Land Surface Remote Sensing in Continental Hydrology

The continental hydrological cycle is one of the least understood components of the climate system. The understanding of the different processes involved is important in the fields of hydrology and meteorology. In this volume the main applications for continental hydrology are presented, including the characterization of the states of continental surfaces (water state, snow cover, etc.) using active and passive remote sensing, monitoring the Antarctic ice sheet and land water surface heights using radar altimetry, the characterization of redistributions of water masses using the GRACE mission, the potential of GNSS-R technology in hydrology, and remote sensing data assimilation in hydrological models. This book, part of a set of six volumes, has been produced by scientists who are internationally renowned in their fields. It is addressed to students (engineers, Masters, PhD) , engineers and scientists, specialists in remote sensing applied to hydrology. Through this pedagogical work, the authors contribute to breaking down the barriers that hinder the use of Earth observation data.

Author Biography: Nicolas Baghdadi is Research Director at IRSTEA in France. He is currently the scientific director of the French Land Data Centre (Theia). Mehrez Zribi is Research Director at CNRS in France. He is currently active at CESBIO in Toulouse where he is also responsible for the team of observation systems.

Chapter 1. Characterization of Soil Surface Properties Using Radar Remote Sensing Chapter 2. Estimation of Soil Water Conditions Using Passive Microwave Remote Sensing Chapter 3. Using Satellite Scatterometers to Monitor Continental Surfaces Chapter4. Optical Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Chapter 5. Snow Characterization Using Radar Imaging Chapter 6. Spatial Altimetry and Continental Waters Chapter 7. Radar Altimetry for Monitoring the Antarctic Ice Sheet Chapter 8. Monitoring Water Mass Redistributions on Land and Polar Ice Sheets using the GRACE Gravimetry from Space Mission Chapter 9. Applications of GNSS-R in Continental Hydrology Chapter 10. Energy Balance of Continental Surfaces and the Use of Surface Temperature Chapter 11. Remote Sensing Data Assimilation: Applications to Catchment Hydrology Chapter 12. Satellite Data Assimilation: Application to the Water and Carbon Cycles