SWOT: NASA-CNES Satellite to Survey the World’s Water (Mission Overview)

NASA and CNES (French Space Agency) are collaborating to make the first global survey of Earth’s surface fresh water and study fine-scale ocean currents with a new mission called SWOT, or Surface Water and Ocean Topography. SWOT will collect data on the height of Earth’s salt and fresh water – including oceans, lakes, and rivers – enabling researchers to track the location of water over time, which will help measure the effects of climate change. SWOT is expected to launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in central California in November 2022. SWOT is a collaboration between NASA and the French space agency Centre National d’Etudes Spatial (CNES), with contributions from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and United Kingdom Space Agency (UK Space Agency). To learn more about the mission, visit: Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/CNES/Thales Alenia Space