HR: 0800h
AN: H21D-1373    [Abstracts]
TI: SRTM C and X Band Measurements of Water Elevations in Ohio and the Amazon
AU: * Kiel, B
EM: kiel.14@osu.edu
AF: Department of Geological Sciences, the Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43021 United States
AU: Alsdorf, D
EM: alsdorf.1@osu.edu
AF: Department of Geological Sciences, the Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43021 United States
AU: LeFavour, G
EM: glefavour@gmail.com
AF: Department of Geography, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095
AB: Hydrologists, water resource managers, and engineers recognize the potential of remote sensing for acquiring hydraulic measurements necessary for estimating discharge and storage changes globally, and thus have formed a community proposing the Water Elevation Recovery satellite mission (WatER). The WatER technological heritage is directly based on the highly successful Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) and its C-band and X-band digital elevation models (DEMs). SRTM is not only a technological heritage for WatER but also a baseline measurement by which we can assess the potential of remote sensing to collect measurements of h, dh/dx and dh/dt. Water surface elevations are abundant in both the C-band and X-band SRTM DEMs. Elevations from three Ohio reservoirs and several Amazon floodplain lakes have standard deviations, interpreted as errors, that are smaller in C-band compared to X-band and are smaller in Ohio than in the Amazon. These trends are also evident when comparing water surface elevations from the Muskingum River in Ohio with those of the Amazon River. Differences are attributed to increased averaging in C-band compared to X-band, greater sensitivity to surface water motion in X-band, and generally larger off-nadir look angles in X-band. Absolute water surface elevations are greater in the C-band DEM for much of the two study areas and yield expected slope values on the Amazon River. However, X-band DEM values for the Amazon River are below sea level downstream of Sao Jose do Amatari (~600 km upstream of Obidos) and have some slope values that are greater than expected. These absolute height and slope differences are attributed to the usage of differing vertical datums.
DE: 1836 Hydrological cycles and budgets (1218, 1655)
DE: 1855 Remote sensing (1640)
DE: 1860 Streamflow
DE: 1890 Wetlands (0497)
DE: 1895 Instruments and techniques: monitoring
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005