High-resolution depth and coastline over major atolls of South China Sea from satellite altimetry and imagery

- High-resolution, most accurate altimeter gravity anomalies in the South China Sea
- Most accurate altimeter-only depths in the SCS, confirmed by multi-beam depths
- Detailed reef lines and coastlines over atolls from satellite altimetry and imagery

Current bathymetric models for the South China Sea (SCS) are largely based on predicted depths from gravity and sparse single-beam echo-sounder measurements. Such models lack high-resolution coastlines and shallow-water bottom features around atolls and islands. This study refines the gravity field of the SCS using sea surface heights from measurements of satellite altimeter Geosat/GM, ERS-1/GM, Jason-1/GM and the original Cryosat-2. A new one-minute gravity anomaly grid is determined. The modeled gravity anomalies show a 6-mgal RMS discrepancy with shipborne measurements in shallow waters. An altimeter-only bathymetric model is derived from the new gravity grid by the gravity-geological method that uses the latest global and regional models of the ocean depth and marine gravity as a priori knowledge. The new model outperforms current SCS bathymetric models and is accurate to 100 m, based on comparison with multi-beam depth measurements. Optical images from IKONOS-2, QuickBird-2, GeoEye-1, WorldView-1-2 and -3, are rectified and digitized to derive the zero (coastline) and 20-m depth contours (reef lines) around 44 atolls, which are integrated with the altimeter-only depths, giving significantly improved accuracies and spatial resolutions in modeled depths. The improvement percentages of coastlines by the satellite imagery range from 50% to 97% at 41 of the 44 atolls. We establish a webpage for free access to the optical and depth images, and the depth and gravity grids. We will continue to update satellite images, altimeter-derived gravity grids and bathymetric models over major atolls of the SCS.