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slide 1 - a team who loaded the satellite posing with the crates on the plane

Assembly of Satellite to Track World's Water Shifts From US to France

The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission took a big step toward launch this week when a team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California shipped the scientific heart of the satellite to France. Full Story ›

slide 2 - International Cutting-Edge SWOT Satellite to Survey the World's Water

International Cutting-Edge SWOT Satellite to Survey the World's Water

So just how does the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission expect to measure what’s flowing in the planet’s lakes, rivers, and oceans? A very busy project manager explains. Read More ›

slide 3 - artist's concept of SWOT

Surface Water and Ocean Topography

NASA, CNES, CSA, UKSA

slide 4 - swot illustration

Scientists Invited to Collaborate

We are inviting members of the international ocean science community to participate in SWOT's unique fast-sampling phase. More ›

slide 5 - swot illustration

Getting Ready for SWOT

Launching in 2022, SWOT will make NASA's first-ever global survey of Earth's surface water. MORE ›

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Why SWOT Matters

Detecting New Ocean Features

Detecting New Ocean Features

Enabling Data Applications

Enabling Data Applications

Assessing Freshwater Resources

Assessing Freshwater Resources

Detecting New Ocean Features

Enabling Data Applications

Assessing Freshwater Resources

Features

NASA has funded 11 new projects as part of the agency’s Earth Science Data Systems’ Advancing Collaborative Connections for Earth Systems Science (ACCESS) program. Proposals submitted in 2019 and funded in 2020 focused on three areas: machine learning, science in the cloud, and open source tools.

A surface water map of the Ohio River

NASA Funds Projects to Make Geosciences Data More Accessible

How much do you know about SWOT? Take the quiz and learn about how and where SWOT will provide us with new and detailed information on one of our most important resources– water.

screenshot from the Where's Water Quiz

"Where's Water?" Quiz

The SWOT Science Team is made up of researchers from across the globe, with expertise in ocean and hydrologic sciences. Learn more about what will make SWOT a transformational satellite mission by visiting the Science Team page.

large group of smiling people standing on steps of building

Scroll through these e-brochures to learn what SWOT will measure –and why the very first comprehensive view of Earth's freshwater bodies from space will be so important for both research and society.

title slide of SWOT e-brochure

View e-Brochures

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News & Announcements

Partners

Partners

SWOT is being jointly developed by NASA and Centre National D'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) with contributions from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and United Kingdom Space Agency.