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Full catalog/ASTWBD_NC
ASTWBD_NC·v001·dataset

Where Earth's lakes and rivers are (ASTER)

ASTER Global Water Bodies Database NetCDF V001
land NASA LPCLOUD Level 3 netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. A worldwide map showing where lakes, rivers, and oceans are, for water bodies bigger than about 0.2 square kilometers, with elevation information attached.

How it's made. Created from ASTER satellite imagery alongside the ASTER global elevation model, with water classified into ocean, river, or lake and surface heights corrected.

How & where you'd use it. Mapping inland and coastal water, improving elevation data over water, and supporting hydrology and mapping projects.

What's measured

LAND SURFACE › TOPOGRAPHY › TERRAIN ELEVATIONLAND SURFACE › TOPOGRAPHY › TERRAIN ELEVATION › DIGITAL ELEVATION/TERRAIN MODEL (DEM)LAND SURFACE › TOPOGRAPHY › TERRAIN ELEVATION › TOPOGRAPHICAL RELIEF MAPSTERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE › SURFACE WATER

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2000-03-01 → 2013-11-30
  • Measured byTerra (ASTER)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, -83, 180, 82
  • FormatsnetCDF-4
  • StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

  • Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
  • Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
  • Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time
Official description

The Terra Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) Global Water Bodies Database (ASTWBD) Version 1 data product provides global coverage of water bodies larger than 0.2 square kilometers at a spatial resolution of 1 arc second (approximately 30 meters) at the equator, along with associated elevation information. The ASTWBD data product was created in conjunction with the ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model (ASTER GDEM) Version 3 data product by the Sensor Information Laboratory Corporation (SILC) in Tokyo. The ASTER GDEM Version 3 data product was generated using [ASTER Level 1A](https://doi.org/10.5067/ASTER/AST_L1A.003) scenes acquired between March 1, 2000, and November 30, 2013. The ASTWBD data product was then generated to correct elevation values of water body surfaces. To generate the ASTWBD data product, water bodies were separated from land areas and then classified into three categories: ocean, river, or lake. Oceans and lakes have a flattened, constant elevation value. The effects of sea ice were manually removed from areas classified as oceans to better delineate ocean shorelines in high latitude areas. For lake water bodies, the elevation for each lake was calculated from the perimeter elevation data using the mosaic image that covers the entire area of the lake. Rivers presented a unique challenge given that their elevations gradually step down from upstream to downstream; therefore, visual inspection and other manual detection methods were required. The geographic coverage of the ASTWBD extends from 83°N to 83°S. Each tile is distributed in GeoTIFF format and referenced to the 1984 World Geodetic System (WGS84)/1996 Earth Gravitational Model (EGM96) geoid. Each data product is provided as a zipped file that contains an attribute file with the water body classification information and a DEM file, which provides elevation information in meters.

Get the data

astwbd_nc_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="ASTWBD_NC",
    version="001",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from LPCLOUD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.