Lake and River Level Monitoring in Canada Using Satellite Altimetry

• Main Author: Akbarighadikolaei, Masume
• Other Authors: Sideris, Michael G., Kim, Jeong Woo, Rangelova, Elena V.
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Graduate Studies 2018
• Subjects: Satellite altimetry; Water surface height; Time series; Lake level; Geodesy; Geophysics; Canada; Lake Athabasca
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1880/107623; https://doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/32805

Canada has many lakes and rivers, and studying these inland water resources requires information about their water level changes. Until recently, the knowledge of the spatiotemporal variations of continental waters in Canada was limited to in-situ observations and hydrological models. The poor spatiotemporal coverage of tide-gauge stations and the inaccessibility of some inland water surfaces make it difficult to monitor their water level changes. The number of in-situ stations has also dramatically declined in the last few years and, therefore, there is a need to develop alternative methods of continental water level monitoring. Satellite altimetry has the advantages of operating continuously, in all-weather conditions, and can provide data for lake and river level monitoring. In this thesis, the potential of satellite altimetry to determine water level variations over lakes and rivers in Canada is assessed. Altimetry data from the Jason-1, Jason-2, Jason-3, Cryosat-2 and SARAL missions are used to estimate the Water Surface Height (WSH) time series between 2002 and 2017. The estimated multi-mission and single-mission WSH time series are validated against tide-gauge data and their correlation coefficient (R) and RMS differences (D) are estimated. The multi-mission WSH time series over larger water bodies with good data coverage (e.g., Lake Superior) are in excellent agreement (R = 0.98 and D = 4 cm) with tide-gauge data. The ocean-like condition of this lake due to its large size allows satellite altimetry to provide water level data that are not affected a lot by the surrounding topography. As a result, an excellent agreement of altimetry time series with tide-gauge data is achieved. Smaller water bodies (e.g., Lake Athabasca) show lower correlation (R = 0.71) and larger RMS differences (D = 70 cm) between altimetry time series and tide-gauge data. The low correlation and high RMS values are the results of less available WSH data caused by ice coverage during winter over Lake Athabasca. Other studies, e.g., ...