Enhancing the temporal resolution of water levels from altimetry using D-InSAR: A case study of 10 Swedish Lakes

Lakes provide societies and natural ecosystems with valuable services such as freshwater supply and flood control. Water level changes in lakes reflect their natural responses to climatic and anthropogenic stressors; however, their monitoring is costly due to installation and maintenance requirement...

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Main Authors: Saeid Aminjafari, Frédéric Frappart, Fabrice Papa, Ian Brown, Fernando Jaramillo
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2024-12-01
Series:Science of Remote Sensing
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666017224000464
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author Saeid Aminjafari
Frédéric Frappart
Fabrice Papa
Ian Brown
Fernando Jaramillo
author_facet Saeid Aminjafari
Frédéric Frappart
Fabrice Papa
Ian Brown
Fernando Jaramillo
author_sort Saeid Aminjafari
collection DOAJ
description Lakes provide societies and natural ecosystems with valuable services such as freshwater supply and flood control. Water level changes in lakes reflect their natural responses to climatic and anthropogenic stressors; however, their monitoring is costly due to installation and maintenance requirements. With its advanced hardware and computational capabilities, altimetry has become a popular alternative to conventional in-situ gauging, although subject to the temporal availability of altimetric observations. To further improve the temporal resolution of altimetric measurements, we here combine radar altimetry data with Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (D-InSAR), using ten lakes in Sweden as a testing platform. First, we use Sentinel-1A and Sentinel-1B SAR images to generate consecutive six-day baseline interferograms across 2019. Then, we accumulate the phase change of coherent pixels to construct the time series of InSAR-derived water level anomalies. Finally, we retrieve altimetric observations from Sentinel-3, estimate their mean and standard deviation, and apply them to the D-InSAR standardized anomalies. In this way, we build a water-level time series with more temporal observations. In general, we find a strong agreement between water level estimates from the combination of D-InSAR and Satellite Altimetry (DInSAlt) and in-situ observations in eight lakes (Concordance Correlation Coefficient - CCC >0.8) and moderate agreement in two lakes (CCC >0.57). The applicability of DInSAlt is limited to lakes with suitable conditions for double-bounce scattering, such as the presence of trees or marshes. The accuracy of the water level estimates depends on the quality of the altimetry observations and the lake's width. These findings are important considering the recently launched Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite, whose capabilities could expand our methodology's geographical applicability and reduce its reliance on ground measurements.
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spelling doaj-art-7dbb42b640ea47799da21383fd9928092025-08-20T02:50:27ZengElsevierScience of Remote Sensing2666-01722024-12-011010016210.1016/j.srs.2024.100162Enhancing the temporal resolution of water levels from altimetry using D-InSAR: A case study of 10 Swedish LakesSaeid Aminjafari0Frédéric Frappart1Fabrice Papa2Ian Brown3Fernando Jaramillo4Department of Physical Geography and Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Stockholm University, SE–106 91, Stockholm, Sweden; Corresponding author.INRAE, UMR1391 ISPA, 33140, Villenave d'Ornon, FranceLEGOS, Université de Toulouse (CNES/CNRS/IRD/UPS), 14 Avenue Edouard Belin, 31400, Toulouse, France; Universidade de Brasília, Institute of Geosciences, Campus Universitario Darcy Ribeiro, 70910-900, Brasilia, DF, BrazilDepartment of Physical Geography and Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Stockholm University, SE–106 91, Stockholm, SwedenDepartment of Physical Geography and Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Stockholm University, SE–106 91, Stockholm, Sweden; Baltic Sea Centre and Stockholm Resilience Center, Stockholm University, SE-106 91, Stockholm, SwedenLakes provide societies and natural ecosystems with valuable services such as freshwater supply and flood control. Water level changes in lakes reflect their natural responses to climatic and anthropogenic stressors; however, their monitoring is costly due to installation and maintenance requirements. With its advanced hardware and computational capabilities, altimetry has become a popular alternative to conventional in-situ gauging, although subject to the temporal availability of altimetric observations. To further improve the temporal resolution of altimetric measurements, we here combine radar altimetry data with Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (D-InSAR), using ten lakes in Sweden as a testing platform. First, we use Sentinel-1A and Sentinel-1B SAR images to generate consecutive six-day baseline interferograms across 2019. Then, we accumulate the phase change of coherent pixels to construct the time series of InSAR-derived water level anomalies. Finally, we retrieve altimetric observations from Sentinel-3, estimate their mean and standard deviation, and apply them to the D-InSAR standardized anomalies. In this way, we build a water-level time series with more temporal observations. In general, we find a strong agreement between water level estimates from the combination of D-InSAR and Satellite Altimetry (DInSAlt) and in-situ observations in eight lakes (Concordance Correlation Coefficient - CCC >0.8) and moderate agreement in two lakes (CCC >0.57). The applicability of DInSAlt is limited to lakes with suitable conditions for double-bounce scattering, such as the presence of trees or marshes. The accuracy of the water level estimates depends on the quality of the altimetry observations and the lake's width. These findings are important considering the recently launched Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite, whose capabilities could expand our methodology's geographical applicability and reduce its reliance on ground measurements.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666017224000464D-InSARLake water levelsSatellite altimetryDInSAlt
spellingShingle Saeid Aminjafari
Frédéric Frappart
Fabrice Papa
Ian Brown
Fernando Jaramillo
Enhancing the temporal resolution of water levels from altimetry using D-InSAR: A case study of 10 Swedish Lakes
Science of Remote Sensing
D-InSAR
Lake water levels
Satellite altimetry
DInSAlt
title Enhancing the temporal resolution of water levels from altimetry using D-InSAR: A case study of 10 Swedish Lakes
title_full Enhancing the temporal resolution of water levels from altimetry using D-InSAR: A case study of 10 Swedish Lakes
title_fullStr Enhancing the temporal resolution of water levels from altimetry using D-InSAR: A case study of 10 Swedish Lakes
title_full_unstemmed Enhancing the temporal resolution of water levels from altimetry using D-InSAR: A case study of 10 Swedish Lakes
title_short Enhancing the temporal resolution of water levels from altimetry using D-InSAR: A case study of 10 Swedish Lakes
title_sort enhancing the temporal resolution of water levels from altimetry using d insar a case study of 10 swedish lakes
topic D-InSAR
Lake water levels
Satellite altimetry
DInSAlt
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666017224000464
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