Abstract
Differential synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometry (DInSAR) has been successfully used to estimate water level changes (∂h/∂t) over wetlands and floodplains. Specifically, amongst ALOS PALSAR datasets, the fine-beam stripmap mode has been mostly implemented to estimate ∂h/∂t due to its availability of multitemporal images. However, the fine-beam observation mode provides limited swath coverage to study large floodplains and wetlands, such as the Amazon floodplains. Therefore, for the first time, this paper demonstrates that ALOS2 ScanSAR data can be used to estimate the large-scale ∂h/∂t in Amazon floodplains. The basic procedures and challenges of DInSAR processing with ALOS2 ScanSAR data are addressed and final ∂h/∂t maps are generated based on the Satellite with ARgos and ALtiKa (SARAL) altimetry’s reference data. This study reveals that the local ∂h/∂t patterns of Amazon floodplains are spatially complex with highly interconnected floodplain channels, but the large-scale (with 350 km swath) ∂h/∂t patterns are simply characterized by river water flow directions.
Highlights
The wetlands and floodplains of the Amazon River are massive in size and in volumetric fluxes
The amount of water on the Amazon floodplains and wetlands and the amount exchanged with river channels become essential information for understanding large-scale flood propagation, sediment delivery and nutrient exchanges, and the emission of methane and carbon dioxide [4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]
For PALSAR fine-beam mode, the observation swath is around 70 km, which is too small to study large floodplains and wetlands, such as the Amazon floodplains
Summary
The wetlands and floodplains of the Amazon River are massive in size and in volumetric fluxes. For PALSAR fine-beam mode, the observation swath is around 70 km, which is too small to study large floodplains and wetlands, such as the Amazon floodplains. The small coverage and large repeat time constrain the applications of PALSAR fine-beam data to study the large-scale ∂h/∂t of Amazon floodplains. Besides PALSAR fine-beam data, ScanSAR data has been used to study the hydrologic dynamics of large scale wetlands, such as hydroperiod estimation and flood extent monitoring [35,36]. ALOS2 ScanSAR has a swath of 350 km with basic observation scenarios of around nine times per year for wetland monitoring, which means four to five ∂h/∂t measurements for Amazon floodplains during the flood season.
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