SWOT Level 2 Lake Single-Pass Vector Data Product, Version D

The SWOT Level 2 Lake Single-Pass Vector Product (SWOT_L2_HR_LakeSP_D) provides geolocated surface water measurements for lakes and unclassified water bodies, derived from high-resolution radar observations collected by the Ka-band Radar Interferometer (KaRIn) on the SWOT satellite. This product reports water surface elevation, surface area, and quality indicators for each observed lake or feature, with polygons generated from the PIXCVec pixel cloud. It includes features linked to the Prior Lake Database (PLD), as well as unassigned features not recognized as lakes or rivers in the PLD or PRD.

Each granule covers a full KaRIn swath for a single continental pass and contains three ESRI shapefiles: one observation-oriented file of observed PLD lakes, one PLD-oriented file with prior lake features (including unobserved ones), and one file for unassigned features. Observed quantities are referenced to the WGS84 ellipsoid and corrected for geoid height, solid Earth, load, and pole tides, as well as tropospheric and ionospheric path delays. Attributes also include uncertainties, flags for partial or dark water coverage, ice cover, and crossover calibration. Storage change estimates are reported in the PLD-oriented shapefile using both direct and incremental methods under different bathymetric assumptions.

The LakeSP product provides consistent reach-scale and basin-level lake measurements suitable for time series analyses, hydrologic modeling, and integration with prior lake databases. It enables monitoring of water level changes and surface area dynamics across a wide range of inland water bodies and supports hydrological applications in water balance studies, reservoir management, and climate impact assessment.<br>
This dataset is the parent collection to the following sub-collections: <br>
https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/dataset/SWOT_L2_HR_LakeSP_obs_D <br>
https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/dataset/SWOT_L2_HR_LakeSP_prior_D <br>
https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/dataset/SWOT_L2_HR_LakeSP_unassigned_D <br>