Analyzing the Accuracy of SWOT's Data at Mono Lake (2024)

Undergraduates: Hope Martin, Nina Levret de Melo, Juliana Lewis, Sarah VanHorn

Faculty Advisor: Drew Coleman
Department: Geology

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Water in our world is a vital resource that has not been measured adequately. The SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography) mission launched by NASA has been in orbit since December of 2022 to map the world’s water inventory via data on water elevation and area. In this presentation we report on the accuracy of SWOT’s measurements by including manually-collected data from Mono Lake in California. We tracked our steps directly on the perimeter of Mono Lake in multiple areas using the Strava App and compared this data to that which was collected by SWOT. We found that the SWOT data aligned with our ground data the majority of the time, although in this presentation we also indicate reasons why this alignment may not be entirely accurate. This research provides new insights into both the accuracy of SWOT and the supply of the earth’s water.