Abyssal marine tectonics from the SWOT mission

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Yu, Yao; Sandwell, David T.; Dibarboure, Gerald
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California San Diego; Scripps Institution of Oceanography
• 刊物名称: SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0036-11992
• DOI: 10.1126/science.ads4472
• 发表日期: 2024-12-01
• 页码: 1251-1256
• 关键词: satellite altimetry; SEA

摘要

The global ocean covers 71% of Earth's surface, yet the seafloor is poorly charted compared with land, the Moon, Mars, and Venus. Traditional ocean mapping uses ship-based soundings and nadir satellite radar altimetry-one limited in spatial coverage and the other in spatial resolution. The joint NASA-CNES (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales) Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission uses phase-coherent, wide-swath radar altimetry to measure ocean surface heights at high precision. We show that 1 year of SWOT data offers more detailed information than 30 years of satellite nadir altimetry in marine gravity, enabling the detection of intricate seafloor structures at 8-kilometer spatial resolution. With the mission still ongoing, SWOT promises critical insights for bathymetric charting, tectonic plate reconstruction, underwater navigation, and deep ocean mixing.