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Full catalog/SWOT_L2_HR_LakeSP_2.0
SWOT_L2_HR_LakeSP_2.0·v2.0·dataset

Lake water levels and area, single pass (SWOT)

SWOT Level 2 Lake Single-Pass Vector Data Product, Version C
hydrosphere NASA POCLOUD Level 2 Shapefile
In plain English

What it measures. Water surface height, area, and storage change for lakes, mapped as vector outlines from a single satellite pass across a continent.

How it's made. Derived from the KaRIn radar interferometer on the SWOT satellite, which measures water-surface elevation across a wide swath; delivered as map shapefiles.

How & where you'd use it. Tracking how lake levels and volumes change over time, valuable for water management, flood study, and freshwater research.

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
  • StatusSUPERSEDED

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

The SWOT Level 2 Lake Single-Pass Vector Data Product from the Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission provides water surface elevation, area, storage change derived from the high rate (HR) data stream from the Ka-band Radar Interferometer (KaRIn). SWOT launched on December 16, 2022 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California into a 1-day repeat orbit for the "calibration" or "fast-sampling" phase of the mission, which completed in early July 2023. After the calibration phase, SWOT entered a 21-day repeat orbit in August 2023 to start the "science" phase of the mission, which is expected to continue through 2025. Water surface elevation, area, and storage change are provided in three feature datasets covering the full swath for each continent-pass: 1) an observation-oriented feature dataset of lakes identified in the prior lake database (PLD), 2) a PLD-oriented feature dataset of lakes identified in the PLD, and 3) a feature dataset containing unassigned features (i.e., not identified in PLD nor prior river database (PRD)). These data are generally produced for inland and coastal hydrology surfaces, as controlled by the reloadable KaRIn HR mask. The dataset is distributed in ESRI Shapefile format. Please note that this collection contains SWOT Version C science data products. This dataset is the parent collection to the following sub-collections: https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/dataset/SWOT_L2_HR_LakeSP_obs_2.0 https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/dataset/SWOT_L2_HR_LakeSP_prior_2.0 https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/dataset/SWOT_L2_HR_LakeSP_unassigned_2.0

Get the data

swot_l2_hr_lakesp_2.0_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="SWOT_L2_HR_LakeSP_2.0",
    version="2.0",
    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.