Global Flood Detection System: Data Product Specifications

Abstract

The Global Flood Detection System (GFDS) is an operational flood monitoring system developed and run at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission in collaboration with the Dartmouth Flood Observatory (Colorado University). Since 2006, GFDS calculates water surface metrics from brightness temperatures recorded at 36.5 GHz in the H-polarization. Full time series of four sensors are used (TRMM, GPM, AMSR-E and AMSR2), and are converted in a range of raster data products showing flood signal and magnitude, as well as time series (virtual hydrographs) for around 10000 observation sites. This technical note describes the specifications of the GFDS data products as a guide for scientists and practitioners to facilitate the exploitation of this unique data source in new research and applications.