A NASA-led international mission launched a radar satellite from southern California early on Friday. The satellite will be involved in a major project to research the world's oceans, lakes and rivers.
周五早些时候，美国宇航局领导的一项国际任务从南加州发射了一颗雷达卫星。这颗卫星将参与一项研究世界海洋、湖泊和河流的重大项目。
 
The satellite is called SWOT, short for Surface Water and Ocean Topography. It is designed to give scientists a never-before-seen view of Earth's water, which covers 70 percent of the planet.
这颗卫星被称为 SWOT，是地表水和海洋地形学的缩写。它旨在为科学家提供前所未有的地球水域视图，它覆盖了地球 70% 的面积。
 
About the size of a car, the satellite uses advanced microwave radar technology to collect detailed height and surface measurements of all bodies of water. The data will provide researchers with more information on the effects of climate change.
这颗卫星大约有一辆汽车那么大，它使用先进的微波雷达技术来收集所有水体的详细高度和表面测量数据。这些数据将为研究人员提供有关气候变化影响的更多信息。
 
Data will be taken from radar readings of the planet at least two times every 21 days. The information will help study ocean currents, predict the weather, and control freshwater supplies in areas with little rain, researchers said.
数据将每 21 天至少两次从地球的雷达读数中获取。研究人员表示，这些信息将有助于研究洋流、预测天气以及控制少雨地区的淡水供应。
 
The satellite took nearly 20 years to develop by NASA along with the French and Canadian space agencies. It was designed and built at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Los Angeles.
这颗卫星由 NASA 与法国和加拿大太空合作耗时近 20 年研制而成机构。它是在洛杉矶附近的 NASA 喷气推进实验室 (JPL) 设计和建造的。
 
"It's really the first mission to observe nearly all water on the planet's surface," said JPL scientist Ben Hamlington.
JPL 科学家本·哈姆林顿 (Ben Hamlington) 说：“这确实是第一个观察地球表面几乎所有水的任务。”
 
One major goal of the mission is to research how oceans absorb atmospheric heat and carbon dioxide - the natural process that moderates temperatures and climate change.
该任务的一个主要目标是研究海洋如何吸收大气热量和二氧化碳 -缓和温度和气候变化的自然过程。
 
SWOT is designed to measure small differences in surface heights around smaller currents, where much of the oceans' reduction of heat and carbon is believed to happen. And SWOT can do so with 10 times greater detail than existing technologies, JPL says.
SWOT 旨在测量较小洋流周围表面高度的微小差异，据信海洋的大部分热量和碳减少都发生在这些地方。 JPL 说，SWOT 可以用比现有技术多 10 倍的细节来做到这一点。
 
Oceans' ‘turning point'
海洋的“转折点”
 
The world's oceans are estimated to have absorbed more than 90 percent of the extra heat trapped in the Earth's atmosphere by human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.
据估计，全球海洋吸收了因人为温室气体排放而滞留在地球大气中的额外热量的 90% 以上。
 
Studying how that happens will help climate scientists answer an important question: "What is the turning point at which oceans start releasing, rather than absorbing, huge amounts of heat back into the atmosphere…?" said Nadya Vinogradova Shiffer. She is SWOT's program scientist at NASA in Washington.
研究这种情况是如何发生的将有助于气候科学家回答一个重要问题：“海洋开始释放而不是吸收大量热量回到大气中的转折点是什么……？” Nadya Vinogradova Shiffer 说。她是华盛顿 NASA 的 SWOT 项目科学家。
 
The satellite will also be used to study the effect of rising ocean levels. And it will be able to measure all rivers wider than 100 meters, as well as more than 1 million lakes and bodies of water larger than 6.25 hectares.
该卫星还将用于研究海平面上升的影响。它将能够测量所有宽度超过 100 米的河流，以及超过 100 万个湖泊和面积超过 6.25 公顷的水体。
 
Tamlin Pavelsky is leading SWOT's freshwater research team. He said collecting data on freshwater bodies is like "taking the pulse of the world's water system, so we'll be able to see when it's racing and we'll be able to see when it's slow."
Tamlin Pavelsky 领导着 SWOT 的淡水研究团队。他说，收集淡水体数据就像“把握世界水系统的脉搏，这样我们就能看到它什么时候加速，什么时候减速。”
 
SWOT's radar instrument can also read through cloud cover and darkness over wide areas of the Earth. This permits scientists to accurately map their observations no matter the weather or time of day and to cover large areas far more quickly than before.
SWOT 的雷达仪器还可以穿透地球广大地区的云层和黑暗。这使科学家能够准确地绘制他们的观察结果，无论天气或一天中的时间如何，并且比以前更快地覆盖大面积区域。