AirSWOT Water Surface Elevations for Wax Lake Delta, 2015

AirSWOT Ka-band radar interferometry captured 39 flight lines of water surface elevation data over Louisiana's Wax Lake Delta in May 2015. The dataset provides continuous gridded elevation rasters at 3.6-meter resolution, calibrated with in-situ water level measurements. These Level 2 data include ancillary metrics like estimation errors, backscatter, and interferometric correlation for hydrological analysis.

Use Cases

• Calculating elevation and slope gradients along wetland channels using the gridded elevation rasters.
• Analyzing the relationship between water surface elevation and ocean tidal conditions using the time-stamped flight line data.
• Assessing measurement uncertainty in remote sensing for water levels using the included estimation error and sensitivity metrics.
• Mapping water surface features and backscatter properties across the delta using the UTM-coordinated raster sets.

Strengths

• Data is derived from 39 distinct airborne flight lines, providing substantial spatial coverage of the delta.
• Elevation measurements are produced at a high 3.6-meter spatial resolution.
• Dataset includes multiple quality and error metrics like sensitivity, incidence angle, and interferometric correlation alongside core elevation values.
• Calibration incorporated in-situ water level data to improve phase accuracy.

Limitations

• The temporal coverage is limited to a single campaign in May 2015, with no multi-temporal data provided.
• Conflicting last updated dates exist between sources (2015-05-11 vs. 2026-03 12), creating uncertainty about metadata maintenance.

Provenance

Source

ORNL_CLOUD

Collection Method

Collected by the airborne AirSWOT instrument using near-nadir wide-swath Ka-band radar interferometry.

Time Range

2015-05

Freshness

2026-03-12 22:33:29.394046

Geography

Wax Lake Delta, Atchafalaya Basin, coastal Louisiana, USA.