Abstract

Seasonal inundation of wetlands effects millions of people worldwide as evidence by the recent flooding in the US and Pakistan. Current methods of tracking surface waters have poor temporal and spatial resolution. We propose a system of micro satellites that take advantage of the properties of sun glint to detect surface waters globally with a 10 meter pixel resolution on weekly basis. This system will provide enhanced data to resource mangers, emergency response teams and climate modelers. Using the ADEOS satellite orbital parameters, a ground track was created to explore the spatial and temporal resolution of off the shelf technology that could be packaged in a micro-satellite constellation of between 4-9 satellites.

Mentor

Vern Vanderbilt

Lab site

NASA Ames Research Center (ARC)

Funding Acknowledgement

This material is based upon work supported by the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation and by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0952013. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation or the National Science Foundation.

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URL: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/star/66

 

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