›Earth Observation for Water Cycle Science 2015

Earth Observation for Water Cycle Science 2015

Recent advances in Earth observation (EO) satellites have made improved global observations of several key parameters governing the global water cycle possible. In the coming years an increasing number of EO missions (e.g., SMOS, AQUARIUS, SMAP, SWOT, GPM, Sentinel 1, 2 and 3 series, EarthCare) will provide an unprecedented capacity to observe the land surface, the oceans and the atmosphere, opening a new era in EO and water cycle science. The full exploitation of this capacity by scientific and institutional users, in particular for water resources management under climate change, requires coordinated research efforts to develop robust global, regional and local scale satellite observations, enhanced models and in situ networks.

The purpose of this topical conference is to review our knowledge on the water cycle science at different scales in space and time; to advocate for the development of robust satellite geo-information data products to characterise and model the water cycle from global to basin scales; and to foster the improvement of models and data assimilation systems to support local, regional and global water cycle predictions, climate change impacts and development of mitigation strategies in water resources management.