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nasa t1_ivkt0pj wrote

Reply to comment by AllAmericanBreakfast in AskScience AMA Series: We're NASA experts working on SWOT - an upcoming mission that will observe nearly all water on Earth's surface. Ask us anything! by AskScienceModerator

SWOT is the first satellite mission that will observe nearly all water on the planet’s surface. It will measure the height of water in Earth’s ocean, rivers, lakes and reservoirs between 78 degrees south (where Antarctica is located) and 78 degrees north (where Greenland is located).

For water that is on the land, SWOT will be able to see rivers wider than 330 feet (100 meters) and lakes that are larger than about 15 acres. Over the ocean, SWOT will be able to see smaller scale features called eddies that are less than 60 miles (96 km) across. No single satellite has been able to observe all of these features.

SWOT will also repeat the measurements over the Earth’s surface every 21 days, so we’ll be able to track changes over time associated with climate change or population change. - BH

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AllAmericanBreakfast t1_ivktwxh wrote

It sounds like although other satellites exist that can measure these individual features, the benefit of SWOT is having a single satellite able to continuously gather measurements on all of them?

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