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Copernicus Sentinel-2 captures rising river flow in the Tagliamento River

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Title: Copernicus Sentinel-2 captures rising river flow in the Tagliamento River

Description:

Copernicus Sentinel-2 data of 26 October 2019 and 10 November show clearly the increasing river flow as a consequence of rainfall and snow melt along the Southern Alps. On the left side, the situation is shown as false-colour infrared images where vegetation appears red. On the right side, a water index computed from Copernicus Sentinel-2 bands shows water in blue.

Water reflects particularly blue and green parts of the sunlight, whereas infrared gets absorbed. As a result, water appears very dark in the Copernicus Sentinel-2 infrared bands, while it appears brighter in the visible bands  This spectral difference for water is rather unique, and calculating the difference between a visible band and an infrared band over the entire image thus enables to generate a map of where open water is found in the scene.

Copyright: Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2019)/processed by the Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo. The Copernicus Sentinel-2 water index was extracted from the Sentinel Hub EO Browser.