Altimetry data from multiple satellite sensors over Sweden for lake and river water level estimation

The Center for Topographic Studies of the Ocean and Hydrosphere (CTOH)

This dataset contains Geophysical Data Records (GDR) from altimetry satellites ERS-2, ENVISAT, JASON-1, JASON-2, JASON-3, SARAL, Sentinel-3A, and Sentinel-3B, from 1995 to 2023 over the extent of Sweden. The data includes atmospheric and geophysical corrections, geoid height, water surface heights, and other parameters of the altimetry signal transmitted from and received by the satellites.

These data can be used for the estimation of water levels in Swedish lakes and rivers.

Citation

The Center for Topographic Studies of the Ocean and Hydrosphere (CTOH) (2023) Altimetry data from multiple satellite sensors over Sweden for lake and river water level estimation. Dataset version 1. Bolin Centre Database. https://doi.org/10.17043/aminjafari-2023-altimetry-1

References

Frappart, F., Legrésy, B., Niño, F., Blarel, F., Fuller, N., Fleury, S., Birol, F., & Calmant, S. (2016). An ERS-2 altimetry reprocessing compatible with ENVISAT for long-term land and ice sheets studies. Remote Sensing of Environment, 184, 558–581. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2016.07.037

Frappart, F., Blarel, F., Fayad, I., Bergé-Nguyen, M., Crétaux, J.-F., Shu, S., Schregenberger, J., & Baghdadi, N. (2021). Evaluation of the Performances of Radar and Lidar Altimetry Missions for Water Level Retrievals in Mountainous Environment: The Case of the Swiss Lakes. Remote Sensing, 13(11), 2196. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13112196

Data description

All files are in NetCDF format containing the following parameters, among others:

• Time and coordinate
  • UTC, 1 Hz [seconds since 2000-01-01 00:00:00.0] time_01
  • longitude, 1 Hz [degrees_east] lon_01
  • latitude, 1 Hz [degrees_north] lat_01
• Atmospheric and geophysical corrections
  • GIM ionospheric correction, 1 Hz [m] iono_cor_gim_01_ku
  • model dry tropospheric correction, 1 Hz [m] mod_dry_tropo_cor_01
  • model wet tropospheric correction, 1 Hz [m] mod_wet_tropo_cor_01
  • solid earth tide height, 1 Hz [m] solid_earth_tide_01
• Heights
  • water surface height, corrected 'ice-1' altimeter range, 18 Hz Ku band [m] range_ice1_20_ku
  • altitude of the satellite, 18 Hz [m] alt_20
  • geoid height, 1 Hz [m] geoid_01
• Radar signal properties
  • chirp band identifier, 18 Hz Ku band chirp_band_20_ku

Each folder relates to one satellite sensor:

• ENVISAT from ESA: env_a_esa_v0300_sgdr
• ERS-2 from CTOH: ers2_a_ctoh_v0100_gdr
• JASON-1 from CNES: ja1_a_cnes_e_gdr
• JASON-2 from CNES: ja2_a_cnes_d_gdr
• JASON-3 from CNES: ja3_a_cnes_f_sgdr
• Sentinel-3A&B from ESA: Sentinel_3AB
• SARAL from CNES: srl_a_cnes_f_sgdr

Each file relates to one epoch of satellite observation. The start and end times of each observation are included in file names. These data are compatible with the Altimetry Time Series software (AlTiS) developed by CTOH and freely available at https://gitlab.com/ctoh/altis.

The original data come from the GDR made available by the European Space Agencies (ESA), French Space Agency (CNES), and the Center for Topographic Studies of the Ocean and Hydrosphere (CTOH). AVISO+ provides all the original data upon request at https://www.aviso.altimetry.fr/en/data.html. The CTOH, also, provided the data upon request (required one request per sensor) and over small geographic extents. However, the website to request the data is out of order.

This version is specifically cropped over the extent of Sweden, contains all the data from all seven sensors from AVISO+, and is compatible with the Altimetry Time Series software (AlTiS) developed by CTOH which is freely available at https://gitlab.com/ctoh/altis.