Imaging · collection · 2025
SWOT Level 2 Water Mask Pixel Cloud Data Product, Version D
Listed in NASA Earthdata CMR and NASA Data Portal — shown once because both records carry DOI 10.5067/swot-pixc-d
The 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.
Description
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).
Read the rest (2 more)
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.
Links
Get the data
- Resource opendap.earthdata.nasa.gov ↗
This dataset can be accessed with the Open-source Project for a Network Data Access Protocol (OPeNDAP) API framework. This service enables variable and dimensional subsetting. The URL redirects to a p
metadata API · download · from NASA CMR, data nasa gov
- SWOT Mission Page at PO.DAAC podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/swot ↗
documentation · download · from NASA CMR, data nasa gov
- SWOT Mission Page at AVISO aviso.altimetry.fr/en/missions/current-missions/swot.html ↗
documentation · download · from NASA CMR, data nasa gov
- Data Use and Citation Guidelines podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/CitingPODAAC ↗
documentation · download · from NASA CMR, data nasa gov
- SWOT User Handbook archive.podaac.earthdata.nasa.gov/podaac-ops-cumulus-docs/web-misc/swot_mission_docs/D-109532_SW… ↗
documentation · download · from NASA CMR, data nasa gov
- Product Description Document (PDD) archive.podaac.earthdata.nasa.gov/podaac-ops-cumulus-docs/web-misc/swot_mission_docs/pdd/D-56411… ↗
documentation · download · from NASA CMR, data nasa gov
- Release Note archive.podaac.earthdata.nasa.gov/podaac-ops-cumulus-docs/web-misc/swot_mission_docs/SWOT_Versio… ↗
documentation · download · from NASA CMR, data nasa gov
- Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (ATBD) archive.podaac.earthdata.nasa.gov/podaac-ops-cumulus-docs/web-misc/swot_mission_docs/atbd/D-1055… ↗
documentation · download · from NASA CMR, data nasa gov
- SWOT Mission Page swot.jpl.nasa.gov ↗
documentation · download · project · from NASA CMR, data nasa gov
- SWOT Mission Page at NASA nasa.gov/swot ↗
documentation · download · from NASA CMR, data nasa gov
- SWOT Mission Page at JPL jpl.nasa.gov/missions/surface-water-and-ocean-topography-swot ↗
documentation · download · from NASA CMR, data nasa gov
- JPEG podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/Podaac/thumbnails/SWOT_L2_HR_PIXC_D.jpg ↗
download · preview image · from data nasa gov, NASA CMR
- HTTPS endpoint for data browse and download cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov/virtual-directory/collections/C3233944986-POCLOUD ↗
download · from NASA CMR
- search.earthdata.nasa.gov /search/granules?p=C3233944986-POCLOUD ↗
Browse granule search results in Earthdata Search
download · from NASA CMR
- github.com /podaac/data-subscriber ↗
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 lin
download · from NASA CMR
- Original Metadata cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov/search/concepts/C3233944986-POCLOUD.iso19115 ↗
download · from data nasa gov
Where it is published
- NASA Data Portal dataset page data.nasa.gov/dataset/swot-level-2-water-mask-pixel-cloud-data-product-versi… ↗
landing page · from data nasa gov
- DOI doi.org/10.5067/swot-pixc-d ↗
DOI / persistent id · from NASA CMR
Catalogue records · 3
- CKAN API data.nasa.gov/api/3/action/package_show?id=81377533-ddce-478c-a02a-51fa1881e… ↗
metadata API · from data nasa gov
- CMR UMM-JSON cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov/search/concepts/C3233944986-POCLOUD.umm_json ↗
metadata API · from NASA CMR
- CMR record cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov/search/concepts/C3233944986-POCLOUD.html ↗
catalogue entry · from NASA CMR
Topics
- Stated by source
- AMR · Doppler Orbitography and Radiopositioning Integrated by Satellite · Global Positioning System Payload · Jason-class Altimeter · Ka-band Radar Interferometer · Lakes/Reservoirs · Laser Retroreflector Array · Rivers/Streams · Surface Water Ocean Topography · Surface Water Processes Measurements
- From keywords
- Astronomy & Astrophysics · Earth & Environmental Science · Ocean & Atmospheric Science · Physics
- Inferred from text
- Atmospheric sciences 70%
Provenance · 2 source records, 25 field assertions
| Source | Key | Last seen | Raw |
|---|---|---|---|
| NASA Earthdata CMR | C3233944986-POCLOUD | 7 d ago | JSON v1 |
| NASA Data Portal | 81377533-ddce-478c-a02a-51fa1881e3ef | 5 d ago | JSON v1 |
| Field | Assertion | Extractor | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| access_level | source · NASA CMR | connector:nasa_cmr@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[field].anzsrc:group:3701 | enrichment · NASA CMR | taxonomy-embedding@1.0.0 | title+keywords+description (70%) |
| concepts[field].local:field:astronomy | mapping · data nasa gov | connector:data_nasa_gov@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[field].local:field:earth-environmental | mapping · data nasa gov | connector:data_nasa_gov@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[field].local:field:ocean-atmospheric | mapping · data nasa gov | connector:data_nasa_gov@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[field].local:field:physics | mapping · data nasa gov | connector:data_nasa_gov@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[instrument].gcmd_instrument:amr | source · NASA CMR | connector:nasa_cmr@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[instrument].gcmd_instrument:doris | source · NASA CMR | connector:nasa_cmr@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[instrument].gcmd_instrument:gpsp | source · NASA CMR | connector:nasa_cmr@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[instrument].gcmd_instrument:jason-class-altimeter | source · NASA CMR | connector:nasa_cmr@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[instrument].gcmd_instrument:karin | source · NASA CMR | connector:nasa_cmr@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[instrument].gcmd_instrument:lra | source · NASA CMR | connector:nasa_cmr@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[measured_variable].gcmd:earth-science/terrestrial-hydrosphere/surface-water/surface-water-features/lakes-reservoirs | source · NASA CMR | connector:nasa_cmr@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[measured_variable].gcmd:earth-science/terrestrial-hydrosphere/surface-water/surface-water-features/rivers-streams | source · NASA CMR | connector:nasa_cmr@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[measured_variable].gcmd:earth-science/terrestrial-hydrosphere/surface-water/surface-water-processes-measurements | source · NASA CMR | connector:nasa_cmr@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[platform].gcmd_platform:swot | source · NASA CMR | connector:nasa_cmr@1.0.0 | |
| created_date | source · NASA CMR | connector:nasa_cmr@1.0.0 | |
| description | source · NASA CMR | connector:nasa_cmr@1.0.0 | /umm/Abstract |
| license_text | source · data nasa gov | connector:data_nasa_gov@1.0.0 | |
| publication_date | source · NASA CMR | connector:nasa_cmr@1.0.0 | |
| spatial | source · NASA CMR | connector:nasa_cmr@1.0.0 | /umm/SpatialExtent |
| temporal | source · NASA CMR | connector:nasa_cmr@1.0.0 | /umm/TemporalExtents |
| title | source · NASA CMR | connector:nasa_cmr@1.0.0 | /umm/EntryTitle |
| updated_date | source · NASA CMR | connector:nasa_cmr@1.0.0 | |
| version_label | source · NASA CMR | connector:nasa_cmr@1.0.0 |