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AirSWOT Measurements of Water Surface Elevations and Hydraulic Gradients over the Yukon Flats, Alaska

Lincoln Pitcher, UCLA, lincolnpitcher@g.ucla.edu (Presenter)
Tamlin Pavelsky, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, pavelsky@unc.edu
Laurence Smith, UCLA, lsmith@geog.ucla.edu
Delwyn Moller, Remote Sensing Solutions, dkmoller@remotesensingsolutions.com
Elizabeth Altenau, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, ealtenau@unc.edu
Christine Lion, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, clion@unc.edu
George Allen, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, geoallen@unc.edu
Mark Bertram, US Fish and Wildlife Service, mark_bertram@fws.gov
Sarah Cooley, Brown University, sarah_cooley@brown.edu

AirSWOT is an airborne, Ka-band synthetic aperture radar interferometer (InSAR) intended to quantify surface water fluxes by mapping water surface elevations (WSE). In July and August 2017, as part of the NASA ABoVE airborne campaign, AirSWOT successfully mapped WSEs in lakes and rivers spanning ~20° of latitude. Prior to this, AirSWOT acquired data over the Yukon Flats, Alaska, USA on 15-June-2015. Coincident with this collection, we conducted in situ GPS surveys of WSE. We use this field data to assess the accuracy of AirSWOT WSE measurements in lakes and rivers. Next, we demonstrate that AirSWOT can be used to estimate large-scale hydraulic gradients across wetland complexes. Third, we use AirSWOT to assess how lake levels across the Yukon Flats spatially vary with permafrost presence or absence. Finally, in anticipation of forthcoming processed 2017 AirSWOT data, we present an overview of the custom GPS system we developed for surveying WSEs and that we deployed >100 times in support of 2017 NASA ABoVE airborne campaigns.

Associated Project(s): 

Poster Location ID: 87

Session Assigned: Permafrost and Hydrology

 


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