| Monitoring surface water is critical for supporting agriculture, sustaining ecosystem health, and managing water resources. The recent availability of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data from the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission provides users with high-resolution, consistent observations of Earth’s surface every 12 days. These observations are particularly valuable in tropical and flood-prone regions, where frequent cloud cover and varying illumination often limit the effectiveness of optical remote sensing.
Complementing these observations, NASA’s Observational Products for End-Users from Remote Sensing Analysis (OPERA) project is producing global, analysis-ready surface water products that provide readily accessible information for researchers, resource managers, and decision-makers.
This intermediate-level training will introduce participants to complementary approaches for monitoring surface water using NISAR and OPERA. Participants will learn how to use NISAR SAR amplitude data to generate their own flood maps by identifying open water and inundated vegetation, as well as how to use the analysis-ready OPERA Surface Water Extent product for monitoring surface water and to support water management activities. The training will highlight the strengths, limitations, and appropriate applications of each approach.
The training will cover the fundamental principles of how radar detects surface inundation, the characteristics of NISAR and OPERA datasets, and considerations for selecting and interpreting these data for different applications. Through hands-on demonstrations, participants will learn how to access, visualize, and analyze NISAR and OPERA data using open-source software, gaining practical experience with workflows for surface water monitoring and water resource management. |
