Comparing Discharge Estimates Made via the BAM Algorithm in High-Order Arctic Rivers Derived Solely From Optical CubeSat, Landsat, and Sentinel-2 Data ...

• Main Authors: Gleason, C.J., Feng, D., Pavelsky, T.M., Yang, X.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2019
• Subjects: Arctic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17615/w1nw-mk10; https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/concern/articles/d791ss095

Conventional satellite platforms are limited in their ability to monitor rivers at fine spatial and temporal scales: suffering from unavoidable trade-offs between spatial and temporal resolutions. CubeSat constellations, however, can provide global data at high spatial and temporal resolutions, albeit with reduced spectral information. This study provides a first assessment of using CubeSat data for river discharge estimation in both gauged and ungauged settings. Discharge was estimated for 11 Arctic rivers with sizes ranging from 16 to >1,000 m wide using the Bayesian at-many-stations hydraulic geometry-Manning algorithm (BAM). BAM-at-many-stations hydraulic geometry solves for hydraulic geometry parameters to estimate flow and requires only river widths as input. Widths were retrieved from Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2 data sets and a CubeSat (the Planet company) data set, as well as their fusions. Results show satellite data fusion improves discharge estimation for both large (>100 m wide) and medium ...