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Temporary lake depths in Death Valley ranged from about 3 feet (1 meter, shown in dark blue) to less than 1.5 feet (0.5 meters, shown in bright yellow) from February to early March. SWOT enabled research to calculate depth by measuring water levels from space.Credit: NASA/JPL-California Institute of Technology
A temporary lake has existed in California’s Death Valley, the driest place in North America, since late 2023. A NASA-led analysis recently calculated the temporary lake depth over several weeks in February and March 2024, demonstrating the capabilities of the U.S.-French collaboration. Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite launched in December 2022.
Analysis found that the lake’s depth ranged from about 3 feet (1 meter) to less than 1.5 feet (0.5 meters) over a period of about six weeks. During this period, a series of storms across California brought record amounts of rainfall.
To estimate the depth of the lake, known informally as Lake Manly, researchers used water level data collected by SWOT and corresponding U.S. Geological Survey land elevation information for the Badwater Basin. I deducted it.
The researchers found that water levels varied across space and time during the approximately 10 days between SWOT observations. In the visualization above, approximately 3 feet (1 meter) of water appears in dark blue. Anything less than 1.5 feet (0.5 meters) is bright yellow. Shortly after a series of storms in early February, the temporary lake was about 6 miles (10 kilometers) long and 3 miles (5 kilometers) wide. Each pixel in the image represents an area approximately 330 feet by 330 feet (100 meters by 100 meters).
“This is a really great example of how SWOT can track how a unique lake system works,” said Tamryn Pavel, NASA’s SWOT freshwater science lead and a hydrologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Mr. Ski said.
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This video, using data from SWOT, shows temporary lake depth changes in Death Valley from February to March of this year. Depths ranged from about 3 feet (1 meter) deep (dark blue) to less than 1.5 feet (0.5 meters) deep (light yellow).Credit: NASA/JPL-California Institute of Technology
Unlike many lakes around the world, Death Valley’s lakes are ephemeral and relatively shallow, enough for strong winds to shift the fresh water for several miles, as happened from February 29th to March 2nd. Because there is usually no water in the Badwater basin, researchers have not installed permanent equipment to study the water in the area. SWOT can fill data gaps in case these or other places around the world flood.
Since its launch, SWOT has measured the height of nearly all the water on Earth’s surface, developing one of the most detailed and comprehensive views of Earth’s oceans, freshwater lakes and rivers. Not only can this satellite detect water coverage like other satellites, but SWOT can also measure water surface levels. SWOT measurements, when combined with other types of information, provide bathymetric data for inland features such as lakes and rivers.
The SWOT science team uses a Ka-band radar interferometer (KaRIn) instrument to make the measurements. KaRIn uses her two antennas placed 33 feet (10 meters) apart on a boom to generate a pair of data bands and reflect radar pulses off the water’s surface as it orbits the Earth. to collect water surface height information.
“We’ve never flown a Ka-band radar like the KaRIn instrument on a satellite before,” Pavelski said, so it’s important for scientists and engineers to understand how this type of radar works from orbit. The data presented in the figure above is also important to better understand how
