Abstract
Abstract. NASA and the French space agency, CNES, with contributions from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA) are developing new wide swath altimetry technology that will cover most of the world’s ocean and surface freshwater bodies. The proposed Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission will have the capability to make observations of surface water (lakes, rivers, wetland) heights and measurements of ocean surface topography with unprecedented spatial coverage, temporal sampling, and spatial resolution compared to existing technologies. These data will be useful for monitoring the hydrologic cycle, flooding, and characterizing human impacts on a changing environment. The applied science community is a key element in the success of the SWOT mission, demonstrating the high value of the science and data products in addressing societal issues and needs. The SWOT applications framework includes a working group made up of applications specialists, SWOT science team members, academics and SWOT Project members to promote applications research and engage a broad community of potential SWOT data users. A defined plan and a guide describing a program to engage early adopters in using proxies for SWOT data, including sophisticated ocean and hydrology simulators, an airborne analogue for SWOT (AirSWOT), and existing satellite datasets, are cornerstones for the program. A user survey is in development and the first user workshop was held in 2015, with annual workshops planned. The anticipated science and engineering advances that SWOT will provide can be transformed into valuable services to decision makers and civic organizations focused on addressing global disaster risk reduction initiatives and potential science-based mitigation activities for water resources challenges of the future. With the surface water measurements anticipated from SWOT, a broad range of applications can inform inland and coastal managers and marine operators of terrestrial and oceanic phenomena relevant to their work.
Highlights
Space-based altimetry is a mature remote sensing technique and benefits from more than 20 years of continuous ocean observations
By the time of the expected Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) launch, we endeavor to increase the number of users who are interested in and able to use the measurements that come from the mission
In order to constrain the scope and focus efforts we suggest the following pillars/foci for applications activities;
Summary
Space-based altimetry is a mature remote sensing technique and benefits from more than 20 years of continuous ocean observations. Typical nadir altimetry satellite orbits giving priority to temporal coverage such as Topex/Poseidon and the Jason series satellites (10-day revisit capability, inclination 66°, altitude 1,300km), or giving priority to spatial coverage such as ERS, Envisat or SARAL (35-day revisit capability, inclination 98°, altitude 800 km) allow along-track measurements in all weather conditions, at a rate of 1Hz or higher These orbits are complementary and the satellites are used in operations to provide users with multi-mission products with combined higher spatial and temporal resolutions. It will provide data products to facilitate the use of the satellite observations by a wide variety of users (operational, commercial, civic, governmental) It will open up a new avenue for scientific research and at the same time create a new operational sector, in hydrology where space observations are developing. Without in-situ observations, wide swath elevation data from a space-based platform such as SWOT will provide will advance our understanding of changing global water availability
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