Monitoring Floods
Geologists have used images such as this to map flooding along rivers, to detect sand deposits along river banks from floods, and to predict the impact of future floods on nearby areas.
To the left is a combined radar and topography image of an area along the Missouri River that experienced severe flooding and levee failure in the summer of 1993. The radar data, pre-flood aerial photographs, and satellite data were combined with post-flood topographic and field data to evaluate flood plain changes associated with levee breaks that occurred during the river's widespread flooding.
The image below is a photograph taken a year later from the location (known as Jameson Island) shown by the white arrow on the radar image. The photo shows how the river has spread out due to erosion of the shoreline from the flooding of '93. Wingdikes (white arrows) in the channel mark the location of the levee prior to flooding in 1993.
LightSAR's Additional Contribution:
LightSAR will provide continuous global coverage. Thus, it will be able to monitor rapidly changing conditions and allow before-and-after comparisons of data during any selected period. It will also allow long-term observation of local and global trends.The longer L-band wavelength images acquired by LightSAR will allow better determination of soil moisture content. This information can be used to better assess the likelihood of future flooding.