heard a color first thing, separation and there's a good
onward of view of the SWAT spacecraft and you can see the fairing has gotten
to this point in time. >> Another camera shot here of the engine on the second
stage continuing to carry SWAT to its intended target. We have a couple of
camera views of this engine here. So you might see. >> Page 1 shut down. >>
Yeah, and then you'll see it's cycling through the views of the stage 2
engine. And as we get closer to the separation, it'll go back towards the
spacecraft. >> We just heard a call out for the boost back burn ending on
stage 1. >> Nominal trajectories. >> And that call-out was just to say both
Stage 1 and Stage 2, doing what they were expecting them to do. >> And we're
hoping to get a video of Stage 1 landings. And sometimes you don't always get
it because of it's coming in so fast and sometimes it's hard to capture it. So
occasionally, sometimes we don't get it all the way, but we're hoping to get a
good video this time. >> T plus four minutes and 10 seconds into the launch of
SWAT. And we've had a nominal ascent so far, no issues to report. Again, this
is a video of a live shot of the engine on Stage 2. SWAT stands for Surface
Water and Ocean Topography. And this will be the first mission to provide high
definition data on more than 90% of the water on our planet surface. It's a
joint mission between NASA and CNES, Francis Space Agency with contributions
from both the Canadian and UK space agencies. SWAT is the fourth NASA LSP
science mission to launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base, and the sixth LSP
science mission overall to launch on the Falcon 9 dungeon. >> Yes. And we got
a lot more missions coming up on the Falcon. >> Yeah, to see the partnership
really grow. For you too, you really worked from SpaceX from the beginning. >>
Yeah, absolutely. And seeing their evolution over the years is been amazing to
watch. >> So coming up we're going to see the booster begin its entry burns
soon. And again, that entry burn is to slow it down as it approaches Earth for
the landing here back at the base instead of a drone ship. >> Yeah, it's
awesome to see it come back to land. And as I mentioned before, it seen it
landing right very close to where it took off from is awesome. >> So then how
does this work? So again, we're going to have the entry burn that slows it
down and there's a landing burn. >> Yeah. So you have the boost backbone to
gets it back towards the launchpad and then the entry burn slows it down as a
coming into the atmosphere and then you have the landing burned. It would
basically puts it down gently on the pad. >> Yeah. SpaceX has become real pros
at landing their boosters. >> Absolutely. And it's becoming routine for them
at this point in time. And so this is just a normal course of business for
them. >> Again, we're looking live at Stage 2. >> Stage 1 is regression. >>
Now, we just heard the call out for Stage 1 entry burn. It's coming back into
the Earth's atmosphere. There we go. We've got a good video of it. >> Yeah, so
you can see this hypersonic grid fans are illuminated by the flame from the
booster. >> STS is safe. >> You see that the screen went black there. That's
because they just shutdown the engine. >> That's correct. >> Stages has
[inaudible 00:21:13] trajectories. >> But I was talking about this hypersonic
grid fins that you see those help guide the Falcon 9 booster back down towards
Earth. So now that we're done with the entry burn, the next burn is a landing
burn. It's just one engine right just before it touches down. >> Correctly,
just gently set and it set it down on the pad. >> The next milestone for the
second stage is going to Sica 1. >> Yeah. And Sica 1 is the first shutdown of
the second stage engine. And for this mission we're going to have to burn. So
you'll see after Stage 2 shuts down a little it'll close for a while and then
we got a good video of Stage 1. >> It's about to land. How exciting? >> Coming
in forward its landing burn there. >> Again, the grid fins moving ever so
slightly to make sure that it's coming down exactly how they want it to come
down. >> Yeah and you can see the pad coming into view. >> There it is the
sonic boom. >> And trademark sonic booms. >> Wow. >> And good touchdown of the
Stage 1. >> Touchdown, perfect. >> Stage 1 landing confirmed. >> So glad to
see that live video. Again, sometimes we don't get it. That was amazing to see
and feel, really. >> See and feel and we get to use this boost again. >> Yeah.
Again this is the sixth flight of this booster. >> Yeah, is this right. >> So
we are still awaiting again that's shut down. >> Stage 2 at FPS is safe. >> Of
the second stage, yes. >> And when it does shut down, it's going to be over
the Pacific Ocean, just West of the southern tip of Baja, California, again,
exactly where we want it to be, following that well thought out plan
trajectory. >> And the team is reporting back. Everything's looking nominal.
Stage 2, it's right where it's supposed to be. And looking good. >> And back
shut down. >> And we should see in back shut down, come up here shortly. And
there we go. >> Yes Sico 1. >> Nominal parking orbit. >> Confirmed. That's the
trajectory you're seeing. It's flying south from where it just launched and
it'll continue to fly south down towards an Antarctica. And so again,
everything going as expected so far. The second stage is now going to coast
for about 30 minutes. You can see that it is shut down there from that view.
And this is a view of the spacecraft. Again because the payload fairing has
been jettisoned, you see SWAT right there on your screen. Expose now that we
don't need the payload fairing safetly get it out of the atmosphere. >> Yeah,
correct. The whole purpose of the fairing is protected while the vehicle is
flying through the atmosphere at supersonic speeds. And then once you get
about an atmosphere, there's nothing to harm the spacecraft. So you can
jettison that extra weight and give your vehicle lot more performance once you
get rid of that extra weight. >> The engine not glowing orange as it had
before because again it has shut off, so it will cost for about 30 minutes
with SWAT attached to it before some maneuvers are needed to keep it on the
right trajectory again to get it in the orbit that we want it in. So Denton
and I are going to be back with you to walk you through this operations, but
for now, we're going to send it back to Raquel and Nadia, who I'm sure are
very excited to talk about how they experienced launched today. >> That is
right, Megan and Denton. Just 10 minutes ago we watched a spectacular launch
from Brandenburg here in California. Nadia describe what was going through
your mind at that time. >> What a truly spectacular launch? It was a very
bright splash in this very loud one too. What an entrance? Welcome to the era
of SWAT. Very excited. >> I've had some cheering going on here. >> The car
went off. >> Yeah, we had the car alarms going off. >> It was really exciting
here for our view. >> Now, soon the SWAT satellite onboard will separate from
the spacecraft. SWAT stands for Surface Water and Ocean Topography. The
satellite was surveyed nearly all the water on Earth's surface in
unprecedented detail. SWAT will provide insights into how the ocean influences
climate change, how a warming world affects lakes and rivers, and how
communities can better prepare for disasters like floods. And we are covering
every angle of the SWAT mission from the new data the satellite will provide
to how is paving the way for future NASA Earth missions. Now, SWAT is a
culmination of work by a global team of engineers, scientists, and technicians
committed to improving our understanding of Earth. Let's get to know some of
the people behind the mission. >> Planning for future generations requires us
understanding how much water we have. >> And we need to understand the water
cycle in lots of detail and SWOT will provide that for us. My name is Tahani
Amer. >> I'm Cedric David. >> Marc Simard. >> Christine Gebara and I'm an
Integration Test Engineer at JPL. >> I study the world's rivers. >> I'm one of
the Principal Investigators for SWOT. >> SWOT is an earth orbiting satellite.
It stands for surface water and ocean topography. >> SWOT will for the first
time make measurements of water surface elevation not only on the ocean, but
also on the lakes and rivers of the entire globe. >> This in itself will be a
scientific revolution. >> Collaborations and relationship built bridges and
SWOT will be that bridge across the world. >> SWOT is being designed jointly
by NASA and the French Space Agency with help from Canada and the UK. I was
born in France. So SWOT is a match made in heaven for me. >> Coming to work
every day, it's always really nice to know that the system that we're building
will collect science data that will help people. >> I think finally I found a
meaning to all of my research. >> I believe SWOT will create a lot of peace
because we all need water. >> Now more than ever, it's important to recognize
that water connects us all and it might be the one thing that unites us all.
>> You can really see how hard your team has worked there. >> We have a great
team which I really we're together. We're scientists. We're dream and
engineers make our science-fiction dreams come true. And then collectively we
make this NASA magic that enables discoveries and for the good of humanity and
science. >> That's magic, indeed. We want to show you how some of SWOTs
technology works. But to do that, Nadia and I had to go tap into our athletic
skills for this one. Take a look. >> All right Nadia, in order to learn more
about SWOT, we have to play a little basketball. >> That's right, Raquel.
We're trying to explain how the heart of the SWOT mission works, which is a
new instrument, a radar interferometer, which we lovingly call KaRin. So KaRin
has two antennas separated by a 10-meter boom. One of the antenna transmits a
signal that is bounces back from the Earth's surface and received by two
antennas with a little bit delay and out-of-sync. Now KaRin uses this
information to compute the distance between the satellite and the earth
surface and it calculate the water height. So let's see how we can explain it
with a basketball. If you don't my standing there, a feet away from me. >> Is
right here pretty good? >> This is perfect. And we will bounce the ball just
like a SWOT satellite bounces rate of pulse between two antennas. >> So what
are we seeing here right now? >> We're seeing how the ball, which is our rate
of beam, bounces off the Earth's surface. And by knowing the range, the
distance, and we compute the height of the water surface. >> So the ocean
isn't a flat surface. There's waves. How do you calculate that? >> That's
true. Let's bring a box. So did you notice, when water is a little bit higher
that the ball returns to the antenna to us a little bit faster. That's how we
know that we're retrieving topography, just like in the name of the mission. A
satellite is doing thousands of bounces per second to capture the data on both
sides from both antennas over a wide strip on the ground, about 30 miles, 50
km wide. And then once we do enough of those stripes we'll eventually cover
the whole globe. >> Nadia I could really hear your excitement and passion.
First of all in that package. Why are you so excited for this new technology?
>> It's a really pivotal moment, I think for our space science industry as we
are testing new technology with SWOT. This is our first in-flight
demonstration for the SAR interferometry. And that it opens in a new way of
observing Earth water height. So yes, it is a pivotal moment and I'm very
excited about it. >> Like you mentioned before, the scientific heart of SWOT
satellite is the Ka-band radar interferometer, or KaRin and it measures the
height of water on Earth. Jasmine is live at the Hawks Nest to learn more
about how the technology was built. >> That is right, Raquel. We're back at
the Hawks Nest, now joined by Eva Peral, The Lead Systems Engineer for the
KaRin instrument on SWOT. Welcome Eva. >> Hi. >> We are so glad to have you
here, that launch is lit up the sky. What did you think? >> It was really
impressive. >> It really was. This is beautiful. So you work on the KaRin
instrument. Can you tell me what sets it apart from other instruments? >> So
KaRin is a radar and NASA has launched radars before to study the ocean from
space, but KaRin is a very special type of radar. It's a radar interferometer.
That means that the signal that bounces off the earth is received
simultaneously by two antennas. These two antennas are separated by long
distance, about half the size of a tennis court. They have to be positioned
very precisely to levels that are micro meter. So we're talking about the
width of a hair. So you can imagine that adds a lot of complexity to the SWOT
mission. But it is that technology that enables the resolution and the
accuracy that we're expected to achieve the SWOT of the Earth's water. >> So
we're seeing things in a precision that we've never had before, which is very
exciting and complex. So were there any challenges that your team faced while
creating KaRin. >> Yes, KaRin has been pushing the envelope in many different
fronts. I can give you many examples. One, I just told you before about the
mechanical precision that we need to have positioning these two antennas. We
also have a very high power amplifier. We need an enormous amount of power to
be able to get that signal back to the satellite from the Earth at a level
that is detectable by the radar. And that level of power at our frequency from
space is by itself a technological achievement. The radar produces massive
amount of data. In fact, over 60 terabytes of data every single day. That's a
lot of hard drives. So as you can imagine. So we really need to reduce that
data volume. So that is manageable and we can downlink it to the ground. And
for that, we're doing some fairly unique signal processing in the radar in
space. So all of those are really nice achievements. KaRin is a unique
instrument and one-of-a-kind. >> It really is. You and your teams will be very
happy with this achievement. And Eva, you yourself have been working on this
for a decade. How does it feel? I know those last few weeks can be a race to
the finish line. What is it like that you just saw this launch? >> Well, for
me, it's been my project since I started at JPL. It's been actually over 13
years. So this is really very exciting moment for me. Myself and my team have
you actually working very hard on what's coming ahead of us. Now that we're
going to be getting the data from space, we need to make sure that the data is
valid. It has the accuracy that we're expecting. And that's going to be a very
difficult and critical tasks by itself. >> But this is just the beginning.
Eva, Thank you so much for joining. >> Thank you. >> Raquel, back to you. >>
Thank you Jasmine and Eva. Let's get to some questions for you, Nadia, our
first question is from a young space fan, Marc Andreas. >> Hello NASA, my name
is Marc Andreas. How we can see water from space? >> Hi, Mark. NASA can see
different aspects of water from space. We could see how hard is the water, how
the surface temperature of the water is, how salty is our water, ocean
salinity. We can see how heavy the mass of water, it's gravity. Or we can see
the volume or the height of water with satellites, like SWOT, for example. We
could see liquid water, frozen water like CIs. We can even see them content of
water in the atmosphere. So yeah, so we can see different aspects of water
from space. Good question. >> So many different ways to see water. And we also
have some social media questions coming in. We have, how many times per day
will SWOT orbit the Earth? >> So on average, SWOT's nominal orbit is 21 a day
repeat orbit. >> And we have another one coming in for you now. How accurate
is the equipment when measuring the current sea level from space? Meters,
centimeters, millimeters, nanometers? Really getting into that. >> We are
targeting sentimetric accuracy of sea level measurements from space, which is
a truly breakthrough. It's a 10x improvement of what we are currently doing.
Yes. >> Now, you're doing such a good job answering these questions. We have
another one coming in for you. What is ocean topography? And how does it work
with SWOT? >> Well, think of it, ocean topography, just like mountains and
valley. Like I was driving here from LAX to Lampo just like mountains and
valleys on the ground, you see hills and dips on the ocean surface. So think
of it as well. >> Great explanation. We have another question for you too.
Let's get to this one is, will you be able to tell how clean the water is? >>
So we will be able to make some interpretation of water quality and its
chemical composition. But we're mostly focusing on the volume storage and the
height of the water with SWOT. >> Let's see if we have another one for you.
Will SWOT data help in predicting flash flooding more effectively than current
technology? >> With the rising sea levels, we do see a more frequent
inundations including those related to flash flooding or sunny day flooding,
and SWOT will continue the legacy of prediction of flood events related to the
rising oceans. >> We have one more social question for you to get to. Will
this technology also help determine how much drinkable water is currently
available? >> Yes, we are targeting freshwater and our reservoirs in lakes and
other reservoirs. The storage, the change in the volume and the extent, yes.
Drinking and available water for usage. >> You just offered some great insight
to SWOT. Thank you, Nadia. Now, before SWOT data, researchers could only
collect information on a few thousand rivers and lakes. But with SWOT, it will
be more than a million. Here is a look at how that data can have a huge impact
on people's daily lives. >> SWOT as the Surface Water and Ocean Topography
satellite, it's an international satellite that's going to give us this
complete view of the surface water here on Earth. What's happening in the
lakes, reservoirs, rivers, and also in the ocean. It'll tell us about how sea
level is rising along coastlines and in the open ocean. And really give us a
good understanding of how surface water is moving about the Earth. >> Our goal
is to provide data, forecasts, watches, and warnings. So that's some key
locations like the Willamette River in Portland, which is a major US city that
historically has seen some catastrophic floods. The better quality of the data
that we have that feeds into our models, the better the forecasts are going to
be, the more time that people will have to protect themselves and their
property and ultimately our communities. A tool like SWOT is going to help us
with making these really difficult projections and predictions for the future.
>> This is one of many reservoirs here in the Willamette Valley in Oregon. It
is a human-made lake. It is a reservoir operated by the Army Corps of
Engineers. The water managers here they use whether prediction, they use
hydrologic models. And the hope is that data like SWOT might be incorporated
into those predictions to help them better understand this water bodies
filling and we don't want to over top the dams might want to start letting
water out really quickly. They have to make a lot of complicated decisions.
When you've got a big storm event, we want to keep the community safe and the
best way that we can. So how do we best manage operation of these reservoirs
in terms of putting water out downstream to prevent flooding at a larger
scale? >> In lots of states, there are hundreds, thousands of reservoirs and
many of those reservoirs don't have automated gauging available. And so these
agencies have to estimate how much water is in them and how that's changing.
And with SWOT, they can just monitor that directly from space. >> For us in
awesome Alaska, we have many, many rivers and only a few of them are measured
or as we say, gauged. If we have data and when flooding is occurring or might
occur, we can get crews out there to look at a bridge to make sure that the
bridge and the associated roadway are still safe. >> If we can start
collecting data on all rivers above a certain size remotely through
satellites, it really opens up the amount of rivers that we can help
understand what happens when they flood or how they flood. And that really
improves our ability to manage our infrastructure and to design new
infrastructure. That is where SWOT will really make a big difference. >> One
of the partners we're working with is Department of Defense and they're trying
to fill gaps in the data that they have along the coastlines. Our military is
obviously very concerned about what's happened on global scales and they have
installations across the globe. So SWOT would potentially provide an
opportunity to fill in some of those states, allow them to make the impact
assessments that they need for sea level rising their facility. So trying to
understand and give them the information they need to plan for and then
potentially adapt to these changes is really critically important. >> Coastal
wetlands like the Mississippi River Delta are extremely important because it
acts as a buffer between us and the threatening ocean