Surface water area data for isolated stock ponds in southern Arizona, USA and northern Sonora, Mexico

These data were compiled to compare the ability of matched filtering (MF) and linear spectral mixture analysis (LSMA) to map isolated wetland sites using Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) and Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) data. We analyzed 81 stock ponds corresponding to a 2007 Landsat 5 image and 73 sites corresponding to a 2014 Landsat 8 image in southern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico, with ponds ranging from completely dry to ~17,000 m2 surface water. Both Landsat images we used were Tier 1 Level-1 terrain corrected scenes acquired from Earth Explorer (https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov), which were provided as individual bands represented by digital numbers (DNs). The inundation extent of stock ponds in the San Rafael Valley and surrounding areas was assessed. The northern part of the valley is in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, and extends into the northern part of Sonora, Mexico. The area ranges from ~1,400 to 1,500 m in elevation, with surrounding mountains >1,800 m. Annual precipitation averages ~438 mm in the valley, with the majority (~270 mm) of rainfall occurring during the summer monsoon season.