Alaska Lakes

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

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

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...

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...

This SWOT "Bannerbug" exhibit was created for display during hardware tests conducted during an eleven-day period in October 2008.

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

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

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

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.  

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...

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

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

SWOT technologies - advanced wide-swath technology, ocean and surface water topography measurements, and high-resolution products - will support such societal needs as dams, shipping, and surface w...

Crowds flock to the Earth Sciences exhibits during the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) "Open House" event, giving volunteers (red shirts) a chance to share information about their various miss...

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

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

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.

AirSWOT is using parts of Saskatchewan as a testing ground for mapping water levels.

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

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.

A Flooded Forest in the Amazon

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

An image of the original concept for the Water and Terrestrial Elevation Recovery (WATER) Mission, which later became SWOT.

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