The detection of water surfaces based on data from the Sentinel1 radar satellite is used in the Vodakje.si application, which was used in the first days of August 2023 for the purpose of observing a massive flood event in larger part of Slovenia. Unfortunately, this the floods reached catastrophic proportions.
Due to the complete failure of the Sentinel 1B satellite, we are limited on the data of the Sentinel 1A satellite, which can only offer us 3 to 5 images per week, or the observation of the same location on earth every 13 days. For example, if there were 4 satellites in orbit like Sentinel 1, we would probably get at least 3 images for a flood event like this one. Nevertheless, we are satisfied that for the needs of later analyses, we can use the Saturday images, recorded on August 5, 2023 at 18:50 local time, when the flood wave was moving towards the east of Slovenia.
In the images below you can see a comparison of water surfaces in the VodaKje.si application and photos from the field.
