A new look at Earth’s water, energy, and climate with SWOT

As the planet transitions to a new climate, adapting to the Earth’s changing water cycle remains among the top challenges faced by humanity. The relative stability of climate and water resources over the past millennia allowed humans to build complex societies with established agriculture, infrastructure, and economies that today sustain the livelihood of 8 billion people. As the planet warms, this steady state of water movement is being altered, and both oceanic and terrestrial components of the global water cycle are undergoing measurable changes that will likely continue. Predicting the new trajectory of Earth’s water in a warming climate begins with observing the entire water supply-demand chain across the planet, from Earth’s largest water reservoir, the ocean, to water storage, use, and recycling on land. A recently-launched space observatory, called the Surface water and Ocean Topography (SWOT), is making a timely entrance, providing direct, high-resolution measurements of water height and volume of nearly all water on the Earth’s surface. This article provides a comprehensive review of SWOT as a new mission enabling engineering, scientific, and societal advances in studies and managing of Earth’s water. The review links technological advances in wide-swath satellite altimetry and novel measurements of water volume across the planet to the new opportunities to study ocean energetics and rising seas, flooded coastlines and depleted lakes, dynamics of rivers and estuaries, and to derive practical information for water resource managers and climate resilience efforts

搜集汇总

背景与挑战

背景概述

该数据集基于SWOT空间观测站，提供地球表面水体（包括海洋和陆地）的高分辨率高度和体积测量数据，用于研究全球水循环变化、气候影响及水资源管理。它支持科学和工程应用，如分析海洋能量、海平面上升、洪水风险、湖泊和河流动态，并为气候适应策略提供关键信息。