Satellite monitoring of ice situation during freeze-up period on the rivers of the northern part of Russia and Siberia is ongoing. ScanEx RDC has been acquiring space images starting December 20, 2010 in behalf of regional administrations and river basin authorities using own distributed network of receiving centers in Moscow, Irkutsk, Megion and Magadan.
During the ice formation period serious ice hummocking and sludging occurred in several river sections, which during spring ice drifting may bring to creation of thick ice jams and flooding of vast areas of the river high-water bed and adjacent settlements and business entities.
— According to satellite data, received in January, such as section of over 60 km in length was detected on the Severnaya Dvina River. This section of strong hummocking near the villages of Zelennik to the north and Abramkovo to the south, may become the center of ice jams in spring. There were no such “bottlenecks” detected by satellite images in the previous years, – noted ScanEx Deputy General Director Alexei Kucheiko.
Imaging of ice situation on the rivers is carried out using SAR radars installed onboard RADARSAT-1 and ENVISAT-1 satellites. Satellite data products are the best solution in terms of meeting the operability, price and coverage requirements. The imaging equipment of RADARSAT-2, TerraSAR-X and COSMO-SkyMed is planned to be applied in addition, if needed.
