Lismore Floods, February 2025
On February 28, 2025, the Wilsons River in Lismore, NSW, peaked at 14.4m, causing severe flooding. Satellite monitoring played a crucial role in tracking the disaster, and sensors like Sentinel-1 C-SAR proved invaluable in observing the flood's extent.
The 2025 Lismore Floods were a devastating event that affected the Wilsons River catchment in Lismore, NSW. The floods, which lasted from February 28 to April 14, 2025, were triggered by heavy rainfall, causing the river to peak at 14.4m. In such situations, accurate flood mapping is essential for emergency response and damage assessment. Satellite sensors like Sentinel-1 C-SAR and ALOS-2 PALSAR-2, with their synthetic aperture radar (SAR) capabilities, can penetrate cloud cover and observe the flood's extent, even in low-visibility conditions. This is particularly important during floods, as cloud cover often accompanies heavy rainfall. Sentinel-1 C-SAR's high fit score of 0.96 makes it an ideal choice for flood mapping, as it can provide high-resolution images of the flood-affected area. In contrast, optical sensors like Sentinel-2 MSI, while useful for monitoring water quality and vegetation health, are limited by their inability to penetrate cloud cover.
How Terrascout would have observed it
Top sensor matches from the Terrascout matching engine.
| # | Sensor | Provider | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sentinel-1 C-SAR Free and open access — no acquisition cost; Sensor is fully operational | European Space Agency | 96% |
| 2 | ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 Free and open access — no acquisition cost; Sensor is fully operational | Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency | 96% |
| 3 | Sentinel-2 MSI Free and open access — no acquisition cost; Sensor is fully operational | European Space Agency | 94% |
ML training-data fitness
How well this sensor stack would support training a machine-learning model for this use case.
Aggregated from 4 dimensions below.
- Temporal Continuity100%
61 usable scenes/year vs 12 needed (SAR: all-weather advantage)
- Resolution Match100%
10.0 pixels across feature (50m) — excellent
- Class Balance50%
Estimated from use case characteristics
- Spectral Suitability75%
No specific band requirements for this use case.
What people asked the Copilot
Curated questions and answers about monitoring this event.
- Sentinel-1 C-SAR's SAR capabilities allow it to see through cloud cover, making it more suitable for flood mapping, especially during heavy rainfall events. In contrast, Sentinel-2 MSI's optical sensors are limited by cloud cover, reducing their effectiveness in such situations.
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