SWORD: the SWOT River Database, Version 15

SWORD was developed by the SWOT Science Team to serve as the foundation for SWOT river data products. It is based on a variety of datasets, including the Global River Widths from Landsat (GRWL) database, MERIT-Hydro, and the Global River Obstruction Database (GROD). It consists of a series of river nodes (~200 m spacing) and reaches (~10 km long) for which SWOT data will be provided. If you would like more information about SWORD, please see the paper published in Water Resources Research in 2021, led by Elizabeth Altenau. You can access it here.

Before using SWORD, please first read through the SWORD Product Description Document. If you have additional questions, please reach out to Tamlin Pavelsky at pavelsky@unc.edu.

SWORD is available in three formats: NetCDF, Geopackage, and Shapefile. Please choose which one you would like to download:
SWORD in NetCDF format (compressed file size: 1.6 GB)
SWORD in Geopackage format (compressed file size: 1.88 GB)
SWORD in Shapefile format (compressed file size: 2.02 GB)