Lake and River Level Monitoring in Canada Using Satellite Altimetry

Akbarighadikolaei, Masume

Lake and River Level Monitoring in Canada Using Satellite Altimetry

dc.contributor.advisor	Sideris, Michael G.
dc.contributor.author	Akbarighadikolaei, Masume
dc.contributor.committeemember	Kim, Jeong Woo
dc.contributor.committeemember	Rangelova, Elena V.
dc.date	2018-11
dc.date.accessioned	2018-08-10T20:41:34Z
dc.date.available	2018-08-10T20:41:34Z
dc.date.issued	2018-08-09
dc.description.abstract	Canada has many lakes and rivers, and studying these inland water resources requires information about their water level changes. Until recently, the knowledge of the spatiotemporal variations of continental waters in Canada was limited to in-situ observations and hydrological models. The poor spatiotemporal coverage of tide-gauge stations and the inaccessibility of some inland water surfaces make it difficult to monitor their water level changes. The number of in-situ stations has also dramatically declined in the last few years and, therefore, there is a need to develop alternative methods of continental water level monitoring. Satellite altimetry has the advantages of operating continuously, in all-weather conditions, and can provide data for lake and river level monitoring. In this thesis, the potential of satellite altimetry to determine water level variations over lakes and rivers in Canada is assessed. Altimetry data from the Jason-1, Jason-2, Jason-3, Cryosat-2 and SARAL missions are used to estimate the Water Surface Height (WSH) time series between 2002 and 2017. The estimated multi-mission and single-mission WSH time series are validated against tide-gauge data and their correlation coefficient (R) and RMS differences (D) are estimated. The multi-mission WSH time series over larger water bodies with good data coverage (e.g., Lake Superior) are in excellent agreement (R = 0.98 and D = 4 cm) with tide-gauge data. The ocean-like condition of this lake due to its large size allows satellite altimetry to provide water level data that are not affected a lot by the surrounding topography. As a result, an excellent agreement of altimetry time series with tide-gauge data is achieved. Smaller water bodies (e.g., Lake Athabasca) show lower correlation (R = 0.71) and larger RMS differences (D = 70 cm) between altimetry time series and tide-gauge data. The low correlation and high RMS values are the results of less available WSH data caused by ice coverage during winter over Lake Athabasca. Other studies, e.g., Schwatke et al. (2015), provide better results over Lake Athabasca because of using more altimetry data and better outlier removal methods.	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Akbarighadikolaei, M. (2018). Lake and River Level Monitoring in Canada Using Satellite Altimetry (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/32805	en_US
dc.identifier.doi	http://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/32805
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/1880/107623
dc.language.iso	eng
dc.publisher.faculty	Graduate Studies
dc.publisher.faculty	Schulich School of Engineering
dc.publisher.institution	University of Calgary	en
dc.publisher.place	Calgary	en
dc.rights	University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.
dc.subject	Satellite altimetry
dc.subject	Water surface height
dc.subject	Time series
dc.subject	Lake level.
dc.subject.classification	Geodesy	en_US
dc.subject.classification	Geophysics	en_US
dc.title	Lake and River Level Monitoring in Canada Using Satellite Altimetry
dc.type	master thesis
thesis.degree.discipline	Geomatics Engineering
thesis.degree.grantor	University of Calgary
thesis.degree.name	Master of Science (MSc)
ucalgary.item.requestcopy	true