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nasa t1_ivkxolf wrote

Reply to comment by damnpasi in AskScience AMA Series: We're NASA experts working on SWOT - an upcoming mission that will observe nearly all water on Earth's surface. Ask us anything! by AskScienceModerator

SWOT is going to provide some cool things over the ocean. First, it will measure closer to the coast than our other satellites. This will provide an improved understanding of how sea levels are rising and allow us to improve models for things like storm surge.

Second, SWOT is going to measure smaller scale features in the ocean. 90% of the excess heat trapped in our atmosphere gets absorbed by the ocean. We think that much of that heat is absorbed by the smaller scale, short-lived ocean features like fronts and eddies. SWOT will collect data on these ocean features and help us understand how the climate is responding to ongoing warming.

Understanding these features and ocean currents better will have benefits for shipping and navigation. (BH)

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