Achieving Breakthroughs in Global Hydrologic Science by Unlocking the Power of Multisensor, Multidisciplinary Earth Observations

Abstract

Over the last half century, remote sensing has transformed hydrologic science. Whereas early efforts were devoted to observation of discrete variables, we now consider spaceborne missions dedicated to interlinked global hydrologic processes. Furthermore, cloud computing and computational techniques are accelerating analyses of these data. How will the hydrologic community use these new resources to better understand the world's water and related challenges facing society? In this commentary, we suggest that optimizing the benefits of remote sensing for advancing hydrologic research will happen by integrating multidisciplinary and multisensor data, leveraging commercial satellite measurements, and employing data assimilation, cloud computing, and machine learning. We provide several recommendations to these ends.Observations from satellites have transformed hydrologic science. Early efforts, five decades ago, mapped attributes like snow cover, rainfall, topography, and vegetation, but now we consider new missions specifically designed to study global hydrologic processes. We also take advantage of new technologies like cloud computing and artificial intelligence. We describe strategies for maximizing the benefits of remote sensing for hydrology, encouraging research across disciplines using multiple sensors, using new commercially available satellites, and combining remote sensing measurements with hydrologic models. Retrievals from satellite remote sensing have transformed hydrology by providing global information about state variables and fluxes Benefits of remote sensing to hydrologic science will benefit from integrating information from multiple sensors and disciplines