Arctic

NASA has selected Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, California, to provide launch services for SWOT.

Lake Calado, Amazon

Mounted above the Payload Module, the Spacecraft Bus is a multi-purpose platform housing many of the electronics required for the observatory to function, including components for power, propulsion...

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.

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).

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

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

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

Amazon Fishermen

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

Soccer Nets on a levee in the Amazon

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.

Disappearing lakes in Barrow, Alaska.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Floodplain Channel in the Amazon

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.

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

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...

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...