The SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography) Mission and Its Status

SWOT is a pathfinder mission using new technology to address transformative questions on energy and water of the Earth System in a warming climate.  The excess heat energy entering the Earth system as a result of the greenhouse effect is largely stored in water, and changes in the water cycle and water resources have profound effects on life on Earth.            

 

SWOT is a next generation radar altimeter that uses synthetic aperture radar interferometry to measure the elevation of water surface over both continents and oceans in two dimensions with a radar footprint 1000 times smaller than that of a conventional altimeter. SWOT will cover the world between 78N and 78S every 21 days, leaving only small gaps comprising <5% of Earth’s surface. 

 

More than 90% of the heat from global warming since the industrial revolution has been absorbed and stored in the ocean.  A major part of this process takes place in the ocean on scales too small to be observed from space in the past.  SWOT will improve the two-dimensional spatial resolution of sea surface height from present 200 km to 20 km to address the processes of heat uptake from the atmosphere.

 

In a warming climate earth’s water cycle is accelerating, making it difficult to track and manage water resources as well as predicting floods and droughts.  The areal extent of surface water on land can be observed by conventional spaceborne sensors, but the volume of surface water in lakes and rivers will be surveyed by SWOT from space for the first time.  The numbers of rivers and lakes to be surveyed by SWOT are orders of magnitude more than the present observations.

 

The high-resolution data of SWOT near the coasts will allow us to study sea level variations in unprecedented detail. Storm surge and other impacts like salt water intrusion and river diversion will be exacerbated by the continuing sea level rise.  SWOT data will help improve models to monitor and forecast these impacts.

 

After nearly 20 years’ development, SWOT was launched on December 16, 2022 as a joint mission of NASA and the French Space Agency, CNES, with contributions from the Canadian Space Agency and the UK Space Agency. The satellite system was fully deployed within a week of launch and is in a 3-month phase of engineering checkout.  A 3-month calibration and validation phase will start afterwards in the one-day repeat initial orbit, which will transition into a 21-day repeat orbit during the science phase of the mission in mid 2023.  The release of SWOT data to the public for evaluation is expected to take place 10 months after launch.  The status of the mission at the end of April will be reported by this presentation.