A Remote Sensing Observatory for Hydrologic Sciences: A Genesis for Scaling to Continental Hydrology

The authors propose establishing a hydrologic remote sensing observatory to further advance sensing technologies and their use in scientific inquiry of hydrologic processes. They pose four fundamental questions the answering of which would benefit from a specialized observatory. The questions address issues that range from global needs to monitor changing landscapes and the associate hydrologic effects, to understanding scale effects on hydrologic variability, to improving our predictive skills, to the need for quantification of uncertainty of remote sensing based estimates of hydrologic variables. The authors elaborate four examples illustrating how each question could be addressed if the hydrologic community had a remote sensing observatory. They outline the conceptual design, scope and functionality of such a facility in the context of the CUAHSI HydroView research infrastructure.