Carr, AB, Trigg, MA orcid.org/0000-0002-8412-9332, Tshimanga, RM et al. (2 more authors) (2019) Greater Water Surface Variability Revealed by New Congo River Field Data: Implications for Satellite Altimetry Measurements of Large Rivers. Geophysical Research Letters, 46 (14). pp. 8093-8101. ISSN 0094-8276
Abstract
Large river hydrodynamics studies inform global and regional issues pertaining to biogeochemical cycling, ecology, water availability, and flood risk. Such studies rely increasingly on satellite measurements, but these are limited by resolution, coverage, and uncertainty and their inability to directly measure bathymetry or discharge. We obtain new in situ data covering 650 km of the Congo's main stem, including elusive bathymetry and discharge measurements that complement space‐borne data sets. Our key findings relate to our water surface elevation measurements, which show that spatial coverage of existing satellite altimetry for deriving river water surface profiles may be adequate through the globally important Cuvette Centrale but is not at its outlet where our field data reveal significant spatial variability in water surface slope. The findings have implications for altimetry‐based hydrodynamics studies of other large rivers, such as those that involve estimating discharge or modeling multichannel river hydraulics.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2019, the authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial‐NoDerivs License. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ |
Keywords: | Congo; fieldwork; bathymetry; hydraulics; cuvette centrale; altimetry |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Civil Engineering (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Geography (Leeds) > River Basin Processes & Management (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 22 Jul 2019 11:55 |
Last Modified: | 25 Jun 2023 21:55 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Geophysical Union |
Identification Number: | 10.1029/2019GL083720 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:148784 |