Title
Estimating River Depth From Remote Sensing Swath Interferometry Measurements of River Height, Slope, and Width
Abstract
The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission is a swath mapping radar interferometer that would provide new measurements of inland water surface elevation (WSE) for rivers, lakes, wetlands, and reservoirs. SWOT WSE estimates would provide a source of information for characterizing streamflow globally and would complement existing in situ gage networks. In this paper, we evaluate the accuracy of river discharge estimates that would be obtained from SWOT measurements over the Ohio river and eleven of its major tributaries within the context of a virtual mission (VM). SWOT VM measurements are obtained by using an instrument measurement model coupled to simulated WSE from the hydrodynamic model LISFLOOD-FP, using USGS streamflow gages as boundary conditions and validation data. Most model pixels were estimated two or three times per 22-day orbit period. These measurements are then input into an algorithm to obtain estimates of river depth and discharge. The algorithm is based on Manning's equation, in which river width and slope are obtained from SWOT, and roughness is estimated a priori. SWOT discharge estimates are compared to the discharge simulated by LISFLOOD-FP. Instantaneous discharge estimates over the one-year evaluation period had median normalized root mean square error of 10.9%, and 86% of all instantaneous errors are less than 25%.
Year
DOI
Venue
2010
10.1109/JSTARS.2009.2033453
Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, IEEE Journal of
Keywords
Field
DocType
hydrological techniques,hydrology,radar interferometry,remote sensing by radar,rivers,LISFLOOD-FP hydrodynamic model,Manning equation,Ohio river,SWOT mission,Surface Water and Ocean Topography,USGS streamflow gages,inland water surface elevation,remote sensing swath interferometry measurements,river depth,river discharge,river height,swath mapping radar interferometer,Hydrology,interferometry,radar,remote sensing
Radar,Streamflow,Discharge,SWOT analysis,Surface water,Remote sensing,Ocean surface topography,Elevation,Tributary,Mathematics
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
3
1
1939-1404
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
7
1.40
2
Authors
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Michael Durand1293.25
Ernesto Rodriguez271.40
Douglas E. Alsdorf371.40
Mark Trigg471.40