Societal Benefits and Applications of SWOT Mission Data

The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission will launch in 2021 and will provide the first global survey of Earth’s surface water. This international collaboration unites the hydrology and oceanography science communities in a mission to better understand the world’s oceans and its terrestrial surface waters. The data and information products from SWOT will both inform the primary science questions the mission is designed to answer, and provide valuable observations and data to a broad community of users in operational and decision-making arenas. A robust program to promote applied science objectives is underway and is designed to address societal issues and needs, including decision support, in areas related to water resources management for energy, agriculture, infrastructure, and disasters, among other topics.

Along with and combined with complementary Earth observations, SWOT measurements can be used in planning and operations, policy development, decision-making, and numerous other areas that can benefit society, commerce, and operational agency activities.

Research activities using simulated and proxy SWOT data sets are underway, which will assess quality and potential value of SWOT measurements for mapping inland lakes, reservoirs, and rivers. The instruments will also allow for high resolution maps ocean surface topography to improve the understanding of global and regional sea level change. In the coastal zone SWOT can collect data over the tidally affected portions of rivers, and estuaries and wetlands, to help better understand the dynamics of freshwater/marine interaction dynamics.

NASA's Applied Sciences Program (ASP), along with the international SWOT project teams, is supporting a program that promotes applications research and engages a broad community of potential SWOT data users. The applied science community would be a key element in a successful SWOT mission, demonstrating the high value of NASA’s missions and the utility of science and data products in addressing societal issues and needs.