The new satellite could be a major improvement over the previous ones. A wide swath is what it is instead of a pencil beam. Steve Nerem, a University of Colorado scientist who uses satellite data to study sea level rise, says that it will provide a lot more information, a lot more spatial resolution, and better coverage up close to the coast. He says that KaRIn has a new technique. It is the first time that it has been tested from the ground. The data is going to be great.
A radar altimeter, a microwave radiometer, and an array of mirrors are included in the toolkit.
Satellite data is important because the future of floods and sea level rise may be worse than predicted. According to Ben Hamlington, a sea level rise scientist at JPL, sea level rise has gone up fast over the past 30 years. The rate of sea-level rise is increasing on the Gulf and East coast of the US. He says that the trajectory we are on is pointing to the higher end of model projections.
A boon for mapping rising sea waters and for researchers studying ocean currents and eddies, which affect how much atmospheric heat and carbon oceans absorb. Scientists who model storm surge will benefit from the satellite's help.
Many other Earth-observing satellites are already in the air. NASA has GRACE-FO, which probes underground water via gravity fluctuations, and IceSat-2 which surveys ice sheets, glaciers, and sea ice. The European Space Agency's Michael Freilich satellite is one of the altimeter-equipped satellites.
Some degree of sea-level rise, extreme floods, storms, and disasters are already baked into our future according to data from these satellites. We can use this data to protect ourselves from the most extreme projected outcomes, like rapid glacier or ice sheet melt. He says that reducing emissions takes some of the higher projections off the table. We can avoid worst-case scenarios if we limit warming going forward.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
