Analysing fresh water flow to the Arctic Ocean for scientists

The Arctic Earth Observation Network provides a basis for monitoring and analyzing fresh water flows as well as changes in the upstream hydrological regime of the Arctic Ocean.

Based on the HYPE model developed by the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI), the Arctic HYPE model provides river discharge analyses and forecasts. These results provided by the Arctic HYPE model can be improved by assimilating additional information on river discharge and river water level. This information about the water level measurements is obtained by isardSAT by means of altimetry algorithms.

For this thematic app, a set of stations from the Arctic-HYCOS observing system that provide daily and monthly gauged river discharge data in the Arctic regions are used. Additionally, there is an operational processing of the Hydrology TEP water level service for virtual stations. These virtual stations are selected locations in which there are cross-sections of the Sentinel-3 satellite track and the Arctic rivers included in the Arctic HYPE model.