The von Kármán Lecture Series: Seeing Earth’s Coastlines

NASA has monitored Earth’s water from space for decades, but there’s always been one stubborn observational gap: coastal sea level. This data, while critical to coastal communities as they plan for the potentially devastating effects of rising seas, has been difficult to measure because of its variability – but the Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission, also known as SWOT, is giving scientists higher-resolution data than ever before. SWOT measures the height of nearly all water on Earth’s surface from space and provides one of the most detailed, comprehensive views of our planet’s oceans and freshwater lakes and rivers. After more than a year in Earth orbit, the mission has provided detailed information about coastal flooding, our warming oceans, and global sea level rise. Watch the latest edition of the von Kármán Lectures in our NASA Live room for a live discussion of our coastline water levels.