A remote sensing observatory for hydrologic sciences: A genesis for scaling to continental hydrology

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Read Full Article (file size: 3851497 bytes) Cited by WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH, VOL. 42, W07301, doi:10.1029/2005WR004435, 2006 A remote sensing observatory for hydrologic sciences: A genesis for scaling to continental hydrology Witold F. Krajewski IIHR–Hydroscience and Engineering, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA Martha C. Anderson Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory, ARS, USDA, Beltsville, Maryland, USA William E. Eichinger IIHR–Hydroscience and Engineering, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA Dara Entekhabi Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA Brian K. Hornbuckle Department of Agronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA Paul R. Houser Center for Research on Environment and Water, George Mason University, Calverton, Maryland, USA Gabriel G. Katul Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA William P. Kustas Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory, ARS, USDA, Beltsville, Maryland, USA John M. Norman Department of Soil Science, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, USA Christa Peters-Lidard NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA Eric F. Wood Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA Abstract Uncertainties in assessing the effects of global-scale perturbations on the climate system arise primarily from an inadequate understanding of the hydrological cycle: on land, in oceans, and in the atmosphere and biosphere. Because of this uncertainty, almost all science-based initiatives have expressed the need for continued advances in global observations and modeling of the Earth system. It is in this spirit that we advocate establishing a hydrologic remote sensing observatory (RSO) to advance sensing technologies and their use in scientific inquiry into hydrologic processes. There are two fundamental reasons why establishing such a RSO is timely. The first is operational: Developing assimilation techniques to estimate unobserved fluxes and uncertainties in hydrologic forecasts has sufficiently matured to take advantage of computing facilities and detailed hydrologic observations shaped by the RSO. The second is scientific: This RSO will permit us to refine knowledge from physical and hydrologic models that can then be converted to local and global strategies for water resources management and ecosystem health evaluation. The authors outline the conceptual design, scope, and functionality of a RSO and present four examples to illustrate how the hydrologic community can take advantage of such facility. Received 18 July 2005; accepted 4 May 2006; published 13 July 2006. Keywords: observatory; validation; ungauged basins; field experimentation. Index Terms: 1855 Hydrology: Remote sensing (1640); 1833 Hydrology: Hydroclimatology; 1840 Hydrology: Hydrometeorology; 1839 Hydrology: Hydrologic scaling. Read Full Article (file size: 3851497 bytes) Cited by Citation: Krajewski, W. F., et al. (2006), A remote sensing observatory for hydrologic sciences: A genesis for scaling to continental hydrology, Water Resour. Res., 42, W07301, doi:10.1029/2005WR004435. Copyright 2006 by the American Geophysical Union.

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