NOAA has published a competitive notice of funding opportunity, with an award anticipated in early 2025 to support up to three years of work. The awardee will explore how to employ high-resolution data from privately managed satellites to fill observation gaps during Alaska’s flood and ice-jam events and provide the satellite data for application in flood and other prediction models.
“The Biden-Harris Administration will be investing in the data infrastructure needed to help communities in Alaska prepare for severe flooding,” said US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “This funding opportunity, made possible thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, will help forecasters better track developing flood conditions, keep residents safe and mitigate the economic impacts caused by these climate disasters.”
Alaska’s ‘Unique’ Challenges Call for Better Flood Forecasting, Monitoring Data
Alaska has experienced major destruction and disruptions from flooding in recent years.
For example, more than 35 communities along the western Alaska coastline were inundated after Typhoon Merbok in 2022 and an ice jam flooded villages along the Yukon River in 2023.
Just last month, the glacier-dammed lake at Suicide Basin released into Juneau’s Mendenhall River, causing it to crest a foot above the previous record. More than a hundred homes and other dwellings were damaged, prompting the Alaska governor to declare a state disaster emergency.
Alaska flood monitoring has different challenges compared to monitoring capabilities in the contiguous United States, including:
- Dense forest cover and limited road access.
- Variable river-water levels and flows.
- Limitations caused by frequent cloud cover.
- Unique flooding conditions such as glacier-dammed lake floods.
“Our ability to prepare the public for destructive floods that threaten communities, homes resources and critical infrastructure will benefit from this investment,” said NOAA National Weather Service Alaska Region Director Scott Lindsey, Ph.D. “Satellites play an increasingly important role for NOAA in identifying conditions that could lead to flooding in Alaska, detecting where floods are occurring and improving the forecast accuracy of their magnitude, extent, timing and potential impacts.”
