Determining bathymetry of shallow and ephemeral desert lakes using
satellite imagery and altimetry
Abstract
Water volume estimates of shallow desert lakes are the basis for water
balance calculations, important both for water resource management and
paleohydrology/climatology. Water volumes are typically inferred from
bathymetry mapping; however, being shallow, ephemeral and remote,
bathymetric surveys are scarce in such lakes. We propose a new,
remote-sensing based, method to derive the bathymetry of such lakes
using the relation between water occurrence, during >30-yr
of optical satellite data, and accurate elevation measurements from the
new Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2). We
demonstrate our method at three locations where we map bathymetries with
~0.3 m error. This method complements other remotely
sensed, bathymetry-mapping methods as it can be applied to: (a) complex
lake systems with sub-basins, (b) remote lakes with no in-situ records,
and (c) flooded lakes. The proposed method can be easily implemented in
other shallow lakes as it builds on publically accessible global data
sets.