In the coming decades, new satellite missions will map Earth’s surface water and sea level (ocean topography) at a resolution that has not been possible before. These observations will provide critical information that is needed to assess water resources on land, track regional sea level changes, monitor coastal processes, and observe small-scale ocean currents and eddies. The first of these satellites, the NASA/CNES Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission, was launched in December 2022.
The AUSWOT Working Group brings together researchers and stakeholders from industry, government, and academia to develop Australia’s capability in the field of surface water and ocean topography and address key issues relevant to the Asia-Pacific region. All researchers and partners are welcome to participate and contribute their expertise.
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What are the goals of the AUSWOT Working Group?
The AUSWOT Working Group aims to support the SWOT mission and develop domestic capability in the field of wide swath satellite altimetry by addressing key issues relevant to the Australian community, including:
- Collation of the latest international progress of the SWOT mission
- National coordination of SWOT products for research/operational applications
- Field campaigns of opportunity during fast-sampling cal/val phase
- Synergistic observing platforms, e.g. HF radar, moorings, gliders, drifters
- Mapping daily geostrophic currents from SWOT sea-surface height data
- Developing a climatology of seasonal cycle and seasonal anomaly variability
- Internal tides and internal wave variability from SWOT observations
- Impact of submesocale variability on larval transport and fisheries productivity
- Surface water budget for the Australian continent
- Measurement of Antarctic sea-ice thickness/extent and snow/ice freeboard
- Improvement of hydrological models over land and ocean
- Validation and assimilation of river height / discharge observations
- SWOT observation impact assessment for ocean forecasts
- Representation of SWOT observation error in data assimilating models
- Dispersal of marine plastics, oil spills, etc; search-and-rescue operations
- Secondary data products, end-user requirements, QC, archiving and delivery
- Building capacity for future missions e.g. SKIM (ESA) and COMPIRA (JAXA)
| SWOT Science Team Meeting | 27-30 June 2022, Chapel Hill (USA), Toulouse (France) and virtual | |
| Advancing Earth Observation Forum | 22-26 August 2022, Brisbane, QLD | |
| SWOT-CLIVAR Filachange Workshop | 29 August-2 September 2022, Qingdai (China), Hobart (TAS), Paris (France), Providence (USA) |
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