Why SWOT Matters

[15-Feb-19] In developing nations where floodwaters cross borders, the loss of life from dam-driven flooding underscores the urgency of making information on upstream dams more accessible to citizens. To improve timely access to upstream reservoir information in transboundary river basins of the Red and Mekong rivers, Vietnam recently launched a satellite-based operational system. This article describes the key steps to building such a transboundary dam monitoring system for water agencies of developing countries. [02-Jan-19] SWOT is scheduled to map the entire globe between 78° north and south latitude over the course of 3 years. Before it settles into its main orbit, covering Earth's surface every 21 days, the first 90 days of the mission will be flown in a "fast-sampling" phase, revisiting each area once daily. Ocean scientists are invited to contribute ground-based measurements to compare with the satellite data. [17-Oct-18] A device built in the UK by Honeywell, which will form a vital part of the mission to make the first global survey of the world's surface waters and oceans, has been delivered to Thales Alenia Space in France. The UK-built device, known as a duplexer, is a vital component that routes radar signals around the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite. The duplexer will be integrated into a Radio-Frequency Unit by Thales Alenia Space before NASA engineers add it to the KaRin instrument developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California.