Geophysical Research Letters (May 2025)
A First Look at River Discharge Estimation From SWOT Satellite Observations
- Konstantinos M. Andreadis,
- Steve P. Coss,
- Michael Durand,
- Colin J. Gleason,
- Travis T. Simmons,
- Nikki Tebaldi,
- David M. Bjerklie,
- Craig Brinkerhoff,
- Robert W. Dudley,
- Igor Gejadze,
- Kevin Larnier,
- Pierre‐Olivier Malaterre,
- Hind Oubanas,
- George H. Allen,
- Paul D. Bates,
- Cédric H. David,
- Alessio Domeneghetti,
- Omid Elmi,
- Luciana Fenoglio Marc,
- Renato Prata de Moraes Frasson,
- Elisa Friedmann,
- Pierre‐André Garambois,
- Jaclyn Gehring,
- Augusto Getirana,
- Marissa Hughes,
- Jonghyun Lee,
- Pascal Matte,
- J. Toby Minear,
- Jérôme Monnier,
- Aggrey Muhebwa,
- Mohammad J. Tourian,
- Tamlin M. Pavelsky,
- Ryan M. Riggs,
- Ernesto Rodríguez,
- Md Safat Sikder,
- Laurence C. Smith,
- Cassie Stuurman,
- Jay Taneja,
- Angelica Tarpanelli,
- Jida Wang,
- Brent A. Williams,
- Bidhyananda Yadav
Affiliations
- Konstantinos M. Andreadis
- Civil and Environmental Engineering University of Massachusetts Amherst Amherst MA USA
- Steve P. Coss
- School of Earth Sciences Ohio State University Columbus OH USA
- Michael Durand
- School of Earth Sciences Ohio State University Columbus OH USA
- Colin J. Gleason
- Civil and Environmental Engineering University of Massachusetts Amherst Amherst MA USA
- Travis T. Simmons
- Civil and Environmental Engineering University of Massachusetts Amherst Amherst MA USA
- Nikki Tebaldi
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Pasadena CA USA
- David M. Bjerklie
- U.S. Geological Survey New England Water Science Center East Hartford CT USA
- Craig Brinkerhoff
- School of the Envirnoment Yale University New Haven CT USA
- Robert W. Dudley
- U.S. Geological Survey New England Water Science Center Pembroke NH USA
- Igor Gejadze
- National Research Institute for Agriculture Food and Environment (INRAE) UMR G‐eau Montpellier France
- Kevin Larnier
- Space Department CS Corporation Toulouse France
- Pierre‐Olivier Malaterre
- National Research Institute for Agriculture Food and Environment (INRAE) UMR G‐eau Montpellier France
- Hind Oubanas
- National Research Institute for Agriculture Food and Environment (INRAE) UMR G‐eau Montpellier France
- George H. Allen
- Department of Geosciences Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Blacksburg VA USA
- Paul D. Bates
- School of Geographical Sciences University of Bristol Bristol UK
- Cédric H. David
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Pasadena CA USA
- Alessio Domeneghetti
- Department of Civil, Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering Alma Mater Studiorum‐University of Bologna Bologna Italy
- Omid Elmi
- Institute of Geodesy University of Stuttgart Stuttgart Germany
- Luciana Fenoglio Marc
- Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformation University of Bonn Bonn Germany
- Renato Prata de Moraes Frasson
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Pasadena CA USA
- Elisa Friedmann
- Civil and Environmental Engineering University of Massachusetts Amherst Amherst MA USA
- Pierre‐André Garambois
- INRAE UMR RECOVER Aix‐Marseille‐Université Aix‐en‐Provence France
- Jaclyn Gehring
- Civil and Environmental Engineering Northeastern University Boston MA USA
- Augusto Getirana
- Hydrological Sciences Lab NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt MD USA
- Marissa Hughes
- Earth, Marine and Environmental Sciences University of North Carolina Chapel Hill NC USA
- Jonghyun Lee
- Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering Water Resources Research Center University of Hawaii at Manoa Honolulu HI USA
- Pascal Matte
- Meteorological Research Division Environment and Climate Change Canada Quebec City QC Canada
- J. Toby Minear
- Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences University of Colorado Boulder Boulder CO USA
- Jérôme Monnier
- INSA Toulouse Institut de Mathématiques de Toulouse Toulouse France
- Aggrey Muhebwa
- Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Massachusetts Amherst Amherst MA USA
- Mohammad J. Tourian
- Institute of Geodesy University of Stuttgart Stuttgart Germany
- Tamlin M. Pavelsky
- Earth, Marine and Environmental Sciences University of North Carolina Chapel Hill NC USA
- Ryan M. Riggs
- U.S. Geological Survey Water Mission Area Reston VA USA
- Ernesto Rodríguez
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Pasadena CA USA
- Md Safat Sikder
- Department of Geography and Geographic Information Science University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign Urbana IL USA
- Laurence C. Smith
- Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences Brown University Institute at Brown for Environment and Society Providence RI USA
- Cassie Stuurman
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Pasadena CA USA
- Jay Taneja
- INSA Toulouse Institut de Mathématiques de Toulouse Toulouse France
- Angelica Tarpanelli
- Research Institute for Geo‐hydrological Protection National Research Council Perugia Italy
- Jida Wang
- Department of Geography and Geographic Information Science University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign Urbana IL USA
- Brent A. Williams
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Pasadena CA USA
- Bidhyananda Yadav
- Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center The Ohio State University Columbus OH USA
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1029/2024gl114185
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 52,
no. 9
pp. n/a – n/a
Abstract
Abstract The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite has the potential to transform global hydrologic science by offering simultaneous and synoptic estimates of river discharge and other hydraulic variables. Discharge is estimated from SWOT observations of water surface elevation, width, and slope. A first assessment using just the highest quality SWOT measurements, over the first 15 months (March 2023–July 2024) of the mission evaluated at 65 gauged reaches shows results consistent with pre‐launch expectations. SWOT estimates track discharge dynamics without relying on any gauge information: median correlation is 0.73, with a correlation interquartile range of 0.51–0.89. SWOT estimates capture discharge magnitude correctly in some cases but are biased (median bias is 50%) in others. There are already a total of 11,274 ungauged global locations with highest quality SWOT measurements where SWOT discharge is expected to accurately track discharge variations: this value will increase as SWOT data record length grows, algorithms are refined and SWOT measurements are reprocessed. This first look indicates that SWOT discharge is performing as expected for SWOT data that achieve performance requirements, providing observed information on discharge variations in ungauged basins globally.
