SWOT: NASA’s and CNES’ mission to reveal Earth’s water secrets – Exclusive interview with space agency scientist

Have you ever heard that mankind knows less about the ocean and other water resources than about some planets? About 95% of the ocean is estimated to remain unexplored, while space has for decades been the subject of fascination and research.

Well, the Surface, Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission, deployed in December 2022, launched a satellite that will completely change the way we see and understand the Earth’s vast ocean surface and the planet’s fresh waters.

With SWOT, scientists around the world will be able to better understand the still largely unknown ocean environment and identify vital nutrients and harmful pollutants. In addition, SWOT promises to advance the prediction of floods, droughts, tsunamis and other natural disasters.

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This is a fascinating project. The mission gathers the work of decades of experts from different areas and countries, and is the result of the commitment of NASA and partners such as CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales in France). Colombia, one of the countries with the largest water resources on the planet, will be able to benefit from the data collected.

To explain more about SWOT and the impressive technology with which we will understand the blue giant from space, Más Colombia interviewed Dr. Ben Hamlington. With a passion for his work that began when he was a child, Dr. Hamlington is a Research Scientist with NASA’s Sea Level and Ice Group and a Doctor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Colorado.

Below, you can read the interview conducted by Más Colombia or, if you prefer, you can watch it in its entirety in the video at the top of the page.

SWOT: NASA’s and CNES’ mission to revolutionize science

We’re going to be discussing a specific program. We’re talking about SWOT: Space, Water and Ocean Topography. What is it that you can tell us about it?

SWOT is this really cool new mission. It’s called the Surface, Water and Ocean Topography Mission. And it measures almost all surface water here on Earth. So when I say “almost all surface water”, that means the water that’s on land, but also the water that’s in the ocean, that’s a really big thing.

This is the first time that we’ve ever been able to do that from space. And actually measure the height of that water. So it’s not just how much water there is or where that water is found, but actually the height of it and how it changes through time.

What are the different countries working within the program currently?

At the foundation of the SWOT mission is this international collaboration. NASA is working alongside partners like CNES in Europe, a France-based space agency. And we also have partners in the United Kingdom and Canada.

These different countries have come together to develop the mission and then launch the mission. And now it’s up there in space, to kind of understand the data, collect the data and make that data public so that international collaboration is a really key part of what we’re trying to do.

Is there any Colombian Scientific participation?

There isn’t right now, but I think there’s a huge opportunity as that data becomes available, it’ll be available to everyone in the world, scientists in Colombia, scientists in every country.

I’m really excited about the potential to use the data and ultimately for that data to be useful for scientists and planners and other people in Colombia.

Can you please explain what’s happening with the satellite?

The SWOT mission is kind of a new technology. It’s a step forward in terms of how we’re measuring the ocean and water on earth. So it does take some time to understand exactly what the measurement is like, what it’s telling us about Earth. And we do this calibration and validation phase, which is really just checking out the data and checking out the instrument.

The satellite launched in December of 2022, the first six months were in this calibration validation phase. In July, we shifted to this new phase, this what we call the science mission or the science orbit, where we’re starting to get that data that we expect to meet the science goals and objectives of SWOT.

We’re now in this phase where SWOT is sampling the Earth every 21 days. We’re getting that data down, we’re collecting it and starting to produce data products that will be released to the world.

Is there anything that you can tell us about the findings that you already have collected?

A top level finding. It’s super exciting. What we’re seeing so far from SWOT the data looks tremendous, even exceeding our expectations before the launch actually happened.

We’re seeing these really small scale features. When I say small scale, we’re just seeing these features in the ocean. We call them eddies. It’s things that happen on relatively short timescales and are small down to ten kilometers or less.

With SWOT we’re able to see those features in the ocean in a way we’ve never been able to see before. Over land we’re seeing rivers that are of widths less than 100 meters. So almost every river on earth we’re able to see and measure the height change over time.

It’s this new view of the earth that we’ve never had before. It’s almost like we’ve had problems with our vision. We couldn’t see very clearly. Then all of a sudden we put on these glasses up in space and are able to see this great detail that we’d never been able to see before. It’s just very exciting. I’m really excited for people to get their hands on the data.

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What can you tell us about the relationship between freshwater and ocean resources and climate change?

SWOT is going to tell us a lot about the Earth, and there is a part of SWOT that really makes it a climate change mission. We’re going to learn a lot about climate change in a number of different ways.

I mentioned those small scale features in the ocean that kind of overturning that mixing of the oceans. SWOT is going to tell us a lot about that, and the reason that’s so important is right now the ocean is absorbing so much of the heat trapped by our atmosphere.

About 90% of the heat trapped in our atmosphere goes into the ocean. In some sense, the ocean is really protecting the earth right now because that heat is getting trapped in the ocean. That means it’s not heating up over land and causing places like Colombia to get even hotter.

But if that changes over time, if the ocean becomes less able to absorb that heat, then again, that impacts what’s going to happen across the Earth.

SWOT is going to inform us about the important role of the ocean and climate change. It’s going to provide measurements along coastlines of the Earth in a way we haven’t been able to before.

It’s also going to tell us about sea level rise and coastal flooding. Allow us to better predict the sea level rise in flooding that we’ll see along coastlines across the globe.

Then the last one is really the presence of droughts and flooding. We know that because of climate change, some places are going to have more water and some places are going to have less. And so SWOT is going to really tell us about how the global water cycle is changing and give us some indication of what we might expect in the future.

This is such amazing technology, it looks like this is the project of a lifetime, so could you please tell us how long has it taken to develop?

That’s a really good question! The start of SWOT actually goes back over two decades. The idea for this type of measurement and what we could do with it originated with a group of scientists. Yeah, again, two decades ago I was in a very early stage of my career and in no place to be working on something like SWOT at that time.

To see that that transition and that development over time and all the work that’s gone into it, I think it’s really made this moment even more rewarding.

It’s exciting to see the the fruits of that labor, to see the success that it’s become really largely based on that long timeframe development and the commitment from NASA and CNES and some of the partners that are working on this project. It does take a long time to develop these new technologies and to launch them.

What is it that you’re currently expecting to get from SWOT?

I think that the data is going to hopefully be released, let’s say by the end of this year, or early next year to the public. And I think some of the nearest term things that we’re going to see value from SWOT.

In terms of the science, the ability to see the connection between the land and the ocean and what’s happening along our coastlines, I think that’s really going to be a step forward in terms of our scientific understanding of what’s happening along the coastlines and how sea level rises are being affected by climate change.

In terms of the application or use of the data, I think that we’re very quickly going to see uses for water resource management.

Immediately SWOT will be able to provide a monitoring system for the reservoirs in places like Colombia and the lakes that are relied on for fresh water.  I think that’s a really key piece that we’ll see from SWOT.

And I think beyond that, it’s such a new type of observation. It’s hard to predict the ways that it will be useful. I think scientists and and people around the globe will get access to the data and explore new ways that I can’t even predict. And I’m excited to see that part of it as well.

Finally, did you ever think that you would be working on such a thing, for NASA?

No, it’s been a weird pathway to get to where I am today. I did start as an Aerospace Engineer working in kind of a different part, but then have just shifted over time to work more on the ocean.

My background expertise is actually very, very much like sea level rise and coastal flooding. I lead a team called NASA’s Sea Level Change Team, which is a broad group of scientists that try to provide projections of sea level rise and coastal flooding across the globe, including Colombia.

But there’s this intersection between all these missions we do at NASA, including SWOT with that work. And yeah, it is amazing to think about the ability within NASA to generate an idea, develop a technology, and then to launch that into space to see that through to the point where there’s a satellite in space, it’s just really cool.

It is interesting to think about it. We’re talking about new satellite missions now, and so the people who started working in SWOT are close to retirement now and then I’m at that phase where I’m talking about additional satellite missions and then, am I going to be at that same point 20 years from now? Or something we’re talking about now is about to be launched, and I’m about to retire. I don’t know. It’s interesting to kind of map your own career and to those that have come before you.

What is the speed of light?