Caracterização do regime hidrológico do rio Beni

Satellite radar altimetry has the ability to monitor changes in the variations in surface water height, providing data with precision and with a wide spatial coverage. Through this method, can be obtained as data continues, homogeneous and frequently. Two of the main objectives for the use of this type of monitoring is to generate altimetry data where there are no stations on the ground and the difficulty of the exchange of information between the countries of South America. For the characterization of the hydrological regime of the Beni River, based on altimetry data of water level obtained from virtual stations, will be using the Ice-1 algorithm ENVISAT satellite. The software that will be used in this project are Google Earth and VALS. The river Beni has two well defined hydrological periods. The hydrological regime is characterized by a period of multimodal flooding, rapid rise and slow recession. Flood happens between the months of January to March, where the maximum quotas are found more often in March. The dry season starts in July and extends until October, getting more frequent, the minimum quotas that are in September. Thus, the results of space altimetry demonstrate that ENVISAT mission was successful in remote monitoring of temporary flooding of the Beni River.