Observing of disaster by ALOS

Indonesian Flood observation by PALSAR

Color composite of the PALSAR FBS 41.5 HH images, RED and GREEN for after the flood of Feb. 5 2007, and BLUE for the before of Jun. 20 2006, shows the land surface change in the color. BLUE color in the figure shows the flooding in dominant and it spread out widely in the image.

Indonesian Flood observation by PALSAR
(Click to View Enlarged Image)

Jakarta, Indonesian Capital, was heavily flooded on Feb. 2, 2007, due to the massive rain lasted. The news reported that the city traffic was seriously damaged, and some part of the city was under the water of three meter. Based on the request from the "Sentinel Asia", JAXA decided to activate the ALOS/PALSAR to observe the area quickly, and succeeded to image the area on Feb. 5 2007. PALSAR measured the brightness of the land and ocean. The flat surface, like, water surface tends to look dark. For more accurate discrimination of the flat surface, comparison with the past image was conducted.
Color composite of the PALSAR FBS 41.5deg. HH-pol. images, RED and GREEN for after the flood of Feb. 5 2007 and BLUE for the before of June 20 2006, shows the land surface change in the color. BLUE color in the figure shows the flooding in dominant and it spread out widely in the image. When zoom in the image, the followings are confirmed.

Sensor: PALSAR
Off-nadir angle: 41.5 degrees
Polarization: HH
Orbit: Descending
Image swath: 56km x 46km
Observation: February 5, 2007 and June 20, 2006

©METI, JAXA