Arctic insights - Sentinel Success Stories
New data analysis technology delivers unprecedented Arctic insights
Satellite altimetry missions – such as Copernicus Sentinel-3 – are a crucial asset for understanding the characteristics of oceans and icesheets, but they are less geared towards observing smaller water bodies, like rivers, streams and inland lakes.
Monitoring the surface heights of these smaller water bodies is important for studying climate-related events, such as flooding, droughts and other hazards.
Monitoring the surface heights of these smaller water bodies is important for studying climate-related events, such as flooding, droughts and other hazards.
This approach can be less effective in remote regions with complex landscapes, such as the Arctic, due to constraints imposed by the sparsity of satellite datasets that cover these areas, as well as the impacts of seasonally occurring ice.
This approach can be less effective in remote regions with complex landscapes, such as the Arctic, due to constraints imposed by the sparsity of satellite datasets that cover these areas, as well as the impacts of seasonally occurring ice.
Developed by Lobelia, isardSAT and the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute with the support of ESA, Tero Water Level has already been applied to data from several altimetry missions, including Copernicus Sentinel-3.
An analysis completed over the Eastern Russia Arctic demonstrated that the method is able to observe hundreds of new virtual stations that are typically not discernible to other detection methods.
An analysis completed over the Eastern Russia Arctic demonstrated that the method is able to observe hundreds of new virtual stations that are typically not discernible to other detection methods.
Terro Water Level is providing new insight into Arctic water bodies and, beyond the Arctic, it can be applied to any region of the world. It helps scientists explore the impacts of the climate crisis and is particularly useful in areas with a lack of in-situ monitoring.
Would you like to learn more about this story?
Read full story