This new technology could enhance information collected during floods to help managers protect life and property.

Weather permitting, media are invited to the field on Thursday, June 28, to interview and film scientists as they conduct these test flights.

WHAT: State-of-the-art river measurements taken by instruments onboard drones could provide critical water data from previously inaccessible locations and from a new perspective. Scientists will conduct test flights over the Arkansas River, answer questions and discuss how drone measurements might contribute to flood response in Colorado and other parts of the U.S.

WHO: Scientists with the USGS will be available for interviews, and scientists from the NASA Ames Laboratory for Advanced Sensing will be on site.

WHERE:   Arkansas River near Parkdale, Colorado, which is located approximately 12 miles west of Cañon City at latitude 38.487222N, longitude 105.373056W. (Map from Cañon City)                 

WHEN:     Thursday, June 28, 2018 at 8 a.m.

RSVP: To attend, contact Marisa Lubeck at 303-526-6694 or mlubeck@usgs.gov and provide your phone number. Plans are subject to change due to weather, and the USGS will contact all confirmed attendees if logistics are altered.

The instruments and methods being tested include Doppler velocity radars and cameras for measuring river velocity, or speed; low-altitude photogrammetry for mapping the flood plains and water surface; and MiDAR, a NASA-developed Multispectral Imaging, Detection and Active Reflectance for measuring river depth.