river and lake level data from radar altimetry in support

River and Lake Level data from Radar Altimetry in Support of the Tiger Initiative

�Benveniste, J1; Berry,, P2; Milagro-Perez, M.P3;; Serpe, D3; �1ESA; 2De Montfort Univ.;

(1) ESRIN, European Space Agency ([email protected]) (2) EAPRS Lab, De Montfort University ([email protected])

(3) Serco support to ESA-ESRIN

Hydrospace07, WMO, Geneva, 12-14 Nov 2007

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• A web-based pilot demonstration makes Envisat-derived radar altimetry measurements of the inland surface water level freely available in near-real time, globally, therefore supporting the TIGER Initiative to supply EO data to Africa for water resource management. Envisat's Radar Altimeter-2 data are processed in Near real time by a sophisticated algorithm developed by De Montfort University (DMU) in Leicester, UK, under ESA contract. Until now reliable information has been difficult to access because of the high cost in equipment, manpower and communications, and because it still is problematical to obtain hydrological data from many countries, despite efforts from international organizations, agencies and forums. The near-real-time processing system identifies that part of each surface echo originating from inland water, enabling measurement of much smaller targets, with an increased accuracy, than has previously been possible. With the recent improvement of the data processing in real-time of the precise orbit determination system aboard the satellite, DORIS, the system can be pushed further to deliver water levels in less than six hours, in order to better satisfy the actual needs of users. Supported by the European Space Agency's Earth Observation Data User Element, the River and Lake project is aimed at developing, demonstrating and assessing an information service based on inland water altimetry, globally and both in near real time and for analysing long time series. The data retrieved over Africa is supporting ESA's TIGER initiative. Following the 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development, the European Space Agency has launched the TIGER Initiative - focusing on the use of space technology for water resource management in Africa and providing concrete actions to match the Resolutions. A brief description of the initiative and its present status will be presented.

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THE RIVER AND LAKE PROJECTObjective of this research and development project is:

• To build and validate a system that retrieves inland water heights from ERS and ENVISAT, globally.

• To drastically increase the number of measured inland water bodies, by improving the data processing.

• To Provide Near Real Time Data Without time for a posteriori verification for many lakes and rivers globally

A Challenge!!

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THE RIVER AND LAKE PROJECT

• This research and development project is aimed at improving the river and lake level estimation by Radar Altimetry and demonstrating the accuracy and robustness through a demonstration pilot.

• When it is demonstrated mature and the Users are satisfied with the data products it will become operational.

• An important aspect for this, is local verification of the accuracy of the radar altimeter data.

• Gather feedback from Users on accuracy, timeliness, location, usefulness

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How many virtual limnographs can satellite altimetry correspond to ?

Not all go through quality threshold tests all the time (due to environmental variations perturbating the radar echoes).

Accuracy 5~20 cm for the best measurements, depends on the water body dimension and environment.

Order of 300 over central Africa.

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THE RIVER AND LAKE MASK OVER AFRICA

Red indicates area where NRT products are currently generated

Blue indicates area where products may be generated in the future.

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Rio Negro

VALIDATION OVER AMAZONIA / GAUGE STATION

Note that EnviSat data continue after the gauge records stop at this location.

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Rio Amazonas

VALIDATION OVER AMAZONIA / GAUGE STATION

Here, a break in gauge records is bridged by the EnviSat records

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• Radar Altimeter waveforms and geophysical corrections are fetched directly from the Envisat ground segment

• An ad hoc USO correction is computed and applied• The near real time River&Lake processor is run as

soon as the data is received and corrected• The “River&Lake for Hydrology” (RLH) output

product is stored in the web site• The longest lag is the availability of the DORIS orbit

(3~4 days)• This will improve to 3 hours when the DORIS

Navigator orbit is fully processed in real time

NEAR REAL TIME DEMONSTRATION PILOT

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Near-real Time Products:• NRT system demo has started on October 2005• It was interrupted in march 06 until now due to the

USO problem on RA-2• Data within 4 days• Very good agreement indeed with SGDR data,

meaning that the NRT heights are accurate within a few cm, compared to the final precision product

• Exciting possibility to get even faster delivery, upgrading to use product generated within 24 hours

• Output products will be assessed and mask upgraded to include additional sites periodically

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River and Lake Products Website

http://earth.esa.int/riverandlake

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Each sample page has the same layout:

SAMPLE PAGE FOR HISTORICAL PRODUCTS

Info

Time series

Products download

A typical Time Series

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SAMPLE PAGE FOR NEAR-REAL TIME PRODUCTS

THE NEAR REAL TIME PRODUCTS

ARE MADE AVAILABLE VIA THE

RIVER AND LAKE WEB SITE


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THE NEAR REAL TIME PRODUCTS

ARE MADE AVAILABLE VIA THE

RIVER AND LAKE WEB SITE

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Lake Debo

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Location of data of 2 December

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Location of data since 25 October

All Data generated in Near Real Time since the 25th October 2005

Aswan, Bangweulu, Edward, Kainji, Kariba, Kivu, Kyoga, Malawi, Mweru, Niger, Tanganyika, Turkana, Victoria, Volta, Zambezi, others


AFRICA - Lake Volta


AFRICA - Lake Rudolph


AFRICA MASK FOR LATIN AMERICA


AMAZON (52.7 W)


AMAZON (56.71 W)


AMAZON (58.02 W)


ORINOCO


MASK FOR ASIA


LIAO HE RIVER (China) (from Envisat)


QINGHAI HU LAKE (China) (from Envisat)

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Brahmaputra RIVER (Bangladesh)

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Ganges RIVER (India)

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Mekong RIVER (Vietnam)

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THE MASK CAN BE ENHANCED TO ATTEMPT RETRIEVAL OVER

YOUR PROJECT’S AREA


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DEMONSTRATION PILOT DATA DISSEMINATION

THE NEAR REAL TIME ARE MADE AVAILABLE VIA THE RIVER AND LAKE

WEB SITEASK FOR HISTORICAL DATA

IN YOUR AREA


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River and Lake Products Website


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PRODUCTS – FORMATXML HTMLXSL(Extensible Stylesheet Language)

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Each sample page has the same layout:SAMPLE PAGEInfo

Time series

Products download

A typical Time Series

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PRODUCTS -TOOLS RLA read/write C library

C Library

RLA/RLH read/write/plot library

IDL Library

RLH Viewer (demo)

Java Executable

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PRODUCT - RLH VIEWER TOOL

RLH Viewer Screenshot

- Platform independent (JAVA)- More than one RLH product plots- Interactive plots (i.e. zoom feature)- PNG export

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RLH Viewer allows three kind of plots: scatter, line, areaZoom feature

PRODUCT - RLH VIEWER TOOL

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PRODUCTS - IDL Tool:

File selection Plot RLH product:

Plot RLA product:

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INFORMATION - USERS

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INFORMATION - HISTORICAL REVIEW

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INFORMATION - NEWS AND EVENTS

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INFORMATION - DOCUMENTS

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INFO

RM

ATI

ON

-D

OC

UM

ENTS

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INFORMATION - PUBLICATIONS

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INFORMATION - PROJECT MEMBERSContact us: [email protected]

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SIGN UP IN THE DISTRIBUTION LISTOF THE NRT PILOT DEMO

VIA THE RIVER AND LAKE WEB SITEor write at

[email protected]

[email protected]


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TIGER Objectives

Support improved water governance and decision-making: (at regional, national and local scales) by using space-based information to provide accurate and timely geo-information for the integrated water resource management process.

Contributing to enhance institutional, human and technical capacity: support the consolidation of a critical mass of technical centres in Africa with the skills and capabilities to exploit the advantages of EO technology in order to improve water research and knowledge in Africa as well as to derive water-relevant geo-information.

Fostering sustainability: Development of strategy for strengthening and sustaining EO-supported IWRM information and decision-support systems in the long term.

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The TIGER Partnership

• African Ministerial Council On Water (AMCOW) endorsed the initiative in 2006.

• Key African and Int. Organisations: AMCOW, AfDB, DWAFs (e.g., Republic of South Africa);

• CEOS (e.g., ESA & CSA have funded the initial set of TIGER projects);

• UN Africa Water Group: UN-ECA, UNESCO-IHP;

• TIGER is an International initiative;

• The African component of TIGER involve more than 200 African experts that actively participate in TIGER research and technology transfer projects:

• National water and basin authorities;• Universities;• National technical centres;• Regional technical centres;

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TIGER Lines of Action & Development Model

Research stage

TIGER Pilot Projects

Pre-operational Stage

North-South Tec. Transfer Projects

Operation Stage

African Water Observation

System

Improving Access to EO Data

Capacity Building and Training

TIGER Water Information & Knowledge Network

Developing Water Information Systems & Services

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Capacity Building

• More than 20 Training Sessions:

• Oriented to users (e.g., water authorities):Organized by different TIGER projects (e.g., AQUIFER, GlobWetlands, etc…);

• Oriented to research and technical centers: e.g., Organized directly by ESA, UNESCO on specific remote-sensing aspects for water resources.

• Dedicated Training Tool Kits: including general courses on remote-sensing, SAR, EO applications and free Software tools to support PIs.

• TIGER Capacity Building Facility (leaded by ITC) was launched in September 2006:

• Dedicated courses (at ITC and in Africa);

• Tailored technical support and research stages.

• E-learning;

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NigerExploitation of EPIDEMIO productsJena Optronik in the framework of the EPIDEMIO project

Nov-05

South AfricaBasic Remote Sensing for water resourcesUNESCOOct-05

ItalyIntroduction to optical and microwave Remote Sensing

ESAOct-05

MadagascarExploitation of EPIDEMIO productsJena Optronik in the framework of the EPIDEMIO project

Oct-05

SwitzerlandExploitation of EPIDEMIO productsJena Optronik in the framework of the EPIDEMIO project

Sep-05

FranceExploitation of EPIDEMIO productsJena Optronik in the framework of the EPIDEMIO project

Jul-05

South AfricaBasic remote sensing followed by use in health applications

Noetix in the framework of the Mosquito habitats project

Jan-06

SudanNile RAK Map ProductionHatfield, in the framework of the Nile RAK projectApril-06

EthiopiaRemote Sensing for Flood MappingHatfield, in the framework of the Nile RAK projectApril-06

Egypt, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda

Training-of-the-Trainers course on the Nile RAK Environmental and EO material

Hatfield, in the framework of the Nile RAK projectApril-06

KenyaWetland managers training courseWetlands International and Vexcel, in the framework of the GLOBWETLAND project

Apr-06

CanadaTraining on the IDAS.IES Canada, in the framework of the Morocco IDASMay 06

Burkina FasoTraining on basic radar remote sensing and EO tools

Vexcel Canada, in the framework of the ARBRE project

Jun-06

ItalyMicrowave Remote Sensing for water resourcesESAJul-06

Burkina FasoTraining on visualization and data acquisition using stereoscopy

Viasat Geo-Technologies, in the framework of the StereoSat Africa project.

Jul-06

NigeriaOpen Water mapping and monitoringGAF, in the framework of the AQUIFER projectSep-06

South AfricaOptical Remote Sensing for water resourcesESA & UNESCONov-06

NigerOpen Water Mapping and Monitoring GAF, in the framework of the AQUIFER projectNov-06

NigerEvapotranspiration and water balanceGAF, in the framework of the AQUIFER projectNov-06

LocationTopicOrganiserDate

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Water Information Services & Systems

Research Stage Pre-operational Stage

Operational Stage

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• A initial portfolio of projects are under development in collaboration with the AfDB and other donors;

• A first project has been approved by AfDB for funding (GEO-Aquifer, follow-up of the ESA AQUIFER project);

Transition to Operational Phase

Funded with500,000 Euros

OSSGEO-AQUIFER

Concept definitionZambia Water Auth.Zambezi RiverConcept definitionLake Victoria Basin Co.Lake Victoria

Under evaluationLake Chad Basin Co.Lake Chad

Status proposalExecuting AgencyProject

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• Major Achievements 2005-2007:

• Solid partnership with key African players (e.g., AfDB, AMCOW, DWAFs….), UN Water African Group (UNESCO, UN-ECA) and Space Agencies (e.g., ESA, CSA);

• Consolidation of management structure (Steering Committee, TIGER Coordination Office);

• Consolidation of African network of beneficiaries and partners involving more than 100 institutions (Universities, Ministries of Water, technical centres);

• Contribute to advance in African-lead scientific activities related to the use of EO for water knowledge and management (supported by a strong CB component);

• Develop a solid portfolio of user-driven service cases demonstrating value of EO-based information systems for and with African water authorities;

• Set up a development model lead by African institutions in partnership with donors facilitating the transferring to operations of prototype services (e.g., GEO-AQUIFER);

Closing the first Implementation period 2005-2007

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Closing the first Implementation period 2005-2007

• Complete the existing TIGER projects: 1) Research component and 2) Development and demonstration component;

• Complete the Capacity Building and Training Plan (Capacity Building Facility, publications, training sessions);

• Complete the launch of an initial set of projects leaded by African institutions to move from a pre-operational to an operational stage (e.g., GEO-Aquifer, TIGER-Lake Chad,…);

• Consultation process with partners and stakeholders to prepare the TIGER next implementation period;

river and lake level data from radar altimetry in support

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