The map shows the distribution of Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) Early Adopter stakeholders around the world, including the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center in the Lower Mekong Region of Vietnam, the Center for Water Resources Development and Management in Kerala, India, and the Texas Water Development Board, in Austin, Texas, USA, to name a few. Credit: Hossain et al. 2022, Figure 2
Source: AGU Advances
Editors’ Highlights are summaries of recent papers by AGU’s journal editors.

Early Adopters are groups and individuals who start developing targeted applications for the remote-sensing data even before the satellite mission launch. Post-launch, these stakeholders are ready to use the data as soon as it is available, and thus can demonstrate the value and utility of the data early in mission life. It is the first time that changes in global freshwater water levels can be tracked in regions where ground-based direct measurements are not available. In the US alone, there are more than 160,000 ungauged watersheds. The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) Early Adopter program, described by Hossain et al. [2022] was developed to support stakeholders developing the data processing infrastructure to enable the realization of SWOT’s data potential and societal impact. SWOT launched on December 15, 2022. Early Adopters are ready to meet the challenge.

Citation: Hossain, F., Das, P., Srinivasan, M., Tsontos, V., Oaida, C. M., Nickles, C., et al. [2022]. Building user-readiness for satellite Earth observing missions: The case of the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission. AGU Advances, 3, e2022AV000680. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022AV000680

—Ana Barros, Editor, AGU Advances 

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