SWOT Average - River

The SWOT Level-2 River Average dataset provides vectorized river data - including water surface elevation, water surface slope, river width, water surface area, change in cross-sectional area from a reference value, and discharge - from an aggregate cycle of continent-passes of the High Resolution data stream of the SWOT KaRIn instrument, along with appropriate uncertainties and flags.


While the SWOT Level-2 River Single Pass datasets provide Water Surface Elevation (WSE), slope, width, and discharge for SWOT Prior River Database -SWORD reaches on a per-pass basis, the present dataset provides such information on a per-cycle basis. A given reach may be observed many different times (from passes with different pass numbers) during a 21-day repeat cycle. The present dataset provides the mean values of the WSE, slope, width, and discharge over those different observations within the cycle. The dataset also provides the minimum, maximum, and median WSE over the cycle as well as the slope, width, and discharge that coincide with the minimum, maximum, and median WSE.

The product also provides quality flags and uncertainty estimates.

The intent of the SWOT Level-2 River Average dataset is to provide summary information of KaRIn river observations over wide spatial scales and relatively coarse, regular temporal sampling in a manner that is easily digestible for large-scale analyses (e.g., assimilation models).

The SWOT Level-2 HR River Average product is available in basin-cycle granules. Basins in this context are defined hydrologically by the SWOT Prior River Database -SWORD and are common between the SWOT Level-2 River Average and the SWOT Level-2 Lake Average datasets. Each hydrological continent is divided into several basins. A granule of the SWOT Level-2 River Average product gives measurements, summarized over the 21-day repeat cycle as described above, for all reaches within a particular basin for a particular cycle. Node-level measurements are not available in the present dataset.

The present dataset is available only during the science phase (not the calibration phase) of the mission.