Background
The Satellite Needs Working Group (SNWG)-2018 assessment found that knowing where surface water exists (lakes, reservoirs, rivers, and floods) multiple times a week would benefit all the United States (U.S.) land monitoring agencies, such as those water resource management and monitoring, and disaster monitoring and response agencies.
The near-global DSWx data product suite uses imagery from seven optical and radar satellites (Harmonized Landsat-8 & Sentinel-2 A/B/C, Sentinel-1A/C, and NASA/Indian Space Research Organization Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR)) to produce three products that map the spatial extent of surface water on land at 30-m resolution every few days. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery will aid in mapping surface water extent in cloudy conditions and beneath some vegetation.
The optical DSWx product was developed in partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Further information about the Observational Products for End-Users from Remote Sensing Analysis (OPERA) project and the DSWx product suite can be found below.
Status
Currently in Development, but Some Data are Available Now
This solution has been in production since April 2023. The DSWx-HLS product is available from the Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC). doi:10.5067/OPDSW-PL3V1 The DSWx-S1 product is also available from PO.DAAC. doi: 10.5067/OPDSWS1-L3V1 The DSWX-NI product is not yet available.
Solution Characteristics
| Products | DSWx-HLS | DSWx-S1 | DSWx-NI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Platform | Harmonized Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2A/B/C (HLS) | Sentinel-1A/C | NISAR |
| Sensor Type | Optical | Radar | Radar |
| Processing Level | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Temporal Coverage | April 2023 - Present | September 2024 - Present | Based on NISAR availability |
| Temporal Frequency | Approximately 3 days | 12 days; 6 days in certain areas; higher with Sentinel-1C | Approximately 6 days |
| Spatial Coverage | Near-global (all land masses except Antarctica) | Near-global (all land masses except Antarctica) | Near-global (all land masses except Antarctica) |
| Spatial Resolution | 30 m | 30 m | 30 m |
| Data Format | Cloud-Optimized GeoTIFF | Cloud-Optimized GeoTIFF | Cloud-Optimized GeoTIFF |
Societal Impact
The DSWx solution provides maps of surface water every few days, enabling flood and drought monitoring, habitat assessment, wetland preservation, and tracking of water use. These applications inform land and water resource management and hazard response and recovery. For example, Protecting Lives and Livelihoods Across Alaska With NASA Surface Water Data is a "Data in Action" story that demonstrates DSWx's benefit to end users.
Solution Resources
Need help using this solution? For more information about the DSWx product suite, visit the following resources:
- OPERA DSWx website
- OPERA Stakeholder Engagement Program
- OPERA DSWx Applications Github
- OPERA DSWx Product Suite: SNWG Solution Fact Sheet
- OPERA DSWx on Earthdata SNWG Portal
- OPERA DSWx Guide on PO.DAAC
Workshops and Open Meetings
| Title and Registration Link | Description | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Fifth OPERA Stakeholder Engagement Workshop | The fifth OPERA workshop reports updates on the OPERA data products (including DSWx) and how to access and leverage them for common applications. It also introduces OPERA's upcoming Vertical Land Motion (VLM) product suite. | Sept. 11, 2025 |
| Fourth OPERA Stakeholder Engagement Workshop | The fourth OPERA workshop provides updates of OPERA data products in production, preliminary validation of data products that are near-production, and an overview of upcoming 2025 products. End users will have an opportunity to present their use (or planned use) of OPERA products. | July 19, 2024 |
| The Beginning of a New Era of Multidisciplinary NASA Satellite Data Products Enabled by the Satellite Needs Working Group | The SNWG is a U.S. Government inter-agency organizational body that was established in 2016 to identify the Earth observational gaps and data needs across the U.S. Federal Civilian Agencies. The SNWG effort is a 2-year process in which NASA identifies and ultimately implements a wide range of innovative solutions that benefit the entire Earth Science community. In this session, we invite representatives from NASA's SNWG Implementation TEam (NSITE) behind several of the highly successful SNWG solutions to describe the new capabilities and where to access the data. This includes the Harmonized Landsat/Sentinel-2 (HLS), which is a cloud optimized dataset that standardizes common data bands from the two satellite constellations thereby effectively doubling the data available to the community. Another SNWG solution is the generation of a global surface water extent product suite that combines the data frequency of the optical satellites and the cloud-penetrating capabilities of satellite radar for a uniformed and frequent surface water product. Other solutions include new radiation and clouds products, global air quality, land surface disturbance, North America deformation, vegetation indices suite with HLS, and planetary boundary layer products. | Dec. 13, 2023 |
| Third OPERA workshop: Introducing the OPERA Radiometric Terrain Corrected (RTC) Radar Backscatter and Coregistrated Single Look Complex (CSLC) Products | In this workshop, the OPERA team provided an update on the Dynamic Surface Water Extent and Surface Disturbance products. They also introduced provisional RTC and CSLC products. | June 27, 2023 |
| Second OPERA Workshop: Introducing OPERA Interim Products and Updates on Surface Water Extent and Disturbance Products | In this workshop, OPERA presented preliminary validation results for the DSWx and surface disturbance (DIST) products while also providing information on how to access them. | Sept. 2, 2022 |
| First OPERA Workshop: SNWG-2018 Surface Water Extent and Surface Disturbance Product | During this workshop, OPERA introduced the near-global DSWx and surface disturbance (DIST) products to gather feedback from the user community. | Feb. 4, 2022 |