Lake Levels From LiDAR: Exploring ICESat2 And GEDI For Measuring Water Heights In German Lakes

The Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) is an instrument that characterizes the dynamics and structures of ecosystems to allow better-quality quantification and understanding of the biodiversity and carbon cycle of the Earth. Also, GEDI data is used to forecast weather and snow, glacier monitoring, forestry management, and digital elevation model generations such as water mass depths. ICESat-2 collects elevation data on all surfaces in frozen areas of the world, urban areas, lakes, forests, etc. This data is redirected to Earth, after reformatting, quality checking, repackaging into scientific datasets, and delivered to NSIDC DAAC for distribution & archiving. This study evaluates the accuracy of the GEDI LiDAR altimetry and the ICESat2 elevation assessment of the lake water levels. Satellite laser altimetry proposes a chance to measure inland water levels accurately over the surface of Earth. This research evaluates the lakes in Germany (51.6° North to 51.6° South region). With the modified NDWI file of Germany, the GEDI and ICESat2 data covering those areas are collected and the data is filtered using python code with different packages in order to find the overlapping ICESat and GEDI tracks over lakes to find the available lake levels between these two lidar sensors. These lakes are mapped using Google Earth Developer using the water Index identified by GEDI while converting it into a vector form. The lakes that overlap are analysed and compared to measure the water heights in Germany. This research uses a secondary data collection method and it consists of data provided by National Snow and Ice Data Centre and USGS Earth Explorer. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to validate and compare the vertical elevation data from ICESat-2 and GEDI from LiDAR, to analyse the accuracy of the inland vertical elevation of lakes in Germany using ICESat-2 and GEDI, and to identify the most suitable and accurate spaceborne mission for exploring inland vertical elevation data.