SWOT Simulated Lake Vectors for North America

Three shapefiles contain simulated lake and water feature vectors for the North America continent, derived from the planned Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission's high-rate Ka-band Radar Interferometer. Lake attributes include water surface elevation, area, and uncertainty estimates, with features identified from a Prior Lake Database and unassigned water bodies. This is a simulated product for system validation and is not suited for scientific exploration.

Use Cases

• Validating the data processing pipeline for the SWOT mission's KaRIn instrument based on simulated high-rate measurements.
• Assessing lake detection and characterization algorithms using attributes like water surface elevation and area.
• Examining the spatial coverage and feature assignment logic for inland water bodies, including unassigned features.
• Understanding the expected data product format and structure for future SWOT Level 2 lake data.

Strengths

• Provides a detailed simulation of a planned satellite mission's operational product, allowing for pre-launch system testing.
• Contains three distinct vector layers (observation-oriented, database-oriented, and unassigned features) for comprehensive feature analysis.
• Includes specific geospatial attributes for lakes, such as water surface elevation, area, and uncertainty estimates.

Limitations

• Metadata conflicts exist: the 'last updated' date differs between sources (2026-04 09 and 2022-08-22).
• Key metadata is missing or unknown, including row count, file size, specific column names, and author information.
• The dataset is explicitly noted as a simulation and is not suited for any scientific exploration or real-world analysis.

Provenance

Source

POCLOUD (as listed on one platform entry)

Collection Method

Simulated product derived from high-rate (HR) measurements of the SWOT mission's Ka-band Radar Interferometer (KaRIn), controlled by a reloadable HR mask.

Time Range

Simulation date range is not specified.

Freshness

2026-04-09 21:50:37.804130

Geography

North America continent.