Description: This project provides a range of surface water products related to lakes, reservoirs, and wetlands in a near real time framework. It also offers a longer-term set of observations via integration of historical data sets. Products include water level, water extent, hypsometry and bathymetry, and water storage. A range of new status indicators will also be output to highlight current normal or anomalous conditions. Products are used by various PI and collaborative stakeholders to assess global water storage for agriculture in terms of irrigation potential, for consideration of fish catch potential, and for highlighting food/water/energy deficits that could potentially influence regional stability.
End users: USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE/ERDC), National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA), Dept. of Defense Intelligence Information System (DoDIIS), and several wetland researchers and agencies including members of Wetlands International and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
Data sources, models, technology: The project uses a variety of multi-platform satellite data sets including radar altimeters (the NASA/CNES TOPEX/Jason series and the ESA/ISRO/CNES SARAL and Sentinel-3 series), and multi-spectral imagers (MODIS 250m), and Digital Elevation Models such as SRTM and Tandem-X. Future instruments will also integrate data from the Sentinel-3B, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich (launch 2020), and SWOT (launch 2021) missions.