Analysis of lake water area extracted from different resolution data using HJ-1A/B and MODIS

The lake distribution maps with 30 m, 250 m and 500 m spatial resolution were derived from HJ-1A/B and MODIS at the same time in order to study the impact of spatial resolution on lake water area extraction. For lakes with area larger than 10 km2, the lake area estimates derived by both 250 m MODIS and 500 m MODIS have strong correlations with those derived from HJ-1A/B data. And 500 m MODIS data can get nearly the same estimates as 250 m MODIS data. Lakes were divided into three groups according to the shape index of lake water body. Taking HJ-1A/B lake maps as reference, it is found that the error of estimates from MODIS data is large when the lake is small and the lake shape is complex, while the error is small when the lake is big and the lake shape is simple.