loading page

Determining bathymetry of shallow and ephemeral desert lakes using satellite imagery and altimetry
  • +4
  • Moshe Armon,
  • Elad Dente,
  • Yuval Shmilovitz,
  • Amit Mushkin,
  • Tim J Cohen,
  • Efrat Morin,
  • Yehouda Enzel
Moshe Armon
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

Author Profile
Elad Dente
Institute of Earth Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Institute of Earth Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Author Profile
Yuval Shmilovitz
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Author Profile
Amit Mushkin
Geological Survey of Israel, Geological Survey of Israel
Author Profile
Tim J Cohen
University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong
Author Profile
Efrat Morin
Institute of Earth Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Institute of Earth Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Author Profile
Yehouda Enzel
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Author Profile

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.
16 Apr 2020Published in Geophysical Research Letters volume 47 issue 7. 10.1029/2020GL087367