
GEDI laser altimetry observations provide unprecedented measurements of the Earth's surface and coastal waters.
Continental Surface Water
Land surface water is a major component of the hydrological cycle and the source for over 66% of the water consumed by humans, but yet amounts to less than 1% of the total water on Earth. Monitoring of continental surface water is a major issue for national, state, and local governments and of paramount importance for hydrology science. Satellite altimetry has long contributed to the monitoring of continental surface water, specifically providing surface water elevation observations of inland seas, lakes, rivers, reservoirs, and wetlands. These elevation observations have contributed to several hydrology products including lake and reservoir volume change, river stage and discharge, river elevation profiles and in situ station leveling, and wetland water levels. The geodetic altimeter elevation observations collected by GEDI are an important data set to add to the global monitoring of land surface water. The GEDI data set is unique as it provides sub-kilometer spatial sampling with large footprint lidar measurements of surface water elevation without penetration into the water column. Multi-track, high-resolution, along-track sampling makes GEDI data especially useful for measuring river reach slopes.
Coastal Waters
GEDI provides a plethora of large footprint surface elevation measurements at the ocean land interface. GEDI also provides these measurements for remote and highly vegetated coastal regions.