Descarga de margem plena na bacia amazônica através da altimetria espacial

Abstract

This study proposes a methodology to calculate bankfull discharge along the rivers of the Amazon Basin by radar altimetry. We used ENVISAT and JASON - 2 satellites data to determine hydrological parameters such as width, amplitude, cross-sectional are a and water surface slope of the river. We have used a classification curve to validate this approach; the procedure determines the inflection point associated with the level that fills the channel to the top of its banks and at a point where the water begins to over flow onto a floodplain. Validations between bankfull discharge by altimetry data and gauges result in RMS ranging between 38 to 1633 m 3 /s. Comparisons with differents missions and algorithms showed that JASON-2 and Ice-1 algorithm, provides the more accurate bankfull discharge, e.g. 75 % of the validations. Results encourage the potential of this methodology at large rivers and/or poorly monitored regions.