HHU24SWDSCS: a shallow-water depth model over island areas in the South China Sea retrieved from satellite-derived bathymetry

Wu, Yihao; Shi, Hongkai; Jia, Dongzhen; Andersen, Ole Baltazar; He, Xiufeng; Luo, Zhicai; Li, Yu; Chen, Shiyuan; Si, Xiaohuan; Diao, Sisu; Shi, Yihuang; Chen, Yanglin

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-2463-2025

Articles | Volume 17, issue 6

https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-2463-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-2463-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 17, issue 6

Data description paper

|

10 Jun 2025

Data description paper |

| 10 Jun 2025

HHU24SWDSCS: a shallow-water depth model over island areas in the South China Sea retrieved from satellite-derived bathymetry

Yihao Wu, Hongkai Shi, Dongzhen Jia, Ole Baltazar Andersen, Xiufeng He, Zhicai Luo, Yu Li, Shiyuan Chen, Xiaohuan Si, Sisu Diao, Yihuang Shi, and Yanglin Chen

Data sets

HHU24SWDSCS: A shallow-water depth model over island areas in South China Sea retrieved from Satellite-derived bathymetry Yihao Wu et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13852568

DTU18BAT_1min.bat O. B. Andersen https://ftp.space.dtu.dk/pub/DTU18/1_MIN/

SRTM15CV2.6 and topo_27.1 D. T. Sandwell et al. https://topex.ucsd.edu/pub/global_topo_1min/

GEBCO 2024 Grid GEBCO Compilation Group https://doi.org/10.5285/1c44ce99-0a0d-5f4f-e063-7086abc0ea0f

ATLAS/ICESat-2 L2A Global Geolocated Photon Data (ATL03, Version 6) T. A. Neumann et al. https://doi.org/10.5067/ATLAS/ATL03.006

MSI Level-2A BOA Reflectance Product. Collection 1 Copernicus Sentinel-2 https://doi.org/10.5270/S2_-znk9xsj

Short summary

We developed a high-quality and cost-effective shallow-water depth model for >120 islands in the South China Sea, using ICESat-2 and Sentinel-2 satellite data. This model maps water depths with an accuracy of ~1 m. Our findings highlight the limitations of existing global bathymetry models in shallow regions. Our model exhibited superior performance in capturing fine-scale bathymetric features with unprecedented spatial resolution, providing essential data for marine applications.