In December 2022, NASA launched the Surface Water and Ocean Topography satellite (SWOT). This satellite will be the first global survey of the earth’s surface water from space.
Eventually, the satellite will be able to survey nearly all of the earth's surface water every 21 days. In an early stage of the mission, however, SWOT will only survey a small portion of the earth, but it will survey that portion daily. This "validation period" will run from April 1 through June 30, 2023. During this time the satellite will be making daily measurements of both the lake height and surface area of many of our study lakes.
LOCSS citizen scientists can help NASA determine how accurate SWOT measurements are by submitting lake height measurements during this validation period. If you are near any of the lakes below, we ask that you submit measurements as many times as possible from April 1 to June 30, 2023.
If you do not see your lake listed below, then it is not within the SWOT 1-day orbit, but you can still submit measurements that can be combined with other satellite data on specific target dates.
LAKES SURVEYED DURING THE SWOT VALIDATION PERIOD, APRIL 1-JUNE 30, 2023
Massachusetts
Bell Pond - BPA2
Farm Pond - FMA2
New Hampshire
All LOCSS Study Lakes
New York
Lake Moraine - MRK2
Panther Lake - NAK2
Washington
Beaver Lake - BEW2
Clear Lake - CRW2
Coldwater Lake - CLW2
Deep Lake, King County - DEW2
Dog Lake - DGW2
Echo Lake - ECW2
Fish Lake - FSW2
Flowing Lake - THW2
Lake Bosworth - BWW2
Lake Cassidy - CAW2
Lake Lawrence - LAW2
Lake Lawrence North - XAW2
Lake Lawrence South - TCW2
Lake Roesiger - RSW2
Lake Sammamish - SAW2
Lake Washington - WAW2
Lake Wenatchee - WEW2
Leech Lake - LEW2
North Lake - TWW2
Phantom Lake - PHW2
Steel Lake - STW2
Walupt Lake - BGW2
France
Étang de Fontargente 1 - AFR2
Étang de Fontargente 2 - BFR2
Étang de l'Estagnol - CFR2
Lac Majeur - RFR2
Lac Mort - TFR2
Petit Étang de l'Estagnol - DFR2
Sign up for our newsletter and target monitoring date reminders.
We send out a monthly newsletter with updates on our project expansion and what we're learning about lakes with the help of citizen scientists around the world. You can also sign up to receive an email the day before target monitoring dates when satellites pass over your region.
