Estimating River Discharges in the Ogooue River Basin Using Satellite Altimetry Data

Radar altimetry, initially developed to observe the surface topography of the ocean, is now commonly used for the monitoring of inland water bodies. In this study, an altimetry-based gauging network was built in the Ogooué River Basin (ORB), in Gabon, Central Africa. It is composed of altimetry-based virtual stations (VS) under the altimetry tracks of ERS-2/ENVISAT/ SARAL, Cryosat-2, Sentinel-3A and Jason-2/Jason-3. River discharge was estimated from 1995 to 2017 combining water level records from several virtual stations close to Lambaréné gauge station and the rating curve from this station. Very good agreement was found in terms of R (>0.95), RMSE and annual discharge.