Microwave Remote Monitoring of Altai Catastrophic Flood Dynamics Using SMOS Data

The Altai catastrophic flood began on May 28, 2014, in the headwaters of one of the world´s largest rivers, the Ob River, in the south of Western Siberia. The flood resulted from a steady rain which coincided with intensive snow melting in the Altai Mountains. As a result of inclement weather, more than 60 settlements have become flooded. The remote assessment of flooded areas was performed using the images taken by MIRAS radiometer in the microwave range from SMOS satellite. To validate SMOS data, the dependence between the soil volume moisture and emissivity was used; it was determined with laboratory measurements of dielectric parameters of soil sampled in the inundation area. The analysis of satellite images allowed us to outline wetlands and waterlogged areas.