Much has been made of the RAF Sentinel and GR.4a/RAPTOR pod contribution to flood mapping but not many people seem to know that the Environment Agency has its own airborne mapping aircraft and an account with Astrium for access to Terra SAR satellite imagery
The mapping product from the RAF has now been released.
Compare and contrast
RAF Sentinel and Tornado GR.4 with RAPTOR pod
Environment Agency Geomatics Cessna 404 and Terra SAR
Wonder what the cost differential is?
More worringly, the RAF seem have identified the wrong area in their graphic header.
However, looking at the Geomatics graphic states that the water extent for 2014 is estimated. And interestingly, the on ground extimate for the flooding was 65,000 hectares.
Anyway, i wonder how real time the geomatics data can be, compared to the Sentinels stuff.