How Deep Was Lake Manly, Death Valley’s Short-Lived Lake?

Despite normally being dry than your mouth after demolishing a ring of saltines , the summer of 2023 saw Death Valleytransformedby the appearance of a temporary lake in Badwater Basin . Though it ’s now vanish , thanks to a new analysis of satellite image , we now recognise how the depth of this ephemeral lake changed over time .

Being inDeath Valley , aka the driest place in North America , Badwater Basin by and large does n’t have any piddle in it . So , when Hurricane Hilary brought heavy rainfall to the region last August , creating a impermanent eubstance of water make out as Lake Manly , there were no lasting legal instrument in place to evaluate it .

That ’s where the US - French Surface Water and Ocean Topography ( SWOT ) planet came in . launch in 2022 , the planet host an instrument called the Ka - band Radar Interferometer ( KaRIn ) that can value the Earth’s surface height of water .

Using airfoil height data point collected from SWOT and take off it from Badwater Basin ’s country elevation information , researchers were able-bodied to guess the depth of Lake Manly over the class of about six weeks in February and March 2024 .

“ This is a really cool good example of how SWOT can track how unique lake system of rules work , ” said Tamlin Pavelsky , hydrologist and the NASA fresh water science lead for SWOT , in astatement .

Their calculations reveal that depth in the lake during that time ranged from about 1 measure ( 3 groundwork ) to less than 0.5 meter ( 1.5 feet ) .

From the data , the team were also able-bodied to generate images symbolise the water system depth . The one symbolise February 23 shew anincrease in depthin parts of the lake after previously bet like it was disappearing . This matches up with what we might expect from the weather around that time .

Early February saw anatmospheric riverdump 38 millimeters ( 1.5 inches ) of rain into Death Valley in just three days – it normally only gets 50 millimetre ( 2 inch ) in a year . Some of that pee drained into the basin , and lo and behold , Lake Manly ’s last time was commuted .

Though the satellite data point aid to give a more exact word picture , the fact that visitors to the lake were successfully able to kayak on the waters also indicates they were reasonably bass .

All in force thing must total to an end , however , and as the trope from March 4 shows , Lake Manly was gradually becoming shallower anddisappearing – on that date , boating was no longer allowed . This was help along by another binge of severe weather .

“ [ I]ntense winds from February 29 through March 2 blew the lake to the north , spreading it out , resulting in shallow piddle , ” understand a statement from the Death Valley National Park Service posted at the meter .

The curtain might have fall on Lake Manly , but SWOT will continue to be busy until the next time it pops up – it ’s on amissionto touchstone the lift of nigh all the water on Earth ’s surface .