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Contribution of the TOPEX NASA Radar Altimeter to the global monitoring of large rivers and wetlands
Abstract
For certain major rivers and wetlands, hydrological information can often be difficult to obtain due to the inaccessibility of the region, the sparse distribution of gauge stations, or the slow dissemination of data. Satellite radar altimeters have the potential to monitor height variations over inland waters. Here, it is shown that the NASA radar altimeter (NRA), currently operating on board the TOPEX/POSEIDON satellite, can successfully track both large wetlands and rivers of >1 km width. The coverage, performance, and limitations of the NRA altimeter are discussed with relevance to these regions, and the merits of utilizing the geophysical data records (GDRs) and the sensor data records (SDRs) are explored. Time series of relative water level variations, for the first ∼3.7 years of the mission, have been obtained for a selection of the world's largest rivers, and for major wetlands of international importance. Validation shows the results can be accurate to ∼11 cm rms, offering the potential to observe these regions as part of a long‐term hydrological monitoring program.
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“In particular, the current constellation of satellite nadir altimeters offers near-global long-term capacity of monitoring inland waters35, therefore providing great potential for global river discharge estimates36–41.”
From Global scale river discharge and mean depth from radar altimetry and model (2026) · cites this paper as [37]
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Research works printed but not linked: 25
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Cited by
Salas, J. D., Govindaraju, R. S., Anderson, M., Arabi, M., Francés, F., Suarez, W., Lavado-Casimiro, W. S., & Green, T. R. (2014) · Modern Water Resources Engineering · doi:10.1007/978-1-62703-595-8_1 · Cited by 290
Global scale river discharge and mean depth from radar altimetry and model
Paris, A., Garambois, P.-A., Gal, L., Cerbelaud, A., Larnier, K., David, C. H., Jucá Oliveira, R. A., Correa, S. W., Tourian, M. J., & Calmant, S. (2026) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-026-78275-5
Metadata
- Authors
- Birkett, C. M.
- Venue
- Water Resources Research
- Publisher
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- Published
- 1998-05
- Volume
- 34
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 1223-1239
- ISSN
- 0043-1397
- 1944-7973
- Cited by
- 322
- References
- 0
- Language
- en
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