2022 Images of the Month

Swot is planned to be launched on Dec. 15, 2022. It is the first space mission that will study nearly all of the water on the Earth's surface.

CFOSat SWIM instrument enables to estimate the directional wave spectrum. With such information available the propagation of a Southern Swell in the Indian Ocean can be observed through the swell wavelength

During the first six months of Swot, the satellite will be on a calibration and validation orbit. New hydrology validation sites for under this orbit are installed.

Internal Tides have sea surface height signature of centimeters. Swot ocean data will need to be corrected from those Internal Tides to use the sea surface height information.

Some cornerstones and applications of altimetry these past 30 years, since the launch of Topex/Poseidon

FSLEs show stirring in the California Current upwelling

Sargassum seaweeds are now found all over the Carribean and Gulf of Mexico coasts. Satellites enable to detect them and forecast their path.

The trajectory of a buoy released for the Cnes Argonautica educational project illustrates several oceanographic features around the Mozambique Channel, and the possibilities offered by altimetry to observe them.

As from April 7, 2022, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich is becoming the altimetry reference mission, taking over from Jason-3 the homogeneous precise altimetry record

What will Swot see when the lakes are surrounded by vegetation, or have aquatic vegetation within?

On Jan. 15th, 2022, the eruption of a volcano in the Tonga archipelago led to a major tsunami propagating in the Pacific. Altimeters have measured some of this wave.

Backscatter from radar altimeters can help in discriminate ice phases on Arctic rivers such as the Ob.