Paper Info
Title
Accuracy of Copernicus Altimeter Water Level Data in Italian Rivers Accounting for Narrow River Sections
Abstract
Information about water level is essential for hydrological monitoring and flood/drought risk assessment. In a large part of Italian river network, in situ instruments for measuring water level are rare or lacking. Here we consider the satellite measurements of water level retrieved by Copernicus altimetric missions (Sentinel 3A, Sentinel 3B, Jason 2/3), and compare these with in situ data, from 19 gauging stations in Italy with a river section in the range of [50, 555] m. The results highlight the potentiality of altimetric satellite measurements for water level retrieval in a case study of Italian rivers. By comparing synchronous satellite and in situ water level difference (i.e., difference between two successive measurements in time of satellite data compared to the difference of two successive measurements in time of in situ data), we found a median value of Pearson correlation of 0.79 and 0.37 m of RMSE. Then, from water level differences, we extracted the satellite water level values with two different procedures: (1) assuming as the initial water level of the satellite measurements the first joint measurement (satellite-in situ data) and (2) calibrating the initial water level, minimizing the mean absolute error metric. The results show the feasibility of using satellite data for water level retrieval in an operative and automatic perspective.
Year
DOI
Venue
2021
10.3390/rs13214456
REMOTE SENSING
Keywords
DocType
Volume
water level, Copernicus, altimeter, comparison, in situ data, accuracy
Journal
13
Issue
Citations 
PageRank 
21
0
0.34
References 
Authors
0
5
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Cristina Deidda100.34
Carlo De Michele211.06
Ali Nadir Arslan300.34
Silvano Pecora400.34
Nicolas Taburet500.34