Cal/Val of HR SWOT products using in-situ networks and in-flight nadir altimetry missions

The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission, conducted by CNES and NASA was successfully launched on 16 December 2022. It aims at providing unprecedented 2D observations of the sea-surface height and mesoscale structures as well as water surface elevation, water stocks estimates and discharge over hydrological areas. A SAR-interferometry wide-swath altimeter, namely the Ka-band Radar Interferometer (KaRIn), is designed to cover two 50-km cross-track swaths. During its Calibration (Cal/Val) phase (January to July 2023), SWOT mission provided daily measurements for each swath due to its 1-day repeat cycle. While the spatial coverage during this phase is not as large as for the nominal phase with a 21-day repeat cycle, such short revisit time is relevant for Cal/Val purposes.  

 

The High Rate (HR) mode of KaRIn, dedicated to hydrology surfaces, provides HR SWOT products that are calibrated during the Cal/Val phase. The performance assessment of these SWOT observations can be achieved through the comparison against reference measurements. Although specific in-situ Cal/Val sites have been purposely designed for the validation of HR SWOT products on lakes and rivers, additional in-situ networks can also be useful, particularly if their spatial coverage allows a monitoring of lakes and rivers also observed by the SWOT mission. Such conditions are met for the French network (SCHAPI), providing several hundreds of georeferenced in-situ stations over rivers, and for the Swiss network (BAFU) which measures water surface elevation of main rivers and lakes. Moreover, the combination of measurements from current nadir altimetry missions (e.g. Sentinel-3, Sentinel-6 or ICESat-2) has also the potential to generate reference measurements on a large number of lakes and rivers. 

 

Our analysis will essentially propose a preliminary performance assessment of the distinct high-level HR SWOT products during the Cal/Val phase, using existing in-situ networks and measurements from Sentinel-3, Sentinel-6 and ICESat-2. We will first take advantage of hydrological areas being densely monitored below SWOT swaths, which are relevant to assess the quality and current limitations of the products.