SWOT Regional Validation Working Group

This working group grew out of the mission validation and Adopt-A-Crossover campaigns. The group

1. focus on satellite validation activities
2. aims at understanding SWOT observations and derived products—most notably sea surface height (SSH),
3. evaluates SWOT measurements by comparing against independent “ground-truth” observations, typically in-water or near-surface measurements.

The primary goal is to assess the quality and limitations of SWOT observations and products, and to provide actionable feedback and recommendations to the mission team to guide improvements in future data releases.

• Co-chairs: Louise Rousselet Louise Rousselet louise.rousselet@utoulouse.fr, Martin Saraceno saraceno@cima.fcen.uba.ar, Sebastiaan Swart sebastiaan.swart@marine.gu.se, Ananda Pascual ananda.pascual@imedea.uib-csic.es, Jinbo Wang Jinbo.Wang@tamu.edu
• Officer: Tosca Ballerini tosca.ballerini@thalassa.one
• Please contact Tosca or Jinbo to sign up the email list: swot-regional-validation@lists.tamu.edu
• Working Group conversations: https://groups.google.com/a/lists.tamu.edu/g/swot-regional-validation

Links

• International CLIVAR Adopt-A-Crossover consortium
• SWOT
• SWOT on AVISO
• SWOT on PO.DAAC

Publications

• SWOT AdAC publication list
• Please contact Tosca or Jinbo to share your publications (published, preprint, in preparation)

Monthly meetings

The recordings of the meetings are password protected. If you are part of the SWOT regional validation working group you should have received the password by email. If you need the password, send an email to Jinbo or Tosca.

2026: 4:00PM-5:00PM GMT (the third Wednesday every month)

March 18, 2026

• Solange Coadou-Chaventon (University of Gothenburg)
• TBD.

February 18, 2026

• Luke Kachelein (JPL): Comparison of HFR and SWOT in the California Coastal Currents
• Jinbo Wang (Texas A&M): The status of the community paper

2025 Meetings (the third Thursday every month)

September 18, 2025 Recording

• Maxime Ballarotta (CLS): Global-Scale Validation of SWOT L3 Velocities Using In-Situ Drifter Data

June 19, 2025

• Andrew F. Thompson (Caltech): Vertical velocities and deep subduction events from coincident SWOT and glider observations in the Southern Ocean

May 15, 2025

• Maristella Berta (ISMAR-CNR): small-scale Lagrangian study in the Med Sea using drifters
• Léna Tolu: SWOT improvements in coastal current detection

April 17, 2025 Recording

• Babette Christelle Tchonang (JPL): Velocity validation against in-situ ADCP at the mission calval site in the California Current.
• Laurina Oms: “Living on the edge”: Fine-scale observations reveal distinct frontal phytoplankton communities” BioSWOT med experiment, submitted in Nature communication

March 20, 2025 Recording

• Luke Kachelein (JPL): Sub-100 km ocean processes revealed by structure functions of SWOT sea surface height and in situ observing network
• Yann-Treden Tranchant (University of Tasmania): SWOT reveals fine-scale balanced motions and dispersion properties in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (10.22541/essoar.173655552.25945463/v1)

February 20, 2025 Recording

• Andrea Hay (University of Tasmania): geometric validation and noise level (5mm noise level of Karin 2km pixels with the Bass Strait experiment.)
• Solange Coadou (LMD & University of Gothenburg): Resolving Sharper Fronts of the Agulhas Current using SWOT Altimetry. (Cape Basin (Agulhas Current) and the QUICCHE campaign data)

January 23, 2025 Recording

• Elisabet Verger-Miralles (IMEDEA): SWOT enhances small-scale intrathermocline eddy detection https://essopenarchive.org/doi/full/10.22541/essoar.173315547.75973902
• Allison Ho (JPL): In-situ validation of small-scale spatial variability in significant wave height observations from SWOT

December 19, 2024 Recording

• Pujol Marie-isabelle (CLS): Introduction of the Leve-3 product.

How to join the meeting

Join the meeting on Teams

Meeting ID: 297 403 351 93

Passcode: Lv2aK7jn