A Decade of Global River and Lake Heights from ESA Altimeter Missions
Abstract
The ESA missions ERS-1, ERS-2 and Envisat have gathered a unique dataset over the Earth's land surfaces, including inland water. Key to this success is the mode- switching capability, which has allowed the RA-1 and RA-2 to maintain lock over rapidly varying topography. To exploit this unique dataset, a processing scheme has been developed to derive lake and river heights on a global scale. This paper presents an overview of this work, discusses the global distribution of measurements available from both the near-real-time and historical time series, and demonstrates the unique capabilities of ESA radar altimeters to retrieve inland water heights
- Publication:
-
ESA Special Publication
- Pub Date:
- July 2006
- Bibcode:
- 2006ESASP.614E..71B