Launched on December 16, 2022, the international Swot (Surface Water and Ocean Topography) satellite started its 6-month long period of mission commissioning activities, followed by the Calibration and Validation (CalVal) phase before the beginning of science operations. This CalVal phase is a necessary step, especially for Swot's advanced imagery based on wide swath interferometry, which allows to capture in 2D detailed ocean dynamics features (down to 10 km) and freshwater bodies such as lakes, reservoirs and rivers (down to 100 m wide). 
 
Calibrating conventional satellite altimetry data has been done using ground sites located just below the satellites tracks. However, calibrating and validating Swot measurements require having multiple in situ measurements at one location. For this purpose, a series of field campaigns over ocean and inland water bodies are performed to collect in situ data over entire areas collocated with Swot measurements. 
 
During this CalVal phase, multiple oceanography field campaigns led by the Swot Adopt-A-Crossover (AdAC) Consortium and endorsed by Clivar are carried out at the crossing between two Swot wide swaths ("crossovers") and its vicinity. To help the crews and scientists involved, preliminary maps are issued, even though the data are not yet fully calibrated and validated, so that they can select suitable locations to collect in situ measurements for comparison purposes. The existing Ssalto/Duacs multimission gridded datasets, which represent the highest resolution images currently available based on 7 active nadir altimeter satellites (Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, Jason-3, Sentinel-3A and 3B, Cryosat-2, Saral and HaiYang-2B) are also provided.