The Observational Products for End-Users from Remote Sensing Analysis (OPERA) project at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory collects data from satellite radar and optical instruments to generate three products:
JPL OPERA will develop and implement a near-global Dynamic Surface Water Extent product derived from optical and SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) data, a near-global Disturbance product from optical data, and a North America Displacement product from SAR data. Near-global coverage corresponds to all landmasses excluding Antarctica, whereas North America coverage corresponds to the United States (USA) and U.S. Territories, Canada within 200 km of the U.S. border, and all mainland countries from the southern U.S. border up to and including Panama.
The OPERA data products and time series are derived from measurements made by the instruments onboard the Sentinel-1 A/B, Sentinel-2 A/B, and Landsat-8 satellites, to be augmented by the measurements from the radars on the recently launched SWOT satellite (Dec 2022) and the soon-to-be-launched NISAR satellite.
All DSWx products will be distributed through PO.DAAC (Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center). All DIST products will be distributed through LP DAAC (Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center). All DISP products will be distributed through the ASF DAAC (Alaska Satellite Facility Distributed Active Archive Center),
The project is sponsored by NASA in response to the needs identified by the Satellite Needs Working Group (SNWG). In 2016, the White House Office of Management and Budget and Office of Science and Technology Policy created the Satellite Needs Working Group (SNWG) with the remit to survey data-providing federal agencies and identify their highest-priority needs for satellite data. The SNWG 2018 survey placed surface water extent, surface disturbance, and surface displacement among the top ten inter-agency needs.
To learn more visit OPERA project site.
The Dynamic Surface Water Extent (DSWx) products map pixel-wise surface water detections using optical or SAR imagery. The DSWx suite is composed of complementary products, which are named according to their respective leveraged input datasets. Specifically, a separate DSWx product is generated from Sentinel-1, NISAR, SWOT, and the Harmonized Landsat Sentinel-2 (HLS) data. The products are designed to share the same structure, GeoTiff file format, file-naming convention, and have posting of 30 m for HLS, Sentinel-1, and NISAR and TBD (100 or 120 m) for SWOT. These DSWx products are provided as an analysis ready dataset but are not harmonized across the different sensors. All products will be accessible through NASA’s Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC).
The following table provides a summary of key product characteristics including the spatial coverage and resolution, the start of the product record, and the temporal sampling of the sensors used as input for the products:
Dynamic Surface Water Extent (DSWx)
Near-Global**
*This indicates the beginning of the product record, not the beginning of OPERA processing assuming nominal sensor availability. ** = all landmasses excluding Antarctica.
Related information:
