Papa, F., C. Prigent, and W.B. Rossow, 2008: Monitoring flood and discharge variations in the large Siberian rivers From a multi-satellite technique. Surv. Geophys., 29, 297-317, doi:10.1007/s10712-008-9036-0.
Using a multi-satellite technique that provides monthly inundation extent at global scale, we investigate in this study the response of river discharge to seasonal flood change in the large Siberian watersheds. The seasonal cycle and variations of inundation extent over the Ob, the Yenissey, and the Lena basins for the period 1993-2000 show different spatial and temporal behaviors in the inundation due to different climate and permafrost conditions. A clear correspondence was found between the yearly inundation beginning and the depletion in the winter snow water equivalent. Using in-situ discharge collected at the outlets of the three basins, we then identified a clear correspondence between the river streamflow and the seasonal inundation extent change, i.e., an increase in discharge associated with an increase of inundation during the spring/summer periods. To quantify the relation between river runoff and basin inundations extent variations, we examined and compared the monthly mean streamflow with the monthly basin inundation extent. The results revealed a very strong linkage between the streamflow and inundation extent during the spring/summer season and we developed a statistically significant linear relation between the monthly discharge and inundation extent. Furthermore, we analyzed extreme (high/low) streamflow cases for some years and the associated inundation conditions for the three watersheds and link these cases with other climatic parameters such as the snow water equivalent, temperatures, and precipitation. The results of this study demonstrate that the monthly satellite-derived inundation dataset bring a new useful tool for better understanding streamflow processes in the Arctic regions and represents a useful step to improve the description of the snow-inundation-runoff relations in hydrological model over boreal river basins.
