Satellite radar altimetry for inland hydrologic studies

Satellite radar altimetry, which is originally designed to measure global ocean surface height, has been applied to inland surface water hydrologic studies. We have developed a water-detection algorithm based on statistical analysis of decadal TOPEX/POSEIDON height measurement time series, used the backscatter coefficient to classify the inland surface properties, and the 10-Hz (corresponding to an along track spatial resolution of 700m) radar waveform-retracked TOPEX data, to be able to observe small (<300Km 2) inland bodies of water for hydrologic studies. We applied the algorithm to the selected study regions in Manitoba and northwestern (SW) Ontario, Canada, Amazon River Basin, and southwestern Taiwan. Finally we studied the application of TOPEX altimetry to the 1997 Red River flood monitoring. For the study regions in western Manitoba, the correlation coefficient between stage and TOPEX altimetry data in the large Lakes reaches 0.98 using the 10-Hz retracked data, thus verifying the validity and accuracy of the satellite measurement. The importance of the waveform retracking for the inland water applications is validated by the improvement of the correlation coefficients from 0.34 to 0.87 before and after retracking. We detected the bodies of water, which are otherwise missed by using the original 1-Hz data from the Geophysical Data Records, and illustrated that a higher spatial resolution could be achieved using the individual 10-Hz retracked data. In the Amazon River Basin, the capability of the water-detection algorithm is compared with the use of a high water level mask generated by SAR and other data with a spatial resolution of 100m. It is shown that the algorithm could detect the bodies of water, which are missed by the mask primarily because that the frequency of water fluctuation is more than twice a year at some locations. The bodies of water detected only by the algorithm are confirmed using the detailed local hydrological maps in 3 tested regions. The retrieved water height over the small (<300Km 2) body of water was compared with the nearby stage measurement and showed good seasonal agreement. In the southwest Taiwan, the monthly variation of 10-Hz AGC from 1992 to 2002 were examined, it is found that the high AGC values could be used to indicate inundated area. We detected the annual and semi-annual variations from the 10-Hz AGC and 10-Hz retracked water height time series, which are attributable to two rainy seasons per year in the study region. For the study of the 1997 Red River flood, we compared the geographic distribution of sigma0 before, during and after the 1997 flood and found the high sigma0 values (>35dB) indicate the inundated regions. In addition, the comparison of the geographically distributed sigma 0 during Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn of 1997 showed that the low sigma 0 values (<10dB) indicate snow coverage. The retrieved water height measurements in the flooded regions are compared with the nearby USGS stage measurements and showed good agreements. The comparison of 10-Hz individual retracked measurements with the 1-Hz non-retracked height measurements confirmed the importance of the retracked data (with higher spatial variations) in the flood monitoring. Using sigma0 and the retrieved water height measurements, we detected the 1997 flooded regions include the Red River Basin of the North in North Dakota and in western Minnesota, the upper Mississippi River Basin in Minnesota, the Missouri River Basin in southern North Dakota and in South Dakota. The observed flood extents from TOPEX agree well with and complement the USGS stage gauge records.