Project description

Motivation and aim of this project

Public avalanche warning suffers from high uncertainty that is induced by the lack of consistent, reliable data on avalanche activity. This is due to our inability to monitor avalanche activity over large regions with traditional observation methods.

We have developed a processing chain that automatically downloads and processes Sentinel-1 SAR data and detects avalanches and stores them in a database (see figure below).

This system is tested in Northern Norway and is used in selected avalanche forecasting regions in Norway in an operational setting since the winter 2017-2018.

The aim with the AVAMAP project is to test and demonstrate that our processing chain delivers consistent and reliable avalanche activity data from anywhere on Earth.

Project logic

The AVAMAP project is divided into four work packages (see figure below) of which the first two (WP 1 & 2) deal with the technical aspects of the project, WP 3 deals with the user interface and delivery of our products and WP 4 (not shown in figure below) deals with project management.