A hydro-optical model for deriving water quality variables from satellite images (HydroSat): A case study of the Nile River demonstrating the future Sentinel-2 capabilities

► HydroSat is developed to derive river's water quality from satellite images. ► Atmospheric correction and water quality retrieval are done simultaneously. ► HydroSat derives realistic water quality values that match hydrodynamic simulations. ► HydroSat is developed without tuning time or region dependent parameters. ► HydroSat is applicable to exploit archived Landsat and future Sentinel-2 data.