Engaging the User Community for Advancing Societal Applications of the Surface Water Ocean Topography Mission

Abstract

Applications and Water Resources program manager Bradley Doorn. This is the second such application workshop organized by SAWG to explore how best to maximize the user-readiness of the SWOT data after launch in 2021. Thus, the workshop was appropriately titled "2 nd SWOT Application User Workshop: Engaging the User Community for Advancing Societal Applications of the Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission." More than fifty participants attended the workshop over the period of two days with many attending remotely as time permitted. These participants represented various stakeholder agencies from the public and private sector that deal with water issues such as U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE),

Global Estimates of River Flow Wave Travel Times and Implications for Low‐Latency Satellite Data

“…This information can be used to assess the usefulness of existing and future satellite data for real‐time river applications including a potential SWOT low‐latency product by capturing the timescales involved with the downstream propagation of flow waves. Taking into account the spatial and temporal resolutions of the SWOT satellite, we find that a 2‐day or shorter latency as suggested by Hossain, Srinivasan, et al () would significantly enhance SWOT's potential to aid early flood warning systems in cities and reservoir operation management at dams compared to the current 45‐day latency requirement. Note that this study does not consider the likelihood that SWOT will observe a flow wave, but rather the timescales involved in the propagation of a flow wave toward downstream points of interest if the wave is indeed observed.…”

“…In the case of SWOT, we find that latencies of on the order of days rather than weeks would significantly enhance SWOT's potential to aid early flood warning systems in cities and reservoir operation management at dams (Table ). Specifically, our simulations suggest that the recently proposed ≤2‐day latency (Hossain, Andral, et al, ; Hossain, Srinivasan, et al, ) would allow a SWOT NRT product to be available before at least % and % of SWOT‐observable flow waves reach the next downstream city and dam, respectively. The current SWOT latency requirement of 45 days has virtually no practical use for real‐time applications (Table ), although we emphasize that this high latency does not reduce the expected scientific value of SWOT data a posteriori.…”

“…These applications include flood risk mitigation, early flood warning systems, reservoir operations management, optimization of fishing activity, and riverine navigation. An outcome of the discussions was that participants generally preferred a latency period of two days or less (Hossain, Andral, et al, ; Hossain, Srinivasan, et al, ). However, this timespan was based on end user perception and conjecture rather than a scientific analysis of the rates of the global surface water dynamics that SWOT will observe.…”

Reimagining the Surface Water and Ocean Topography Mission as the “Landsat” of Surface Water [Perspective]

“…These EAs have been building technical literacy on the SWOT mission, learning SWOT's data structure, and exploring how exactly SWOT data can add value or solve a previously unsolved societal challenge. Finally, these EAs are also preparing to lay the software and hardware infrastructure necessary for ingesting anticipated SWOT data in their operations or decision-making environment [10], [11], [14]- [17]. The societal challenges addressed by the EAs cover such diverse topics as flood and reservoir management, fisheries and marine science, transboundary water resources, statewide water supply, and marine navigation.…”

The Early Adopter Program for the Surface Water Ocean Topography Satellite Mission: Lessons Learned in Building User Engagement during the Prelaunch Era

“…The goal of this EAP is to accelerate the use of SWOT products after launch of the satellite by providing specific support to EAs who commit to engage in prelaunch research that would enable integration of SWOT data in their real-world applications. This research would provide a fundamental understanding of how SWOT data products may be scaled and integrated into their organizations' policy, business, and management activities to improve decision-making efforts (Hossain et al 2017).…”