Siberian Lakes

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

Amazon Fishermen

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...

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

Disappearing lakes in Barrow, Alaska.

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

Floodplain Channel in the Amazon

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

NASA’s Blue Marble

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...

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

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

Emblem for the SWOT mission.

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

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

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

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...

Lake Calado, Amazon

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.

Arctic

Pictured are team members who helped load the hardware for the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite's research instruments onto a C-17 airplane pose for a picture. The payload left M...

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.

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

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