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Amazon hydrology from space: scientific advances and future challenges
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  • Alice César Fassoni-Andrade,
  • Ayan Santos Fleischmann,
  • Fabrice Papa,
  • Rodrigo Cauduro Dias de Paiva,
  • Sly Wongchuig,
  • John M. Melack,
  • Adriana Aparecida Moreira,
  • Adrien Paris,
  • Anderson Ruhoff,
  • Claudio Clemente Faria Barbosa,
  • Daniel Andrade Maciel,
  • Evlyn Márcia Leão de Moraes Novo,
  • Fabien Durand,
  • Frederic Frappart,
  • Filipe Aires,
  • Gabriel Medeiros Abrahão,
  • Jefferson Ferreira-Ferreira,
  • Jhan Carlo Espinoza,
  • Leonardo Laipelt,
  • Marcos Heil Costa,
  • Raul Espinoza-Villar,
  • Stephane Calmant,
  • Victor Pellet
Alice César Fassoni-Andrade
Institute of Geosciences, University of Brasília

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Ayan Santos Fleischmann
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
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Fabrice Papa
Institut de Recherche pour le Développement
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Rodrigo Cauduro Dias de Paiva
Instituto de Pesquisas Hidráulicas IPH, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul UFRGS, Porto Alegre, Brazil
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Sly Wongchuig
Univ. Grenoble Alpes, IRD, CNRS, Grenoble INP, Insitut des Géosciences de l'Environnement (IGE, UMR 5001)
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John M. Melack
Earth Research Institute, University of California
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Adriana Aparecida Moreira
Instituto de Pesquisas Hidráulicas IPH, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
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Adrien Paris
Université de Toulouse, CNRS, CNES, IRD, UPS
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Anderson Ruhoff
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
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Claudio Clemente Faria Barbosa
Brazilian Institute of Space Research
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Daniel Andrade Maciel
Brazilian Institute of Space Research
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Evlyn Márcia Leão de Moraes Novo
Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais
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Fabien Durand
IRD/LEGOS
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Frederic Frappart
LEGOS
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Filipe Aires
LERMA
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Gabriel Medeiros Abrahão
Federal University of Viçosa
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Jefferson Ferreira-Ferreira
Mamirauá Institute for Sustainable Development
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Jhan Carlo Espinoza
Institut de Recherche pour le Développement
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Leonardo Laipelt
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
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Marcos Heil Costa
Federal University of Viçosa
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Raul Espinoza-Villar
Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina
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Stephane Calmant
IRD
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Victor Pellet
The University of Tokyo
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Abstract

As the largest river basin on Earth, the Amazon is of major importance to the world’s climate and water resources. Over the past decades, advances in satellite-based remote sensing (RS) have brought our understanding of its terrestrial water cycle and the associated hydrological processes to a new era. Here, we review major studies and the various techniques using satellite RS in the Amazon. We show how RS played a major role in supporting new research and key findings regarding the Amazon water cycle, and how the region became a laboratory for groundbreaking investigations of new satellite retrievals and analyses. At the basin-scale, the understanding of several hydrological processes was only possible with the advent of RS observations, such as the characterization of “rainfall hotspots” in the Andes-Amazon transition, evapotranspiration rates, and variations of surface waters and groundwater storage. These results strongly contribute to the recent advances of hydrological models and to our new understanding of the Amazon water budget and aquatic environments. In the context of upcoming hydrology-oriented satellite missions, which will offer the opportunity for new synergies and new observations with finer space-time resolution, this review aims to guide future research agenda towards an integrated monitoring and understanding of the Amazon water from space. Integrated multidisciplinary studies, fostered by international collaborations, set up future directions to tackle the great challenges the Amazon is currently facing, from climate change to increased anthropogenic pressure.
Dec 2021Published in Reviews of Geophysics volume 59 issue 4. 10.1029/2020RG000728