SWOT Precise Orbit Ephemeris: Satellite Position and Velocity

NASA's SWOT Precise Orbit Ephemeris (POE) dataset provides daily position and velocity vectors for the satellite's center of mass, used in the first SWOT mission reprocessing. Each file spans 26 hours of data centered at 12:00:00 TAI and is delivered in netCDF-4 format with a latency of less than 35 days. The data supports high-precision orbit determination and geophysical analysis.

Use Cases

• Calibrating and validating SWOT altimetry data based on precise satellite trajectory information.
• Modeling Earth's gravitational field and solid Earth tides using precise orbital position and velocity vectors.
• Analyzing orbital characteristics and satellite platform behavior over time-series data spanning 26-hour windows.
• Reprocessing SWOT mission science data products by providing a foundational precise orbit solution.

Strengths

• Data is produced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a highly authoritative source.
• Files have a defined latency of less than 35 days, indicating a regular production schedule.
• Dataset is available on multiple government data platforms (Data.gov, NASA Earthdata), signaling its importance and reliability.

Limitations

• Column names and specific data schema are not provided in any source description, complicating direct usage.
• File size and row counts are uniformly listed as 'None' or 'unknown', preventing an assessment of data volume.
• License is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without explicit terms.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Satellite telemetry and precise orbit determination processing, likely from the SWOT mission.

Time Range

Temporal coverage is implied by daily files but no specific start or end date is provided.

Freshness

2026-04-09 21:50:50.167196

Geography

Global, based on satellite orbit.