SWOT Emblem

Floodplain Channel in the Amazon

Artist's impression of the future SWOT satellite making sea surface height observations, even through clouds.

SWOT Applications Lead, Margaret Srinivasan, helps young visitors match data user types - from coastal safety officers to farmers - with pictures representing SWOT applications.

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.

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

Soccer Nets on a levee in the Amazon

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

Arctic

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

A photograph of the Amazon River Delta, captured by Landsat in 2006.

A Flooded Forest in the Amazon

A photograph of the Varzea Forest area of Brazil (2 of 4).

Arctic Lakes

SWOT will provide NASA’s first global survey of Earth’s surface water.

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.

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...

Highly visible in their red shirts, SWOT project team members - including Project Manager Parag Vaze at left - interact with the public during the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) "Open House" ...

A banner explaining the purpose of the SWOT mission, created and displayed during testing.

AirSWOT plays a key role in SWOT mission development. It allows scientists to study interferometric data before launch and thus be prepared to effectively interpret SWOT data after launch.

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 Stream within a wooden box.

Siberian Lakes

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

Amazon Fishermen

SWOT will collect data across a 75-mile (120-kilometer) wide swath, with a gap in the center for an altimetry track. This animation shows the collection of data over the state of Florida, which is ...

The SWOT Payload module consists of two primary components: the Ka-band Radar Interferometer (KaRIn) and the Nadir module.