Water level monitoring in different regions of the U.S. using
GNSS-Reflectometry
Abstract
Accurate and seamless coastal water level observations are crucial for
monitoring climate change, mean sea level, and storm surge. Although the
water level changes have been measured using local measurement
instruments at coastal sites for centuries, the spatial distribution of
these sites is typically limited to locations with infrastructure. For
example, Alaska has significant gaps in the spatially varying tidal
information so that more supports are needed for coastal mapping and
storm surge preparedness. GNSS-Reflectometry (GNSS-R) is being
investigated as tool for water level monitoring. By calculating the
phase delay of the GNSS radio signals reflected by the water surface,
the temporal variation of the water level can be observed. The advantage
of this system is twofold: 1) It is non-contact and measures water
levels as it is based on remote sensing technique. 2) resulting water
level measurements are tied directly to a global reference frame that it
significantly contributes to the consistent vertical datum. In this
study, we processed data from three Continuously Operating Reference
Stations in California (CACC), Louisiana (CALC), and Alaska (AT01),
which are operated by NGS and UNAVCO. The resulting water levels were
compared with observations from stations in the NOAA’s National Water
Level Observation Network (NWLON). The CALC station was selected
specifically for performance evaluation during hurricane Harvey. The
GNSS-R results show a strong agreement with the published observations
and datums from the NWLON stations. The peak storm surge induced by
hurricane Harvey is clearly observed in the data from CALC. Tidal datums
computed from CALC data are within 6cm of published. Data from the AT01,
located in St. Michael Alaska, show tidal characteristics not
represented in the published predictions, which are based on data
collected between 1891 and 1899. The AC01 results are very encouraging
considering the expected challenges due to limited GNSS observations and
strong ionospheric activities in high latitudes. The results from this
study show many promising applications for GNSS-R derived water levels,
such as tidal datum determination, predictions and validation of
vertical datum separation models.