Streamflow prediction based on satellite and in situ measurements for hydro studies in central Chile

The need for accurate short and mid-term forecasting of the flow generated from snowmelt in mountain basins is an important issue for water management and hydropower activities in a number of areas on a global scale. As a result of the remoteness and difficult access to basins in cold weather conditions, where in-situ snow monitoring and meteorological stations are scarce, accurate flow predictions cannot easily be implemented because of the lack of available data to constrain numerical models. A modelling method described here is based on data from earth observation satellites.