SWORD Explorer - SWOT River Database
Interactive web explorer for the SWOT River Database (SWORD), the global river network of ~248,000 reaches and 11M nodes underpinning SWOT satellite river discharge products. Built from GRWL, MERIT-Hydro and GROD; downloadable as NetCDF, GeoPackage and Shapefile.
swordexplorer.com
At a glance
- Region
- Global
- Coverage
- Global
- Access
- Free
- Category
- Academic
- Last updated
- 2025
What's inside
- river network
- river reaches
- discharge geometry
- SWOT
What you can do with it
Typical work that data of this type supports.
- 01
Design flows
Estimate 1-in-50 and 1-in-100 year floods for bridges, culverts and spillways.
Because it has: discharge geometry
- 02
Low flows
Set environmental flows and check what is left in the river in a dry year.
- 03
Coverage gaps
Find who lacks safe water or sanitation.
Because it has: river network
Where AI adds value
Ideas for machine learning and AI agents built on this kind of data.
- 01
Flow forecasting
Train LSTM-style models on past records to forecast river levels and flow days ahead.
- 02
Ungauged basins
Combine with catchment data to estimate flow where there is no gauge.
- 03
Failure prediction
Predict pipe bursts and plant failures before they happen.
Related water data
- Hydrocron API - SWOT River & Lake Time Series (PO.DAAC)Global | Free
- PO.DAAC Cookbook - SWOT Hydrology Data AccessGlobal | Free
- SWORD - SWOT River DatabaseGlobal | Free
- SWORD: SWOT River/Lake Database (UNC)Global | Free
- Theia / Data Terra Catalogue - Hydroweb Operational Altimetry River & Lake Water LevelGlobal | Free
- Theia Catalogue - SWOT Level-2 HR Raster 250m CollectionGlobal | Free
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