Thermal image time series from rivers in Alaska, September 18-20, 2016

The U.S. Geological Survey collected thermal image time series from five rivers in Alaska September 18-20, 2016, to support research on remote sensing of river discharge. The image time series were acquired from bridges across the Knik, Matanuska, Chena, and Salcha Rivers and Montana Creek using a FLIR SC8340 mid-infrared (3-5 microns) camera operated at a rate of 10 frames/second. The original FLIR *.ast format video files are provided in this data release.

These thermal image time series were used to track the movement of thermal features and thus estimate surface flow velocities via Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). This kind of information on flow velocity could be incorporated into techniques for measuring river discharge from remotely sensed data.