Using Passive Microwaves for Open Water Monitoring and Flood Forecasting

Abstract:

One of the biggest and severest natural disasters that society faces is floods. An important component that can help in reducing the impact of floods is satellite remote sensing as it allows for consistent monitoring and obtaining catchment information in absence of physical contact. Nowadays, passive microwave remote sensing observations are available in near real time (NRT) with a couple of hours delay from the actual sensing. The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) is a multi-frequency passive microwave sensor onboard the Global Change Observation Mission 1 – Water that was launched in May 2012. Several of these frequencies have a high sensitivity to the land surface and they also have the capacity to penetrate clouds. These advantages come at the cost of the relatively coarse spatial resolution (footprints range from ~5 to ~50 km) which in turn allows for global monitoring. A relatively simple methodology to monitor the fraction of open water from AMSR2 observations is presented here.
Low frequency passive microwave observations have sensitivity to the land surface but are modulated by overlying signals from physical temperature and vegetation cover. We developed a completely microwave based artificial neural network supported by physically based components to monitor the fraction of open water. Three different areas, located in China, Southeast Asia and Australia, were selected for testing purposes and several different characteristics were examined. First, the overall performance of the methodology was evaluated against the NASA NRT Global Flood Mapping system. Second, the skills of the various different AMSR2 frequencies were tested and revealed that artificial contamination is a factor to consider. The different skills of the tested frequencies are of interest to apply the methodology to alternative passive microwave sensors. This will be of benefit in using the numerous multi-frequency passive microwaves sensors currently observing our Earth. Finally, the fraction of open water products were compared against precipitation data over a 2-year analysis period and revealed strong seasonal agreement. Future research will focus on the integration of optical systems that allow observations at higher spatial resolutions and on the study of actual flood inundation events.