{"id":217998,"date":"2025-05-16T02:36:56","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T16:36:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/?p=863620"},"modified":"2025-05-16T02:36:56","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T16:36:56","slug":"nasa-french-swot-satellite-offers-big-view-of-small-ocean-features","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=217998","title":{"rendered":"NASA, French SWOT Satellite Offers Big View of Small Ocean Features"},"content":{"rendered":"
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6 min read<\/p>\n

Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Sunlight reflects off the ocean surface near Norfolk, Virginia, in this 1991 space shuttle image, highlighting swirling patterns created by features such as internal waves, which are produced when the tide moves over underwater features. Data from the international SWOT mission is revealing the role of smaller-scale waves and eddies.<\/div>\n
NASA<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The international mission collects two-dimensional views of smaller waves and currents that are bringing into focus the ocean\u2019s role in supporting life on Earth.<\/em><\/p>\n

Small things matter, at least when it comes to ocean features like waves and eddies. A recent NASA-led analysis using data from the SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography) satellite found that ocean features as small as a mile across potentially have a larger impact on the movement of nutrients and heat in marine ecosystems than previously thought.<\/p>\n

Too small to see well with previous satellites but too large to see in their entirety with ship-based instruments, these relatively small ocean features fall into a category known as the submesoscale. The SWOT satellite, a joint effort between NASA and the French space agency CNES (Centre National d\u2019\u00c9tudes Spatiales), can observe these features and is demonstrating just how important they are, driving much of the vertical transport of things like nutrients, carbon, energy, and heat within the ocean. They also influence the exchange of gases and energy between the ocean and atmosphere.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe role that submesoscale features play in ocean dynamics is what makes them important,\u201d said Matthew Archer, an oceanographer at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Some of these features are called out in the animation below, which was created using SWOT<\/a> sea surface height data.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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