SWOT Level 2 Water Mask Pixel Cloud Data Product, Version D

(SWOT_L2_HR_PIXC_D)
VersionD
Processing Level2
Start/Stop Date2022-Dec-16 to Present
Short NameSWOT_L2_HR_PIXC_D
DescriptionThe SWOT Level 2 Water Mask Pixel Cloud Product (SWOT_L2_HR_PIXC_D) provides high-resolution, geolocated observations of terrestrial surface water pixels detected by the Ka-band Radar Interferometer (KaRIn) onboard the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite. This product contains the foundational “pixel cloud” data from which hydrologic features such as rivers, lakes, floodplains, and wetlands are later identified and analyzed in higher-level products. The PIXC product provides the unstructured point cloud of water detections at full instrument resolution (~15–25 m cross-track, ~5–10 m along-track), supporting fine-scale hydrologic analyses and applications such as water body delineation, flood mapping, and change detection. Each granule represents one KaRIn high-rate tile (~64 × 64 km²), corresponding to either the left or right half of the instrument swath. It includes individual water pixel detections with associated geodetic coordinates, ellipsoidal heights, normalized radar backscatter, and classification flags indicating surface type (e.g., land, water, ice, or layover). Pixel heights are referenced to the WGS84 ellipsoid and are not corrected for solid Earth tides, ocean tides, or pole tides like KaRIn low-rate oceanography products. Users may apply additional processing or corrections depending on the intended scientific use. Data are distributed in NetCDF-4 format and follow Climate and Forecast (CF) metadata conventions. The PIXC product is complemented by an auxiliary pixel cloud product (PIXCVec) that provides a less noisy, height-constrained geolocation of the observed water pixels and identifies associated river and lake features in the SWOT Prior River & Lake Databases (PRD & PLD). Together they support the derivation of higher-level, featured based River and Lake hydrology products from SWOT.
DOI10.5067/SWOT-PIXC-D
MeasurementTERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE > SURFACE WATER > SURFACE WATER FEATURES
TERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE > SURFACE WATER > SURFACE WATER PROCESSES/MEASUREMENTS
TERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE > SURFACE WATER > SURFACE WATER FEATURES
Swath Width120 km
Platform/Sensor
SWOT
Platform
Name: Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT)
/
KaRIn
SENSOR
Name: Ka-band Radar Interferometer (KaRIn)

SWOT
Platform
Name: Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT)
/
Jason-class Altimeter
SENSOR
Name: Jason-class Altimeter (Jason-class Altimeter)

SWOT
Platform
Name: Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT)
/
AMR
SENSOR
Name: Advanced Microwave Radiometer (AMR)
Swath Width: 18.7 ghz
Description: The operating frequency which is aimed towards recovery of atmospheric attenuation due to sigma0
Swath Width: 23.8 ghz
Description: The operating frequency which is aimed towards recovery of atmospheric attenuation due to water vapor
Swath Width: 34.0 ghz
Description: The operating frequency which is aimed towards recovery of atmospheric attenuation due to cloud liquid water.

SWOT
Platform
Name: Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT)
/
DORIS
SENSOR
Name: Doppler Orbitography and Radiopositioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS)

SWOT
Platform
Name: Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT)
/
GPSP
SENSOR
Name: Global Positioning System Payload (GPSP)

SWOT
Platform
Name: Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT)
/
LRA
SENSOR
Name: Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA)

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ProjectSurface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT)
Data ProviderPublisher: JPL NASA
Creator: Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT)
Release Place: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Release Date: 2025-May-13
Resource: https://swot.jpl.nasa.gov/

FormatnetCDF-4
Questions related to this dataset? Contact podaac@podaac.jpl.nasa.gov
Coverage
Region: GLOBAL
North Bounding Coordinate: 90 degrees
South Bounding Coordinate: -90 degrees
West Bounding Coordinate: -180 degrees
East Bounding Coordinate: 180 degrees
Time Span: 2022-Dec-16 to Present
Swath Width: 120 km
 
Capabilities
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OPENDAP DATA
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This dataset can be downloaded using the podaac-data-subscriber (the recommended tool for bulk downloading PO.DAAC data). It is a Python package for downloading one or many files using the command line interface. The URL redirects to the data-subscriber home page with instructions for utilizing the tool
DIRECT S3-ACCESS
Available for access in-region with AWS Cloud
Region
us-west-2
Bucket/Object Prefix: Protected buckets contain the data files for a given collection. Protected simply means users must log in to Earthdata Login before gaining access to contents within that S3 Bucket. Please use the S3Credential endpoint to gain an Earthdata login token for use in S3 Access.

Public buckets, in contrast, house metadata such as checksums, imagery, and metadata files and the like. A user can access public buckets and these types of files without logging in to Earthdata Login.

Most of the time, you'll want to access the protected bucket Information
podaac-swot-ops-cumulus-protected/SWOT_L2_HR_PIXC_D/
podaac-swot-ops-cumulus-public/SWOT_L2_HR_PIXC_D/
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Citation is critically important for dataset documentation and discovery. Please cite the data as follows, and cite the reference papers when it is appropriate.
Citation Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT). 2025. SWOT Level 2 Water Mask Pixel Cloud Data Product, Version D. Ver. D. PO.DAAC, CA, USA. Dataset accessed [YYYY-MM-DD] at https://doi.org/10.5067/SWOT-PIXC-D

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For more information see Data Citations and Acknowledgments.
Journal Reference JPL Internal Document. 2018. Surface Water and Ocean Topography Mission (SWOT) Project: Science Requirements Document, JPL D-61923, Rev. B, Jet Propulsion Laboratory.