SWOT Satellite Captures Tsunami Wave After Kamchatka Quake

The U.S.-French SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography) satellite tv for pc captured the vanguard of a tsunami wave that rolled in the course of the Pacific Ocean on July 30, 2025 (11:25 a.m. native time), within the wake of a magnitude 8.8 earthquake that struck Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. The satellite tv for pc captured the information about 70 mins after the earthquake struck. SWOT is a designed to map oceans and freshwater on Earth. The satellite tv for pc recorded knowledge from the tsunami because it handed in the course of the deep ocean.

About SWOT

According to NASA, The SWOT satellite tv for pc used to be collectively evolved via NASA and the French area company CNES (Centre National d’Études Spatiales). NASA supplied the Ka-band radar interferometer (KaRIn) tool, a GPS science receiver, a laser retroreflector, a two-beam microwave radiometer, and NASA tool operations. The Doppler Orbitography and Radioposition Integrated via Satellite machine, the twin frequency Poseidon altimeter, the KaRIn radio-frequency subsystem, the satellite tv for pc platform, and floor operations have been supplied via CNES.

These complicated era and specialised radar is helping SWOT to map the peak of the sea floor. In this example, SWOT’s size of the tsunami wave’s top and form in open water confirmed that the vanguard of the wave used to be about 1.5 toes (45 centimeters) top. It additionally captured the wave’s profile and path because it traveled towards coastal spaces. Such detailed measurements of a tsunami at sea are extraordinary.

Better crisis forecast

The NOAA Center for Tsunami Research examined its forecast fashions the usage of the brand new satellite tv for pc knowledge and located that together with SWOT’s measurements may considerably strengthen forecast accuracy. NASA oceanographer Ben Hamlington famous that even a 1.5-foot tsunami within the deep ocean can magnify right into a 30-foot wave on the shore and it is very important locate it early. Vasily Titov, leader scientist at NOAA’s Center for Tsunami Research, added that those observations recommend SWOT may considerably fortify operational tsunami forecasting – an ability lengthy sought for the reason that 2004 Sumatra crisis.