Karachi, the largest city of Pakistan received heavy monsoon rain August 30, 2017. The flood in Karachi due to heavy rains is the continuation of the similar monsoon related flooding crisis in the South East Asia region (India, Bangladesh etc.).The Flood map below is derived (subset of Karachi city ) from European Space Agency (ESA)’s Copernicus Program SENTINEL-1 Synthetic Aperture RADAR (SAR) image acquired on September 01, 2017. The green color in the map shows the flooded region.
The total rainfall derived from satellite data (GPM IMERG) for Karachi from August 29-31, 2017 is shown in Figure below:
Used for fire extent detection measurement, coastal and vegetation monitoring, land cover and land use mapping. WFI-2 (Amazonia-1) is the same instrument as WFI-2 (CBERS), however due differences in orbital altitude, they have different spatial resolution
Khyber Pakhtunkhaw (KPK) provincial government in Pakistan, govern by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party launched a reforestation program named “Billion tree Tsunami”, in 2015 (@btap2015). Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI), a cricket super star turned politician is the head of PTI party, Prime Minister of Pakistan and main driver behind this massive plantation campaign to turn degraded into forested land. The important aspect of this project is to monitor and identify the growth of these plantation regions. The remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) tools provides this near-real-time (NRT) information at low cost compared to field campaigns.
The well known method to identify and monitor land surface changes using satellite remote sensing data utilizes a combination of band thresholding and optical indices (such as Normalized Difference Vegetation Index – NDVI) to separate land surface features. Applying this approach to two separate images by a given period of time allows changes in the extent of the area of interest to be identified. The atmospheric correction to the two images separated over time, extent of land can be compared. allowing for changes to be identified. this approach will provide an excellent alternative to field level change detection methods in challenging environments across Pakistan. We tested this approach for Bannu forest region (as shown in the Figure 2). The Figure 1 shows the land cover map of Bannu region for the year 2015.
Figure 1: Land Cover map of Bannu forest region (credit to ESA CCI)
Figure 2: Map of Bannu forest region (credit to Billion Tree Tsunami website)
Two Landsat 8 images are used for this study area acquired in June 01, 2013 and June 12, 2017. The Landsat 8 images are freely available from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) “EarthExplorer” (https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/). The images were converted into surface reflectance before NDVI calculations using a standardised approach ( for detail check http://landsat.usgs.gov/CDR_LSR.php).
Figure 3: NDVI map of Bannu forest region derived from Landsat 8 image acquired on June 01, 2013.
Figure 4: NDVI map of Bannu forest region derived from Landsat 8 image acquired on June 12, 2017.
Figure 5: NDVI map in KMZ format of Bannu forest region derived from Landsat 8 image acquired on June 01, 2013 shown in google earth.
Figure 6: NDVI map in KMZ format of Bannu forest region derived from Landsat 8 image acquired on June 12, 2017 shown in google earth.
Please contact me for more detail. email:kshahidk@gmail.comtwitter:@kshahidkOttawa
Cyclone Mora has formed in the Bay of Bengal, will head towards highly populated Bangladesh by Tuesday. The data for this animation is used from NOAA-GFS model for period from 2017-05-28 to 2017-06-01.
ESA’s Climate Change Initiative in Glaciers_CCI Project, a team of researchers are using Copernicus Sentinel-1 SAR data with other optical data to monitor glaciers from space. The Negribreen glacier surge has been captured and shown in the animated gif (credit: ESA)
This post will provide an overview of the basics of Synthetic Aperture RADAR (SAR) and applications. The main topics discussed in the listed documents include: SAR basics, backscatter, geometry, interferometry, polarimetry, SAR data, data acquisition, available data sets/access to data, data analysis tools, future missions and SAR applications. Please do check Part 2 for more details.
What is RADAR? – RAdio Detection And Ranging
What is SAR? – Synthetic Aperture Radar – Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is an active remote sensing technology that uses microwave energy to illuminate the surface. The system records the elapsed timeand energy of the return pulse received by the antenna (PDF).
The Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation (CCMEO) is considered an international leader in the development and use of synthetic aperture radar or SAR sensors. From space, SAR can image the Earth’s surface through clouds and in total darkness. This makes it a tremendously useful sensor for monitoring Canada’s changing landmass and coastal zones. CCMEO scientists have worked with the Canadian Space Agency in the development of both RADARSAT 1 and RADARSAT 2 satellite missions. Their research has led to improved data quality through enhanced sensor design and post-launch calibration and validation activities.
This training manual introduces and explains Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR), including applications for data from the Envisat ASAR sensor and how to combine Envisat and ERS images to produce interferograms and differential interferograms.
RADARSAT is an advanced Earth observation satellite system developed by Canada to monitor environmental change and to support resource sustainability (Link)
RADARSAT-2
Launched in 2007, C-band quad-polirzation, MDA, CSA
The many advances in RADARSAT-2 technology were developed to respond to specific needs for radar data in hundreds of environmental monitoring applications in Canada and around the world (Link).
SENTINEL 1
Launched in 2014/15, C-band dual-polirzation, European Space Agency (ESA)
SENTINEL-1 provides data feeding services for applications in the Copernicus priority areas of maritime monitoring, land monitoring and emergency management (Link).
RISAT-1
Launched in 2012, C-band single/dual & Circular Polirzation, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)
Active Microwave Remote Sensing provides cloud penetration and day-night imaging capability. These unique characteristics of C-band (5.35GHz) Synthetic Aperture Radar enable applications in agriculture, particularly paddy monitoring in kharif season and management of natural disasters like flood and cyclone.
Terra SAR-X / TanDEM-X
Launched in 2007/10, X-band quad polirzation, DLR/Astrium, Germany
Terra SAR-X (TSX) mission overview, spacecraft, references (Link) (Link to documents)
JAXA conducted research and development activities for ALOS-2 to improve wide and high-resolution observation technologies developed for ALOS in order to further fulfill social needs. These social needs include: 1) Disaster monitoring of damage areas, both in considerable detail, and when these areas may be large 2) Continuous updating of data archives related to national land and infrastructure information 3) Effective monitoring of cultivated areas 4) Global monitoring of tropical rain forests to identify carbon sinks.
COSMO SkyMed
Launched in 2007/10, 4 Satellites X-band dual polirzation, ASI/Italy
COSMO SkyMed offers high resolution X‐Band SAR (synthetic aperture radar) images. Despite its enormous potential, research investigating the possible uses in archaeology is still very scarce, especially of one which works solely with single date analysis starting with a single SAR scene (PDF).
HJ-1C-SAR
Launched in 2013, S-band (HH or VV) polarization CRESDA/CAST/NRSCC, China
HJ-1A/B/C corresponding to environment and disaster monitoring and forecasting small satellite constellation A/B/C include two optical satellites – HJ-1A/B and one radar satellite HJ-1C, which can carry out large-scale, all-weather and 24h dynamic monitoring for ecological environment and disaster (Link).
PAZ
Launched in 2014, X-band quad polarization, Ministry of Defense, Spain
PAZ is a Spanish radar technology satellite designed to address not only security and defense requirements, but also others of civilian nature. It is capable of daily taking more than 100 images of up to 25 cm resolution, both day and night, and independently of weather conditions (Link).
Kompsat-5
Launched in 2013, X-band dual polarization, KARI, Korea
The Argentina National Space Activities Commission (CONAE) launched a new Earth observationsatellite that will support disaster management efforts. SAOCOM 1A is the first of a constellation of two radar satellites. The remote sensing mission aims to provide timely information for disaster management as well as monitoring services for agriculture, mining and ocean applications.
The launch of the first dual-frequency synthetic aperture radar (SAR). The data collected by the L-band (produced by NASA) and S-band (produced by ISRO) SAR systems aboard the NISAR satellite and processed into cloud-free, ultra-sharp imagery will facilitate cutting-edge research into some of the planet’s most complex processes, including ecosystem disturbances, ice-sheet dynamics, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, and landslides.
RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM)
Will launch in 2019 three satellites, C-band quad compact polirzation, Canadian Space Agency (CSA) (Link)
SM2RAIN is a simple algorithm for estimating rainfall from soil moisture data.
The SM2RAIN code and the soil moisture derived rainfall data sets are freely available and can be downloaded here. The description of SM2RAIN and of its performance can be found in Brocca et al. (2013) and Brocca et al., 2014. (also here at IRPI-CNR website)
Here you can find two recent TALKS (IPWG 2016 – SMAP 2016) showing the latest results with the applications of SM2RAIN to multiple satellite soil moisture products (ASCAT, QUIKSCAT, RAPIDSCAT, AMSR-E, AMSR2, SMOS, and SMAP). In the paper by Massari et al. (2014) it is shown that SM2RAIN-derived rainfall from in-situ soil moisture observations even improves flood modelling (see also here, Italian media). In this paper by Brocca et al. (2015) the application of SM2RAIN to synthetic and in situ observations at several sites in Europe further underlines the robustness of the method. In Ciabatta et al. (2015) the integration of SM2RAIN with state-of-the-art products has provided significant improvements for rainfall estimation over the whole Italian territory. The latest application of SM2RAIN is for irrigation assessment, see here the project and a first overview paper.
Other scientist are using SM2RAIN in Mexico, in the Tibet Pleateau, and on a global scale. Click on the image below for the current list (PDF) of SM2RAIN papers with link to full text.
ESA is pleased to announce that SAR data from the ERS-1 and the ERS-2 missions have been made available for direct download via the (A)SAR On-The-Fly (OTF) service.
With this release, users now have access to (A)SAR level 1 products from both ERS missions and from Envisat, covering Image Mode (IMS, IMP), Wide Swath (WSS) and Alternating Polarisation (APP, APS). All data are delivered as standard scenes in Envisat format.
Processing and download of the generated “standard scene” Level 1 products is performed directly through the EOLI-SA user interface. A user manual and FAQ page are available to get started.