双语阅读

The SWOT mission will measure the height of the world's oceans, rivers and lakes, helping scientists measure how fresh and saltwater bodies change over time.

SWOT任务将测量世界上海洋、河流和湖泊的高度，帮助科学家测量淡水和咸水水体如何随时间变化。

A new satellite scheduled for launch early Thursday morning will enable scientists to survey nearly all of the water on Earth's surface and provide the most detailed information yet on the state of oceans, lakes and rivers and how they change over time.

定于周四凌晨发射的一颗新卫星将使科学家能够调查地球表面几乎所有的水，并提供迄今为止关于海洋、湖泊和河流状况以及它们如何随时间变化的最详细信息。

The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite, a collaboration between NASA and the French space agency Centre National d'études Spatiales (CNES), will provide knowledge crucial for coping with climate change and protecting the global supply of water for drinking and irrigation, a panel of scientists explained Dec. 13, 2022, at a news conference at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

一个科学家小组于2022年12月13日在加利福尼亚州范登堡太空部队基地的新闻发布会上解释说，美国宇航局和法国航天局国家d’études Spatiales中心(CNES)合作的地表水和海洋地形(SWOT)卫星将为应对气候变化和保护全球饮用水和灌溉用水供应提供至关重要的知识。

The satellite is set to be launched into orbit aboard a SpaceX rocket at 6:46 a.m. Eastern time Dec. 15 from Vandenberg Air Force Base. The Canadian Space Agency and U.K. Space Agency also are contributing to the mission.

这颗卫星将于上午6点46分由SpaceX火箭发射进入轨道。美国东部时间12月15日，范登堡空军基地。加拿大航天局和英国航天局也为这次任务做出了贡献。

Contents 内容

1. What Is SWOT? 什么是SWOT?
2. Why Is SWOT's Mission Important? SWOT的使命为何重要?
3. What SWOT Can Teach Us SWOT可以教会我们什么

What Is SWOT? 什么是SWOT?

SWOT will rely on a satellite altimeter that will use Radar interferometry to make high-resolution measurements over two wide swaths of water at once, with a conventional nadir altimeter in the gap in between.

SWOT将依靠一个卫星高度计，该卫星高度计将使用雷达干涉测量法同时对两个宽水域进行高分辨率测量，在两者之间的间隙中使用一个传统的低洼高度计。

SWOT's instruments will help scientists understand where water is, where it's coming from and where it's going, Katherine Calvin, NASA's chief scientist and senior climate adviser, said at the news conference.

美国宇航局首席科学家和高级气候顾问凯瑟琳·加尔文在新闻发布会上说，SWOT的仪器将帮助科学家了解水在哪里，从哪里来，往哪里去。

"It's going to allow us to observe ocean features with higher resolution. Oceans absorb a lot of carbon and heat," Calvin said. "And this will give us a better understanding of those processes and help us improve both our understanding of the oceans, as well as our projections into the future."

“这将使我们能够以更高的分辨率观察海洋特征。海洋吸收大量的碳和热量，”加尔文说。“这将使我们更好地了解这些过程，帮助我们提高对海洋的了解，以及对未来的预测。”

Additionally, SWOT will provide the first global survey of water running through rivers and lakes. But not just that. The science instruments will provide views of Earth's freshwater bodies and oceans in unprecedented clarity. NASA describes it as being similar to how a high-definition television picture looks compared to a picture on an older TV.

此外，SWOT还将首次对流经河流和湖泊的水进行全球调查。但不仅如此。科学仪器将以前所未有的清晰度提供地球淡水水体和海洋的视图。NASA将其描述为高清电视画面与老式电视画面的对比。

SWOT's most important system is the Ka-band Radar Interferometer (KaRIn), a special type of altimeter that records the delay between the radar signals measured by two antennae to calculate the height of bodies of surface water. It uses JPL-developed instrument technology and radar interferometry to measure ocean and surface water levels in two modes:

SWOT最重要的系统是ka波段雷达干涉仪(KaRIn)，这是一种特殊类型的高度计，它记录由两个天线测量的雷达信号之间的延迟，以计算地表水的高度。它使用jpl开发的仪器技术和雷达干涉测量法，以两种模式测量海洋和地表水位:

• Low-resolution over the ocean with significant onboard processing to reduce data volume. 低分辨率的海洋与显著的机载处理，以减少数据量。
• High-resolution over broad, primarily continental, regions focusing on hydrology studies.广泛的高分辨率，主要是大陆，地区重点水文研究。

SWOT, which has been in development since 2016, will cost NASA an estimated $755 billion throughout its operational lifetime, with the French space agency chipping in another $400 billion, according to a 2018 NASA auditing report.

根据美国宇航局2018年的审计报告，SWOT自2016年以来一直在开发，在整个使用寿命内将花费美国宇航局估计7550亿美元，法国航天局将另外花费4000亿美元。

Why Is SWOT's Mission Important? SWOT的使命为何重要?

This bar chart shows how almost all of Earth's water is saline and is found in the oceans. Of the small amount that is actually freshwater, only a relatively small portion is available to sustain human, plant and animal life.

这张柱状图显示了地球上几乎所有的水都是咸水，都存在于海洋中。在为数不多的淡水中，只有相对较小的一部分可用于维持人类、植物和动物的生命。

One reason SWOT is important is that water covers so much of Earth's surface — 71 percent, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). About 96.5 percent of the planet's H2O is contained in the oceans. The remaining water is in rivers, lakes, icecaps and glaciers, and in the ground as soil moisture and aquifers.

SWOT很重要的一个原因是水覆盖了地球表面的很大一部分——根据美国地质调查局(USGS)的数据，水覆盖了71%。地球上大约96.5%的水存在于海洋中。剩余的水存在于河流、湖泊、冰盖和冰川中，以及作为土壤水分和含水层存在于地下。

But that water never really sits still in one place, due to the water cycle, in which water constantly moves from one place to another and switches forms. But global warming and climate change also are impacting the water cycle.

但由于水循环，水永远不会在一个地方静止不动，在这个循环中，水不断地从一个地方移动到另一个地方，并转换形式。但是全球变暖和气候变化也在影响着水循环。

"[Climate change] has a huge impact today … on the water cycle, accelerating the water cycle by putting some drought in some parts of the world and floods in other parts," said Selma Cherchali, Earth observation program head at CNES. But until now, scientists have been stymied by the limitations of their knowledge due to insufficient data.

“(气候变化)今天有巨大的影响……法国国家研究中心的地球观测项目负责人塞尔玛·查查利说:“气候变化对水循环造成了影响，在世界一些地方造成干旱，在其他地方造成洪水，从而加速了水循环。”但到目前为止，由于数据不足，科学家们的知识一直受到限制。

The new satellite will give scientists a look at that supply and demand chain in order for them to study Earth's water as a complete process.

这颗新卫星将让科学家们看到供需链，以便他们研究地球上的水作为一个完整的过程。

It won't be just NASA and CNES scientists who'll be using SWOT data. Researchers from 17 different countries are involved in the project, and eventually the data will be made accessible to anyone in the public who wants to analyze it.

使用SWOT数据的将不仅仅是NASA和CNES的科学家。来自17个不同国家的研究人员参与了这个项目，最终，任何想要分析这些数据的公众都可以获得这些数据。

Nadya Vinogradova Shiffer, SWOT program scientist at NASA, described monitoring and predicting the movement of water across the planet as a worthy investment.

NASA SWOT项目科学家Nadya Vinogradova Shiffer称，监测和预测地球上的水运动是一项值得投资的投资。

"We as humanity depend on Earth water to survive and prosper," Shiffer said. "We know that oceans are the ultimate source of all moisture and water on Earth. Think of oceans as huge warehouses that supply moisture and water to lands that we rely on for our drinking water, agriculture and industry."

Shiffer说:“我们人类依赖地球上的水来生存和繁荣。”“我们知道海洋是地球上所有水汽和水份的最终来源。海洋就像一个巨大的仓库，为我们的饮用水、农业和工业提供水汽和水份。”

Knowing how much water is on Earth in various places also can help efforts to cope with water shortages in some places and rising seas and vanishing shorelines in others. SWOT data might help scientists to spot those patterns in advance, based on the supply wherever the water originates.

了解地球上不同地方的水量也有助于解决一些地方的水资源短缺问题，以及其他地方海平面上升和海岸线消失的问题。SWOT数据可以帮助科学家根据水来源的供应提前发现这些模式。

"The breakthrough is that we're going to look at Earth water with a very high resolution and clarity, like never before," Shiffer said. She said the images would be 10 times as detailed and clear as previous satellite images.

Shiffer说:“这一突破使我们将以前所未有的高分辨率和清晰度观察地球上的水。”她说，这些图像的细节和清晰度将是以前卫星图像的10倍。

What SWOT Can Teach Us SWOT可以教会我们什么

Members of the international Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission test one of the antennas for the Ka-band Radar Interferometer (KaRIn) instrument in a clean room at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

国际地表水和海洋地形(SWOT)任务的成员在美国宇航局位于南加州的喷气推进实验室的一间洁净室中测试卡波段雷达干涉仪(KaRIn)仪器的一根天线。

SWOT is expected to provide new insights about ocean turbulence, and how the movement of seawater transports large amounts of kinetic energy, heat, mass, salt nutrients, carbon and plastic pollution across the planet's surface.

SWOT预计将提供关于海洋湍流的新见解，以及海水的运动如何在地球表面运输大量动能、热量、质量、盐营养物质、碳和塑料污染。

That data, in turn, could improve climate modeling and help scientists to make better predictions about global warming, because the oceans absorb substantial amounts of solar heat.

反过来，这些数据可以改善气候模型，帮助科学家更好地预测全球变暖，因为海洋吸收了大量的太阳热量。

"Half of the vertical transport of this heat absorption from the surface to the deep ocean is done by turbulence," Shiffer said. "The turbulence matters; perhaps it is turbulence that is the missing climate puzzle piece that we've never observed."

Shiffer说:“从海面吸收热量到深海的垂直传输有一半是由湍流完成的。”“湍流很重要;也许湍流才是我们从未观察到的缺失的气候拼图。”

SWOT's instrumentation is so sensitive that it will be able to detect any lakes larger than 15 acres (6.07 hectares) and all the world's rivers that measure wider than 330 feet (100 meters).

Shiffer说:“从海面吸收热量到深海的垂直传输有一半是由湍流完成的。”“湍流很重要;也许湍流才是我们从未观察到的缺失的气候拼图。”

Current satellites only make it possible to get data for about 1,000 of Earth's lakes scattered across the world. Compare that to the millions of lakes SWOT will be able to observe, and you can see why it's such an important mission.

目前的卫星只能获得散布在世界各地的大约1000个湖泊的数据。与SWOT将能够观察到的数百万个湖泊相比，你就能明白为什么这是一项如此重要的任务。