NASA's Blue Marble

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

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

Arctic

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

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

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

Floodplain Channel in the Amazon

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" ...

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...

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

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.

Lake Calado, Amazon

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

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

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.

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

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...

Emblem for the SWOT mission.

Disappearing lakes in Barrow, Alaska.

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...

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

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

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

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...