Alaska Lakes

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.

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

Lake Calado, Amazon

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

Disappearing lakes in Barrow, Alaska.

An artist’s concept of the SWOT spacecraft (January 2012).

An artist’s concept of the SWOT spacecraft (February 2015).

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

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.

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.

Amazon Fishermen

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

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

NASA’s Blue Marble

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" ...

The first 90 days of the SWOT science mission will be flown in a "fast-sampling" phase that revisits specific areas once per day. This phase will begin after a 90-day commissioning phase for engine...

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.

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.

Emblem for the SWOT mission.

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

Arctic

This image shows sea surface heights off the northern California coast in August 2023 as measured by the SWOT satellite.

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

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