Calmant Stéphane auteur aut IRD Seyler Frédérique auteur aut IRD Cretaux J. F. auteur aut IRD text journalArticle eng text/pdf born digital access The monitoring of continental water stages is a requirement for meeting human needs and assessing ongoing climatic changes. However, regular gauging networks fail to provide the information needed for spatial coverage and timely delivery. Although the space missions discussed here were not primarily dedicated to hydrology, 18 years of satellite altimetry have furnished complementary data that can be used to create hydrological products, such as time series of stages, estimated discharges of rivers or volume change of lakes, river altitude profiles or leveling of in situ stations. Raw data still suffer uncertainties of one to several decimeters. These require specific reprocessing such as waveform retracking or geophysical correction editing; much work still remains to be done. Besides, measuring the flow velocity appears feasible owing to SAR interferometer techniques. Inundated surfaces, and the time variations of their extent, are currently almost routinely computed using satellite imagery. Thus, the compilation of the continuous efforts of the scientific community in these various investigative directions, such as recording from space the discharges of rivers or the change in water volume stored in lakes, can be foreseen in the near future. specialized Satellite altimetry Hydrology Rivers and lakes 066 126 29 4-5 247-269 2008 0169-3298 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010044285 10.1007/s10712-008-9051-1 0169-3298 [F B010044285] https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010044285 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/intranet/publi/2009/02/010044285.pdf Accès réservé (Intranet de l'IRD) IRD - Base Horizon / Pleins textes 2009-03-06 2017-08-23 fdi:010044285 fre