On March 9, the international Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite’s main scientific instrument – the Ka-band Radar Interferometer (KaRIn) – returned to regular commissioning activities.
KaRIn was shut off in late January. Since then, the team has worked to analyze the situation and developed a plan to restore operations utilizing a backup KaRIn power unit. The backup unit was chosen to expedite the restoration of operations and to minimize overall risk to the mission.
The mission continues to monitor KaRIn, as well as overall operations, as it progresses with commissioning, calibration, and validation activities to ensure the performance of SWOT’s systems and science instruments in preparation for the planned start of science operations in July 2023.