Carl J. Legleiter
Christopher L. Gazoorian
Paul J. Kinzel
2024
<p><span>An innovative payload containing a sensitive mid-wave infrared camera was flown on an uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) to acquire thermal imagery along a reach of the Sacramento River, California, USA. The imagery was used as input for an ensemble particle image velocimetry (PIV) algorithm to produce near-continuous maps of surface flow velocity along a reach approximately 1 km in length. To assess the accuracy of PIV velocity estimates, in situ measurements of flow velocity were obtained with an acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP). ADCP measurements were collected along pre-planned cross-section lines within the area covered by the imagery. The PIV velocities showed good agreement with the depth-averaged velocity measured by the ADCP, with </span><span id="MathJax-Element-1-Frame" class="MathJax" data-mathml="<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><msup><mi>R</mi><mn>2</mn></msup></semantics></math>"><span id="MathJax-Span-1" class="math"><span id="MathJax-Span-2" class="mrow"><span id="MathJax-Span-3" class="semantics"><span id="MathJax-Span-4" class="msup"></span></span></span></span></span></p>
application/pdf
10.3390/w16131870
en
MDPI
Reach-scale mapping of surface flow velocities from thermal images acquired by an uncrewed aircraft system along the Sacramento River, California, USA
article