The Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite mission uses innovative radar interferometry to map water surfaces across a 120 km wide swath around the satellite ground track. Compared to conventional satellite altimeters, SWOT provides significantly improved spatial coverage and resolution. Although the mission's focus is on continental surface waters and the open ice-free ocean, SWOT data also encompasses parts of the ice-covered polar ocean.

Within ESPOLA, wide-swath SWOT observations of the polar seas are analyzed and systematically evaluated in terms of their scientific added value for the investigation of the dynamically changing sea surface conditions in the polar regions.

One core aspect of ESPOLA is the development of methods for processing SWOT observations in the ice-covered ocean to create improved, novel geophysical data sets of sea surface heights, sea ice concentration, and geostrophic currents. By comparison with conventional nadir altimetry, the benefit of radar interferometric observations is quantified in terms of accuracy and resolution. Special attention is paid to the signatures of polar winds in the SWOT observations over water openings in the sea-ice and at the ice edge.