Introduction

Dr. Faisal Hossain, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Washington, uses remotely-sensed Earth observing data as an integral resource in his work helping nations in South and Southeast Asia address challenges of limited water, food, and energy against a backdrop of accelerated economic development. One example is an altimeter height extraction technique for dynamically changing rivers of South and South-East Asia developed by Dr. Hossain and his colleagues. 

Using Jason-3 and SAR Data to Measure River Height

The researcher's SASWE Dynamic River Width-based Altimeter Height Visualizer application is shown for the Mekong River, which supports the livelihood of more than 60 million people. The green line is static river height based only on near real-time Jason-3 altimeter data, and the red line is river height inferred by combining Jason-3 data with near real-time Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery to identify the width and location of the dynamic river.

Related Links

• SASWE Dynamic River Width based Altimeter Height Visualizer
• GitHub Repository - Google Earth Engine based Jason-3 height visualization

Reference

• Biswas, N., F. Hossain, M. Bonnema, H. Lee and M.A. Okeowo (2019) An Altimeter Height Extraction Technique for Dynamically Changing Rivers of South and South-East Asia, Remote Sensing of the Environment, vol. 221, pp. 24-37.