Recent advance in earth observation big data for hydrology

Abstract

In the past three decades, breakthroughs in satellites and remote sensing have highly demonstrated their potential to characterize and model the various components of the hydrological cycle. A wealth of satellite missions are launched and some of the missions are specifically designed for hydrological research. Given the massive big data for hydrology, it is time for hydrology to embrace the fourth paradigm, data intensive science. This paper aims to highlight available and emergent technologies and missions in the field of Earth observation that have contributed greatly to hydrological science, the current status of those technologies and their improvements in our understanding of hydrological components, and to identify the important and emerging issues in Earth observation data applications in hydrology. This review will provide the readers with detail of Earth observation progress applications in hydrology.