Submarine groundwater discharge in tidal flats revealed by space-borne synthetic aperture radar

Most space-borne sensors cannot detect subsurface features. Groundwater is a typical subsurface feature, and its discharge to coastal ocean waters plays an important role in transporting terrestrial chemical constituents and providing habitats for various species of fauna and flora. This is the first paper to report observational evidence for submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) in tidal flats using space-borne synthetic aperture radar (SAR). Tidal flats are composed of high-moisture-saturated sediments and water puddles. These shallow water puddles were imaged effectively by using SAR systems. The presence of water puddles is usually indicated by low radar backscatter in SAR images due to specular reflections on the water surface. This effect was proved by comparing radar backscattering coefficients obtained from two space-borne SAR systems, TerraSAR-X and RADARSAT-2, with those obtained from two theoretical scattering models, IEM and Oh model. We observed relatively large, widely distributed water puddles in belt shape along the upper parts of the tidal flat, which were confirmed to be related to the discharge of groundwater. The results of this research suggest that SAR can be a powerful tool for observing and determining the areal distributions of possible groundwater discharge in large tidal flats, which is normally difficult to detect with traditional measurement tools or survey techniques for groundwater discharge. We firmly believe that this technique can reduce significantly the efforts of field work to confirm SGD in tidal flats.

Research Highlights
► Space-borne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) can detect surface roughness features.
► Dark patches in SAR images are related to the presence of water puddles (smooth surface) in tidal flat.
► Water puddles closer to land in tidal flat are confirmed to the discharge of groundwater.
► SAR can be used to reduce laborious effort and time spent on searching for SGD in tidal flat.