Topic: NASA’s Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar

NASA Study reveals California’s San Joaquin Valley continues to Sink

March 5, 2017 |

Written by Alan Buis
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – Since the 1920s, excessive pumping of groundwater at thousands of wells in California’s San Joaquin Valley has caused land in sections of the valley to subside, or sink, by as much as 28 feet (8.5 meters). This subsidence is exacerbated during droughts, when farmers rely heavily on groundwater to sustain one of the most productive agricultural regions in the nation.

Long-term subsidence is a serious and challenging concern for California’s water managers, putting state and federal aqueducts, levees, bridges and roads at risk of damage. Already, land subsidence has damaged thousands of public and private groundwater wells throughout the San Joaquin Valley.

Total subsidence in California’s San Joaquin Valley between May 7, 2015 and Sept. 10, 2016, as measured by ESA’s Sentinel-1A and processed at JPL. Two large subsidence bowls are evident, centered on Corcoran and southeast of El Nido, with a small, new feature between them, near Tranquility. (European Space Agency/NASA-JPL/Caltech/Google Earth)

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NASA uses Aircraft mounted instruments to examine growing Deltas in Louisiana

February 9, 2017 |

Written by Alan Buis
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – The Louisiana coastline is sinking under the Gulf of Mexico at the rate of about one football field of land every hour (about 18 square miles of land lost in a year). But within this sinking region, two river deltas are growing. The Atchafalaya River and its diversion channel, Wax Lake Outlet, are gaining about one football field of new land every 11 and 8 hours, respectively (1.5 and 2 square miles per year).

Last fall, a team from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, showed that radar, lidar and spectral instruments mounted on aircraft can be used to study the growing deltas, collecting data that can help scientists better understand how coastal wetlands will respond to global sea level rise.

False-color images of rising tide at Wax Lake Delta, Louisiana, made by JPL’s Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar instrument on Oct. 17, 2016. Red, blue and green correspond to different land-surface properties. Rising water appears as increasing darkness. (NCAR/JPL-Caltech)

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NASA uses Airborne Radar to study sinking rate of New Orleans

May 17, 2016 |

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – New Orleans and surrounding areas continue to sink at highly variable rates due to a combination of natural geologic and human-induced processes, finds a new NASA/university study using NASA airborne radar.

The observed rates of sinking, otherwise known as subsidence, were generally consistent with, but somewhat higher than, previous studies conducted using different radar data.

The research was the most spatially-extensive, high-resolution study to date of regional subsidence in and around New Orleans, measuring its effects and examining its causes.

Subsidence in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, from June 2009 to July 2012, as seen by NASA’s UAVSAR instrument. The measured displacements are a combination of movement of the ground and of individual structures. The inset at lower right shows the parish location within Greater New Orleans. (NASA/JPL-Caltech, Esri)

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NASA reports Valley Land in California sinking due to Drought

August 23, 2015 |

Written by Alan Buis
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – As Californians continue pumping groundwater in response to the historic drought, the California Department of Water Resources today released a new NASA report showing land in the San Joaquin Valley is sinking faster than ever before, nearly 2 inches (5 centimeters) per month in some locations.

“Because of increased pumping, groundwater levels are reaching record lows — up to 100 feet (30 meters) lower than previous records,” said Department of Water Resources Director Mark Cowin. “As extensive groundwater pumping continues, the land is sinking more rapidly and this puts nearby infrastructure at greater risk of costly damage.”

Total subsidence in California’s San Joaquin Valley for the period May 3, 2014 to Jan. 22, 2015, as measured by Canada’s Radarsat-2 satellite. Two large subsidence bowls are evident, centered on Corcoran and south of El Nido. (Canadian Space Agency/NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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NASA’s Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar to be used to Survey Napa Valley Quake Area

September 1, 2014 |

Written by Alan Buis
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – NASA scientists are conducting an airborne survey of earthquake fault displacements in the Napa Valley area of Northern California using a sophisticated radar system developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.

A modified C-20A aircraft from NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center carrying JPL’s Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) flew a five-hour data-collection mission on Friday, August 29th, over the area that experienced a major quake during the pre-dawn hours on Sunday, August 24th.

NASA’s C-20A Earth science research aircraft with the UAVSAR slung underneath its belly lifts off the runway at Edwards Air Force Base on a prior radar survey mission. (NASA Armstrong)

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NASA Earth Science study uses UAVSAR imager to take close look at Volcanoes in Central, South America

May 29, 2014 |

Written by Alan Buis
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – A NASA-developed airborne imager called a synthetic aperture radar took a detailed look at volcanoes in Central and South America during an Earth science study in late April and early May 2014.

The Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar, or UAVSAR, developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, was flown on NASA’s C-20A. The 29-day deployment ended May 6th when the aircraft returned to its base in Palmdale, California, after 19 flights totaling 97 hours in the air.

This false-color image of Peru’s Ubinas volcano was acquired on April 14, 2014, by NASA’s Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar, or UAVSAR. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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NASA study shows Baja Earthquake caused quiet motion in Southern California faults

May 5, 2014 |

Written
by Alan Buis
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – A new NASA study finds that a major 2010 earthquake in northern Mexico triggered quiet, non-shaking motions on several Southern California faults that released as much energy as a magnitude 4.9 to 5.3 earthquake.

The quiet motion associated with the widely felt, magnitude 7.2 earthquake centered in northern Baja California in Mexico, in April 2010 was discovered in before-and-after radar images of the region made by a NASA airborne instrument that produces extremely accurate maps of Earth motions.

UAVSAR measurements north of the 2010 El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake, which scientists have learned was followed by quiet movement on faults in California. Inset map shows the region on the California-Mexico border. (NASA/JPL/USGS/California Geological Survey/Google)

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NASA creates 3D Image of Los Angeles Earthquake Zone

April 2, 2014 |

Written by Alan Buis
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – On March 28th, residents of Greater Los Angeles experienced the largest earthquake to strike the region since 2008. The magnitude 5.1 quake was centered near La Habra in northwestern Orange County about 21 miles (33 kilometers) east-southeast of Los Angeles, and was widely felt throughout Southern California.

There have been hundreds of aftershocks, including one of magnitude 4.1.

JPL scientists modeled the March 28, 2014 magnitude 5.1 quake near Los Angeles based on USGS seismic data. This model image shows how the quake may appear to airborne radar, such as NASA’s UAVSAR, which will survey the area soon. Blue shades indicate the greatest surface displacement. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/USGS/Google Earth)

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NASA to study active volcanoes in Alaska and Japan using images from it’s Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar

October 3, 2012 |

Written by Beth Hagenauer, Public Affairs
NASA Dryden Flight Research Center

Edwards, CA – A NASA aircraft carrying a unique 3-D aerial radar developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, has left California for a 10-day campaign to study active volcanoes in Alaska and Japan.

The modified NASA C-20A (G-III) aircraft, with JPL’s Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) installed in a pod under its belly, departed NASA’s Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, CA, October 2nd, en route to Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Tacoma, WA.

This UAVSAR interferogram shows active volcano Mount St. Helens (left) and dormant volcano Mount Adams, both in Washington state. The sensor collected data for this image during flights in July 2009 and August 2010 to compute the surface deformation that could indicate activity in the volcanoes’ magma. No deformation was evident during this period. (NASA image)

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NASA-Funded Quake Forecast Gets High Score in Study

October 2, 2011 |

Written by Alan Buis
Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – While earthquakes can’t yet be predicted, scientists are making advances in their ability to forecast where they are most likely to occur, with the best forecasts now about 10 times more accurate than a random prediction, according to a new study by scientists at the University of California, Davis.

The researchers compared seven earthquake forecasts submitted to a competition organized by the Southern California Earthquake Center in 2005. «Read the rest of this article»

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