Determining Bathymetry of Shallow and Ephemeral Desert Lakes Using Satellite Imagery and Altimetry

M. Armon; E. Dente; Y. Shmilovitz; A. Mushkin; T. J. Cohen; E. Morin; Y. Enzel

doi:10.1029/2020GL087367

Determining Bathymetry of Shallow and Ephemeral Desert Lakes Using Satellite Imagery and Altimetry

M. Armon, E. Dente, Y. Shmilovitz, A. Mushkin, T. J. Cohen, E. Morin, Y. Enzel

Department of Marine Geosciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Water volume estimates of shallow desert lakes are the basis for water balance calculations, important both for water resource management and paleohydrology/climatology. Water volumes are typically inferred from bathymetry mapping; however, being shallow, ephemeral, and remote, bathymetric surveys are scarce in such lakes. We propose a new, remote-sensing-based, method to derive the bathymetry of such lakes using the relation between water occurrence, during >30 year of optical satellite data, and accurate elevation measurements from the new Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2). We demonstrate our method at three locations where we map bathymetries with ~0.3 m error. This method complements other remotely sensed, bathymetry-mapping methods as it can be applied to: (a) complex lake systems with subbasins, (b) remote lakes with no in-situ records, and (c) flooded lakes. The proposed method can be easily implemented in other shallow lakes as it builds on publically accessible global data sets.

Original language	English
Article number	e2020GL087367
Journal	Geophysical Research Letters
Volume	47
Issue number	7
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL087367
State	Published - 16 Apr 2020

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research was supported by ISF grant 946/18 and NSFC‐ISF grant 2487/17 to YE. Water occurrence data (Pekel et al., 2016 ) were obtained from https://global‐surface‐water.appspot.com , using Google Earth Engine ( https://earthengine.google.com/ ). ICESat‐2 ATL03 data were obtained from https://openaltimetry.org/data/icesat2/ : Neumann, T. A., A. Brenner, D. Hancock, J. Robbins, J. Saba, K. Harbeck, and A. Gibbons. 2019. ATLAS/ICESat‐2 L2A Global Geolocated Photon Data, V1. [ATL03]. Boulder, Colorado USA. NSIDC: National Snow and Ice Data Center. doi: https://doi.org/10.5067/ATLAS/ATL03.001 . [Dec 2019]. The authors declare no conflict of interests.

Funding Information:
This research was supported by ISF grant 946/18 and NSFC-ISF grant 2487/17 to YE. Water occurrence data (Pekel et al.,?2016) were obtained from https://global-surface-water.appspot.com, using Google Earth Engine (https://earthengine.google.com/). ICESat-2 ATL03 data were obtained from https://openaltimetry.org/data/icesat2/: Neumann, T. A., A. Brenner, D. Hancock, J. Robbins, J. Saba, K. Harbeck, and A. Gibbons. 2019. ATLAS/ICESat-2 L2A Global Geolocated Photon Data, V1. [ATL03]. Boulder, Colorado USA. NSIDC: National Snow and Ice Data Center. doi: https://doi.org/10.5067/ATLAS/ATL03.001. [Dec 2019]. The authors declare no conflict of interests.

Publisher Copyright:
©2020. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.

Keywords

Desert hydrology
Ephemeral desert lakes
ICESat-2 altimetry
Lake Eyre
Lake bathymetry
remote sensing bathymetry

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Geophysics
Earth and Planetary Sciences (all)

Access to Document

10.1029/2020GL087367

Cite this

@article{bccad9a026b34b45953f788eadbb8433,

title = "Determining Bathymetry of Shallow and Ephemeral Desert Lakes Using Satellite Imagery and Altimetry",

abstract = "Water volume estimates of shallow desert lakes are the basis for water balance calculations, important both for water resource management and paleohydrology/climatology. Water volumes are typically inferred from bathymetry mapping; however, being shallow, ephemeral, and remote, bathymetric surveys are scarce in such lakes. We propose a new, remote-sensing-based, method to derive the bathymetry of such lakes using the relation between water occurrence, during >30 year of optical satellite data, and accurate elevation measurements from the new Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2). We demonstrate our method at three locations where we map bathymetries with ~0.3 m error. This method complements other remotely sensed, bathymetry-mapping methods as it can be applied to: (a) complex lake systems with subbasins, (b) remote lakes with no in-situ records, and (c) flooded lakes. The proposed method can be easily implemented in other shallow lakes as it builds on publically accessible global data sets.",

keywords = "Desert hydrology, Ephemeral desert lakes, ICESat-2 altimetry, Lake Eyre, Lake bathymetry, remote sensing bathymetry",

author = "M. Armon and E. Dente and Y. Shmilovitz and A. Mushkin and Cohen, {T. J.} and E. Morin and Y. Enzel",

note = "Funding Information: This research was supported by ISF grant 946/18 and NSFC‐ISF grant 2487/17 to YE. Water occurrence data (Pekel et al., 2016 ) were obtained from https://global‐surface‐water.appspot.com , using Google Earth Engine ( https://earthengine.google.com/ ). ICESat‐2 ATL03 data were obtained from https://openaltimetry.org/data/icesat2/ : Neumann, T. A., A. Brenner, D. Hancock, J. Robbins, J. Saba, K. Harbeck, and A. Gibbons. 2019. ATLAS/ICESat‐2 L2A Global Geolocated Photon Data, V1. [ATL03]. Boulder, Colorado USA. NSIDC: National Snow and Ice Data Center. doi: https://doi.org/10.5067/ATLAS/ATL03.001 . [Dec 2019]. The authors declare no conflict of interests. Funding Information: This research was supported by ISF grant 946/18 and NSFC-ISF grant 2487/17 to YE. Water occurrence data (Pekel et al.,?2016) were obtained from https://global-surface-water.appspot.com, using Google Earth Engine (https://earthengine.google.com/). ICESat-2 ATL03 data were obtained from https://openaltimetry.org/data/icesat2/: Neumann, T. A., A. Brenner, D. Hancock, J. Robbins, J. Saba, K. Harbeck, and A. Gibbons. 2019. ATLAS/ICESat-2 L2A Global Geolocated Photon Data, V1. [ATL03]. Boulder, Colorado USA. NSIDC: National Snow and Ice Data Center. doi: https://doi.org/10.5067/ATLAS/ATL03.001. [Dec 2019]. The authors declare no conflict of interests. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright}2020. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.",

year = "2020",

month = apr,

day = "16",

doi = "10.1029/2020GL087367",

language = "English",

volume = "47",

journal = "Geophysical Research Letters",

issn = "0094-8276",

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T1 - Determining Bathymetry of Shallow and Ephemeral Desert Lakes Using Satellite Imagery and Altimetry

AU - Armon, M.

AU - Dente, E.

AU - Shmilovitz, Y.

AU - Mushkin, A.

AU - Cohen, T. J.

AU - Morin, E.

AU - Enzel, Y.

N1 - Funding Information: This research was supported by ISF grant 946/18 and NSFC‐ISF grant 2487/17 to YE. Water occurrence data (Pekel et al., 2016 ) were obtained from https://global‐surface‐water.appspot.com , using Google Earth Engine ( https://earthengine.google.com/ ). ICESat‐2 ATL03 data were obtained from https://openaltimetry.org/data/icesat2/ : Neumann, T. A., A. Brenner, D. Hancock, J. Robbins, J. Saba, K. Harbeck, and A. Gibbons. 2019. ATLAS/ICESat‐2 L2A Global Geolocated Photon Data, V1. [ATL03]. Boulder, Colorado USA. NSIDC: National Snow and Ice Data Center. doi: https://doi.org/10.5067/ATLAS/ATL03.001 . [Dec 2019]. The authors declare no conflict of interests. Funding Information: This research was supported by ISF grant 946/18 and NSFC-ISF grant 2487/17 to YE. Water occurrence data (Pekel et al.,?2016) were obtained from https://global-surface-water.appspot.com, using Google Earth Engine (https://earthengine.google.com/). ICESat-2 ATL03 data were obtained from https://openaltimetry.org/data/icesat2/: Neumann, T. A., A. Brenner, D. Hancock, J. Robbins, J. Saba, K. Harbeck, and A. Gibbons. 2019. ATLAS/ICESat-2 L2A Global Geolocated Photon Data, V1. [ATL03]. Boulder, Colorado USA. NSIDC: National Snow and Ice Data Center. doi: https://doi.org/10.5067/ATLAS/ATL03.001. [Dec 2019]. The authors declare no conflict of interests. Publisher Copyright: ©2020. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.

PY - 2020/4/16

Y1 - 2020/4/16

N2 - Water volume estimates of shallow desert lakes are the basis for water balance calculations, important both for water resource management and paleohydrology/climatology. Water volumes are typically inferred from bathymetry mapping; however, being shallow, ephemeral, and remote, bathymetric surveys are scarce in such lakes. We propose a new, remote-sensing-based, method to derive the bathymetry of such lakes using the relation between water occurrence, during >30 year of optical satellite data, and accurate elevation measurements from the new Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2). We demonstrate our method at three locations where we map bathymetries with ~0.3 m error. This method complements other remotely sensed, bathymetry-mapping methods as it can be applied to: (a) complex lake systems with subbasins, (b) remote lakes with no in-situ records, and (c) flooded lakes. The proposed method can be easily implemented in other shallow lakes as it builds on publically accessible global data sets.

AB - Water volume estimates of shallow desert lakes are the basis for water balance calculations, important both for water resource management and paleohydrology/climatology. Water volumes are typically inferred from bathymetry mapping; however, being shallow, ephemeral, and remote, bathymetric surveys are scarce in such lakes. We propose a new, remote-sensing-based, method to derive the bathymetry of such lakes using the relation between water occurrence, during >30 year of optical satellite data, and accurate elevation measurements from the new Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2). We demonstrate our method at three locations where we map bathymetries with ~0.3 m error. This method complements other remotely sensed, bathymetry-mapping methods as it can be applied to: (a) complex lake systems with subbasins, (b) remote lakes with no in-situ records, and (c) flooded lakes. The proposed method can be easily implemented in other shallow lakes as it builds on publically accessible global data sets.

KW - Desert hydrology

KW - Ephemeral desert lakes

KW - ICESat-2 altimetry

KW - Lake Eyre

KW - Lake bathymetry

KW - remote sensing bathymetry

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U2 - 10.1029/2020GL087367

DO - 10.1029/2020GL087367

M3 - Article

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SN - 0094-8276

VL - 47

JO - Geophysical Research Letters

JF - Geophysical Research Letters

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M1 - e2020GL087367

ER -

Determining Bathymetry of Shallow and Ephemeral Desert Lakes Using Satellite Imagery and Altimetry

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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