New NASA satellite mapped the oceans like never before

Facebook X LinkedIn Pinterest Email Seamount Located off the coast of Ecuador. (Credit: NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program) The ocean floor is a vast scope on our planet that remains largely unexplored. Although oceans cover 71% of Earth, we have clearer pictures of the Moon and Mars than we do of the landscape beneath the waves. But a newly launched satellite mission coined SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography) is now giving scientists a much sharper picture of these hidden underwater worlds. When researchers talk about “mapping the ocean floor,” they usually refer to where underwater mountains, hills, and valleys lie. These features may sound distant and abstract, but they actually influence things a lot of the things we care about: the path of undersea cables that give us internet, the routes ships can safely sail, and even how marine life finds food. Until now, only about a quarter of the seafloor has been mapped using ships with special sonar equipment. The rest has remaine ... Read full article.