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Where's Water? Arctic From northern lakes to Arctic seas... SWOT has it covered

The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission will help us better understand our planet... pretty much anywhere!

THERE ARE hundreds OF THOUSANDS OF LAKES ACROSS NORTHERN CANADA & ALASKA.
THESE REMOTE WATER BODIES ARE SENSITIVE TO CHAnges IN CLIMATE.

Warming lakes can thaw "permafrost," ground that stays frozen throughout the year.

Nearly one quarter of the ice-free land in the northern hemisphere has permafrost beneath it. This amounts to 23 million square miles of permafrost.

When permafrost melts, it can dump extra organic matter from decomposed plants into lakes. This can add methane – a powerful greenhouse gas – to the atmosphere.

How potent is methane? It more than 20 times better at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide!

However, methane remains in the atmosphere for a short time (12 years) compared to carbon dioxide.

climate change is ALSO impacting arctic coasts & SEAS.

The polar bear is adapted to the extremes of the Arctic.

It uses sea ice as a platform to hunt its favorite food, ringed seals.

Sea ice loss poses the biggest threat to polar bear populations. Climate warming has caused sea ice to retreat earlier in spring and form later in winter.

So, polar bears have less time to hunt and must go without food for longer periods of time.

One study predicts that they will largely disappear from the southern part of their range by mid‐century.
How will SWOT help us understand the Arctic?

SWOT will help us better understand how these sensitive Arctic lakes respond to warming temperatures.

SWOT will likely show the patterns of open water and sea ice in the Arctic. Polar bears depend upon the break-up and freezing patterns of sea ice to find food.

Where There's Water... There's SWOT!

Launch Date: 2021
Launch Vehicle: SpaceX Falcon 9
Altitude in orbit: 857 km (532.5 mi)
Swath: 120 km (75 mi) wide
Coverage: 77.6°N to 77.6°S with an average revisit time of 11 days
Partners: NASA and Centre National D'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) with contributions from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and United Kingdom Space Agency

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