In this monthly feature, we span the globe to examine Our Changing Landscape with a time series of medium-resolution PlanetScope satellite imagery. The PlanetScope constellation dates back to 2016 and collects hundreds of millions of square kilometers of four and eight-band 3-meter imagery daily! In November, we looked at the annual Hajj in Mecca, Saudia Arabia. For the December edition of this series, we are headed to Sudan where Arba’at Dam collapsed and flooded the area.
The PlanetScope Microsat Constellation
Click on the image above to see an animation of 3-meter natural color PlanetScope image collected over Arba’at Dam and the surrounding area on August 20 and September 7, 2024. In this animation you can see just how drastic the damage was, focus on the region downstream of the once dammed lake. The pressure of the water scraped the entire downstream river valley clean as well as the river basin with a bustling town where the river flattened and came out of the mountains. We can only imagine the tragedy on the ground – just unreal and heart-breaking. (Images Courtesy: © Planet 2024)PlanetScope is a constellation of more than 240 microsats referred to individually as Doves. Each Dove is able to collect up to 20,000 square kilometers (sq km) per day of 3-meter (m) 4-band multispectral (i.e. blue, green, red and near-infrared [NIR]) imagery; and newly launched SuperDoves collect 8-band multispectral adding in valuable red-edge spectral data. Across the constellation, PlanetScope is archiving more than 200 million sq km of medium-resolution imagery a day, making it the go to source for daily imagery over most locations. This massive archive dates back to 2016, offering the most complete and continuous record of spatial data on the planet since the start of the constellation’s ongoing launch schedule. Collecting 3-meter multispectral imagery is the equivalent of ‘high-resolution’ multispectral data imaged by a 75-centimer (cm) satellite (as this satellite would feature 75-cm panchromatic and 3-m multispectral), making PlanetScope an extremely competitively priced option at just $2.25 per sq km. With well registered images and nearly daily collections of most locations, PlanetScope is the ideal imagery source for this current-events focused series, Our Changing Landscape.
The Collapse of Arba’at Dam, Sudan in 2024
On August 26, 2024, Arba’at Dam collapsed due to heavy rainfall in war-torn Sudan. At least 60 people were killed with searches deployed to try and find more survivors. Arba’at Dam has a capacity of 25 million cubic meters and is the main source of drinking water for the coastal city of Port Sudan, where the military government is based, reported the BBC. The dam reservoir – the city’s main water source – has been fully depleted, leaving thousands without access to clean water.
Sudan has been the scene of a civil war that’s razed the region for more than year. The torrential rains that led to flooding not only killed dozens of people but forced tens of thousands more from their homes. Entire farms and villages were swept away. The air force tried to rescue people who had become trapped after seeking refuge in the mountains.
According to the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, the flooding coupled with 500 days of war in Sudan has highlighted how climate change is not just an environmental issue but also a “multiplying factor in conflict and humanitarian crises.” The severity of the August floods has turned these seasonal events into “existential threats for thousands of people,” the council stated. The Sudanese Ministry of Health said that 11 out of the country’s 18 states had been impacted by this year’s flooding, completely destroying 18,665 homes and damaging another 14,947. The total death toll from climate-change invoked flooding in Sudan was at least 173 as of September 15th, with 505 people injured. The disaster left thousands of families displaced and struggling to rebuild.
If you would like to find out more about using 3-meter PlanetScope imagery for your academic studies, engineering projects or any landscape analysis, let us know at sales@apollomapping.com or (303) 993-3863.
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