River-ice and water velocities using the Planet optical cubesat constellation
The PlanetScope constellation consists of ∼150 optical cubesats that are evenly distributed like strings of pearls on two orbital planes, scanning the Earth's land surface once per day with an approximate spatial image resolution of 3 m. Subsequent cubesats on each of the orbital planes image t...
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Copernicus Publications
2019
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fttriple:oai:gotriple.eu:oai:doaj.org/article:1289e585815141a0b34e3b8af2db2921 2023-05-15T18:45:59+02:00 River-ice and water velocities using the Planet optical cubesat constellation A. Kääb B. Altena J. Mascaro 2019-10-01 https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-4233-2019 https://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/23/4233/2019/hess-23-4233-2019.pdf https://doaj.org/article/1289e585815141a0b34e3b8af2db2921 en eng Copernicus Publications doi:10.5194/hess-23-4233-2019 1027-5606 1607-7938 https://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/23/4233/2019/hess-23-4233-2019.pdf https://doaj.org/article/1289e585815141a0b34e3b8af2db2921 undefined Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, Vol 23, Pp 4233-4247 (2019) geo envir Journal Article https://vocabularies.coar-repositories.org/resource_types/c_6501/ 2019 fttriple https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-4233-2019 2023-01-22T18:19:04Z The PlanetScope constellation consists of ∼150 optical cubesats that are evenly distributed like strings of pearls on two orbital planes, scanning the Earth's land surface once per day with an approximate spatial image resolution of 3 m. Subsequent cubesats on each of the orbital planes image the Earth surface with a nominal time lag of approximately 90 s between them, which produces near-simultaneous image pairs over the across-track overlaps of the cubesat swaths. We exploit this short time lag between subsequent Planet cubesat images to track river ice floes on northern rivers as indicators of water surface velocities. The method is demonstrated for a 60 km long reach of the Amur River in Siberia, and a 200 km long reach of the Yukon River in Alaska. The accuracy of the estimated horizontal surface velocities is of the order of ±0.01 m s−1. The application of our approach is complicated by cloud cover and low sun angles at high latitudes during the periods where rivers typically carry ice floes, and by the fact that the near-simultaneous swath overlaps, by design, do not cover the complete Earth surface. Still, the approach enables direct remote sensing of river surface velocities for numerous cold-region rivers at a number of locations and occasionally several times per year – which is much more frequent and over much larger areas than currently feasible. We find that freeze-up conditions seem to offer ice floes that are generally more suitable for tracking, and over longer time periods, compared with typical ice break-up conditions. The coverage of river velocities obtained could be particularly useful in combination with satellite measurements of river area, and river surface height and slope. Article in Journal/Newspaper Yukon river Alaska Siberia Yukon Unknown Yukon Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 23 10 4233 4247 |
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geo envir A. Kääb B. Altena J. Mascaro River-ice and water velocities using the Planet optical cubesat constellation |
topic_facet |
geo envir |
description |
The PlanetScope constellation consists of ∼150 optical cubesats that are evenly distributed like strings of pearls on two orbital planes, scanning the Earth's land surface once per day with an approximate spatial image resolution of 3 m. Subsequent cubesats on each of the orbital planes image the Earth surface with a nominal time lag of approximately 90 s between them, which produces near-simultaneous image pairs over the across-track overlaps of the cubesat swaths. We exploit this short time lag between subsequent Planet cubesat images to track river ice floes on northern rivers as indicators of water surface velocities. The method is demonstrated for a 60 km long reach of the Amur River in Siberia, and a 200 km long reach of the Yukon River in Alaska. The accuracy of the estimated horizontal surface velocities is of the order of ±0.01 m s−1. The application of our approach is complicated by cloud cover and low sun angles at high latitudes during the periods where rivers typically carry ice floes, and by the fact that the near-simultaneous swath overlaps, by design, do not cover the complete Earth surface. Still, the approach enables direct remote sensing of river surface velocities for numerous cold-region rivers at a number of locations and occasionally several times per year – which is much more frequent and over much larger areas than currently feasible. We find that freeze-up conditions seem to offer ice floes that are generally more suitable for tracking, and over longer time periods, compared with typical ice break-up conditions. The coverage of river velocities obtained could be particularly useful in combination with satellite measurements of river area, and river surface height and slope. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
A. Kääb B. Altena J. Mascaro |
author_facet |
A. Kääb B. Altena J. Mascaro |
author_sort |
A. Kääb |
title |
River-ice and water velocities using the Planet optical cubesat constellation |
title_short |
River-ice and water velocities using the Planet optical cubesat constellation |
title_full |
River-ice and water velocities using the Planet optical cubesat constellation |
title_fullStr |
River-ice and water velocities using the Planet optical cubesat constellation |
title_full_unstemmed |
River-ice and water velocities using the Planet optical cubesat constellation |
title_sort |
river-ice and water velocities using the planet optical cubesat constellation |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-4233-2019 https://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/23/4233/2019/hess-23-4233-2019.pdf https://doaj.org/article/1289e585815141a0b34e3b8af2db2921 |
geographic |
Yukon |
geographic_facet |
Yukon |
genre |
Yukon river Alaska Siberia Yukon |
genre_facet |
Yukon river Alaska Siberia Yukon |
op_source |
Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, Vol 23, Pp 4233-4247 (2019) |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/hess-23-4233-2019 1027-5606 1607-7938 https://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/23/4233/2019/hess-23-4233-2019.pdf https://doaj.org/article/1289e585815141a0b34e3b8af2db2921 |
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undefined |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-4233-2019 |
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Hydrology and Earth System Sciences |
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23 |
container_issue |
10 |
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4233 |
op_container_end_page |
4247 |
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