Component · products

Surface Waves Investigation and Monitoring instrument (SWIM)

Ku-band rotating multi-beam radar altimeter flown on CFOSAT for wave spectra and significant wave height.

Surface Waves Investigation and Monitoring (SWIM) is the rotating multi-beam Ku-band radar on CFOSAT for significant wave height and directional ocean-wave spectra.^[1]^[2] It operates at 13.575 GHz with 320 MHz bandwidth and on-board digital range compression for the backscattered signal.^[1]^[2] Six beams cover nadir through 10 degrees of incidence, at 0, 2.4, 4, 6, 8 and 10 degrees.^[1] The rotating antenna provides a 180 km swath and an approximately 18 km by 18 km footprint at 500 km altitude.^[1]^[2] The instrument rotation rate is 5.7 rpm, with a 5.6 rpm alternate for the same scan.^[1]^[2] SWIM demonstrates radar altimetry on CFOSAT, and its low-incidence rotating beams are used for wave-spectra measurement in addition to altimetric ranging.^[1]^[2] SWIM is active on CFOSAT, with end of life at least 2026 and follow-on use on HY-2L/CFOSAT-FO from 2030 to 2038.^[3]^[1]

Operator pricing

Pricing not publicly listed by operator

Supply chain position

carried by CFOSAT

Sources

[1]WMO OSCAR instrument record: SWIMcommunity2026-06-16
[2]AVISO+ CFOSAT SWIM instrument pageagency doc2026-06-16
[3]WMO OSCAR satellite record: CFOSATcommunity2026-06-16
[4]New Observations From the SWIM Radar On-Board CFOSATpeer reviewed2026-06-16

Cite https://eo-atlas.org/products/component/cfosat-swim Markdown twin → Field definitions → Suggest a correction →

How to cite this page

Plain text

Surface Waves Investigation and Monitoring instrument (SWIM). EO-Atlas, SpectraWorks B.V. https://eo-atlas.org/products/component/cfosat-swim (CC BY 4.0)

BibTeX

@misc{eoatlas:products:component:cfosat-swim,
  title = {Surface Waves Investigation and Monitoring instrument (SWIM)},
  author = {{EO-Atlas}},
  publisher = {SpectraWorks B.V.},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
  url = {https://eo-atlas.org/products/component/cfosat-swim}
}