Ocean Surface Topography Mission
Imagine you have a big bathtub full of water, and you put some toys in it. You can see the surface of the water where the toys are floating. But did you know that the surface of the ocean is also constantly changing?
That’s where the Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM) comes in. OSTM is a special spacecraft that orbits around the Earth, and it has a special tool called a radar altimeter that can measure the height of the ocean surface. It does this by bouncing radio waves off the surface and measuring how long they take to come back. This way, the OSTM can create a map of how high the surface of the ocean is all around the world.
Why is this important? Well, the height of the ocean surface can tell us a lot of things about the ocean. For example, if the surface is higher in one area than in another, it might mean there are more warm water currents there, or there might be waves caused by wind or storms. By measuring the height of the ocean surface over time, scientists can also track how the ocean is changing, like if it’s rising or falling, and this can help us understand how the Earth’s climate is changing.
And since the ocean covers more than 70% of the Earth’s surface, the OSTM is helping us understand a big part of our planet that we can’t see from our bathtubs!
That’s where the Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM) comes in. OSTM is a special spacecraft that orbits around the Earth, and it has a special tool called a radar altimeter that can measure the height of the ocean surface. It does this by bouncing radio waves off the surface and measuring how long they take to come back. This way, the OSTM can create a map of how high the surface of the ocean is all around the world.
Why is this important? Well, the height of the ocean surface can tell us a lot of things about the ocean. For example, if the surface is higher in one area than in another, it might mean there are more warm water currents there, or there might be waves caused by wind or storms. By measuring the height of the ocean surface over time, scientists can also track how the ocean is changing, like if it’s rising or falling, and this can help us understand how the Earth’s climate is changing.
And since the ocean covers more than 70% of the Earth’s surface, the OSTM is helping us understand a big part of our planet that we can’t see from our bathtubs!