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Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology
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SWOT Emblem
Published:
January 1, 2015
Emblem for the SWOT mission.
ENLARGE
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Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Open House visitors are delighted to see how well their color-coded stickers match the "sea surface topography model of the Gulf of Mexico within a wooden box.
"SWOT in a Box" Reveal - Gulf of Mexico Model
SWOT will provide NASA’s first global survey of Earth’s surface water.
SWOT (Animated Gif)
Arctic Lakes
Arctic Lakes
An alternate logo for the Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT) Mission.
SWOT Mission Logo with Full Text
Alaska lakes.
Alaska Lakes
SWOT leaving NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, en route to March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County, California. Once the scientific payload arrived, it was sent to a Thale...
SWOT leaving NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California en route to March Air Reserve Base.
An artist’s concept of the SWOT spacecraft (January 2012).
SWOT Spacecraft (Artist Concept)
The SWOT Payload module consists of two primary components: the Ka-band Radar Interferometer (KaRIn) and the Nadir module.
SWOT Payload
Engineers integrate separate parts of the SWOT satellite into one in a Thales Alenia Space clean room facility in Cannes, France.
Part of the SWOT satellite's science instrument payload in a clean room at a Thales facility.
An artist’s concept of the SWOT spacecraft (March 2012).
SWOT Spacecraft (Artist Concept)
Visiting Scout uses a color-coded, calibrated stick to determine "sea surface topography" within a wooden box while his sister records his results by placing stickers on a card.
Probing the Depths of "SWOT in a Box"
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.
Northern Alberta Lakes, Canada
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...
Team members who helped load the hardware onto a C-17 aircraft for SWOT's transfer from Southern, Calif. to Cannes France.
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...
SWOT's scientific payload loading into a U.S. Air Force C-17 airplane for transport to Cannes, France.
Arctic
Arctic
A diagram illustrating the swaths of data that SWOT will collect.
Diagram of SWOT Data Collection
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...
SWOT Science Orbit
Artist's impression of the future SWOT satellite making sea surface height observations, even through clouds.
Artist's Impression of the SWOT Satellite
The Canadian Space Agency will contribute to the SWOT Mission by providing a high-power assembly component for SWOT’s Ka-band Radar Interferometer (KaRIn).
Canadian Space Agency
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.
Part of the SWOT satellite's science instrument payload in a clean room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
This animation shows estimates of average sea ice freeboard — or the amount of ice above the waterline — taken over a 21-day period from Aug. 8, 2023, to Jan. 14, 2024, by the Surface Water and Oce...
SWOT cryosphere animation: sea ice freeboard
An image of the original concept for the Water and Terrestrial Elevation Recovery (WATER) Mission, which later became SWOT.
WATER Mission Concept Illustration
Floodplain Channel in the Amazon
Floodplain Channel in the Amazon
Artist’s concept of seven altimeters orbiting Earth: Jason-CS/Sentinel-6B, SWOT, Sentinel-6A, Jason 3, TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason 1 and OSTM/Jason 2.
Altimeter Series
A Flooded Forest in the Amazon
A Flooded Forest in the Amazon