Estimating Seafloor Topography of the South China Sea Using SWOT Wide-Swath Altimetry Data

The surface water and ocean topography (SWOT) wide-swath altimetry satellite was launched in December 2022. The performance of novel wide-swath altimetry in seafloor topography modeling needs to be evaluated. This study utilized 15 cycles of SWOT Level-3 product to construct seafloor topography mode...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Fengshun Zhu, Jinbo Li, Yang Li, Jianqiao Xu, Jinyun Guo, Jiangcun Zhou, Heping Sun
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2025-01-01
Series:IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10829941/
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1832590387488751616
author Fengshun Zhu
Jinbo Li
Yang Li
Jianqiao Xu
Jinyun Guo
Jiangcun Zhou
Heping Sun
author_facet Fengshun Zhu
Jinbo Li
Yang Li
Jianqiao Xu
Jinyun Guo
Jiangcun Zhou
Heping Sun
author_sort Fengshun Zhu
collection DOAJ
description The surface water and ocean topography (SWOT) wide-swath altimetry satellite was launched in December 2022. The performance of novel wide-swath altimetry in seafloor topography modeling needs to be evaluated. This study utilized 15 cycles of SWOT Level-3 product to construct seafloor topography model of the South China Sea by linear regression analysis. The root mean square error of the difference between the model and shipborne bathymetry at checkpoints is about 120 m, which is 20 m better than topo_27.1 and DTU18BAT, and 40 m better than ETOPO1. First, the effects of the shipborne bathymetry at control points and priori bathymetry model in different topography-gravity scaling factor estimation strategies [A: using robust least squares (RBLSQ) to estimate regional scaling factor; B: using ratio method to calculate scaling factors at control points; C: using the moving window method and RBLSQ to obtain scaling factor grids.] on SWOT seafloor topography modeling are explored. We find that the control point number barely affects strategy A/C but significantly affects strategy B, while the priori bathymetry model mainly affects strategy C. Then, the three strategies are applied to the traditional radar altimetry gravity anomaly, and the results are compared with the SWOT-derived seafloor topography. The results show that incorporating SWOT data can improve the accuracy of seafloor topography estimation by about 7 m, and improve the power spectral density in the wavelength range about 10–20 km, which can help to reveal more detailed topography information.
format Article
id doaj-art-4618f9b4983c48d896fb6a4a504aaa56
institution Kabale University
issn 1939-1404
2151-1535
language English
publishDate 2025-01-01
publisher IEEE
record_format Article
series IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing
spelling doaj-art-4618f9b4983c48d896fb6a4a504aaa562025-01-24T00:00:56ZengIEEEIEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing1939-14042151-15352025-01-01183569358010.1109/JSTARS.2025.352668310829941Estimating Seafloor Topography of the South China Sea Using SWOT Wide-Swath Altimetry DataFengshun Zhu0Jinbo Li1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4341-820XYang Li2Jianqiao Xu3Jinyun Guo4https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1817-1505Jiangcun Zhou5Heping Sun6https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2243-6353State Key Laboratory of Precision Geodesy, Innovation Academy for Precision Measurement Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Precision Geodesy, Innovation Academy for Precision Measurement Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Precision Geodesy, Innovation Academy for Precision Measurement Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Precision Geodesy, Innovation Academy for Precision Measurement Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, ChinaCollege of Geodesy and Geomatics, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Precision Geodesy, Innovation Academy for Precision Measurement Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Precision Geodesy, Innovation Academy for Precision Measurement Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, ChinaThe surface water and ocean topography (SWOT) wide-swath altimetry satellite was launched in December 2022. The performance of novel wide-swath altimetry in seafloor topography modeling needs to be evaluated. This study utilized 15 cycles of SWOT Level-3 product to construct seafloor topography model of the South China Sea by linear regression analysis. The root mean square error of the difference between the model and shipborne bathymetry at checkpoints is about 120 m, which is 20 m better than topo_27.1 and DTU18BAT, and 40 m better than ETOPO1. First, the effects of the shipborne bathymetry at control points and priori bathymetry model in different topography-gravity scaling factor estimation strategies [A: using robust least squares (RBLSQ) to estimate regional scaling factor; B: using ratio method to calculate scaling factors at control points; C: using the moving window method and RBLSQ to obtain scaling factor grids.] on SWOT seafloor topography modeling are explored. We find that the control point number barely affects strategy A/C but significantly affects strategy B, while the priori bathymetry model mainly affects strategy C. Then, the three strategies are applied to the traditional radar altimetry gravity anomaly, and the results are compared with the SWOT-derived seafloor topography. The results show that incorporating SWOT data can improve the accuracy of seafloor topography estimation by about 7 m, and improve the power spectral density in the wavelength range about 10–20 km, which can help to reveal more detailed topography information.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10829941/Altimetrygeodesygeophysical inverse problemssea floor
spellingShingle Fengshun Zhu
Jinbo Li
Yang Li
Jianqiao Xu
Jinyun Guo
Jiangcun Zhou
Heping Sun
Estimating Seafloor Topography of the South China Sea Using SWOT Wide-Swath Altimetry Data
IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing
Altimetry
geodesy
geophysical inverse problems
sea floor
title Estimating Seafloor Topography of the South China Sea Using SWOT Wide-Swath Altimetry Data
title_full Estimating Seafloor Topography of the South China Sea Using SWOT Wide-Swath Altimetry Data
title_fullStr Estimating Seafloor Topography of the South China Sea Using SWOT Wide-Swath Altimetry Data
title_full_unstemmed Estimating Seafloor Topography of the South China Sea Using SWOT Wide-Swath Altimetry Data
title_short Estimating Seafloor Topography of the South China Sea Using SWOT Wide-Swath Altimetry Data
title_sort estimating seafloor topography of the south china sea using swot wide swath altimetry data
topic Altimetry
geodesy
geophysical inverse problems
sea floor
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10829941/
work_keys_str_mv AT fengshunzhu estimatingseafloortopographyofthesouthchinaseausingswotwideswathaltimetrydata
AT jinboli estimatingseafloortopographyofthesouthchinaseausingswotwideswathaltimetrydata
AT yangli estimatingseafloortopographyofthesouthchinaseausingswotwideswathaltimetrydata
AT jianqiaoxu estimatingseafloortopographyofthesouthchinaseausingswotwideswathaltimetrydata
AT jinyunguo estimatingseafloortopographyofthesouthchinaseausingswotwideswathaltimetrydata
AT jiangcunzhou estimatingseafloortopographyofthesouthchinaseausingswotwideswathaltimetrydata
AT hepingsun estimatingseafloortopographyofthesouthchinaseausingswotwideswathaltimetrydata