Spaceborne GNSS-R Observation of Global Lake Level: First Results from the TechDemoSat-1 Mission

Spaceborne global navigation satellite system reflectometry (GNSS-R) data collected by the UK TechDemoSat-1 (TDS-1) satellite is applied to retrieve global lake levels for the first time. Lake levels of 351 global lakes (area greater than 500 km(2) and elevation lower than 3000 m each) are estimated using TDS-1 Level 1b data over 2015-2017. Strong correlations (overall R-2 greater than 0.95) are observed among lake levels derived from TDS-1 and other altimetry satellites such as CryoSat-2, Jason, and Envisat (the latter two are collected by Hydroweb), although with large root-mean-square error (RMSE) (tens of meters) mainly due to the fact that TDS-1 is not dedicated for altimetry measuring purpose. Examples of the Caspian Sea and the Poyang Lake show consistent spatial and temporal variations between TDS-1 and other data sources. The results in this paper provide supportive information for further application of GNSS-R constellations to measure altimetry of inland water bodies.