The following
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is a description of GloFAS
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v4.1, available as fully operational GloFAS from 28 February 2024.
For an overview of other GloFAS releases, please see :
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The Global Flood Monitoring (GFM) is designed to provide a continuous global, systematic monitoring of flood events, with significantly enhanced timeliness of flood maps for emergency response and improved effectiveness of Rapid Mapping activation requests (through better identification of the area of interest). The beta version contains flood products that are based on an ensemble approach integrating three robust, cutting edge algorithms developed independently by three scientific teams. The data processing architecture underlying the different scientific algorithms is based on the data cube concept, whereby SAR images are geocoded, gridded, and stored as 'analysis-ready data' (ARD) in an existing spatio-temporal SAR data cube. Users have access to consensus flood maps (Observed Flood Extent layer) where a pixel is marked as flooded when at least two algorithms classify it as water.
Here is a summary of the main changes to the GloFAS web service:
- Introduction of near real-time flood mapping-related products from the Global Flood Monitoring (GFM) beta version including:
- S-1 Observed Flood Extent (data format: raster (GeoTIFF) and vector (shapefile)). The layer identifies the pixels covered by floodwater. Pixels that are usually underwater (such as lakes and reservoirs) are identified based on the monthly Sentinel-1 Reference Water Mask are not part of the Sentinel-1 Observed Flood Extent.
- S-1 Observed Water Extent (data format: raster (GeoTIFF) and vector (shapefile)). The layer identifies the pixels classified as open and calm water using Sentinel-1 SAR backscatter intensity and is derived using the ensemble flood mapping algorithm.
- Exclusion Mask (data format: raster (GeoTIFF)). The layer indicates the pixel locations where the SAR data could not deliver the necessary information for a robust flood delineation. It combines static effects leading to no-sensitivity in flood mapping, water-look-alikes, strong typography, and radar shadows.
- Uncertainty Values (data format: raster (GeoTIFF)). The layer is generated along with the binary map product as a simplified appraisal of trust in the ensemble flood extent detection approach.
- Introduction of reference products from the Global Flood Monitoring (GFM) beta version including:
- S-1 Reference Water Mask (data format: raster (GeoTIFF) and vector (shapefile)). The layer identifies the pixels classified as open and calm water, both permanent and seasonal, using Sentinel-1 SAR backscatter intensity using an ensemble flood mapping algorithm.
- Affected Population layer (data format: raster (GeoTIFF)). The layer is extracted from the Global Human Settlement (GHS) layer and from the GHS-POP dataset. Represents the estimate of the number of people affected by the flood.
- Affected Land Cover layer (data format: raster (GeoTIFF)). The layer provides information for quick assessment of affected land cover or land use types, e.g., how much agricultural/cropland area is affected by the flood extent.
- Introduction of new data access functionalities, including:
- Function to define Area of Interest.
- Visualization of the available products for user-defined AOIs.
- GFM products download option for user-defined AOIs (per layer or for all product layers).
- Notifications configuration via the app and/or Twitter.
Key specifications of the products
Input satellite data
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Satellite sensor
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S-1 - Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)
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Acquisition mode
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Interferometric Wide Swath (IW)
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Data product
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Level-1 - Ground Range Detected (GRD)
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Spatial sampling
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20 x 22 m
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Global revisit frequency
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Europe: ~1-3 days. Rest of the world: ~3-14 days, depending on location
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SAR polarization scheme
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VV + VH
General product specifics
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Geographic coverage
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Global
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Pixel size
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20 m
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Timeliness
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<8 hours after S-1 image acquisition.
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Thematic accuracy
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Target threshold of >70-80%, based on the Critical Success Index
v4.1 introduces several minor changes to the system, including:
- Increased offering of forecast variables made available through the Climate Data Store. See Model Output page for details. The data will also be made available for the reanalysis:
- Runoff Water Equivalent (surface plus subsurface),
- Snow Depth Water Equivalent,
- and Soil Wetness Index (root-zone).
- Improved reporting point layer, with additional metadata available for 'dynamic reporting points'.
- Improved information on the GloFAS map viewer (updated legends and layer titles).
- GloFAS Flood thresholds available for various return periods, see Auxiliary Data pages for GloFAS v4.0 flood threshold files.
This upgrade of GloFAS has no impacts on the GloFAS modelling results.
Technical details
| Pre-release date (available on stage platform) | n/a |
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| Release date | 2023-02-28 |
| In test suite | n/a |
| GloFAS internal number | 005 |
| Archiving of data | ECFS, MARS, CDS |
| Reference climatology (for thresholds/ anomalies) | 1980-01-01 to 2022-07-31 |
| GloFAS historical | 1980-01-01 to near present |
| Reforecasts | from 2003-03-27 to 2024-02-26 |
| Horizontal projection | EPSG4326 |
| Horizontal resolution | 0.05 x 0.05° |
| Temporal resolution | Daily |
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