SWOT Spacecraft (Artist Concept)

Part of the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite's science instrument payload sits in a clean room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory during assembly.  

Floodplain Channel in the Amazon

A photograph of the Varzea Forest area of Brazil (3 of 4).

A diagram illustrating the swaths of data that SWOT will collect. 

Siberian Lakes

A view of SWOT from inside a U.S. Air Force C-17 aircraft, as it was being loaded en route to Thales Alenia Space near Cannes, France.

Engineers integrate separate parts of the SWOT satellite into one in a Thales Alenia Space clean room facility in Cannes, France.

Amazon Fishermen

Teams from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and the March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County, California, loaded the scientific payload for the SWOT Earth-observing satelli...

Pictured are team members who helped load the hardware for the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite's research instruments onto a C-17 airplane pose for a picture. The payload left M...

Canada is home to more than 30,000 lakes including these water bodies in Northern Alberta. The abundance of surface freshwater in Canada makes it a prime target for AirSWOT investigations.

Disappearing lakes in Barrow, Alaska.

NASA’s Blue Marble

The SWOT satellite observatory is being jointly built by NASA and Centre National D’Études Spatiales (CNES).

Alaska lakes.

An early rendering of the SWOT spacecraft (February 2011).

SWOT is being jointly developed by NASA and Centre National D’Études Spatiales (CNES).

Arctic

The U.K. Space Agency will provide a part of the radar payload for SWOT.

A photograph of the Varzea Forest area of Brazil (1 of 4).

This collaborative mission poster, designed by CNES (French Space Agency), shows the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite soaring over an abstract of a water molecule.

Arctic Lakes

A photograph of the Varzea Forest area of Brazil (4 of 4).

SWOT's nominal coverage during its 3-year science orbit will include measurements between 78°N and 78°S collected over a period of 21 days. Maps show the coverage after 3 days (left) and the full 2...

The logo for the Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT) Mission.