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nasa t1_ivku3ty wrote

Reply to comment by MANJAKANIazure in AskScience AMA Series: We're NASA experts working on SWOT - an upcoming mission that will observe nearly all water on Earth's surface. Ask us anything! by AskScienceModerator

Great question!

SWOT will not be able to ‘scan’ the seabed, per se. SWOT will only measure the surface height of the ocean.

However, the surface height is not independent of the shape of the sea bed (or, the “bathymetry” of the ocean). Some geophysicists who study ocean bathymetry can use SWOT and other satellites that view what we call the surface topography of the ocean to infer the shape of the sea bed. (MS)

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