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Full catalog/SWOT_L2_HR_LakeAvg_D
SWOT_L2_HR_LakeAvg_D·vD·dataset

Lake water levels and area, averaged per cycle (SWOT)

SWOT Level 2 Lake Cycle-Averaged Data Product, Version D
hydrosphere NASA POCLOUD Level 2 Shapefile
In plain English

What it measures. Lake water surface heights and areas, averaged over each satellite repeat cycle and grouped by river basin.

How it's made. Derived from the SWOT satellite's lake observations, which are averaged and aggregated within predefined hydrological basins for each cycle.

How & where you'd use it. Handy for tracking how lakes and reservoirs rise and fall over time across whole regions, supporting water-supply monitoring and flood or drought assessments. The cycle-averaged form smooths out single passes into a clearer trend.

What's measured

TERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE › SURFACE WATER › SURFACE WATER PROCESSES/MEASUREMENTSTERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE › SURFACE WATER › SURFACE WATER FEATURES › LAKES/RESERVOIRS

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2022-12-16 → ongoing
  • Measured bySWOT (KaRIn, Jason-class Altimeter, AMR, DORIS, GPSP, LRA)
  • Processing levelLevel 2
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsShapefile
  • StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

  • Follow rainfall, floods and surface-water extent
  • Track soil moisture and the onset of drought
  • Monitor lakes, rivers and groundwater storage
Official description

Cycle average and aggregation of lake pass data within predefined hydrological basins. Basin for each cycle. Available in Shapefile file format.

Get the data

swot_l2_hr_lakeavg_d_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="SWOT_L2_HR_LakeAvg_D",
    version="D",
    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 POCLOUD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.