NASA’s Satellite Data Can Predict Floods On Earth: Scientists

Researchers have found a way to measure the amount of water built up in river basins. Satellite data gathered by NASA’s GRACE satellite is helping scientists determine these measurements. This method has the potential to help forecasters in providing flood warnings.

GRACE satellite has the ability to make measurements of a region’s accumulation of water or snow. The calculations are made by detecting slight changes in the satellites’ orbit. The satellite undergoes changes in orbit due to gravitational fluctuations when the mass of water increases on Earth in certain areas . JT Reager, lead study author and earth scientist at the University of California, Irvine, said, “This gives the background on what’s on the ground before the rain even gets there.” The developments were published in the journal Nature Geoscience on July 6.

“Just like a bucket can only hold so much water, the same concept applies to river basins,” said Reager.

In 2011, JT Reager his team of researchers studied satellite data prior to the Missouri River floods. GRACE, at that time, successfully predicted the amount of water saturating the earth five months before the floods occurred. This was an event which shut down nuclear power plants, farmland, and interstates. The satellite could potentially offer an efficient way to warn the public more quickly than the one-month flood warning provided before the Missouri floods.

However, researchers are currently unable to access the satellite data without a three-month delay. The US space agency NASA is developing a new and faster way for data transfer.
(Image: NASA)