- Liverpool suffer Alisson injury blow
- Habosi helps Racing beat Vannes before Auradou's playing return
- Thousands march in London in support of Palestinians, 1 year after Oct 7
- Israel readying response to Iran missile attack
- Schutt, Mooney help Australia beat Sri Lanka in Women's T20 World Cup
- Liverpool extend Premier League lead with win at Palace
- Djokovic 'shakes rust off' to make third round of Shanghai Masters
- 'Imperfect' PSG fighting on all fronts - Luis Enrique
- Struggling Pakistan look to thwart adaptable England
- Child 'trampled to death' in asylum seekers' Channel crossing: minister
- Gauff fights back to set up Beijing final against Muchova
- Guardiola claims Premier League won't delay season for Man City
- Israel to mark October 7 attack as Gaza war spreads
- Gauff fights back to reach China Open final
- Recovering Stokes ruled out of first Pakistan Test
- Hezbollah battles troops on border as Israel pounds Lebanon
- Alcaraz, Sinner breeze into third round of Shanghai Masters
- Bagnaia wins Japan MotoGP sprint to cut Martin's lead
- Alcaraz breezes into third round of Shanghai Masters
- Gaza cultural heritage brought to light in Geneva
- 'Bullet for democracy': Trump returns to site of rally shooting
- Italy targets climate activists in 'anti-Gandhi' demo clampdown
- South Korean cult-horror series 'Hellbound' returns at BIFF
- Nepalis fear more floods as climate change melts glaciers
- Honduras arrests environmentalist's alleged murderer
- Padres pitcher Musgrove needs elbow surgery
- Supreme Court lets stand rules to curb mercury, methane emissions
- Boston beat Denver in NBA exhibition season opener, but Jokic says omens are good
- Chagos diaspora angry at lack of input on islands' fate
- Biden says 'not confident' of peaceful US election
- US trade chief defends tariff hikes when paired with investment
- Lukaku stars as Napoli beat Como to hold Serie A top spot
- Ohtani set for MLB playoff debut as Dodgers face Padres
- Pogba's drug ban cut to 18 months from four years
- Devine leads New Zealand to big win over India in Women's T20 World Cup
- Bosnia floods kill 16 people
- EU court blocks French ban on vegetable 'steak' labelling
- Prosecutors seek dismissal of rape charges against French rugby players
- Meta AI turns pictures into videos with sound
- Bolivia's Morales says claims he raped a minor are a 'lie'
- MLB Reds hire two-time champion Francona as manager
- Daniel Maldini receives first Italy call-up for Nations League
- US dockworkers return to ports after three-day strike
- Ancelotti points finger at Madrid's 'lack of intensity'
- Haiti reeling after 70 killed in gang attack
- Five Czech kids in hospital over TikTok 'piercing challenge'
- What happens next in Iran-Israel conflict?
- Country star Garth Brooks denies rape accusations
- Stubbs hits maiden century as South Africa make 343-4 against Ireland
- DR Congo to begin mpox vaccination campaign Saturday in east
Franco-US satellite set for unprecedented survey of Earth's water
A Franco-US satellite is due for launch this week on a mission to survey with unprecedented accuracy nearly all water on Earth's surface for the first time and help scientists investigate its impact on Earth's climate.
For NASA and France's space agency CNES, which have worked together in the field for 30 years, it's a landmark scientific mission with a billion dollar budget.
French President Emmanuel Macron went to NASA's Washington headquarters at the end of November alongside US Vice President Kamala Harris.
He highlighted the liftoff -- scheduled for early Thursday on the US west coast -- of the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission to monitor the levels of oceans, lakes and rivers, including in remote locations.
Its predecessor, TOPEX/Poseidon, launched in 1992, was also a Franco-US joint venture that measured ocean surface to an accuracy of 4.2 centimeters (1.7 inches).
It aided the forecast of the 1997-1998 El Nino weather phenomenon and improved understanding of ocean circulation and its effect on global climate.
The 2.2-tonne SWOT mission will be put into orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The satellite's primary payload is an innovative instrument to measure the height of water called KaRin, or Ka-band radar interferometer. Its two antennas, separated by a big boom, create paralleled swaths of data.
"We're going to get ten times better resolution than with current technologies to measure sea-surface height and understand the ocean fronts and eddies that help shape climate," said NASA Earth Science Division Director Karen St. Germain.
"It's like looking at a car number plate from space when before we could only see a street," added Thierry Lafon, SWOT project leader at the CNES.
The stakes are high. While the impact of major ocean currents such as the Gulf Stream is known, more local flows and eddies covering dozens of kilometres remain more of a mystery.
But they too affect sea water surface temperatures and heat transfer as well as the absorption by the oceans of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
SWOT will improve weather and climate modelling, the observation of coastal erosion and help track how fresh and saltwater bodies change over time.
- Debris-free end of life -
With an "optimal" orbit of 890 kilometers (about 550 miles) above Earth, Lafon said SWOT will "take in all the components that affect water levels such as tides and the sun".
NASA says SWOT will survey nearly all water on Earth's surface for the first time.
It will monitor water levels, surface areas and quantities at more than 20 million lakes with shores of more than 250 metres. The entire length of rivers more than 100 metres wide will also be observed.
Water management, flood and drought prevention will be improved, said Lafon.
Flying the satellite to Vandenberg from the Thales Alenia Space (TAS) site in Cannes, southern France, proved a headache.
"Due to the conflict in Ukraine, there were no more Antonov 124s available and the 747 cargo is too small," said TAS project leader Christophe Duplay.
"We decided to ask the USAF to provide one of its C-5 Galaxies."
And that meant counting on NASA to have the US air force supply one of its rare giant aircraft to ship the huge payload.
SWOT has an estimated three-year lifetime -- although Lafon said "nothing precludes the mission to last five to eight years" -- and is set to become the first satellite to make a controlled re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, reducing the amount of space debris, in line with the French space operations act.
Nearly 80 percent of the 400 kilos (880 pounds) of onboard fuel will be used to that end.
G.Teles--PC