SWOT Level 2 Water Mask Raster Image Data Product, Version D

(SWOT_L2_HR_Raster_D)
VersionD
Processing Level2
Start/Stop Date2022-Dec-16 to Present
Short NameSWOT_L2_HR_Raster_D
DescriptionThe SWOT Level 2 KaRIn High Rate Raster Product (SWOT_L2_HR_Raster_D) provides rasterized estimates of water surface elevation, inundation extent, and radar backscatter derived from high-resolution radar observations by the Ka-band Radar Interferometer (KaRIn) on the SWOT satellite. This product aggregates the irregularly spaced pixel cloud data from the PIXC and PIXCVec products onto a uniform geographic grid to facilitate spatial analysis of water surface features across inland, estuarine, and coastal domains.

Standard granules cover non-overlapping 128 × 128 km² scenes in the UTM projection at 100 m and 250 m resolution, stored in NetCDF-4 format. Each file contains 2D image layers representing water surface elevation (corrected for geoid, solid Earth, load, and pole tides, as well as atmospheric and ionospheric path delays), surface area, water fraction, and sigma0, along with quality flags and uncertainty estimates. On-demand versions are available at user-specified resolutions and projections, with optional overlapping granules and GeoTIFF output via SWODLR: https://swodlr.podaac.earthdatacloud.nasa.gov/

The raster product offers a gridded alternative to the unstructured pixel cloud, supporting hydrologic and geomorphic analyses in complex flow environments such as braided rivers, floodplains, wetlands, and coastal zones. It enables consistent spatiotemporal sampling while reducing noise through spatial aggregation, making it especially suitable for applications that require map-like continuity or integration with geospatial models.
This dataset is the parent collection to the following sub-collections:
https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/dataset/SWOT_L2_HR_Raster_100m_D
https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/dataset/SWOT_L2_HR_Raster_250m_D
DOI10.5067/SWOT-RASTER-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
Resolution
Spatial Resolution: 100 Meters x 100 Meters
 
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
 
Projection
Ellipsoid: WGS 84
 
Capabilities
Download Subset
DIRECT ACCESS
Browse Granule Listing
OPENDAP DATA
Search Granules
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_Raster_D/
podaac-swot-ops-cumulus-public/SWOT_L2_HR_Raster_D/
AWS S3 Credentials
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TOOLS AND SERVICES
Data Subscriber
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 Raster Image Data Product, Version D. Ver. D. PO.DAAC, CA, USA. Dataset accessed [YYYY-MM-DD] at https://doi.org/10.5067/SWOT-RASTER-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.