Abstract
Groundwater plays a fundamental role in rainforest environments, as it is connected with rivers, lakes, and wetlands, and helps to support wildlife habitat during dry periods. Groundwater reservoirs are however excessively difficult to monitor, especially in large and remote areas. Using concepts from groundwater-surface water interactions and ENVISAT altimetry data, we evaluated the topography of the groundwater table during low-water periods in the alluvial plain of the central Amazon. The water levels are monitored using an unprecedented coverage of 491 altimetric stations over surface waters in the central Amazon. The groundwater table maps interpolated at spatial resolutions ranging from 50 to 100km are consistent with groundwater wells data. They provide evidence of significant spatiotemporal organization at regional scale: heterogeneous flow from the hillslope toward the main rivers is observed, as well as strong memory effects and contrasted hydrological behaviors between the North and the South of the Amazon. Key Points Groundwater and surface waters coincide during low-water periods First groundwater maps in central Amazon by satellite altimetry Interannual memory effects are observed in the central Amazon groundwater system