Riggs, Ryan M.Allen, George H.Wang, JidaPavelsky, Tamlin M.Gleason, Colin J.David, Cedric H.Durand, Michael2024-02-122024-02-122023-05-261748-9326https://hdl.handle.net/10919/117957Long-term, continuous, and real-time streamflow records are essential for understanding and managing freshwater resources. However, we find that 37% of publicly available global gauge records (N = 45 837) are discontinuous and 77% of gauge records do not contain real-time data. Historical periods of social upheaval are associated with declines in gauge data availability. Using river width observations from Landsat and Sentinel-2 satellites, we fill in missing records at 2168 gauge locations worldwide with more than 275 000 daily discharge estimates. This task is accomplished with a river width-based rating curve technique that optimizes measurement location and rating function (median relative bias = 1.4%, median Kling-Gupta efficiency = 0.46). The rating curves presented here can be used to generate near real-time discharge measurements as new satellite images are acquired, improving our capabilities for monitoring and managing river resources.11 page(s)application/pdfenCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 Internationalriver dischargeriver gaugeremote sensing of dischargerating curveLandsatSentinel-2Article - Refereedhttps://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acd407186Allen, George [0000-0001-8301-5301]1748-9326