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Full catalog/rivdis_199
rivdis_199·v1·dataset

How much water rivers carry worldwide (1807-1991)

Global River Discharge, 1807-1991, V[ersion]. 1.1 (RivDIS)
hydrosphere NASA ORNL_CLOUD Level 3 multiple
In plain English

What it measures. Monthly records of how much water flowed through more than a thousand rivers around the world, with records stretching from 1807 to 1991 (though each station covers a different span).

How it's made. Compiled from published river-gauge measurements taken at streamflow stations, drawn from UNESCO archives and cross-checked against other discharge records.

How & where you'd use it. A valuable long-term reference for studying the global water cycle, long-term changes in river flow, and how much fresh water reaches the oceans.

What's measured

TERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE › SURFACE WATER › SURFACE WATER PROCESSES/MEASUREMENTS › DISCHARGE/FLOW

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span1807-01-01 → 1991-09-30
  • Measured bySTREAMFLOW STATION (STREAM GAUGES)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-178.5, -47.35, 176.73, 72.12
  • Formatsmultiple
  • StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

  • Follow rainfall, floods and surface-water extent
  • Track soil moisture and the onset of drought
  • Monitor lakes, rivers and groundwater storage
Official description

The Global Monthly River Discharge Data Set (RivDIS) contains monthly averaged discharge measurements for 1,018 stations located throughout the world from 1807-1991. The period of record varies widely from station to station with a mean of 21.5 years. The data are derived from the published UNESCO archives for river discharge, and checked against information obtained from the Global Runoff Center in Koblenz, Germany through the U.S. National Geophysical Data Center in Boulder, Colorado.

Get the data

rivdis_199_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="rivdis_199",
    version="1",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from ORNL_CLOUD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.