ESA River Discharge Climate Change Initiative (RD_cci): Combined river discharge product, v1.0

This dataset contains river discharge (Q) data in cubic meters per second (m3/s) from the ESA Climate Change Initiative River Discharge project (RD_cci).

These river discharge time series have been computed at different locations by the combination of data derived from satellite altimeters and multispectral sensors. Two levels of combination are implemented based on the original products: Level-2, in which the data has been derived by merging multi-mission multispectral time series (called CM) and the water level product derived by radar altimeters (called Altimetry), and Level-3, in which the river discharge products obtained from altimeters and multispectral sensors are used. The river discharges are derived following several approaches:

1) L2 Merged river discharge:

a) COPULA Altimetry – CM: by a bivariate cumulative distribution function (CDF) which is applied between the multispectral indices and the water level from altimetry to get their joint probability distribution.

b) RIDESAT Altimetry - CM: by a three-parameter non-linear relationship that merges the multispectral indices and the water level from altimetry

2) L3 Merged river discharge:

a) Altimetry - CM cal_BestFIT: by the combination of river discharges obtained by the procedure of BestFIT applied to the multispectral and river discharges obtained by the altimetry through a weighted approach

b) Altimetry – CM cal_Copula: by the combination of river discharges obtained by the procedure of Copula applied to the multispectral and river discharges obtained by the altimetry through a weighted approach

c) Altimetry – CM uncal_CDF: by the combination of river discharges obtained by the procedure of CDF applied to the multispectral and the altimetry through a weighted approach