International missions gather two-dimensional views of smaller waves and currents that are focusing on the role of the ocean in supporting life on Earth.

Small things are important, at least when ocean features such as ocean features and vortex. A recent NASA-led analysis using data from SWOT (surface water and ocean topography) found that nutrients and heat in marine ecosystems have a small range of impacts as small as a mile compared to previous beliefs.

These relatively small ocean features belong to previous satellites, but get along well with previous satellites, but they can be seen in full whole, but rather on board instruments, belonging to a category called "submirrors." The SWOT satellite is a joint effort between NASA and the French Space Agency CNES (Central State D'études Patiales), which can observe these characteristics and demonstrate their importance, driving vertical transport such as nutrients, carbon, energy and heat inside the ocean. They also affect the exchange of gases and energy between the ocean and the atmosphere.

"The role Bubssoscale features play in ocean dynamics makes them important," said Matthew Archer, an oceanographer at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Some of these features are called in the animation below, which was created using SWOT sea surface height data.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh-zkzj7mli[/embed]

"Vertical currents move heat between the atmosphere and the ocean, and in sub-substrate vortexes, heat from the deep sea to the surface can actually warm the atmosphere," Archer added, co-author of "Sub-Scale Analysis," published in Nature in April. Vertical circulation can also induce nutrients from the deep sea, thereby supplying marine food networks in surface water, such as stable food trucks for festival people.

"We can not only see the ocean surface 10 times the previous resolution, but we can also infer the depth movement of water and materials," said Nadya Vinogradova Shiffer, SWOT program scientist at NASA's headquarters in Washington.

Researchers have learned about these smaller eddy currents or circular currents and waves for decades. From space, Apollo astronauts first discovered the sunshine about 50 years ago. Over the years, satellites have captured images of subscale ocean functions, providing limited information such as their presence and size. The view of the ship sensors or instruments falling into the ocean is more detailed in terms of the collection features, but only for relatively small ocean areas and short periods.

SWOT satellites measure the height of water on almost every 21 days, at least every 21 days. Satellites provide researchers with multidimensional views of water levels, which they can use to calculate the slope of waves or vortexes. This in turn generates information about the pressure or force applied in the function. From there, researchers can figure out how fast the current moves, how fast it drives it, and with other types of information (this current is transporting energy, heat, or nutrients).

“Strength is the basic amount that drives fluid movement,” said Jinbo Wang, an oceanographer at the College Station Texas A&M University. Once the number is known, researchers can better understand how oceans interact with the atmosphere and how changes in one person affect each other.

Not only was SWOT able to find a subscale eddy current (the main current in the Western Pacific, the main current flowing across the southeast coast of Japan), but the researchers were able to estimate the velocity of vertical circulation in that eddy current. When SWOT observes this function, the vertical cycle may be between 20 and 45 feet (6 to 14 meters) per day.

This is a relatively small amount of vertical transportation. However, the ability to make eddy currents around the world calculate through SWOT will improve researchers' understanding of energy, heat, and nutrition between surface water and deep seas.

Researchers can do similar calculations for such subscale features, such as internal isolated waves, which are waves driven by forces like tides sloping on underwater plateaus. SWOT satellites found internal waves in the Andaman Sea in northeast Myanmar. Archer and colleagues calculated that the amount of energy in a typical internal tide in the region is at least twice as high as that in the region.

This information from SWOT can help researchers perfect their ocean cycle model. Many ocean models are trained to show large features, such as eddy currents hundreds of miles, said Lee Fu, a scientist at JPL's SWOT project. "Now they have to learn to model these smaller scale features. That's what SWOT data is helping."

Researchers have begun to incorporate SWOT ocean data into certain models, including NASA's ECCO (estimating the cycle and climate of the ocean). It may take some time until the SWOT data is entirely part of models like ECCO. But once it is, this information will help researchers better understand that marine ecosystems will respond to the ever-changing world.

The SWOT satellite was jointly developed by NASA and CNES and was donated by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the British Space Agency. JPL manages NASA in Pasadena, California, by Caltech, leading the U.S. component of the project. For flight system payloads, NASA provides KA band radar interferometer (KARIN) instruments, GPS science receivers, laser reversers, two-beam microwave radiometers and NASA instruments operated. Satellite system integrated Doppler orbitography and radiation, dual-frequency Poseidon Altimeter (developed by Thales Alenia Space), Karin Radio-Roady-doadigen frequency subsystem (supported by Thales Alenia Space and UK space agents), satellite platforms, satellite platforms and ground operations. CSA provides Karin high power transmitter components.

To learn more about SWOT, visit:

Jane Lee/Andrew King
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
626-491-1943 / 626-379-6874
jane.j.lee@jpl.nasa.gov / andrew.wang@jpl.nasa.gov

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