After 3 monts of engineering test, the first images have surprise the entire SWOT Science Team, showing a signal-to-noise ratio way higher than expected, and a capacity of observing sea surface height variations at the resolution of few km. Operational products will be available from September 2023. At a resolution about ten times higher than conventional altimetry and unhindered by clouds or coastal topography, SWOT sea surface height maps will be a powerful tool for improving and revisiting most of our knowledge on the ocean fine-scale, on issues including energy cascade, eddy-wave interactions, horizontal and vertical transport,
biogeochemical cycles, ecosystem structuring, behavior of marine megafauna, coastal dynamics, and even sea ice thickness. This seminar will be divided in two parts. In the first 20 minutes I will present some of the first examples of SWOT observations, related in particular to the recent SWOT-AdAC cruises (https://www.swot-adac.org/). I will then propose to discuss together on how to respond to the incoming CNES call for SWOT-related projects.

Le séminaire se tiendra le 12 septembre 2023, dans la salle du LOCEAN.