IFSAR / SAR / Radar

The BOR uses lidar and other remote-sensing-based elevation data as a basis for hydraulic modeling of dam failure and operational release flood flows. This work involves the implementation of both one-dimensional and two-dimensional hydraulic models and relies heavily on an interfacing with Esri’s ArcGIS software. Hydraulic modeling employs the use of the Danish Hydraulic Institute’s MIKE models. Applications of this technology include emergency management and dam safety risk analysis.

Documenting bird and bat migration is challenging because migration activity is sporadic and nocturnal migrants (i.e., most aerial migrants) are difficult to observe. The FWS uses avian radar to monitor the timing, duration, and activity patterns of birds and bats as they move through the Great Lakes (https://www.fws.gov/radar).  Each radar unit has a horizontal antenna that scans 360° just above the horizon and a vertical antenna that scans a vertical slice of the sky.

Environment and Climate Change Canada, Natural Resources Canada, and the  FWS are collaborating to develop a multi-sensor, multi-frequency remote sensing approach to mapping and monitoring wetlands for the Great Lakes coastline and basin. One of the main purposes of this project is to prepare for the upcoming launch of the RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM) by determining how simulated compact polarimetry can be used to map and monitor ephemeral coastal wetlands with multitemporal submeter optical satellite imagery.

BOR performs dam failure inundation modeling and mapping in support of emergency evacuation planning and dam safety risk analysis. Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (IFSAR), lidar, and other geospatial terrain data are used within an Esri ArcGIS environment for pre- and post-processing of numerical hydraulic models. Hydraulic modeling employs one- and two-dimensional modeling techniques and relies primarily on the models produced with MIKE software by DHI.

Documenting bird and bat migration is challenging because migration activity is typically sporadic in nature and nocturnal movements are difficult to observe. The FWS uses avian radar to monitor the timing, duration, and activity patterns of bird and bat migrations along the shorelines of the Great Lakes (http://www.fws.gov/radar/).  In fall 2015 and spring 2016, radar units were deployed in northern Michigan along Lake Huron.

Repeated collection of high spatial resolution satellite imagery over the entire Great Lakes coastal zone will  allow resource managers to better understand, manage, and preserve the region’s dynamic wetland ecosystems.  In a binational effort lead and funded by the FWS, researchers at Michigan Tech Research Institute, the University of Minnesota, and SharedGeo are collaborating with the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing and with Environment and Climate Change Canada to produce updated and improved maps of critical coastal wetland characteristics such as surface-water extent, water

USGS scientists have been involved in mission planning, cartographic data processing, and scientific studies for the international Cassini-Huygens mission to the Saturn system since its inception in the early 1990s. Saturn’s Mercury-sized moon Titan, which has a range of geological features and processes unmatched by any other body besides the Earth, has been the main focus of these efforts.

The coastal marsh within Barataria Bay on the western side of the Mississippi River Delta was heavily impacted by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) and field data were collected near-concurrently in the summers of 2010, 2011, and 2012 in the north-central Gulf of Mexico to assess the condition of coastal marshes, including Barataria Bay.  PolSAR data alone were collected in 2009.

How often does the Fairweather Fault break in large earthquakes along the outer coast of Glacier Bay National Park in southeastern Alaska? Researchers at the USGS Alaska Science Center are mapping active surface traces of the Fairweather Fault to identify sites that may answer this question and reveal the frequency and size of past large earthquakes. By assessing past earthquake activity of the Fairweather Fault, scientists hope to improve the USGS National Seismic Hazard Map for the southeastern Alaska region.

Detection of hurricane surge impacts requires regional mapping of surge flooding duration and estimation of abnormal change in wetland condition.  To assess the impacts of Hurricane Sandy to coastal wetlands along the New Jersey Atlantic shore, USGS scientists studied the potential causal linkage of surge persistence and marsh condition. Surge persistence was estimated using a time series of TerraSAR-X and COSMO-SkyMed synthetic aperture radar (SAR)-based surge extents.