THE CURRENT STATE OF IN-SITU RESERVOIR DATA COLLECTION IS INSUFFICIENT TO COMPREHENSIVELY STUDY RESERVOIRS ON A GLOBAL SCALE. THIS PROPOSED RESEARCH AIMS TO USE SATELLITE BASED HYDROLOGIC OBSERVATIONS TO ADDRESS A KEY QUESTION: WHAT ARE THE TEMPORAL VARIATIONS OF WATER STORED IN RESERVOIRS? SATELLITE OBSERVATIONS ARE CRITICAL FOR STUDYING RESERVOIRS PARTICULARLY IN REGIONS WHERE IN-SITU DATA IS EITHER NOT COLLECTED OR SHARED. THE METHOD PROPOSED HERE AIMS TO UTILIZE THE CURRENT OFFERINGS OF SATELLITE-BASED OBSERVATIONS TO ULTIMATELY ESTIMATE HOW MUCH RESERVOIRS INCREASE THE RESIDENCE TIME OF SURFACE WATER. THE EXISTING ARRAY OF SATELLITES WILL SOON BE JOINED BY THE SURFACE WATER AND OCEAN TOPOGRAPHY (SWOT) MISSION WHICH WILL PROVIDE AN UNPRECEDENTED LEVEL OF SURFACE WATER OBSERVATIONS. THIS PROPOSAL AIMS TO EVALUATE HOW OBSERVATIONS FROM THE UPCOMING SWOT MISSION CAN BE USED IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE CURRENT SATELLITE OFFERINGS TO FURTHER GLOBAL RESERVOIR STUDIES AND ULTIMATELY ADDRESS A KEY SWOT HYDROLOGIC SCIENCE QUESTION: WHAT ARE THE SPATIALLY DISTRIBUTED IMPACTS OF HUMANS ON SURFACE WATER?