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Unveiling the Secrets of the Seafloor: NASA’s Revolutionary Satellite Technology
The world has a more detailed map of the seafloor than ever before, thanks to observations taken from space. NASA has published a video showcasing a remarkably clear picture of the bottom of the ocean, made possible by new satellite technology.
# A More Detailed Map of the Seafloor
The face of the moon has been more thoroughly mapped than the depths of Earth’s oceans. However, after NASA and French space agency CNES launched the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite in 2022, we’re starting to get a clearer look at what lies in the deep. In December, researchers published a revelatory seafloor map in the journal Science using one year of SWOT data.
## Filling in the Gaps
The satellite helps fill in vast gaps in data collected by ship, offering a higher resolution picture than previous satellites have been able to provide. On a practical level, the maps can help submarines navigate more safely through previously mysterious ocean terrains. They can also inform the precarious work of laying down and repairing underwater telecommunication cables that keep people connected across our planet.
# A New Era of Ocean Exploration
NASA’s new video is not only informative but also fun to watch. The animation shows what the seafloor looks like off the coasts of Mexico, South America, and the Antarctic Peninsula. Research using data from SWOT is ongoing, so we can expect more insights into the ocean’s abyss in the future.
## Gravity-Based Data
The maps use gravity-based data to reveal features researchers had never seen before. Because of their larger mass, rolling abyssal hills and undersea volcanoes called seamounts exert stronger gravitational pull than their surroundings. SWOT can note those subtle differences by observing bumps above along the surface of the sea. In the video, regions colored green are higher relative to purple-colored regions.
### Detecting Abyssal Hills
This method allows SWOT to detect abyssal hills and other features that were too small for older satellites to find using radar pulses. “We were surprised that SWOT could see them so well,” Yao Yu, an oceanographer at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and lead author of the Science paper, said in a NASA blog published this week. Researchers now know that those hills, formed where tectonic plates pull apart from each other, blanket about 70 percent of the ocean floor. That makes them the most common landform on Earth, according to Yu.
## The Future of Oceanography
Ships using sonar can also map abyssal hills, but it’s a slow and difficult task. To date, ships have only mapped about a quarter of the planet’s ocean floor. SWOT was designed to do much more than map the seafloor. Its main purpose is to measure the height of water over oceans, rivers, lakes, and other bodies of water, a mission to take the first complete survey of Earth’s surface water.
# Conclusion
The launch of SWOT marks a new era of ocean exploration, and we can expect many more exciting discoveries in the future. As researchers continue to uncover the secrets of the seafloor, we may uncover new insights into the Earth’s climate, ecosystems, and natural resources. Stay tuned for more updates on this groundbreaking research!
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