Unlocking the potential of CYGNSS for pan-tropical inland water mapping through multi-source data and transformer

• Published in: International journal of applied earth observation and geoinformation Vol. 133; p. 104122
• Main Authors: Chen, Yuhan, Yan, Qingyun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.09.2024; Elsevier
• Subjects: Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CyGNSS); Global Navigation Satellite System-Reflectometry (GNSS-R); global positioning systems; Inland water mapping; inland waters; latitude; longitude; soil water; spatial data; surface water; topography; Transformer; vegetation; Transformer; Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CyGNSS); Inland water mapping; Global Navigation Satellite System-Reflectometry (GNSS-R)
• ISSN: 1569-8432
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jag.2024.104122

Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CyGNSS) data are widely recognized for their sensitivity to inland water bodies. However, the detection of water bodies using single CyGNSS data is subject to uncertainties, presenting challenges for large-scale and accurate water system detection. In this study, we employ CyGNSS data for regression estimation to map inland water bodies. In comparison to previous studies, we incorporate additional constraints, including topographic factors, vegetation information, soil moisture, and latitude and longitude data. Leveraging the U-shaped structure, Swin Transformer, and ContextModule, we effectively extract water body distribution information, referred to as CFRT. Through rigorous performance comparison with prevalent deep learning models, our method demonstrates remarkable accuracy. The generated water percent exhibits notable consistency with the reference data, achieving a root mean square error (RMSE) of 7.15% and a mean intersection over union of 0.778 within the reachable area of the CyGNSS data. Our approach emphasizes the significance of utilizing multi-source data to substantially enhance the accuracy of CyGNSS water system detection. •Employs CYGNSS data for estimating surface water fraction (SWF).•Incorporates topographic factors, soil moisture, and geolocation data.•Proposes the Context Feature Refinement Transformer model to effectively retrieve SWF.