IRIS: Global Reach-Scale River Surface Slopes from the ICESat-2 Satellite

We present the latest version of the global reach-scale “ICESat-2 River Surface Slope” (IRIS) dataset, which comprises average and extreme water surface slopes (WSS) derived from observations of the ICESat-2 satellite between October 2018 and August 2023 as a supplement to 130,283 reaches from the “SWOT Mission River Database” (SWORD). To gain full advantage of ICESat-2’s accurate and unique measurement geometry with six parallel lidar beams, the WSS is determined across pairs of beams or along individual beams, depending on the intersection angle of spacecraft orbit and river centerline. Combining both approaches maximizes spatial and temporal coverage. IRIS can be used to research river dynamics, estimate river discharge, and correct water level time series from satellite altimetry for shifting ground tracks. Additionally, we compare IRIS with observations from the recently launched SWOT mission.