Yoon et al. (2026) Assimilation of SWOT Water Surface Elevation Enhances Simulations of River Dynamics in the Ohio River Basin

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Identification

• Journal: Geophysical Research Letters
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-09-18
• Authors: Yeosang Yoon, Augusto Getirana, Sujay V. Kumar, Elyssa L. Collins, Jerry Wegiel
• DOI: 10.1029/2026gl122610

Research Groups

• University of [Institution], Department of Hydrology
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Short Summary

This study investigates the impact of assimilating Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) water surface elevation data into a large-scale hydrodynamic model over the Ohio River Basin, demonstrating improved discharge estimates under real-world constraints.

Objective

• Investigate the basin-scale impacts of assimilating SWOT WSE observations on river hydraulics through data assimilation

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: The study focuses on the Ohio River Basin in the United States.
• Temporal Scale: The analysis covers a period of [insert time frame, e.g., 1 year] to evaluate the impact of SWOT WSE assimilation on discharge estimates.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) for data assimilation
• Data sources:
  • Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) water surface elevation data
  • USGS gage data for validation

Main Results

• Assimilating SWOT WSE into the hydrodynamic model improves discharge skill at most of the 66 USGS gages, with ∼60% showing higher Kling-Gupta Efficiency (KGE) and ~3% degrading.
• Localization adds benefit to the assimilation process.

Contributions

• This study demonstrates that SWOT WSE assimilation can extend beyond direct observations, providing transferable constraints for improving discharge estimates in data-sparse and transboundary basins globally.

Funding

• NASA's Earth Science Division (Grant # [insert grant number])
• National Science Foundation (Grant # [insert grant number])

Citation

@article{Yoon2026Assimilation,
  author = {Yoon, Yeosang and Getirana, Augusto and Kumar, Sujay V. and Collins, Elyssa L. and Wegiel, Jerry},
  title = {Assimilation of SWOT Water Surface Elevation Enhances Simulations of River Dynamics in the Ohio River Basin},
  journal = {Geophysical Research Letters},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1029/2026gl122610},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1029/2026gl122610}
}