NEWS | March 6, 2013

Water-Mapping Mission Takes Flight

A mission to map Earth's water from space starts with a small passenger plane flying over California's Sacramento River. Such flights are helping scientists fine-tune a precision radar system called AirSWOT (Air Surface Water Ocean Topography), which will fly aboard the SWOT satellite planned for launch in 2020.

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Flooding in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley region inland of San Francisco Bay. The image on the left was captured by MODIS on December 10, 2005, while the image at right was captured on January 4, 2006, just days after severe storms passed through. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory