SWOT Satellite Uncovers Thousands of Hidden Underwater Mountains
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📰 The quick summary: NASA’s SWOT satellite has mapped thousands of previously unknown underwater mountains and hills, enabling unprecedented insights into ocean floor features that impact global currents, ecosystems and climate.
📈 One key stat: SWOT’s improved detection capabilities could increase the number of known seamounts from 44,000 to 100,000, providing crucial data about these vital ocean floor features that influence deep sea currents and marine ecosystems.
💬 One key quote: “The SWOT satellite was a huge jump in our ability to map the seafloor,” said David Sandwell, a geophysicist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
1️⃣ The big picture: Scientists have long known that mapping the ocean floor is crucial for understanding Earth’s geology, climate, and marine ecosystems. NASA’s Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite is now providing unprecedented detail of underwater features by measuring tiny variations in sea surface height caused by the gravitational pull of seafloor mountains and hills. In just one year of observations, SWOT has revealed thousands of previously unknown seamounts and abyssal hills that affect ocean currents, nutrient flows, and marine life. This new mapping capability is helping complete our picture of the ocean floor much faster than traditional ship-based sonar surveys alone.
2️⃣ Why is this good news: The detailed seafloor maps from SWOT help identify underwater mountains that create oases of marine life by concentrating nutrients in otherwise barren areas. Understanding these features improves navigation safety, enables more efficient placement of underwater infrastructure like cables, and reveals mineral deposits that could be important for future technologies. The maps also provide crucial insights into plate tectonics, deep ocean currents, and how underwater topography influences climate by affecting the movement of heat and nutrients through the oceans.
3️⃣ What’s next: Scientists will continue refining their analysis of SWOT data to calculate the precise depths of newly discovered seafloor features. This work supports an international effort to map the entire ocean floor by 2030 using a combination of satellite data and ship-based sonar. While complete sonar mapping may not be achieved by the deadline, SWOT’s capabilities will help fill in many gaps in our understanding of ocean floor topography.
Read the full story here: SciTechDaily – NASA’s SWOT Satellite Just Revealed Thousands of Hidden Mountains Beneath the Ocean
