ARIA Maps Damage in Fort Myers From Hurricane Ian

NASA scientists are using satellite data to assess the damage on Florida's Gulf Coast after Hurricane Ian, which made landfall in the state as a Category 4 storm on Sept. 28, 2022.

The Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis (ARIA) team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech created this damage proxy map on Oct. 2, 2022, showing which parts of the Fort Myers area likely suffered storm damage. The map was derived from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images acquired by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellites, which are operated by the European Space Agency (ESA).

Data from the satellites covered an area of approximately 2,491 square miles (6,452 square kilometers) outlined by the red rectangle. The color variation from pale yellow to red indicates greater drops in radar reflections compared with pre-storm imagery, an indication of possible damage. Preliminary validation was done by comparing the map with media reports and other images.

KMZ and GeoTIFF files are available to download at http://aria-share.jpl.nasa.gov.