Remote sensing in hydrology: Some downscaling and uncertainty issues

Abstract Some issues in the field of remote sensing application in hydrology are discussed in this editorial paper based on several contributions presented at Session HS11 ‘Remote Sensing in Hydrology’ during the XXI General Assembly of EGS in The Hague. These include downscaling problems, reliability estimates, and the assessment of the uncertainty associated with the retrieval of hydrological variables at various scales of concern. Calibration and validation issues are among the most pressing problems, for a major difficulty confronting many hydrological applications is still that of providing the available sophisticated models with very detailed initial and boundary conditions, from extensive high resolution monitoring campaigns.