TerraSAR-X rapid mapping over South-West Queensland flooded area
South-west Queensland was hit by a severe flood event in early March 2010 and the town of St George was partially evacuated as floodwaters surged down the Balonne River. But the influx of water was a blessing for the Murray Darling Basin.
The property at Cubbie Station has seen their dams filled with more than welcome water and there is promise of satisfying environmental and commercial demands along the parched system.
Apogee and Infoterra have utilised TerraSAR-X’ s ability to provide high resolution images that are not affected by cloud conditions to map the record breaking flood extents. The first TSX ScanSAR scene over the property was acquired on the 4th March 2010 and further scenes are scheduled to capture conditions at peak levels.
The image below shows the geographic position of the 100km x150km TSX ScanSAR scene acquired on the 4th of March 2010 overlaid on a MODIS image from the same day, highlighting the prevailing cloud cover at the time.
MODIS image over Queensland flooded area overlaid with a TerraSAR-X ScanSAR scene
Below are three subsets of the TSX image over Cubbie station and surrounding areas with evidence of the early stages of the flooding mapped in Blue, that is already filling water storages.(for large images, please visit Our Spatial Planet.
TerraSAR-X subset over Cubbie Station showing flooded areas, Queensland
TerraSAR-X subset over Cubbie Station showing flooded areas, Queensland
TerraSAR-X subset over Cubbie Station showing flooded areas, Queensland