Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Billion-dollar NASA satellite launches to track Earth’s water

SWOT satellite will bounce radar off water bodies to give scientists a new window into climate change and the global water cycle.
  1. Jeff Tollefson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

From swirling ocean eddies that help shape the global climate to millions of lakes and rivers, scientists are about to get an unprecedented view of Earth’s water.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-04455-0

Updates & Corrections

  • Update 16 December 2022: The story has been updated to reflect the successful launch of SWOT on 16 December.

  • Correction 16 December 2022: An earlier version of this story listed Sarah Cooley as being at Oregon State University. She is at the University of Oregon in Eugene.

References

  1. Cooley, S. W., Ryan, J. C. & Smith, L. C. Nature 591, 78–81 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Durand, M. et al. Water Resour. Res. 52, 4527–4549 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Feng, D. et al. Nature Commun. 12, 6917 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links