Sentinel-2A captures a giant ice avalanche in Tibet

In English Sentinel-2

Olivier Hagolle, 25 août 2016

The Nature News website reported yesterday on a massive ice avalanche that happened in Rutog, Tibet, on 17 July 2016. This ice avalanche killed 9 people and may be one the largest ever observed. The ice and rock mixture spread over 6 km from the collapse point up to the Aru Co lake shoreline.

Sentinel-2A image of the Rutog ice avalanche acquired on 21-Jul-2016 (4 days after the event). Click on the image to see at full resolution (1 pixel = 10m).

Nothing escapes from Sentinels! I used the Sentinel-2A image above to digitalize the avalanche extent and found that the avalanche covered a total area of 8.8 km², close to the value that was indicated in several news websites (10 km²).

A closer view of the avalanche site is available here: http://english.cri.cn/12394/2016/07/20/3441s934928.htm

[edit] The second episode about this avalanche is here.

Plus d'actualités

Three Sentinel-2 satellites instead of two: impact on the retrieval of the snow disappearance date

Due to the success of Olivier’s petition, ESA kept Sentinel-2A operational after the launch of Sentinel-2C. Having three operational satellites instead of two increases the revisit, which should improve the quality of the derived products, and therefore the reliability of operational services based on Sentinel-2 data. One of this service is the Copernicus’ High Resolution […]

IOTA2 software mailing list

Hello everyone, We have just created a mailing list for users of the IOTA2 software (iota2 — iota2 documentation). The tool will undergo significant developments in the coming months, and the purpose of this list is to communicate with the community to support these changes and to maintain the processing workflows needed by the users. […]

Rapid analysis of the GLOF in Gupis, Gilgit-Baltistan

Pakistan news media reported that a glacier lake outburst flood (the failure of a dam containing a glacial lake) occurred near Gupis, Gilgit-Baltistan, a highly mountainous region administered by Pakistan. Satellite images show that the flood triggered a debris flow, which reached the Gupis valley where it hit the Roshan (Rashon) village and blocked the […]

Rechercher