Eric Guilyardi, oceanographer (CNRS, LOCEAN-IPSL) and President of the Office for Climate Education (OCE), highlighted how the SWOT project represents a major advance in the observation of the ocean and the cryosphere.

Beyond its scientific implications, the SWOT projects opens up significant opportunities for collaboration between the scientific and educational communities, providing fertile ground for climate education, ocean literacy, and the promotion of space science.

Eric Guilyardi also emphasized how data acquired by SWOT will be used to enrich the next edition of the  teacher's manual "Ocean and Cryosphere: The Climate in Our Hands" developed by OCE for primary and secondary educators. 

Published in 2019, this handbook offers teachers a ready-to-use curriculum enabling them to study the role of oceans in climate regulation, the ecosystem services provided by oceans and the cryosphere, and the effects of climate change on oceans. The activities emphasize investigative approaches and project-based learning. This teaching guide has been published in four languages and adapted for local use in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. It has been implemented by more than 10,000 teachers worldwide, reaching nearly 400,000 students.
The new version of the handbook, supported by many partners including CNES, will showcase a new section on ocean observation, highlighting space-borne observation and the contributions of the SWOT mission.

The other panelists were Djian Sadadou, Head of International Relations and Communities - Office for Climate Education, International; Narissa Bax, Marine Scientist at Pinngortitaleriffik Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, Nuuk; Ignacio Orellanos, Programs Coordinator, 1.5 Chile. The discussion of the panel focused on the issues linking the ocean, the cryosphere, and education in Latin America.

The SWOT mission is a global survey of Earth's surface water and is carried out by the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and NASA, with contributions from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the United Kingdom Space Agency.

Launched in December 2022, the SWOT satellite uses state-of-the-art radar interferometry technology to measure the elevation of water, and observes major lakes, rivers and wetlands while detecting ocean features with unprecedented resolution. SWOT data are providing critical information that is needed to assess water resources on land, track regional sea level changes, monitor coastal processes, and observe  fine scale ocean currents and eddies.

The SWOT Science Team has researchers from around the globe with expertise in oceanography and hydrology. This multidisciplinary group is tackling pressing issues such as availability of Earth's freshwater resources, our changing ocean and coasts,the cryosphere, and much more. Besides providing a fascinating exploration of our planet, their studies will contribute achieving societal goals of clean air and water, preparedness for extreme events, and adaptation to long-term environmental changes on continental scales.

Tosca Ballerini (SWOT-AdAC Communication Officer)

These positive anomalies across the Equatorial Pacific are among the early warning signs of an upcoming El Niño. Altimetry enables to monitor the phenomena at global scale, and thus add information to the in situ array installed there (TAO). The elevation reached the coasts of Equator in March, but has just triggered a reaction from the atmosphere, which is the actual El Niño.

Models show a high probability of an El Niño developing in the second half of 2023. It is a bit early to assert its magnitude, though, since some west wind gusts can still dampen the phenomenon, but it seems more than likely that there will be an El Niño this Christmas. The Equatorial Pacific will be closely monitored in the coming months for this.

From the first El Niño monitored by Topex/Poseidon in 1994, the altimetry satellites have brought knowledge and foresight to help in mitigating the impacts of the phenomenon in a large part of the world.

• Animation Sep. 2022-Jun 2023 https://youtu.be/Wl_HxwUNFSM
• https://www.aviso.altimetry.fr/enso
• Applications: ENSO

These data are intended for a variety of user communities: scientists, basin managers, water resource monitoring services in different regions, international bodies such as the WMO or the International Office for Water, etc.

See Kakhovka- HYDROWEB data shows a reservoir turned back a river â Theia for more information

https://www.aviso.altimetry.fr/fileadmin/user_upload/swh_eunice-franklin.gif

            Créé en 2003, le Club des Argonautes rassemble d'anciens chercheurs et ingénieurs qui ont fait leur carrière dans des organismes comme lâIRD, lâIFREMER, Météo France, le CNES, le CNRS, et le MNHN, en menant leurs activités dans les domaines de lâOcéan, du Climat, et de lâÃnergie. La complémentarité des parcours de ses membres permet au Club de réfléchir et dâéchanger sur le rôle des Océans, de l'Atmosphère et des Terres Ãmergées dans la genèse des climats de la Terre et sur la résolution des problèmes posés par le réchauffement climatique.

            L'action du Club se situe à la transition entre Science et Société. En pratique, le Club s'adresse à un large public intéressé par tout ce qui concerne notre planète. Il vise tout particulièrement les scolaires, les étudiants, les universitaires, mais aussi la presse et les politiques. Son site Web est conçu de manière à susciter une prise de conscience de notre condition commune de Géonautes, câest à dire dâêtres humains embarqués sur un navire unique et irremplaçable quâil sâagit de mener à bon port : la Terre. Les membres du Club sont tous retraités de façon à autoriser liberté de jugement et liberté d'expression, notamment sur les questions, (parfois brûlantesâ¦), que soulèvent les actions à mener contre le changement climatique.

            Les "Argonautes" mettent en commun des savoirs trop souvent dispersés entre disciplines. Le contact avec le monde scientifique est maintenu de diverses façons: suivi des publications, invitation, lors dâune réunion du Club, de chercheurs en activité, et mise en Åuvre dâun statut de Membre Correspondant (ouvert aux actifs). Lorsquâil y a convergence de leur analyse, ils sâattachent à la rendre publique, via le site Web du Club, ou lors de conférences publiques, ou enfin, par des articles et ouvrages collectifs. Les principaux "messages" que le Club sâefforce de diffuser,sont les suivants:

• La nécessité dâinstaurer, à l'instar de ce qui existe pour l'atmosphère avec la Veille Météorologique Mondiale, une Veille Mondiale Océans et Climat, pour garantir la continuité des observations et mesures océaniques, sources uniques de notre savoir et outils indispensables d'une prévision climatique.
• La nécessité sâagissant de questions à la fois complexes et vitales, pour lesquelles les informations diffusées par les médias sont parfois incomplètes et approximatives, de diffuser des messages pédagogiques dâune grande rigueur scientifique.
• La nécessité de reconnaître le rôle de lâocéan, vaste réservoir dâénergie, qui absorbe environ mille fois plus de chaleur que lâatmosphère, et dont la bande inter-tropicale où le gradient thermique entre eau de surface et eau profonde dépasse 20 °C, constitue une source dâénergie renouvelable, non intermittente que les spécialistes appellent Ãnergie Thermique des Mers, ou ETM.La ressource Eau Froide Profonde peut aussi  être utilisée, lorsque le relief sous marin s'y prête, pour la climatisation, comme ce sera le cas à Tahiti d'ici la fin de l'année, pour le Centre Hospitalier de Polynésie Française.

Pour en savoir plus

Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich is still ongoing calibration, and the Toulouse-based team looking at its data couldn't but try to look at what its data looked like over the Garonne. The results, even if still early, prior to the final calibration of the mission, are promising, and show very high waters on cycle 8 (Jan. 28) compared to cycle 6 (Jan. 8) and 7 (Jan. 18). Sentinel-6 is part of a collaboration with ESA, NASA, NOAA, CNES, EUMETSAT within Copernicus. Image processed by CLS for the consortium as part of the calibration studies. 

Locations where data are shown below

The Garonne river is one of the major rivers in France. Taking its source in the Pyrenees mountains bordering Spain, it goes North, through Toulouse, goes North-West, through Bordeaux, to reach the Atlantic Ocean in the Bay of Biscaye.

This January 2021, intense precipitations over the South-West of France raised the level of the river and its tributaries, with a paroxysm at the end of January and early February with major flooding in the towns on the banks such as La Réole. Satellites shows this elevation, for altimeters, and even the flooding for imagery techniques (here Sentinel-1 SAR -- Swot might also provide such images once launched).

Map of La Réole flood from Sentinel-1 SAR data; in red, areas flooded between Jan. 27 and Feb. 2 (processing CLS, contains modified Copernicus data)	Altimetry water level variations, over the Aveyron tributary (km 392) (top left), Lot tributary (km 475) (bottom left), Garonne itself (top right, km 130; Bottom right km 144) (credit Hydroweb)

See also in situ data at http://www.zambezira.org/hydrology/lake-levels

Sentinel-3A & 3B measurements over the Po (Credit Hydroweb)

Fig. 1 : Significant Wave Heights (H1/3, in meters) measured along-track by Sentinel-3A during hurricane Florence (left) and typhoon Mangkhut (right), during the passage of the storms, on September 2018. The maps plots all the tracks between 10-14 Sept. for Florence and 15-17 Sept. for Mangkhut. The plots at the bottom only show the SWH nearest the passage of the storms off the coasts (x-axis indicates the distance to the coast in km for each track). Credits EU Copernicus Marine Service for the data, produced by AVISO+.

Fig.2: Ocean surface wind speed map measured by Sentinel-1B on 2018/0911 while the typhoon Magkhut was in Category 5. Maximum wind speed reached more than 80m/s (288km/h). The ocean fields are given by the Sentinel-1 SAR on its Extended Wide Swath mode. The swath about 400 km-width are visible on the map. Credits Sentinel-1B: Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2018 processed by IFREMER/CLS.

Further information

• CFOSAT
  • page Missions
  • video presentation of the CFOSAT project (posted by CNES)
• on Copernicus Marine Service website: Looking at hurricane Florence through wave height with model data.
• Data access:
  • Significant wave heigths from Sentinel-3A, European Copernicus Marine Service