Mission Makers: Marc Simard, Scientist on the SWOT Water-Tracking Mission

Marc Simard is part of the science team behind the international Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission, led by NASA and the French space agency Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES). SWOT will make the first global survey of nearly all the water on Earth’s surface. Simard, a researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, developed a passion for the environment during his early school years in Quebec, Canada, and now focuses his scientific work on estuaries and wetlands. He believes SWOT will provide critical data on the Mississippi River delta and deltas around the world, helping us understand how deltas are affected by sea level rise and climate change. The SWOT mission is a collaboration between NASA and CNES, with contributions from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the UK Space Agency. SWOT is expected to launch in December 2022.