Sovremennye problemy distantsionnogo zondirovaniya Zemli iz kosmosa, 2024, Vol. 21, No. 1, pp. 343-347
Preliminary results to the creation of methodological recommendations for monitoring snow avalanches in the spurs of the Western Tien-Shan based on Sentinel-1 images
E.R. Semakova
1 , M.G. Potorjinskiy
1 1 Ulugh Beg Astronomical Institute of the Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences, Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Accepted: 19.12.2023
DOI: 10.21046/2070-7401-2024-21-1-343-347
A method for identifying snow avalanches based on available Sentinel-1 radar satellite images was developed for some avalanche catchments on the territory of the Chimgan Valley located in the spurs of the Western Tien Shan in Uzbekistan and which is well known by its ski resorts. The analysis was performed for data of various types, polarizations and orbit directions. The images were processed using SNAP (SeNtinel Application Platform) software and implemented calculation models in batch mode. In the context of a large avalanche event on March 11, 2023, all obtained variants of the results are presented in this work. The developed technique for recognizing avalanches in amplitude images made it possible to reliably identify traces of snow avalanches, their release zone and runout zone. To eliminate false positive detection of avalanche sites, the criterion of threshold values of slope in this territory was used as the main control factor of avalanching. From selected values of the terrain slope, two masks were generated (for the avalanche release zone and for the avalanche runout zone) which made it possible to identify snow avalanche cases with the highest probability.
Keywords: Sentinel-1 images, snow avalanches, mountainous areas of Uzbekistan, Chimgan Valley
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