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New before - and - after airborne laser scans of demolished sand dune in Long Island , N.Y. , reveal the extent of the destruction do there by Hurricane Sandy .
The mental image show that the storm dramatically reshape Fire Island , a roadblock island off the southerly glide of Long Island . Within Fire Island National Seashore , the sea go against a narrow part of the island , creating a novel inlet and cutting through 13 - foot - gamey ( 4 meters ) dunes . At Ocean Bay Park , where there were many homes near the body of water , the beach fall back more than 10 foot ( 3.5 m ) of dune duringHurricane Sandy .
This USGS lidar image shows extensive erosion occurred at Ocean Bay Park on Fire Island, removing sand from the beach and dunes. There were many homes near the water, and the beach lost more than 10 feet (3.5 meters) of dune during Hurricane Sandy.
At Ocean Bay Park , " you’re able to see in the prestorm range a yellow line , that ’s the sand dune , and what ’s interesting is you’re able to see houses that are sit down right on the backbone dune , " said Hilary Stockdon , a research oceanographer with the U.S. Geological Survey ( USGS ) in St. Petersburg , Fla. " And in the post - storm height image , that yellow striptease representing the mellow dune ALT is gone . The dune was completely washed away , " Stockdon tell OurAmazingPlanet .
Fire Island is 31 mile ( 50 kilometers ) long but range between only 520 and 1,300 foot ( 160 and 400 m ) wide . The intact island was flooded during Hurricane Sandy and seawater gap the island in four places .
Erosion from the surging water exposed along - bury shipwreckin the Fire Island National Seashore .
This USGS lidar image shows extensive erosion occurred at Ocean Bay Park on Fire Island, removing sand from the beach and dunes. There were many homes near the water, and the beach lost more than 10 feet (3.5 meters) of dune during Hurricane Sandy.
The laser scans are preliminary images released by the USGS . In the days following Hurricane Sandy , USGS scientists flew over coastal region from North Carolina to New York to monitor changes , Stockdon said .
The USGS scanned beach and islands with lidar , or light detection and ranging , which bounces a flow of optical maser pulse off the background . Airborne lidar equipment can value surface elevation to within a few in .
The lidar data will help the USGS improve their future tempest anticipation modes in two ways : The USGS will utilise the lidar data to check the accuracy of their Hurricane Sandy storm anticipation against what in reality bump along the slide , Stockdon say . In plus , updating their records of current coastal topography is essential for futurestorm modeling , she say .
Pre-storm elevation at Ocean Bay Park.
" It ’s very important to ply a picture of what the beach looks like now , " Stockdon said . " Our model of how the beach was going to respond to Sandy were based on a metre stamp of how those beach looked in 2010 . They had very flossy , healthy dunes , and now those dunes are gone . "
The USGS predicted all-embracing overwashing and breaching for Fire Island in advance of Hurricane Sandy , and New York ordered a mandatory evacuation for the island .
" Now those coastal biotic community are morevulnerable to next storms , and we can habituate these new height in our models to get a more accurate picture of how the beach will react to future storm , " Stockdon said .
Post-storm elevation at Ocean Bay Park.
Fire Island National Seashore, post-storm change in elevation. The lidar image shows sand was washed inland and the island was breached by waves.
