# Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT)
*missions*

## Specifications
- **operator**: nasa
- **launch vehicle**: spacex-falcon-9
- **actual launch**: 2022-12-16
- **current status**: operational
- **orbit type**: Non-sun-synchronous drifting orbit, 891 km altitude, 78 deg inclination, 21-day repeat
- **swath km**: 120
- **revisit days**: 11
- **tasking supported**: false
- **archive depth years**: 3
- **current geographic priority**: global coverage of major inland water bodies and oceans between high-latitude coverage limits
- **entity type**: mission
- **last verified date**: 2026-06-14
- **verified by**: agency-doc
- **claim status**: agency-sourced
- **provider**: nasa
- **attributes**: {"operator":"nasa","launch_vehicle":"spacex-falcon-9","actual_launch":"2022-12-16","current_status":"operational","orbit_type":"Non-sun-synchronous drifting orbit, 891 km altitude, 78 deg inclination, 21-day repeat","swath_km":120,"revisit_days":11,"tasking_supported":false,"archive_depth_years":3,"current_geographic_priority":"global coverage of major inland water bodies and oceans between high-latitude coverage limits"}
- **relevance**: in-scope

## Editorial
The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite is a joint mission of NASA, CNES, the Canadian Space Agency, and the UK Space Agency, launched on 16 December 2022 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Space Force Base.[^nasa-swot-launch] SWOT operates in a 891 km non-sun-synchronous orbit at 78-degree inclination with a 21-day exact-repeat cycle, achieving global coverage of water bodies and oceans between high-latitude limits with approximately 11-day mid-latitude revisits.[^wmo-swot] The primary instrument, KaRIn (Ka-band Radar Interferometer), illuminates a 120 km dual-swath footprint and derives water surface elevation and extent at sub-kilometre resolution - the first spaceborne wide-swath radar interferometer in orbit.[^nasa-swot-flight-systems] A nadir Poseidon-3C altimeter provides conventional along-track sea surface height continuity, and an Advanced Microwave Radiometer corrects for tropospheric path delay.[^nasa-swot-flight-systems] SWOT addresses inland hydrology (lake and river water levels, floodplain inundation) and ocean mesoscale and sub-mesoscale circulation at resolutions previously unresolvable from space.[^nasa-swot-overview]

## Compositional position
- Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) --[mission_payloads]--> karin (products)
- Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) --[mission_payloads]--> poseidon-3c (products)
- Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) --[mission_payloads]--> swot-microwave-radiometer (products)
- Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) --[related-topic]--> sea-level (topics)
- Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) --[related-topic]--> inland-water (topics)
- Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) --[related-topic]--> ocean-currents (topics)

## Sources
- [nasa-swot-overview] | SWOT mission overview, NASA/JPL | https://swot.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/overview/ | tier=agency-doc | accessed=2026-06-14
- [nasa-swot-launch] | SWOT launch page, NASA/JPL | https://swot.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/launch/ | tier=agency-doc | accessed=2026-06-14
- [nasa-swot-flight-systems] | SWOT flight systems, NASA/JPL | https://swot.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/flight-systems/ | tier=agency-doc | accessed=2026-06-14
- [wmo-swot] | WMO OSCAR satellite record: SWOT | https://space.oscar.wmo.int/satellites/view/swot | tier=agency-doc | accessed=2026-06-14

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Source: https://eo-atlas.org/missions/swot
Maintainer: SpectraWorks B.V. (CC-BY 4.0)