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Sample records for sar backscatter signatures

  1. Forest anisotropy assessment by means of spatial variations analysis of PolSAR backscattering

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    A. V. Dmitriev

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available The possibility to synthesize polarization response from earth covers at any desired combination of transmit and receive antenna polarizations is the significant advantage of polarimetric radar. It permits better identification of dominant scattering mechanisms especially when analyzing polarization signatures. These signatures depict more details of physical information from target backscattering in various polarization bases. However, polarization signatures cannot reveal spatial variations of the radar backscattering caused by volume heterogeneity of a target. This paper proposes a new approach for estimating volume target heterogeneity from polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR images. The approach is based on the analysis of a novel type of polarization signature, which we call fractal polarization signature (FPS. This signature is a result of polarization synthesis of initial fully polarimetric data and subsequent fractal analysis of synthesized images. It is displayed as a 3D plot and can be produced for each point in an image. It is shown that FPS describes backscattering variations or image roughness at different states of polarization. Fully polarimetric data of SIR-C and ALOS PALSAR at ascending/descending orbits were used for testing the proposed approach. The azimuthal dependence of the radar backscattering variations is discovered when analyzing backscattering from a pine forest. It correlates with the results of a field survey of trees branch distribution.

  2. Multi-temporal RADARSAT-1 and ERS backscattering signatures of coastal wetlands in southeastern Louisiana

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kwoun, Oh-Ig; Lu, Z.

    2009-01-01

    Using multi-temporal European Remote-sensing Satellites (ERS-1/-2) and Canadian Radar Satellite (RADARSAT-1) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data over the Louisiana coastal zone, we characterize seasonal variations of radar backscat-tering according to vegetation type. Our main findings are as follows. First, ERS-1/-2 and RADARSAT-1 require careful radiometric calibration to perform multi-temporal backscattering analysis for wetland mapping. We use SAR backscattering signals from cities for the relative calibration. Second, using seasonally averaged backscattering coefficients from ERS-1/-2 and RADARSAT-1, we can differentiate most forests (bottomland and swamp forests) and marshes (freshwater, intermediate, brackish, and saline marshes) in coastal wetlands. The student t-test results support the usefulness of season-averaged backscatter data for classification. Third, combining SAR backscattering coefficients and an optical-sensor-based normalized difference vegetation index can provide further insight into vegetation type and enhance the separation between forests and marshes. Our study demonstrates that SAR can provide necessary information to characterize coastal wetlands and monitor their changes.

  3. Modulation of Tidal Channel Signatures on SAR Images Over Gyeonggi Bay in Relation to Environmental Factors

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    Tae-Sung Kim

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available In this study, variations of radar backscatter features of the tidal channel in Gyeonggi Bay in the Eastern Yellow Sea were investigated using spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR images. Consistent quasi-linear bright features appeared on the SAR images. Examining the detailed local bathymetry chart, we found that the features were co-located with the major axis of the tidal channel in the region. It was also shown that modulation of the radar backscatter features changed according to the environmental conditions at the time of imaging. For the statistical analysis, the bathymetric features over the tidal channel were extracted by an objective method. In terms of shape, the extracted features had higher variability in width than in length. The analysis of the variation in intensity with the coinciding bathymetric distribution confirmed that the quasi-linear bright features on the SAR images are fundamentally imprinted due to the surface current convergence and divergence caused by the bathymetry-induced tidal current variation. Furthermore, the contribution of environmental factors to the intensity modulation was quantitatively analyzed. A comparison of the variation in normalized radar cross section (NRCS with tidal current showed a positive correlation only with the perpendicular component of tidal current (r= 0.47. This implies that the modulation in intensity of the tidal channel signatures is mainly affected by the interaction with cross-current flow. On the other hand, the modulation of the NRCS over the tidal channel tended to be degraded as wind speed increased (r= −0.65. Considering the environmental circumstances in the study area, it can be inferred that the imaging capability of SAR for the detection of tidal channel signatures mainly relies on wind speed.

  4. Applications of interferometrically derived terrain slopes: Normalization of SAR backscatter and the interferometric correlation coefficient

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    Werner, Charles L.; Wegmueller, Urs; Small, David L.; Rosen, Paul A.

    1994-01-01

    Terrain slopes, which can be measured with Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) interferometry either from a height map or from the interferometric phase gradient, were used to calculate the local incidence angle and the correct pixel area. Both are required for correct thematic interpretation of SAR data. The interferometric correlation depends on the pixel area projected on a plane perpendicular to the look vector and requires correction for slope effects. Methods for normalization of the backscatter and interferometric correlation for ERS-1 SAR are presented.

  5. Rice monitoring with multi-temporal and dual-polarimetric TerraSAR-X data

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    Koppe, Wolfgang; Gnyp, Martin L.; Hütt, Christoph; Yao, Yinkun; Miao, Yuxin; Chen, Xinping; Bareth, Georg

    2013-04-01

    This study assesses the use of TerraSAR-X data for monitoring rice cultivation in the Sanjiang Plain in Heilongjiang Province, Northeast China. The main objective is the understanding of the coherent co-polarized X-band backscattering signature of rice at different phenological stages in order to retrieve growth status. For this, multi-temporal dual polarimetric TerraSAR-X High Resolution SpotLight data (HH/VV) as well as single polarized StripMap (VV) data were acquired over the test site. In conjunction with the satellite data acquisition, a ground truth field campaign was carried out. The backscattering coefficients at HH and VV of the observed fields were extracted on the different dates and analysed as a function of rice phenology to provide a physical interpretation for the co-polarized backscatter response in a temporal and spatial manner. Then, a correlation analysis was carried out between TerraSAR-X backscattering signal and rice biomass of stem, leaf and head to evaluate the relationship with different vertical layers within the rice vegetation. HH and VV signatures show two phases of backscatter increase, one at the beginning up to 46 days after transplanting and a second one from 80 days after transplanting onwards. The first increase is related to increasing double bounce reflection from the surface-stem interaction. Then, a decreasing trend of both polarizations can be observed due to signal attenuation by increasing leaf density. A second slight increase is observed during senescence. Correlation analysis showed a significant relationship with different vertical layers at different phenological stages which prove the physical interpretation of X-band backscatter of rice. The seasonal backscatter coefficient showed that X-band is highly sensitive to changes in size, orientation and density of the dominant elements in the upper canopy.

  6. POLARIMETRIC SIGNATURES IDENTIFICATION FOR DIFFERENT FEATURES IN RADARSAT-2 POLSAR IMAGE: A CASE STUDY OF HALAYIB AREA, EGYPT

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    A. H. Nasr

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available In fully polarized SAR (PolSAR data the returned signal from a target contains all polarizations. More information about this target may be inferred with respect to single-polarization. Distinct polarization separates targets due to its different backscattering responses. A Radarsat-2 PolSAR image acquired on December 2013 of part of Halayib area (Egypt was used in this study. Polarimetric signatures for various features (Wadi deposits, Tonalite, Chlorite schist, and Radar penetrated areas were derived and identified. Their Co-polarized and Cross-polarized signatures were generated, based on the calculation of the backscattered power at various ellipticity and orientation angles. Graphical 3D-representation of these features was provided and more details of their physical information are depicted according to their different polarization bases. The results illustrate that polarimetric signatures, obtained due to factors like surface roughness, dielectric constant and feature orientation, can be an effective representation for analyzing various features. The shape of the signature is significant and can also indicate the scattering mechanisms dominating the features response.

  7. Specific absorption and backscatter coefficient signatures in southeastern Atlantic coastal waters

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bostater, Charles R., Jr.

    1998-12-01

    Measurements of natural water samples in the field and laboratory of hyperspectral signatures of total absorption and reflectance were obtained using long pathlength absorption systems (50 cm pathlength). Water was sampled in Indian River Lagoon, Banana River and Port Canaveral, Florida. Stations were also occupied in near coastal waters out to the edge of the Gulf Stream in the vicinity of Kennedy Space Center, Florida and estuarine waters along Port Royal Sound and along the Beaufort River tidal area in South Carolina. The measurements were utilized to calculate natural water specific absorption, total backscatter and specific backscatter optical signatures. The resulting optical cross section signatures suggest different models are needed for the different water types and that the common linear model may only appropriate for coastal and oceanic water types. Mean particle size estimates based on the optical cross section, suggest as expected, that particle size of oceanic particles are smaller than more turbid water types. The data discussed and presented are necessary for remote sensing applications of sensors as well as for development and inversion of remote sensing algorithms.

  8. Characterizing post-drainage succession in Thermokarst Lake Basins on the Seward Peninsula, Alaska with TerraSAR-X Backscatter and Landsat-based NDVI data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Regmi, Prajna; Grosse, Guido; Jones, Miriam C.; Jones, Benjamin M.; Walter Anthony, Katey

    2012-01-01

    Drained thermokarst lake basins accumulate significant amounts of soil organic carbon in the form of peat, which is of interest to understanding carbon cycling and climate change feedbacks associated with thermokarst in the Arctic. Remote sensing is a tool useful for understanding temporal and spatial dynamics of drained basins. In this study, we tested the application of high-resolution X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data of the German TerraSAR-X satellite from the 2009 growing season (July–September) for characterizing drained thermokarst lake basins of various age in the ice-rich permafrost region of the northern Seward Peninsula, Alaska. To enhance interpretation of patterns identified in X-band SAR for these basins, we also analyzed the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) calculated from a Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper image acquired on July 2009 and compared both X-band SAR and NDVI data with observations of basin age. We found significant logarithmic relationships between (a) TerraSAR-X backscatter and basin age from 0 to 10,000 years, (b) Landat-5 TM NDVI and basin age from 0 to 10,000 years, and (c) TerraSAR-X backscatter and basin age from 50 to 10,000 years. NDVI was a better indicator of basin age over a period of 0–10,000 years. However, TerraSAR-X data performed much better for discriminating radiocarbon-dated basins (50–10,000 years old). No clear relationships were found for either backscatter or NDVI and basin age from 0 to 50 years. We attribute the decreasing trend of backscatter and NDVI with increasing basin age to post-drainage changes in the basin surface. Such changes include succession in vegetation, soils, hydrology, and renewed permafrost aggradation, ground ice accumulation and localized frost heave. Results of this study show the potential application of X-band SAR data in combination with NDVI data to map long-term succession dynamics of drained thermokarst lake basins.

  9. Characterizing Post-Drainage Succession in Thermokarst Lake Basins on the Seward Peninsula, Alaska with TerraSAR-X Backscatter and Landsat-based NDVI Data

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    Prajna Regmi

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available Drained thermokarst lake basins accumulate significant amounts of soil organic carbon in the form of peat, which is of interest to understanding carbon cycling and climate change feedbacks associated with thermokarst in the Arctic. Remote sensing is a tool useful for understanding temporal and spatial dynamics of drained basins. In this study, we tested the application of high-resolution X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR data of the German TerraSAR-X satellite from the 2009 growing season (July–September for characterizing drained thermokarst lake basins of various age in the ice-rich permafrost region of the northern Seward Peninsula, Alaska. To enhance interpretation of patterns identified in X-band SAR for these basins, we also analyzed the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI calculated from a Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper image acquired on July 2009 and compared both X-band SAR and NDVI data with observations of basin age. We found significant logarithmic relationships between (a TerraSAR-X backscatter and basin age from 0 to 10,000 years, (b Landat-5 TM NDVI and basin age from 0 to 10,000 years, and (c TerraSAR-X backscatter and basin age from 50 to 10,000 years. NDVI was a better indicator of basin age over a period of 0–10,000 years. However, TerraSAR-X data performed much better for discriminating radiocarbon-dated basins (50–10,000 years old. No clear relationships were found for either backscatter or NDVI and basin age from 0 to 50 years. We attribute the decreasing trend of backscatter and NDVI with increasing basin age to post-drainage changes in the basin surface. Such changes include succession in vegetation, soils, hydrology, and renewed permafrost aggradation, ground ice accumulation and localized frost heave. Results of this study show the potential application of X-band SAR data in combination with NDVI data to map long-term succession dynamics of drained thermokarst lake basins.

  10. Evaluation of the Oh, Dubois and IEM Backscatter Models Using a Large Dataset of SAR Data and Experimental Soil Measurements

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    Mohammad Choker

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to evaluate the most used radar backscattering models (Integral Equation Model “IEM”, Oh, Dubois, and Advanced Integral Equation Model “AIEM” using a wide dataset of SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar data and experimental soil measurements. These forward models reproduce the radar backscattering coefficients ( σ 0 from soil surface characteristics (dielectric constant, roughness and SAR sensor parameters (radar wavelength, incidence angle, polarization. The analysis dataset is composed of AIRSAR, SIR-C, JERS-1, PALSAR-1, ESAR, ERS, RADARSAT, ASAR and TerraSAR-X data and in situ measurements (soil moisture and surface roughness. Results show that Oh model version developed in 1992 gives the best fitting of the backscattering coefficients in HH and VV polarizations with RMSE values of 2.6 dB and 2.4 dB, respectively. Simulations performed with the Dubois model show a poor correlation between real data and model simulations in HH polarization (RMSE = 4.0 dB and better correlation with real data in VV polarization (RMSE = 2.9 dB. The IEM and the AIEM simulate the backscattering coefficient with high RMSE when using a Gaussian correlation function. However, better simulations are performed with IEM and AIEM by using an exponential correlation function (slightly better fitting with AIEM than IEM. Good agreement was found between the radar data and the simulations using the calibrated version of the IEM modified by Baghdadi (IEM_B with bias less than 1.0 dB and RMSE less than 2.0 dB. These results confirm that, up to date, the IEM modified by Baghdadi (IEM_B is the most adequate to estimate soil moisture and roughness from SAR data.

  11. SAR Imagery Applied to the Monitoring of Hyper-Saline Deposits: Death Valley Example (CA)

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    Lasne, Yannick; Paillou, Philippe; Freeman, Anthony; Chapman, Bruce

    2009-01-01

    The present study aims at understanding the influence of salinity on the dielectric constant of soils and then on the backscattering coeff cients recorded by airborne/spaceborne SAR systems. Based on dielectric measurements performed over hyper-saline deposits in Death Valley (CA), as well as laboratory electromagnetic characterization of salts and water mixtures, we used the dielectric constants as input parameters of analytical IEM simulations to model both the amplitude and phase behaviors of SAR signal at C, and L-bands. Our analytical simulations allow to reproduce specif c copolar signatures recorded in SAR data, corresponding to the Cottonball Basin saltpan. We also propose the copolar backscattering ratio and phase difference as indicators of moistened and salt-affected soils. More precisely, we show that these copolar indicators should allow to monitor the seasonal variations of the dielectric properties of saline deposits.

  12. Long Wavelength SAR Backscatter Modelling Trends as a Consequence of the Emergent Properties of Tree Populations

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    Matthew Brolly

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available This study describes the novel use of a macroecological plant and forest structure model in conjunction with a Radiative Transfer (RT model to better understand interactions between microwaves and forest canopies. Trends predicted by the RT model, resulting from interactions with mixed age, mono and multi species forests, are analysed in comparison to those predicted using a simplistic structure based scattering model. This model relates backscatter to scatterer cross sectional or volume specifications, dependent on the size. The Spatially Explicit Reiterative Algorithm (SERA model is used to provide a widely varied tree size distribution while maintaining allometric consistency to produce a natural-like forest representation. The RT model is parameterised using structural information from SERA and microwave backscatter simulations are used to analyse the impact of changes to the forest stand. Results show that the slope of the saturation curve observed in the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR backscatter-biomass relationship is sensitive to thinning and therefore forest basal area. Due to similarities displayed between the results of the RT and simplistic model, it is determined that forest SAR backscatter behaviour at long microwave wavelengths may be described generally using equations related to total stem volume and basal area. The nature of these equations is such that they describe saturating behaviour of forests in the absence of attenuation in comparable fashion to the trends exhibited using the RT model. Both modelled backscatter trends predict a   relationship to forest basal area from an early age when forest volume is increasing. When this is not the case, it is assumed to be a result of attenuation of the dominant stem-ground interaction due to the presence of excessive numbers of stems. This work shows how forest growth models can be successfully incorporated into existing independent scattering models and reveals, through the RT

  13. Electromagnetic backscattering from one-dimensional drifting fractal sea surface II: Electromagnetic backscattering model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Xie Tao; Zhao Shang-Zhuo; Fang He; Yu Wen-Jin; He Yi-Jun; Perrie, William

    2016-01-01

    Sea surface current has a significant influence on electromagnetic (EM) backscattering signals and may constitute a dominant synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging mechanism. An effective EM backscattering model for a one-dimensional drifting fractal sea surface is presented in this paper. This model is used to simulate EM backscattering signals from the drifting sea surface. Numerical results show that ocean currents have a significant influence on EM backscattering signals from the sea surface. The normalized radar cross section (NRCS) discrepancies between the model for a coupled wave-current fractal sea surface and the model for an uncoupled fractal sea surface increase with the increase of incidence angle, as well as with increasing ocean currents. Ocean currents that are parallel to the direction of the wave can weaken the EM backscattering signal intensity, while the EM backscattering signal is intensified by ocean currents propagating oppositely to the wave direction. The model presented in this paper can be used to study the SAR imaging mechanism for a drifting sea surface. (paper)

  14. IMPROVED PARAMETERIZATION OF WATER CLOUD MODEL FOR HYBRID-POLARIZED BACKSCATTER SIMULATION USING INTERACTION FACTOR

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    S. Chauhan

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available The prime aim of this study was to assess the potential of semi-empirical water cloud model (WCM in simulating hybrid-polarized SAR backscatter signatures (RH and RV retrieved from RISAT-1 data and integrate the results into a graphical user interface (GUI to facilitate easy comprehension and interpretation. A predominant agricultural wheat growing area was selected in Mathura and Bharatpur districts located in the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan respectively to carry out the study. The three-date datasets were acquired covering the crucial growth stages of the wheat crop. In synchrony, the fieldwork was organized to measure crop/soil parameters. The RH and RV backscattering coefficient images were extracted from the SAR data for all the three dates. The effect of four combinations of vegetation descriptors (V1 and V2 viz., LAI-LAI, LAI-Plant water content (PWC, Leaf water area index (LWAI-LWAI, and LAI-Interaction factor (IF on the total RH and RV backscatter was analyzed. The results revealed that WCM calibrated with LAI and IF as the two vegetation descriptors simulated the total RH and RV backscatter values with highest R2 of 0.90 and 0.85 while the RMSE was lowest among the other tested models (1.18 and 1.25 dB, respectively. The theoretical considerations and interpretations have been discussed and examined in the paper. The novelty of this work emanates from the fact that it is a first step towards the modeling of hybrid-polarized backscatter data using an accurately parameterized semi-empirical approach.

  15. MAPPING THE EXTENT AND MAGNITUDE OF SEVER FLOODING INDUCED BY HURRICANE IRMA WITH MULTI-TEMPORAL SENTINEL-1 SAR AND INSAR OBSERVATIONS

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    B. Zhang

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available During Hurricane Irma’s passage over Florida in September 2017, many sections of the state experienced heavy rain and sequent flooding. In order to drain water out of potential flooding zones and assess property damage, it is important to map the extent and magnitude of the flooded areas at various stages of the storm. We use Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR and Interferometric SAR (InSAR observations, acquired by Sentinel-1 before, during and after the hurricane passage, which enable us to evaluate surface condition during different stages of the hurricane. This study uses multi-temporal images acquired under dry condition before the hurricane to constrain the background backscattering signature. Flooded areas are detected when the backscattering during the hurricane is statistically significantly different from the average dry conditions. The detected changes can be either an increase or decrease of the backscattering, which depends on the scattering characteristics of the surface. In addition, water level change information in Palmdale, South Florida is extracted from an interferogram with the aid of a local water gauge as the reference. The results of our flooding analysis revealed that the majority of the study area in South Florida was flooded during Hurricane Irma.

  16. Backscatter Analysis Using Multi-Temporal SENTINEL-1 SAR Data for Crop Growth of Maize in Konya Basin, Turkey

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    Abdikan, S.; Sekertekin, A.; Ustunern, M.; Balik Sanli, F.; Nasirzadehdizaji, R.

    2018-04-01

    Temporal monitoring of crop types is essential for the sustainable management of agricultural activities on both national and global levels. As a practical and efficient tool, remote sensing is widely used in such applications. In this study, Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery was utilized to investigate the performance of the sensor backscatter image on crop monitoring. Multi-temporal C-band VV and VH polarized SAR images were acquired simultaneously by in-situ measurements which was conducted at Konya basin, central Anatolia Turkey. During the measurements, plant height of maize plant was collected and relationship between backscatter values and plant height was analysed. The maize growth development was described under Biologische Bundesanstalt, bundessortenamt und CHemische industrie (BBCH). Under BBCH stages, the test site was classified as leaf development, stem elongation, heading and flowering in general. The correlation coefficient values indicated high correlation for both polarimetry during the early stages of the plant, while late stages indicated lower values in both polarimetry. As a last step, multi-temporal coverage of crop fields was analysed to map seasonal land use. To this aim, object based image classification was applied following image segmentation. About 80 % accuracies of land use maps were created in this experiment. As preliminary results, it is concluded that Sentinel-1 data provides beneficial information about plant growth. Dual-polarized Sentinel-1 data has high potential for multi-temporal analyses for agriculture monitoring and reliable mapping.

  17. Bistatic SAR: Imagery & Image Products.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yocky, David A.; Wahl, Daniel E.; Jakowatz, Charles V,

    2014-10-01

    While typical SAR imaging employs a co-located (monostatic) RADAR transmitter and receiver, bistatic SAR imaging separates the transmitter and receiver locations. The transmitter and receiver geometry determines if the scattered signal is back scatter, forward scatter, or side scatter. The monostatic SAR image is backscatter. Therefore, depending on the transmitter/receiver collection geometry, the captured imagery may be quite different that that sensed at the monostatic SAR. This document presents imagery and image products formed from captured signals during the validation stage of the bistatic SAR research. Image quality and image characteristics are discussed first. Then image products such as two-color multi-view (2CMV) and coherent change detection (CCD) are presented.

  18. Backscatter Analysis Using Multi-Temporal and Multi-Frequency SAR Data in the Context of Flood Mapping at River Saale, Germany

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    Sandro Martinis

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available In this study, an analysis of multi-temporal and multi-frequency Synthetic Aperture Radar data is performed to investigate the backscatter behavior of various semantic classes in the context of flood mapping in central Europe. The focus is mainly on partially submerged vegetation such as forests and agricultural fields. The test area is located at River Saale, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, which is covered by a time series of 39 TerraSAR-X data acquired within the time interval December 2009 to June 2013. The data set is supplemented by ALOS PALSAR L-band and RADARSAT-2 C-band data. The time series covers two inundations in January 2011 and June 2013 which allows evaluating backscatter variations between flood periods and normal water level conditions using different radar wavelengths. According to the results, there is potential in detecting flooding beneath vegetation in all microwave wavelengths, even in X-band for sparse vegetation or leaf-off forests.

  19. Hydrodynamics of the groundwater-fed Sian Ka'an Wetlands, Mexico, From InSAR and SAR Data

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gondwe, Bibi Ruth Neuman; Hong, S.; Wdowinski, S.

    2008-01-01

    The 5300 km2 pristine Sian Ka'an wetland in Mexico is fed entirely by groundwater from the karst aquifer of the Yucatan Peninsula. The area is undeveloped and hence difficult to access. The inflow through underground rivers and karst structures is hard to observe resulting in difficulties......-changes of the backscattered radar signal, which can be related to the water level changes in vegetated wetlands. SAR data reveals information of surface properties such as the degree of flooding through the amplitude of the backscattered signal. We used RADARSAT-1 InSAR and SAR data to form 36 interferograms and 13 flooding...... maps with 24 to 48 day intervals covering the time span of October 2006 to March 2008. The dataset has a high spatial resolution of ca. 20 to 60 m. Sian Ka'an consists of a mosaic of freshwater sloughs, canals, floodplains and brackish tidally-influenced areas. Throughout most of the year, water level...

  20. Rotating Parabolic-Reflector Antenna Target in SAR Data: Model, Characteristics, and Parameter Estimation

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    Bin Deng

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Parabolic-reflector antennas (PRAs, usually possessing rotation, are a particular type of targets of potential interest to the synthetic aperture radar (SAR community. This paper is aimed to investigate PRA’s scattering characteristics and then to extract PRA’s parameters from SAR returns, for supporting image interpretation and target recognition. We at first obtain both closed-form and numeric solutions to PRA’s backscattering by geometrical optics (GO, physical optics, and graphical electromagnetic computation, respectively. Based on the GO solution, a migratory scattering center model is at first presented for representing the movement of the specular point with aspect angle, and then a hybrid model, named the migratory/micromotion scattering center (MMSC model, is proposed for characterizing a rotating PRA in the SAR geometry, which incorporates PRA’s rotation into its migratory scattering center model. Additionally, we in detail analyze PRA’s radar characteristics on radar cross-section, high-resolution range profiles, time-frequency distribution, and 2D images, which also confirm the models proposed. A maximal likelihood estimator is developed for jointly solving the MMSC model for PRA’s multiple parameters by optimization. By exploiting the aforementioned characteristics, the coarse parameter estimation guarantees convergency upon global minima. The signatures recovered can be favorably utilized for SAR image interpretation and target recognition.

  1. Urban Aerodynamic Roughness Length Mapping Using Multitemporal SAR Data

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    Fengli Zhang

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Aerodynamic roughness is very important to urban meteorological and climate studies. Radar remote sensing is considered to be an effective means for aerodynamic roughness retrieval because radar backscattering is sensitive to the surface roughness and geometric structure of a given target. In this paper, a methodology for aerodynamic roughness length estimation using SAR data in urban areas is introduced. The scale and orientation characteristics of backscattering of various targets in urban areas were firstly extracted and analyzed, which showed great potential of SAR data for urban roughness elements characterization. Then the ground truth aerodynamic roughness was calculated from wind gradient data acquired by the meteorological tower using fitting and iterative method. And then the optimal dimension of the upwind sector for the aerodynamic roughness calculation was determined through a correlation analysis between backscattering extracted from SAR data at various upwind sector areas and the aerodynamic roughness calculated from the meteorological tower data. Finally a quantitative relationship was set up to retrieve the aerodynamic roughness length from SAR data. Experiments based on ALOS PALSAR and COSMO-SkyMed data from 2006 to 2011 prove that the proposed methodology can provide accurate roughness length estimations for the spatial and temporal analysis of urban surface.

  2. Doppler Spectrum-Based NRCS Estimation Method for Low-Scattering Areas in Ocean SAR Images

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    Hui Meng

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available The image intensities of low-backscattering areas in synthetic aperture radar (SAR images are often seriously contaminated by the system noise floor and azimuthal ambiguity signal from adjacent high-backscattering areas. Hence, the image intensity of low-backscattering areas does not correctly reflect the backscattering intensity, which causes confusion in subsequent image processing or interpretation. In this paper, a method is proposed to estimate the normalized radar cross-section (NRCS of low-backscattering area by utilizing the differences between noise, azimuthal ambiguity, and signal in the Doppler frequency domain of single-look SAR images; the aim is to eliminate the effect of system noise and azimuthal ambiguity. Analysis shows that, for a spaceborne SAR with a noise equivalent sigma zero (NESZ of −25 dB and a single-look pixel of 8 m × 5 m, the NRCS-estimation precision of this method can reach −38 dB at a resolution of 96 m × 100 m. Three examples are given to validate the advantages of this method in estimating the low NRCS and the filtering of the azimuthal ambiguity.

  3. Investigating the backscatter contrast anomaly in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery of the dunes along the Israel-Egypt border

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    Rozenstein, Offer; Siegal, Zehava; Blumberg, Dan G.; Adamowski, Jan

    2016-04-01

    The dune field intersected by the Israel-Egypt borderline has attracted many remote sensing studies over the years because it exhibits unique optical phenomena in several domains, from the visual to the thermal infrared. These phenomena are the result of land-use policies implemented by the two countries, which have differing effects on the two ecosystems. This study explores the surface properties that affect radar backscatter, namely the surface roughness and dielectric properties, in order to determine the cause for the variation across the border. The backscatter contrast was demonstrated for SIR-C, the first synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensor to capture this phenomenon, as well as ASAR imagery that coincides with complementary ground observations. These field observations along the border, together with an aerial image from the same year as the SIR-C acquisition were used to analyze differences in vegetation patterns that can affect the surface roughness. The dielectric permittivity of two kinds of topsoil (sand, biocrust) was measured in the field and in the laboratory. The results suggest that the vegetation structure and spatial distribution differ between the two sides of the border in a manner that is consistent with the radar observations. The dielectric permittivity of sand and biocrust was found to be similar, although they are not constant across the radar spectral region (50 MHz-20 GHz). These findings support the hypothesis that changes to the vegetation, as a consequence of the different land-use practices in Israel and Egypt, are the cause for the radar backscatter contrast across the border.

  4. Wave directional spectrum from SAR imagery

    Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

    Fernandes, A.A.; Sarma, Y.V.B.; Menon, H.B.; Vethamony, P.

    Gaussian smoothed SAR image spectra have been evaluated from 512 x 512 pixel subscenes of image mode ERS-1 SAR scenes off Goa, Visakhapatnam, Paradeep and Portugal. The two recently acquired scenes off Portugal showed the signature of swell...

  5. Program Merges SAR Data on Terrain and Vegetation Heights

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    Siqueira, Paul; Hensley, Scott; Rodriguez, Ernesto; Simard, Marc

    2007-01-01

    X/P Merge is a computer program that estimates ground-surface elevations and vegetation heights from multiple sets of data acquired by the GeoSAR instrument [a terrain-mapping synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) system that operates in the X and bands]. X/P Merge software combines data from X- and P-band digital elevation models, SAR backscatter magnitudes, and interferometric correlation magnitudes into a simplified set of output topographical maps of ground-surface elevation and tree height.

  6. L-Band Polarimetric SAR Signatures of Lava Flows in the Northern Volcanic Zone, Iceland

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dierking, Wolfgang; Haack, Henning

    1998-01-01

    Studies of radar scattering signatures typical for lava surfaces are needed in order to interprete SAR images of volcanic terrain on the Earth and on other planets, and to establish a physical basis for the choice of optimal radar configurations for geological mapping. The authors focus on a study...... of different morphologic types within a flow. The largest contrasts are observed at cross-polarization. The phase difference between the VV- and HH-channels may provide information about a vegetation cover on the lava. The radar signal scattered from the flows is dominated by surface scattering contributions...

  7. Detectability Analysis of Road Vehicles in Radarsat-2 Fully Polarimetric SAR Images for Traffic Monitoring

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bo Zhang

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available By acquiring information over a wide area regardless of weather conditions and solar illumination, space-borne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR has the potential to be a promising application for traffic monitoring. However, the backscatter character of a vehicle in a SAR image is unstable and varies with image parameters, such as aspect and incidence angle. To investigate vehicle detectability in SAR images for traffic monitoring applications, images of four common types of vehicles in China were acquired using the fully polarimetric (FP SAR of Radarsat-2 in our experiments. Methods for measuring a vehicle’s aspect angle and backscatter intensity are introduced. The experimental FP SAR images are used to analyze the detectability, which is affected by factors such as vehicle size, vehicle shape, and aspect angle. Moreover, a new metric to improve vehicle detectability in FP SAR images is proposed and compared with the well-known intensity metric. The experimental results show that shape is a crucial factor in affecting the backscatter intensity of vehicles, which also oscillates with varying aspect angle. If the size of a vehicle is smaller than the SAR image resolution, using the intensity metric would result in low detectability. However, it could be improved in an FP SAR image by using the proposed metric. Compared with the intensity metric, the overall detectability is improved from 72% to 90% in our experiments. Therefore, this study indicates that FP SAR images have the ability to detect stationary vehicles on the road and are meaningful for traffic monitoring.

  8. Image based SAR product simulation for analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Domik, G.; Leberl, F.

    1987-01-01

    SAR product simulation serves to predict SAR image gray values for various flight paths. Input typically consists of a digital elevation model and backscatter curves. A new method is described of product simulation that employs also a real SAR input image for image simulation. This can be denoted as 'image-based simulation'. Different methods to perform this SAR prediction are presented and advantages and disadvantages discussed. Ascending and descending orbit images from NASA's SIR-B experiment were used for verification of the concept: input images from ascending orbits were converted into images from a descending orbit; the results are compared to the available real imagery to verify that the prediction technique produces meaningful image data.

  9. Probabilistic mapping of flood-induced backscatter changes in SAR time series

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schlaffer, Stefan; Chini, Marco; Giustarini, Laura; Matgen, Patrick

    2017-04-01

    The information content of flood extent maps can be increased considerably by including information on the uncertainty of the flood area delineation. This additional information can be of benefit in flood forecasting and monitoring. Furthermore, flood probability maps can be converted to binary maps showing flooded and non-flooded areas by applying a threshold probability value pF = 0.5. In this study, a probabilistic change detection approach for flood mapping based on synthetic aperture radar (SAR) time series is proposed. For this purpose, conditional probability density functions (PDFs) for land and open water surfaces were estimated from ENVISAT ASAR Wide Swath (WS) time series containing >600 images using a reference mask of permanent water bodies. A pixel-wise harmonic model was used to account for seasonality in backscatter from land areas caused by soil moisture and vegetation dynamics. The approach was evaluated for a large-scale flood event along the River Severn, United Kingdom. The retrieved flood probability maps were compared to a reference flood mask derived from high-resolution aerial imagery by means of reliability diagrams. The obtained performance measures indicate both high reliability and confidence although there was a slight under-estimation of the flood extent, which may in part be attributed to topographically induced radar shadows along the edges of the floodplain. Furthermore, the results highlight the importance of local incidence angle for the separability between flooded and non-flooded areas as specular reflection properties of open water surfaces increase with a more oblique viewing geometry.

  10. Relating P-band AIRSAR backscatter to forest stand parameters

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Yong; Melack, John M.; Davis, Frank W.; Kasischke, Eric S.; Christensen, Norman L., Jr.

    1993-01-01

    As part of research on forest ecosystems, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and collaborating research teams have conducted multi-season airborne synthetic aperture radar (AIRSAR) experiments in three forest ecosystems including temperate pine forest (Duke, Forest, North Carolina), boreal forest (Bonanza Creek Experimental Forest, Alaska), and northern mixed hardwood-conifer forest (Michigan Biological Station, Michigan). The major research goals were to improve understanding of the relationships between radar backscatter and phenological variables (e.g. stand density, tree size, etc.), to improve radar backscatter models of tree canopy properties, and to develop a radar-based scheme for monitoring forest phenological changes. In September 1989, AIRSAR backscatter data were acquired over the Duke Forest. As the aboveground biomass of the loblolly pine forest stands at Duke Forest increased, the SAR backscatter at C-, L-, and P-bands increased and saturated at different biomass levels for the C-band, L-band, and P-band data. We only use the P-band backscatter data and ground measurements here to study the relationships between the backscatter and stand density, the backscatter and mean trunk dbh (diameter at breast height) of trees in the stands, and the backscatter and stand basal area.

  11. Pasture Monitoring Using SAR with COSMO-SkyMed, ENVISAT ASAR, and ALOS PALSAR in Otway, Australia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiaojing Li

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available Because of all-weather working ability, sensitivity to biomass and moisture, and high spatial resolution, Synthetic aperture radar (SAR satellite images can perfectly complement optical images for pasture monitoring. This paper aims to examine the potential of the integration of COnstellation of small Satellites for the Mediterranean basin Observasion (COSMO-SkyMed, Environmental Satellite Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ENVISAT ASAR, and Advanced Land Observing Satellite Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (ALOS PALSAR radar signals at horizontally emitted and received polarization (HH for pasture monitoring at the paddock scale in order to guide farmers for better management. The pasture site is selected, in Otway, Victoria, Australia. The biomass, water content of grass, and soil moisture over this site were analyzed with these three bands of SAR images, through linear relationship between SAR backscattering coefficient, and vegetation indices Normalized Differential Vegetation Index (NDVI, Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI, Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI, together with soil moisture index (MI. NDVI, NDWI, and MI are considered as proxy of pasture biomass, plant water content, and soil moisture, respectively, and computed from optical images and climate data. SAR backscattering coefficient and vegetation indices are computed within a grass zone, defined by classification with MODIS data. The grass condition and grazing activities for specific paddocks are detectable, based on SAR backscatter, with all three wavelengths datasets. Both temporal and spatial analysis results show that the X-band SAR has the highest correlation to the vegetation indices. However, its accuracy can be affected by wet weather due to its sensitivity to the water on leaves. The C-band HH backscattering coefficient showed moderate reliability to evaluate biomass and water content of grass, with limited influence from rainfall in the dry season

  12. Statistical characterisation of COSMO Sky-Med X-SAR retrieved precipitation fields by scale-invariance analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deidda, Roberto; Mascaro, Giuseppe; Hellies, Matteo; Baldini, Luca; Roberto, Nicoletta

    2013-04-01

    COSMO Sky-Med (CSK) is an important programme of the Italian Space Agency aiming at supporting environmental monitoring and management of exogenous, endogenous and anthropogenic risks through X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (X-SAR) on board of 4 satellites forming a constellation. Most of typical SAR applications are focused on land or ocean observation. However, X-band SAR can be detect precipitation that results in a specific signature caused by the combination of attenuation of surface returns induced by precipitation and enhancement of backscattering determined by the hydrometeors in the SAR resolution volume. Within CSK programme, we conducted an intercomparison between the statistical properties of precipitation fields derived by CSK SARs and those derived by the CNR Polar 55C (C-band) ground based weather radar located in Rome (Italy). This contribution presents main results of this research which was aimed at the robust characterisation of rainfall statistical properties across different scales by means of scale-invariance analysis and multifractal theory. The analysis was performed on a dataset of more two years of precipitation observations collected by the CNR Polar 55C radar and rainfall fields derived from available images collected by the CSK satellites during intense rainfall events. Scale-invariance laws and multifractal properties were detected on the most intense rainfall events derived from the CNR Polar 55C radar for spatial scales from 4 km to 64 km. The analysis on X-SAR retrieved rainfall fields, although based on few images, leaded to similar results and confirmed the existence of scale-invariance and multifractal properties for scales larger than 4 km. These outcomes encourage investigating SAR methodologies for future development of meteo-hydrological forecasting models based on multifractal theory.

  13. Utility of Characterizing and Monitoring Suspected Underground Nuclear Sites with VideoSAR

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dauphin, S. M.; Yocky, D. A.; Riley, R.; Calloway, T. M.; Wahl, D. E.

    2016-12-01

    Sandia National Laboratories proposed using airborne synthetic aperture RADAR (SAR) collected in VideoSAR mode to characterize the Underground Nuclear Explosion Signature Experiment (UNESE) test bed site at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS). The SNL SAR collected airborne, Ku-band (16.8 GHz center frequency), 0.2032 meter ground resolution over NNSS in August 2014 and X-band (9.6 GHz), 0.1016 meter ground resolution fully-polarimetric SAR in April 2015. This paper reports the findings of processing and exploiting VideoSAR for creating digital elevation maps, detecting cultural artifacts and exploiting full-circle polarimetric signatures. VideoSAR collects a continuous circle of phase history data, therefore, imagery can be formed over the 360-degrees of the site. Since the Ku-band VideoSAR had two antennas suitable for interferometric digital elevation mapping (DEM), DEMs could be generated over numerous aspect angles, filling in holes created by targets with height by imaging from all sides. Also, since the X-band VideoSAR was fully-polarimetric, scattering signatures could be gleaned from all angles also. Both of these collections can be used to find man-made objects and changes in elevation that might indicate testing activities. VideoSAR provides a unique, coherent measure of ground objects allowing one to create accurate DEMS, locate man-made objects, and identify scattering signatures via polarimetric exploitation. Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000. The authors would like to thank the National Nuclear Security Administration, Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development, for sponsoring this work. We would also like to thank the Underground Nuclear Explosion Signatures Experiment team, a multi

  14. Stimulated Raman backscattering at high laser intensities

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Skoric, M M [Vinca Inst. of Nuclear Sciences, Belgrade (Yugoslavia); Tajima, Toshiki; Sasaki, Akira; Maluckov, A; Jovanovic, M

    1998-03-01

    Signatures of Stimulated Raman backscattering of a short-pulse high-intensity laser interacting with an underdense plasma are discussed. We introduce a nonlinear three-wave interaction model that accounts for laser pump depletion and relativistic detuning. A mechanism is revealed based on a generic route to chaos, that predicts a progressive increase of the backscatter complexity with a growing laser intensity. Importance of kinetic effects is outlined and demonstrated in fluid-hybrid and particle simulations. As an application, we show that spectral anomalies of the backscatter, predicted by the above model, are consistent with recent sub-picosecond, high-intensity laser gas-target measurements at Livermore and elsewhere. Finally, a recently proposed scheme for generation of ultra-short, low-prepulse laser pulses by Raman backscattering in a thin foil target, is shown. (author)

  15. Empirical wind retrieval model based on SAR spectrum measurements

    Science.gov (United States)

    Panfilova, Maria; Karaev, Vladimir; Balandina, Galina; Kanevsky, Mikhail; Portabella, Marcos; Stoffelen, Ad

    The present paper considers polarimetric SAR wind vector applications. Remote-sensing measurements of the near-surface wind over the ocean are of great importance for the understanding of atmosphere-ocean interaction. In recent years investigations for wind vector retrieval using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data have been performed. In contrast with scatterometers, a SAR has a finer spatial resolution that makes it a more suitable microwave instrument to explore wind conditions in the marginal ice zones, coastal regions and lakes. The wind speed retrieval procedure from scatterometer data matches the measured radar backscattering signal with the geophysical model function (GMF). The GMF determines the radar cross section dependence on the wind speed and direction with respect to the azimuthal angle of the radar beam. Scatterometers provide information on wind speed and direction simultaneously due to the fact that each wind vector cell (WVC) is observed at several azimuth angles. However, SAR is not designed to be used as a high resolution scatterometer. In this case, each WVC is observed at only one single azimuth angle. That is why for wind vector determination additional information such as wind streak orientation over the sea surface is required. It is shown that the wind vector can be obtained using polarimetric SAR without additional information. The main idea is to analyze the spectrum of a homogeneous SAR image area instead of the backscattering normalized radar cross section. Preliminary numerical simulations revealed that SAR image spectral maxima positions depend on the wind vector. Thus the following method for wind speed retrieval is proposed. In the first stage of the algorithm, the SAR spectrum maxima are determined. This procedure is carried out to estimate the wind speed and direction with ambiguities separated by 180 degrees due to the SAR spectrum symmetry. The second stage of the algorithm allows us to select the correct wind direction

  16. Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary - Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Imagery

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This geodatabase contains Synthetic Aperture Radar images (SAR), which consist of a fine resolution (12.5-50m), two-dimensional radar backscatter map of the...

  17. Semi-Empirical Calibration of the Integral Equation Model for Co-Polarized L-Band Backscattering

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nicolas Baghdadi

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available The objective of this paper is to extend the semi-empirical calibration of the backscattering Integral Equation Model (IEM initially proposed for Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR data at C- and X-bands to SAR data at L-band. A large dataset of radar signal and in situ measurements (soil moisture and surface roughness over bare soil surfaces were used. This dataset was collected over numerous agricultural study sites in France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany and Italy using various SAR sensors (AIRSAR, SIR-C, JERS-1, PALSAR-1, ESAR. Results showed slightly better simulations with exponential autocorrelation function than with Gaussian function and with HH than with VV. Using the exponential autocorrelation function, the mean difference between experimental data and Integral Equation Model (IEM simulations is +0.4 dB in HH and −1.2 dB in VV with a Root Mean Square Error (RMSE about 3.5 dB. In order to improve the modeling results of the IEM for a better use in the inversion of SAR data, a semi-empirical calibration of the IEM was performed at L-band in replacing the correlation length derived from field experiments by a fitting parameter. Better agreement was observed between the backscattering coefficient provided by the SAR and that simulated by the calibrated version of the IEM (RMSE about 2.2 dB.

  18. Airborne S-Band SAR for Forest Biophysical Retrieval in Temperate Mixed Forests of the UK

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ramesh K. Ningthoujam

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available Radar backscatter from forest canopies is related to forest cover, canopy structure and aboveground biomass (AGB. The S-band frequency (3.1–3.3 GHz lies between the longer L-band (1–2 GHz and the shorter C-band (5–6 GHz and has been insufficiently studied for forest applications due to limited data availability. In anticipation of the British built NovaSAR-S satellite mission, this study evaluates the benefits of polarimetric S-band SAR for forest biophysical properties. To understand the scattering mechanisms in forest canopies at S-band the Michigan Microwave Canopy Scattering (MIMICS-I radiative transfer model was used. S-band backscatter was found to have high sensitivity to the forest canopy characteristics across all polarisations and incidence angles. This sensitivity originates from ground/trunk interaction as the dominant scattering mechanism related to broadleaved species for co-polarised mode and specific incidence angles. The study was carried out in the temperate mixed forest at Savernake Forest and Wytham Woods in southern England, where airborne S-band SAR imagery and field data are available from the recent AirSAR campaign. Field data from the test sites revealed wide ranges of forest parameters, including average canopy height (6–23 m, diameter at breast-height (7–42 cm, basal area (0.2–56 m2/ha, stem density (20–350 trees/ha and woody biomass density (31–520 t/ha. S-band backscatter-biomass relationships suggest increasing backscatter sensitivity to forest AGB with least error between 90.63 and 99.39 t/ha and coefficient of determination (r2 between 0.42 and 0.47 for the co-polarised channel at 0.25 ha resolution. The conclusion is that S-band SAR data such as from NovaSAR-S is suitable for monitoring forest aboveground biomass less than 100 t/ha at 25 m resolution in low to medium incidence angle range.

  19. Rice status and microwave characteristics: Analysis of rice paddy fields at Kojima Bay [Okayama, Japan] using multi-frequency and polarimetric Pi-SAR radar data images

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ishitsuka, N.; Saito, G.; Ouchi, K.; Davidson, G.; Mohri, K.; Uratsuka, S.

    2003-01-01

    Abstract South-east Asia has a rainy-season at the crop growing period, and it is difficult to observe agricultural land in this season using optical remote sensing. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) can observe the earth's surface without being influenced by of clouds. However, it is less useful for observing agricultural land, because satellite SAR has only one data band. Recently, SAR is able to provide multi band and multi polarimetric data. Pi-SAR, an airborne SAR developed by NASDA and CRL, can provide L and X bands and fully polarimetric data. Rice is the main crop in Asia, and we studied the characteristic microwave scatter on rice paddy fields using Pi-SAR data. Our study area was the rice paddy fields in Kojima reclaimed land in Japan. We had two fully polarimetric data sets from 13 July 1999 and 4 October 2000. First, we processed the color polarimetric composite image. Next we calibrated the phase of each polarimetric data using river area by the Kimura method. After that we performed decomposition analysis and drew polarimetric signatures for understanding the status of rice paddy fields. At the rice planting period, rice paddy fields are filled with water and rice plants are very small. The SAR microwave scatters on water surfaces like a mirror, called 'mirror (or specular) reflection'. This phenomenon makes backscatter a small value at the water-covered area. The image from July is about one month after trans-planting and rice plants are 20-40 cm in height. X-band microwave scatters on the rice surface, but L-band microwave passes through rice bodies and shows mirror refraction on water surfaces. Some strong backscatter occur on rice paddy fields especially VV polarization because of bragg scattering. The fields where bragg scattering returns strong VV scatter because the space between rice stems cause resonation in the L-band wavelength. We can easily understand bragg scatter by using polarimetric data. Using the image from October at

  20. Relating multifrequency radar backscattering to forest biomass: Modeling and AIRSAR measurement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, Guo-Qing; Ranson, K. Jon

    1992-01-01

    During the last several years, significant efforts in microwave remote sensing were devoted to relating forest parameters to radar backscattering coefficients. These and other studies showed that in most cases, the longer wavelength (i.e. P band) and cross-polarization (HV) backscattering had higher sensitivity and better correlation to forest biomass. This research examines this relationship in a northern forest area through both backscatter modeling and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data analysis. The field measurements were used to estimate stand biomass from forest weight tables. The backscatter model described by Sun et al. was modified to simulate the backscattering coefficients with respect to stand biomass. The average number of trees per square meter or radar resolution cell, and the average tree height or diameter breast height (dbh) in the forest stand are the driving parameters of the model. The rest of the soil surface, orientation, and size distributions of leaves and branches, remain unchanged in the simulations.

  1. Compositional Signatures in Acoustic Backscatter Over Vegetated and Unvegetated Mixed Sand-Gravel Riverbeds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buscombe, D.; Grams, P. E.; Kaplinski, M. A.

    2017-10-01

    Multibeam acoustic backscatter has considerable utility for remote characterization of spatially heterogeneous bed sediment composition over vegetated and unvegetated riverbeds of mixed sand and gravel. However, the use of high-frequency, decimeter-resolution acoustic backscatter for sediment classification in shallow water is hampered by significant topographic contamination of the signal. In mixed sand-gravel riverbeds, changes in the abiotic composition of sediment (such as homogeneous sand to homogeneous gravel) tend to occur over larger spatial scales than is characteristic of small-scale bedform topography (ripples, dunes, and bars) or biota (such as vascular plants and periphyton). A two-stage method is proposed to filter out the morphological contributions to acoustic backscatter. First, the residual supragrain-scale topographic effects in acoustic backscatter with small instantaneous insonified areas, caused by ambiguity in the local (beam-to-beam) bed-sonar geometry, are removed. Then, coherent scales between high-resolution topography and backscatter are identified using cospectra, which are used to design a frequency domain filter that decomposes backscatter into the (unwanted) high-pass component associated with bedform topography (ripples, dunes, and sand waves) and vegetation, and the (desired) low-frequency component associated with the composition of sediment patches superimposed on the topography. This process strengthens relationships between backscatter and sediment composition. A probabilistic framework is presented for classifying vegetated and unvegetated substrates based on acoustic backscatter at decimeter resolution. This capability is demonstrated using data collected from diverse settings within a 386 km reach of a canyon river whose bed varies among sand, gravel, cobbles, boulders, and submerged vegetation.

  2. Compositional signatures in acoustic backscatter over vegetated and unvegetated mixed sand-gravel riverbeds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buscombe, Daniel; Grams, Paul E.; Kaplinski, Matt A.

    2017-01-01

    Multibeam acoustic backscatter has considerable utility for remote characterization of spatially heterogeneous bed sediment composition over vegetated and unvegetated riverbeds of mixed sand and gravel. However, the use of high-frequency, decimeter-resolution acoustic backscatter for sediment classification in shallow water is hampered by significant topographic contamination of the signal. In mixed sand-gravel riverbeds, changes in the abiotic composition of sediment (such as homogeneous sand to homogeneous gravel) tend to occur over larger spatial scales than is characteristic of small-scale bedform topography (ripples, dunes, and bars) or biota (such as vascular plants and periphyton). A two-stage method is proposed to filter out the morphological contributions to acoustic backscatter. First, the residual supragrain-scale topographic effects in acoustic backscatter with small instantaneous insonified areas, caused by ambiguity in the local (beam-to-beam) bed-sonar geometry, are removed. Then, coherent scales between high-resolution topography and backscatter are identified using cospectra, which are used to design a frequency domain filter that decomposes backscatter into the (unwanted) high-pass component associated with bedform topography (ripples, dunes, and sand waves) and vegetation, and the (desired) low-frequency component associated with the composition of sediment patches superimposed on the topography. This process strengthens relationships between backscatter and sediment composition. A probabilistic framework is presented for classifying vegetated and unvegetated substrates based on acoustic backscatter at decimeter resolution. This capability is demonstrated using data collected from diverse settings within a 386 km reach of a canyon river whose bed varies among sand, gravel, cobbles, boulders, and submerged vegetation.

  3. Rapid Mapping Of Floods Using SAR Data: Opportunities And Critical Aspects

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pulvirenti, Luca; Pierdicca, Nazzareno; Chini, Marco

    2013-04-01

    The potentiality of spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) for flood mapping was demonstrated by several past investigations. The synoptic view, the capability to operate in almost all-weather conditions and during both day time and night time and the sensitivity of the microwave band to water are the key features that make SAR data useful for monitoring inundation events. In addition, their high spatial resolution, which can reach 1m with the new generation of X-band instruments such as TerraSAR-X and COSMO-SkyMed (CSK), allows emergency managers to use flood maps at very high spatial resolution. CSK gives also the possibility of performing frequent observations of regions hit by floods, thanks to the four-satellite constellation. Current research on flood mapping using SAR is focused on the development of automatic algorithms to be used in near real time applications. The approaches are generally based on the low radar return from smooth open water bodies that behave as specular reflectors and appear dark in SAR images. The major advantage of automatic algorithms is the computational efficiency that makes them suitable for rapid mapping purposes. The choice of the threshold value that, in this kind of algorithms, separates flooded from non-flooded areas is a critical aspect because it depends on the characteristics of the observed scenario and on system parameters. To deal with this aspect an algorithm for automatic detection of the regions of low backscatter has been developed. It basically accomplishes three steps: 1) division of the SAR image in a set of non-overlapping sub-images or splits; 2) selection of inhomogeneous sub-images that contain (at least) two populations of pixels, one of which is formed by dark pixels; 3) the application in sequence of an automatic thresholding algorithm and a region growing algorithm in order to produce a homogeneous map of flooded areas. Besides the aforementioned choice of the threshold, rapid mapping of floods may

  4. Improved spatial mapping of rainfall events with spaceborne SAR imagery

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ulaby, F. T.; Brisco, B.; Dobson, C.

    1983-01-01

    The Seasat satellite acquired the first spaceborne synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) images of the earth's surface, in 1978, at a frequency of 1.275 GHz (L-band) in a like-polarization mode at incidence angles of 23 + or - 3 deg. Although this may not be the optimum system configuration for radar remote sensing of soil moisture, interpretation of two Seasat images of Iowa demonstrates the sensitivity of microwave backscatter to soil moisture content. In both scenes, increased image brightness, which represents more radar backscatter, can be related to previous rainfall activity in the two areas. Comparison of these images with ground-based rainfall observations illustrates the increased spatial coverage of the rainfall event that can be obtained from the satellite SAR data. These data can then be color-enhanced by a digital computer to produce aesthetically pleasing output products for the user community.

  5. Constraining the physical properties of Titan's empty lake basins using nadir and off-nadir Cassini RADAR backscatter

    Science.gov (United States)

    Michaelides, R. J.; Hayes, A. G.; Mastrogiuseppe, M.; Zebker, H. A.; Farr, T. G.; Malaska, M. J.; Poggiali, V.; Mullen, J. P.

    2016-05-01

    We use repeat synthetic aperture radar (SAR) observations and complementary altimetry passes acquired by the Cassini spacecraft to study the scattering properties of Titan's empty lake basins. The best-fit coefficients from fitting SAR data to a quasi-specular plus diffuse backscatter model suggest that the bright basin floors have a higher dielectric constant, but similar facet-scale rms surface facet slopes, to surrounding terrain. Waveform analysis of altimetry returns reveals that nadir backscatter returns from basin floors are greater than nadir backscatter returns from basin surroundings and have narrower pulse widths. This suggests that floor deposits are structurally distinct from their surroundings, consistent with the interpretation that some of these basins may be filled with evaporitic and/or sedimentary deposits. Basin floor deposits also express a larger diffuse component to their backscatter, which is likely due to variations in subsurface structure or an increase in roughness at the wavelength scale (Hayes, A.G. et al. [2008]. Geophys. Res. Lett. 35, 9). We generate a high-resolution altimetry radargram of the T30 altimetry pass over an empty lake basin, with which we place geometric constraints on the basin's slopes, rim heights, and depth. Finally, the importance of these backscatter observations and geometric measurements for basin formation mechanisms is briefly discussed.

  6. Retrieving forest stand parameters from SAR backscatter data using a neural network trained by a canopy backscatter model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang, Y.; Dong, D.

    1997-01-01

    It was possible to retrieve the stand mean dbh (tree trunk diameter at breast height) and stand density from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AIRSAR) backscatter data by using threelayered perceptron neural networks (NNs). Two sets of NNs were trained by the Santa Barbara microwave canopy backscatter model. One set of the trained NNs was used to retrieve the stand mean dbh, and the other to retrieve the stand density. Each set of the NNs consisted of seven individual NNs for all possible combinations of one, two, and three radar wavelengths. Ground and multiple wavelength AIRSAR backscatter data from two ponderosa pine forest stands near Mt. Shasta, California (U.S.A.) were used to evaluate the accuracy of the retrievals. The r.m.s. and relative errors of the retrieval for stand mean dbh were 6.1 cm and 15.6 per cent for one stand (St2), and 3.1 cm and 6.7 per cent for the other stand (St11). The r.m.s. and relative errors of the retrieval for stand density were 71.2 treesha-1 and 23.0 per cent for St2, and 49.7 treesha-1 and 21.3 per cent for St11. (author)

  7. Retrieval of ice thickness from polarimetric SAR data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kwok, R.; Yueh, S. H.; Nghiem, S. V.; Huynh, D. D.

    1993-01-01

    We describe a potential procedure for retrieving ice thickness from multi-frequency polarimetric SAR data for thin ice. This procedure includes first masking out the thicker ice types with a simple classifier and then deriving the thickness of the remaining pixels using a model-inversion technique. The technique used to derive ice thickness from polarimetric observations is provided by a numerical estimator or neural network. A three-layer perceptron implemented with the backpropagation algorithm is used in this investigation with several improved aspects for a faster convergence rate and a better accuracy of the neural network. These improvements include weight initialization, normalization of the output range, the selection of offset constant, and a heuristic learning algorithm. The performance of the neural network is demonstrated by using training data generated by a theoretical scattering model for sea ice matched to the database of interest. The training data are comprised of the polarimetric backscattering coefficients of thin ice and the corresponding input ice parameters to the scattering model. The retrieved ice thickness from the theoretical backscattering coefficients is compare with the input ice thickness to the scattering model to illustrate the accuracy of the inversion method. Results indicate that the network convergence rate and accuracy are higher when multi-frequency training sets are presented. In addition, the dominant backscattering coefficients in retrieving ice thickness are found by comparing the behavior of the network trained backscattering data at various incidence angels. After the neural network is trained with the theoretical backscattering data at various incidence anges, the interconnection weights between nodes are saved and applied to the experimental data to be investigated. In this paper, we illustrate the effectiveness of this technique using polarimetric SAR data collected by the JPL DC-8 radar over a sea ice scene.

  8. SIMULATION OF SHIP GENERATED TURBULENT AND VORTICAL WAKE IMAGING BY SAR

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Wang Aiming; Zhu Minhui

    2004-01-01

    Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imaging of ocean surface features is studied. The simulation of the turbulent and vortical features generated by a moving ship and SAR imaging of these wakes is carried out. The turbulent wake damping the ocean surface capillary waves may be partially responsible for the suppression of surface waves near the ship track. The vortex pair generating a change in the lateral flow field behind the ship may be partially responsible for an enhancement of the waves near the edges of the smooth area. These hydrodynamic phenomena as well as the changes of radar backscatter generated by turbulence and vortex are simulated.An SAR imaging model is then used on such ocean surface features to provide SAR images.Comparison of two ships' simulated SAR images shows that the wake features are different for various ship parameters.

  9. Towards Snowpack Characterization using C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, J.; Forman, B. A.

    2017-12-01

    Sentinel 1A and 1B, operated by the European Space Agency (ESA), carries a C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensor that can be used to monitor terrestrial snow properties. This study explores the relationship between terrestrial snow-covered area, snow depth, and snow water equivalent with Sentinel 1 backscatter observations in order to better characterize snow mass. Ground-based observations collected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - Cooperative Remote Sensing Science and Technology Center (NOAA-CREST) in Caribou, Maine in the United States are also used in the comparative analysis. Sentinel 1 Ground Range Detected (GRD) imagery with Interferometric Wide swath (IW) were preprocessed through a series of steps accounting for thermal noise, sensor orbit, radiometric calibration, speckle filtering, and terrain correction using ESA's Sentinel Application Platform (SNAP) software package, which is an open-source module written in Python. Comparisons of dual-polarized backscatter coefficients (i.e., σVV and σVH) with in-situ measurements of snow depth and SWE suggest that cross-polarized backscatter observations exhibit a modest correlation between both snow depth and SWE. In the case of the snow-covered area, a multi-temporal change detection method was used. Results using Sentinel 1 yield similar spatial patterns as when using hyperspectral observations collected by the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). These preliminary results suggest the potential application of Sentinel 1A/1B backscatter coefficients towards improved discrimination of snow cover, snow depth, and SWE. One goal of this research is to eventually merge C-band SAR backscatter observations with other snow information (e.g., passive microwave brightness temperatures) as part of a multi-sensor snow assimilation framework.

  10. Electromagnetic backscattering from freak waves in (1 + 1)-dimensional deep-water

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tao, Xie; Tao, Shen; Wei, Chen; Hai-Lan, Kuang; Perrie, William

    2010-01-01

    To study the electromagnetic (EM) backscatter characteristics of freak waves at moderate incidence angles, we establish an EM backscattering model for freak waves in (1 + 1)-dimensional deep water. The nonlinear interaction between freak waves and Bragg short waves is considered to be the basic hydrodynamic spectra modulation mechanism in the model. Numerical results suggest that the EM backscattering intensities of freak waves are less than those from the background sea surface at moderate incidence angles. The normalised radar cross sections (NRCSs) from freak waves are highly polarisation dependent, even at low incidence angles, which is different from the situation for normal sea waves; moreover, the NRCS of freak waves is more polarisation dependent than the background sea surface. NRCS discrepancies between freak waves and the background sea surface with using horizontal transmitting horizomtal (HH) polarisation are larger than those using vertical transmitting vertical (VV) polarisation, at moderate incident angles. NRCS discrepancies between freak waves and background sea surface decreases with the increase of incidence angle, in both HH and VV polarisation radars. As an application, in the synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) imaging of freak waves, we suggest that freak waves should have extremely low backscatter NRCSs for the freak wave facet with the strongest slope. Compared with the background sea surface, the freak waves should be darker in HH polarisation echo images than in VV echo images, in SAR images. Freak waves can be more easily detected from the background sea surface in HH polarisation images than in VV polarisation images. The possibility of detection of freak waves at low incidence angles is much higher than at high incidence angles. (classical areas of phenomenology)

  11. Analysis on Vertical Scattering Signatures in Forestry with PolInSAR

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guo, Shenglong; Li, Yang; Zhang, Jingjing; Hong, Wen

    2014-11-01

    We apply accurate topographic phase to the Freeman-Durden decomposition for polarimetric SAR interferometry (PolInSAR) data. The cross correlation matrix obtained from PolInSAR observations can be decomposed into three scattering mechanisms matrices accounting for the odd-bounce, double-bounce and volume scattering. We estimate the phase based on the Random volume over Ground (RVoG) model, and as the initial input parameter of the numerical method which is used to solve the parameters of decomposition. In addition, the modified volume scattering model introduced by Y. Yamaguchi is applied to the PolInSAR target decomposition in forest areas rather than the pure random volume scattering as proposed by Freeman-Durden to make best fit to the actual measured data. This method can accurately retrieve the magnitude associated with each mechanism and their vertical location along the vertical dimension. We test the algorithms with L- and P- band simulated data.

  12. Multi-temporal and Dual-polarization Interferometric SAR for Land Cover Type Classification

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    WANG Xinshuang

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available In order to study SAR land cover classification method, this paper uses the multi-dimensional combination of temporal,polarization and InSAR data. The area covered by space borne data of ALOS PALSAR in Xunke County,Heilongjiang Province was chosen as test site. A land cover classification technique of SVM based on multi-temporal, multi-polarization and InSAR data had been proposed, using the sensitivity to land cover type of multi-temporal, multi-polarization SAR data and InSAR measurements, and combing time series characteristic of backscatter coefficient and correlation coefficient to identify ground objects. The results showed the problem of confusion between forest land and urban construction land can be nicely solved, using the correlation coefficient between HH and HV, and also combing the selected temporal, polarization and InSAR characteristics. The land cover classification result with higher accuracy is gotten using the classification algorithm proposed in this paper.

  13. Detection of macroalgae blooms by complex SAR imagery

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shen, Hui; Perrie, William; Liu, Qingrong; He, Yijun

    2014-01-01

    Highlights: • Complex SAR imagery enables better recognition of macroalgae patches. • Combination of different information in SAR matrix forms new index factors. • Proposed index factors contribute to unsupervised recognition of macroalgae. -- Abstract: Increased frequency and enhanced damage to the marine environment and to human society caused by green macroalgae blooms demand improved high-resolution early detection methods. Conventional satellite remote sensing methods via spectra radiometers do not work in cloud-covered areas, and therefore cannot meet these demands for operational applications. We present a methodology for green macroalgae bloom detection based on RADARSAT-2 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. Green macroalgae patches exhibit different polarimetric characteristics compared to the open ocean surface, in both the amplitude and phase domains of SAR-measured complex radar backscatter returns. In this study, new index factors are defined which have opposite signs in green macroalgae-covered areas, compared to the open water surface. These index factors enable unsupervised detection from SAR images, providing a high-resolution new tool for detection of green macroalgae blooms, which can potentially contribute to a better understanding of the mechanisms related to outbreaks of green macroalgae blooms in coastal areas throughout the world ocean

  14. Field Experiments on SAR Detection of Film Slicks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ermakov, S.; da Silva, J. C. B.; Kapustin, I.; Sergievskaya, I.

    2013-03-01

    Field experiments on radar detection of film slicks using satellite synthetic aperture radar TerraSAR-X and X-band scatterometer on board a research vessel are described. The experiments were carried out with surfactant films with known physical parameters, the surface tension and the film elasticity, at low to moderate wind conditions and at different radar incidence angles. It is shown that the depression of radar backscatter (contrast) in films slicks for X-band SAR weakly depends on wind velocity/direction, film elasticity and incidence angles within the range of 200-400. Scatterometer contrasts obtained at incidence angles of about 600 are larger than SAR contrasts. Theoretical analysis of radar contrasts for low-to-moderate incidence angles has been carried out based on a hydrodynamic model of wind wave damping due to films and on a composite radar imaging model. The hydrodynamic model takes into account wave damping due to viscoelastic films, wind wave generation and a phenomenological term describing nonlinear limitation of the wind wave spectrum. The radar model takes into account Bragg scattering and specular scattering mechanisms, the latter is usually negligible compared to the Bragg mechanism at moderate incidence angles (larger than 30-35 degrees), but gives noticeable contribution to radar backscattering at smaller incidence angles particularly for slick areas when cm-scale ripples are strongly depressed by films. Calculated radar contrasts in slicks are compared with experiments and it is concluded that development of the model is needed to predict quantitatively observations.

  15. On the interpretation of SAR imagery from the Sea Empress oil spill

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jones, B.; Mitchelson-Jacob, E.G.

    1998-01-01

    A method for monitoring oil spills using SAR imagery is suggested, based on the simulation of the wave spectrum using modelled surface winds. A first order separation of the purely wind-driven backscatter distribution and its modifications due to surfactant was made by parametrizing the effect of surfactant on the wave growth rate and on the reflective properties of the sea surface. The technique was applied to an SAR image showing the Sea Empress oil spill, in south-west Wales, UK. (author)

  16. The Radiometric Measurement Quantity for SAR Images

    OpenAIRE

    Döring, Björn J.; Schwerdt, Marco

    2013-01-01

    A Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) system measures among other quantities the terrain radar reflectivity. After image calibration, the pixel intensities are commonly expressed in terms of radar cross sections (for point targets) or as backscatter coefficients (for distributed targets), which are directly related. This paper argues that pixel intensities are not generally proportional to radar cross section or derived physical quantities. The paper further proposes to replace the inaccurate term...

  17. Detection of moving humans in UHF wideband SAR

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sjögren, Thomas K.; Ulander, Lars M. H.; Frölind, Per-Olov; Gustavsson, Anders; Stenström, Gunnar; Jonsson, Tommy

    2014-06-01

    In this paper, experimental results for UHF wideband SAR imaging of humans on an open field and inside a forest is presented. The results show ability to detect the humans and suggest possible ways to improve the results. In the experiment, single channel wideband SAR mode of the UHF UWB system LORA developed by Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI). The wideband SAR mode used in the experiment was from 220 to 450 MHz, thus with a fractional bandwidth of 0.68. Three humans walking and one stationary were available in the scene with one of the walking humans in the forest. The signature of the human in the forest appeared on the field, due to azimuth shift from the positive range speed component. One human on the field and the one in the forest had approximately the same speed and walking direction. The signatures in the SAR image were compared as a function of integration time based on focusing using the average relative speed of these given by GPS logs. A signal processing gain was obtained for the human in forest until approximately 15 s and 35 s for the human on the field. This difference is likely explained by uneven terrain and trees in the way, causing a non-straight walking path.

  18. Monitoring coastal inundation with Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Suzuoki, Yukihiro; Rangoonwala, Amina; Ramsey, Elijah W.

    2011-01-01

    Maps representing the presence and absence of surface inundation in the Louisiana coastal zone were created from available satellite scenes acquired by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency's Advanced Land Observing Satellite and by the European Space Agency's Envisat from late 2006 through summer 2009. Detection of aboveground surface flooding relied on the well-documented and distinct signature of decreased backscatter in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), which is indicative of inundated marsh in the Gulf of Mexico. Even though decreases in backscatter were distinctive, the multiplicity of possible interactions between changing flood depths and canopy height yielded complex SAR-based representations of the marshes.

  19. Chinese HJ-1C SAR And Its Wind Mapping Capability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Weigen; Chen, Fengfeng; Yang, Jingsong; Fu, Bin; Chen, Peng; Zhang, Chan

    2010-04-01

    Chinese Huan Jing (HJ)-1C synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite has been planed to be launched in 2010. HJ-1C satellite will fly in a sun-synchronous polar orbit of 500-km altitude. SAR will be the only sensor on board the satellite. It operates in S band with VV polarization. Its image mode has the incidence angles 25°and 47°at the near and far sides of the swath respectively. There are two selectable SAR modes of operation, which are fine resolution beams and standard beams respectively. The sea surface wind mapping capability of the SAR has been examined using M4S radar imaging model developed by Romeiser. The model is based on Bragg scattering theory in a composite surface model expansion. It accounts for contributions of the full ocean wave spectrum to the radar backscatter from ocean surface. The model reproduces absolute normalized radar cross section (NRCS) values for wide ranges of wind speeds. The model results of HJ-1C SAR have been compared with the model results of Envisat ASAR. It shows that HJ-1C SAR is as good as Envisat ASAR at sea surface wind mapping.

  20. Modeling Surface Roughness to Estimate Surface Moisture Using Radarsat-2 Quad Polarimetric SAR Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nurtyawan, R.; Saepuloh, A.; Budiharto, A.; Wikantika, K.

    2016-08-01

    Microwave backscattering from the earth's surface depends on several parameters such as surface roughness and dielectric constant of surface materials. The two parameters related to water content and porosity are crucial for estimating soil moisture. The soil moisture is an important parameter for ecological study and also a factor to maintain energy balance of land surface and atmosphere. Direct roughness measurements to a large area require extra time and cost. Heterogeneity roughness scale for some applications such as hydrology, climate, and ecology is a problem which could lead to inaccuracies of modeling. In this study, we modeled surface roughness using Radasat-2 quad Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolSAR) data. The statistical approaches to field roughness measurements were used to generate an appropriate roughness model. This modeling uses a physical SAR approach to predicts radar backscattering coefficient in the parameter of radar configuration (wavelength, polarization, and incidence angle) and soil parameters (surface roughness and dielectric constant). Surface roughness value is calculated using a modified Campbell and Shepard model in 1996. The modification was applied by incorporating the backscattering coefficient (σ°) of quad polarization HH, HV and VV. To obtain empirical surface roughness model from SAR backscattering intensity, we used forty-five sample points from field roughness measurements. We selected paddy field in Indramayu district, West Java, Indonesia as the study area. This area was selected due to intensive decreasing of rice productivity in the Northern Coast region of West Java. Third degree polynomial is the most suitable data fitting with coefficient of determination R2 and RMSE are about 0.82 and 1.18 cm, respectively. Therefore, this model is used as basis to generate the map of surface roughness.

  1. An Adaptive Ship Detection Algorithm for Hrws SAR Images Under Complex Background: Application to SENTINEL1A Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    He, G.; Xia, Z.; Chen, H.; Li, K.; Zhao, Z.; Guo, Y.; Feng, P.

    2018-04-01

    Real-time ship detection using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) plays a vital role in disaster emergency and marine security. Especially the high resolution and wide swath (HRWS) SAR images, provides the advantages of high resolution and wide swath synchronously, significantly promotes the wide area ocean surveillance performance. In this study, a novel method is developed for ship target detection by using the HRWS SAR images. Firstly, an adaptive sliding window is developed to propose the suspected ship target areas, based upon the analysis of SAR backscattering intensity images. Then, backscattering intensity and texture features extracted from the training samples of manually selected ship and non-ship slice images, are used to train a support vector machine (SVM) to classify the proposed ship slice images. The approach is verified by using the Sentinl1A data working in interferometric wide swath mode. The results demonstrate the improvement performance of the proposed method over the constant false alarm rate (CFAR) method, where the classification accuracy improved from 88.5 % to 96.4 % and the false alarm rate mitigated from 11.5 % to 3.6 % compared with CFAR respectively.

  2. The Intercomparison of X-Band SAR Images from COSMO‑SkyMed and TerraSAR-X Satellites: Case Studies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Simone Pettinato

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available The analysis of experimental data collected by X-band SAR of COSMO-SkyMed (CSK® and TerraSAR-X (TSX images on the same surface types has shown significant differences in the signal level of the two sensors. In order to investigate the possibility of combining data from the two instruments, a study was carried out by comparing images collected with similar orbital and sensor parameters (e.g., incidence angle, polarization, look angle at approximately the same date on two Italian agricultural test sites. Several homogenous agricultural fields within the observed area common to the two sensors were selected. Some forest plots have also been considered and used as a reference target. Direct comparisons were then performed between CSK and TSX images in different acquisition modes. The analysis carried out on the agricultural fields showed that, in general, the backscattering coefficient is higher in TSX Stripmap images with respect to CSK-Himage (about 3 dB, while CSK-Ping Pong data showed values lower than TSX of about 4.8 dB. Finally, a difference in backscattering of about 2.5 dB was pointed out between CSK-Himage and Ping-Pong images on agricultural fields. These results, achieved on bare soils, have also been compared with simulations performed by using the Advanced Integral Equation Model (AIEM.

  3. Sea ice classification using dual polarization SAR data

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Huiying, Liu; Huadong, Guo; Lu, Zhang

    2014-01-01

    Sea ice is an indicator of climate change and also a threat to the navigation security of ships. Polarimetric SAR images are useful in the sea ice detection and classification. In this paper, backscattering coefficients and texture features derived from dual polarization SAR images are used for sea ice classification. Firstly, the HH image is recalculated based on the angular dependences of sea ice types. Then the effective gray level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) texture features are selected for the support vector machine (SVM) classification. In the end, because sea ice concentration can provide a better separation of pancake ice from old ice, it is used to improve the SVM result. This method provides a good classification result, compared with the sea ice chart from CIS

  4. Improved detection and mapping of deepwater hydrocarbon seeps: optimizing multibeam echosounder seafloor backscatter acquisition and processing techniques

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mitchell, Garrett A.; Orange, Daniel L.; Gharib, Jamshid J.; Kennedy, Paul

    2018-02-01

    Marine seep hunting surveys are a current focus of hydrocarbon exploration surveys due to recent advances in offshore geophysical surveying, geochemical sampling, and analytical technologies. Hydrocarbon seeps are ephemeral, small, discrete, and therefore difficult to sample on the deep seafloor. Multibeam echosounders are an efficient seafloor exploration tool to remotely locate and map seep features. Geophysical signatures from hydrocarbon seeps are acoustically-evident in bathymetric, seafloor backscatter, midwater backscatter datasets. Interpretation of these signatures in backscatter datasets is a fundamental component of commercial seep hunting campaigns. Degradation of backscatter datasets resulting from environmental, geometric, and system noise can interfere with the detection and delineation of seeps. We present a relative backscatter intensity normalization method and an oversampling acquisition technique that can improve the geological resolvability of hydrocarbon seeps. We use Green Canyon (GC) Block 600 in the Northern Gulf of Mexico as a seep calibration site for a Kongsberg EM302 30 kHz MBES prior to the start of the Gigante seep hunting program to analyze these techniques. At GC600, we evaluate the results of a backscatter intensity normalization, assess the effectiveness of 2X seafloor coverage in resolving seep-related features in backscatter data, and determine the off-nadir detection limits of bubble plumes using the EM302. Incorporating these techniques into seep hunting surveys can improve the detectability and sampling of seafloor seeps.

  5. Improved detection and mapping of deepwater hydrocarbon seeps: optimizing multibeam echosounder seafloor backscatter acquisition and processing techniques

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mitchell, Garrett A.; Orange, Daniel L.; Gharib, Jamshid J.; Kennedy, Paul

    2018-06-01

    Marine seep hunting surveys are a current focus of hydrocarbon exploration surveys due to recent advances in offshore geophysical surveying, geochemical sampling, and analytical technologies. Hydrocarbon seeps are ephemeral, small, discrete, and therefore difficult to sample on the deep seafloor. Multibeam echosounders are an efficient seafloor exploration tool to remotely locate and map seep features. Geophysical signatures from hydrocarbon seeps are acoustically-evident in bathymetric, seafloor backscatter, midwater backscatter datasets. Interpretation of these signatures in backscatter datasets is a fundamental component of commercial seep hunting campaigns. Degradation of backscatter datasets resulting from environmental, geometric, and system noise can interfere with the detection and delineation of seeps. We present a relative backscatter intensity normalization method and an oversampling acquisition technique that can improve the geological resolvability of hydrocarbon seeps. We use Green Canyon (GC) Block 600 in the Northern Gulf of Mexico as a seep calibration site for a Kongsberg EM302 30 kHz MBES prior to the start of the Gigante seep hunting program to analyze these techniques. At GC600, we evaluate the results of a backscatter intensity normalization, assess the effectiveness of 2X seafloor coverage in resolving seep-related features in backscatter data, and determine the off-nadir detection limits of bubble plumes using the EM302. Incorporating these techniques into seep hunting surveys can improve the detectability and sampling of seafloor seeps.

  6. Simulation of multistatic and backscattering cross sections for airborne radar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Biggs, Albert W.

    1986-07-01

    In order to determine susceptibilities of airborne radar to electronic countermeasures and electronic counter-countermeasures simulations of multistatic and backscattering cross sections were developed as digital modules in the form of algorithms. Cross section algorithms are described for prolate (cigar shape) and oblate (disk shape) spheroids. Backscattering cross section algorithms are also described for different categories of terrain. Backscattering cross section computer programs were written for terrain categorized as vegetation, sea ice, glacial ice, geological (rocks, sand, hills, etc.), oceans, man-made structures, and water bodies. PROGRAM SIGTERRA is a file for backscattering cross section modules of terrain (TERRA) such as vegetation (AGCROP), oceans (OCEAN), Arctic sea ice (SEAICE), glacial snow (GLASNO), geological structures (GEOL), man-made structures (MAMMAD), or water bodies (WATER). AGCROP describes agricultural crops, trees or forests, prairies or grassland, and shrubs or bush cover. OCEAN has the SLAR or SAR looking downwind, upwind, and crosswind at the ocean surface. SEAICE looks at winter ice and old or polar ice. GLASNO is divided into a glacial ice and snow or snowfields. MANMAD includes buildings, houses, roads, railroad tracks, airfields and hangars, telephone and power lines, barges, trucks, trains, and automobiles. WATER has lakes, rivers, canals, and swamps. PROGRAM SIGAIR is a similar file for airborne targets such as prolate and oblate spheroids.

  7. Polarimetric C-Band SAR Observations of Sea Ice in the Greenland Sea

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Thomsen, Bjørn Bavnehøj; Nghiem, S.V.; Kwok, R.

    1998-01-01

    The fully polarimetric EMISAR acquired C-band radar signatures of sea ice in the Greenland Sea during a campaign in March 1995. The authors present maps of polarimetric signatures over an area containing various kinds of ice and discuss the use of polarimetric SAR for identification of ice types...

  8. Observation of pressure ridges in SAR images of sea ice: Scattering theory and comparison with observations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vesecky, J. F.; Daida, J. M.; Shuchman, R. A.; Onstott, R. H.; Camiso, J. C.

    1993-01-01

    both the quasi-specular and Bragg resonant scatter mechanisms. This model is extended to include contributions from volume scatter and scatter from discrete objects. Geometrical characteristics from the AOL survey and model calculations imply that for radar wavelengths and observation geometries that are dominated by the quasi-specular scattering mechanism radar backscatter from a ridge is a measure of peak ridge height. We present scattering model results and compare them with ridges observed during the LEADEX experiment of March-April 1992 when both X, C, and L-band aircraft SAR and the ERS-1 satellite SAR observed a region in the Beaufort Sea near 86 deg N, 10 deg W. Data were also collected documenting ridge characteristics on the surface. The surface data are used to generate a SAR signature via the scattering model described above. The predicted SAR signatures compare well with the SAR observations.

  9. Soil moisture estimation using multi linear regression with terraSAR-X data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G. García

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available The first five centimeters of soil form an interface where the main heat fluxes exchanges between the land surface and the atmosphere occur. Besides ground measurements, remote sensing has proven to be an excellent tool for the monitoring of spatial and temporal distributed data of the most relevant Earth surface parameters including soil’s parameters. Indeed, active microwave sensors (Synthetic Aperture Radar - SAR offer the opportunity to monitor soil moisture (HS at global, regional and local scales by monitoring involved processes. Several inversion algorithms, that derive geophysical information as HS from SAR data, were developed. Many of them use electromagnetic models for simulating the backscattering coefficient and are based on statistical techniques, such as neural networks, inversion methods and regression models. Recent studies have shown that simple multiple regression techniques yield satisfactory results. The involved geophysical variables in these methodologies are descriptive of the soil structure, microwave characteristics and land use. Therefore, in this paper we aim at developing a multiple linear regression model to estimate HS on flat agricultural regions using TerraSAR-X satellite data and data from a ground weather station. The results show that the backscatter, the precipitation and the relative humidity are the explanatory variables of HS. The results obtained presented a RMSE of 5.4 and a R2  of about 0.6

  10. INVENTORY OF IRRIGATED RICE ECOSYSTEM USING POLARIMETRIC SAR DATA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    P. Srikanth

    2012-08-01

    Full Text Available An attempt has been made in the current study to assess the potential of polarimetric SAR data for inventory of kharif rice and the major competing crop like cotton. In the process, physical process of the scattering mechanisms occurring in rice and cotton crops at different phonological stages was studied through the use of temporal Radarsat 2 Fine quadpol SAR data. The temporal dynamics of the volume, double and odd bounce, entropy, anisotropy, alpha parameters and polarimertic signatures, classification through isodata clustering and Wishart techniques were assessed. The Wishart (H-a classification showed higher overall as well as rice and cotton crop accuracies compared to the isodata clustering from Freeman 3-component decomposition. The classification of temporal SAR data sets independently showed that the rice crop forecasting can be advanced with the use of appropriate single date polarimetric SAR data rather than using temporal SAR amplitude data sets with the single polarization in irrigated rice ecosystems

  11. Mapping mountain meadow with high resolution and polarimetric SAR data

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tian, Bangsen; Li, Zhen; Xu, Juan; Fu, Sitao; Liu, Jiuli

    2014-01-01

    This paper presents a method to map the large grassland in the eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau with the high resolution polarimetric SAR (PolSAR) imagery. When PolSAR imagery is used for land cover classification, the brightness of a SAR image is affected by topography due to varying projection between ground and image coordinates. The objective of this paper is twofold: (1) we first extend the theory of SAR terrain correction to the polarimetric case, to utilize the entire available polarimetric signature, where correction is performed explicitly based on a matrix format like covariance matrix. (2) Next, the orthoectified PolSAR is applied to classify mountain meadow and investigate the potential of PolSAR in mapping grassland. In this paper, the gamma naught radiometric correction estimates the local illuminated area at each grid point in the radar geometry. Then, each element of the coherency matrix is divided by the local area to produce a polarimetric product. Secondly, the impact of radiometric correction upon classification accuracy is investigated. A supervised classification is performed on the orthorectified Radarsat-2 PolSAR to map the spatial distribution of meadow and evaluate monitoring capabilities of mountain meadow

  12. Extracting electron backscattering coefficients from backscattered electron micrographs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zupanic, F.

    2010-01-01

    Electron backscattering micrographs possess the so-called Z-contrast, carrying information about the chemical compositions of phases present in microstructures. The intensity at a particular point in the backscattered electron micrograph is proportional to the signal detected at a corresponding point in the scan raster, which is, in turn, proportional to the electron backscattering coefficient of a phase at that point. This article introduces a simple method for extracting the electron backscattering coefficients of phases present in the microstructure, from the backscattered electron micrographs. This method is able to convert the micrograph's greyscale to the backscattering-coefficient-scale. The prerequisite involves the known backscattering coefficients for two phases in the micrograph. In this way, backscattering coefficients of other phases can be determined. The method is unable to determine the chemical compositions of phases or the presence of an element only from analysing the backscattered electron micrograph. Nevertheless, this method was found to be very powerful when combined with energy dispersive spectroscopy, and the calculations of backscattering coefficients. - Research Highlights: →A simple method for extracting the electron backscattering coefficients →The prerequisite is known backscattering coefficients for two phases →The information is complementary to the EDS-results. →This method is especially useful when a phase contains a light element (H, Li, Be, and B)

  13. ANALYSIS OF MULTIPATH PIXELS IN SAR IMAGES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. W. Zhao

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available As the received radar signal is the sum of signal contributions overlaid in one single pixel regardless of the travel path, the multipath effect should be seriously tackled as the multiple bounce returns are added to direct scatter echoes which leads to ghost scatters. Most of the existing solution towards the multipath is to recover the signal propagation path. To facilitate the signal propagation simulation process, plenty of aspects such as sensor parameters, the geometry of the objects (shape, location, orientation, mutual position between adjacent buildings and the physical parameters of the surface (roughness, correlation length, permittivitywhich determine the strength of radar signal backscattered to the SAR sensor should be given in previous. However, it's not practical to obtain the highly detailed object model in unfamiliar area by field survey as it's a laborious work and time-consuming. In this paper, SAR imaging simulation based on RaySAR is conducted at first aiming at basic understanding of multipath effects and for further comparison. Besides of the pre-imaging simulation, the product of the after-imaging, which refers to radar images is also taken into consideration. Both Cosmo-SkyMed ascending and descending SAR images of Lupu Bridge in Shanghai are used for the experiment. As a result, the reflectivity map and signal distribution map of different bounce level are simulated and validated by 3D real model. The statistic indexes such as the phase stability, mean amplitude, amplitude dispersion, coherence and mean-sigma ratio in case of layover are analyzed with combination of the RaySAR output.

  14. Monitoring Bedfast Ice and Ice Phenology in Lakes of the Lena River Delta Using TerraSAR-X Backscatter and Coherence Time Series

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sofia Antonova

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Thermokarst lakes and ponds are major elements of permafrost landscapes, occupying up to 40% of the land area in some Arctic regions. Shallow lakes freeze to the bed, thus preventing permafrost thaw underneath them and limiting the length of the period with greenhouse gas production in the unfrozen lake sediments. Radar remote sensing permits to distinguish lakes with bedfast ice due to the difference in backscatter intensities from bedfast and floating ice. This study investigates the potential of a unique time series of three-year repeat-pass TerraSAR-X (TSX imagery with high temporal (11 days and spatial (10 m resolution for monitoring bedfast ice as well as ice phenology of lakes in the zone of continuous permafrost in the Lena River Delta, Siberia. TSX backscatter intensity is shown to be an excellent tool for monitoring floating versus bedfast lake ice as well as ice phenology. TSX-derived timing of ice grounding and the ice growth model CLIMo are used to retrieve the ice thicknesses of the bedfast ice at points where in situ ice thickness measurements were available. Comparison shows good agreement in the year of field measurements. Additionally, for the first time, an 11-day sequential interferometric coherence time series is analyzed as a supplementary approach for the bedfast ice monitoring. The coherence time series detects most of the ice grounding as well as spring snow/ice melt onset. Overall, the results show the great value of TSX time series for monitoring Arctic lake ice and provide a basis for various applications: for instance, derivation of shallow lakes bathymetry, evaluation of winter water resources and locating fish winter habitat as well as estimation of taliks extent in permafrost.

  15. Relevant Scatterers Characterization in SAR Images

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chaabouni, Houda; Datcu, Mihai

    2006-11-01

    Recognizing scenes in a single look meter resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images, requires the capability to identify relevant signal signatures in condition of variable image acquisition geometry, arbitrary objects poses and configurations. Among the methods to detect relevant scatterers in SAR images, we can mention the internal coherence. The SAR spectrum splitted in azimuth generates a series of images which preserve high coherence only for particular object scattering. The detection of relevant scatterers can be done by correlation study or Independent Component Analysis (ICA) methods. The present article deals with the state of the art for SAR internal correlation analysis and proposes further extensions using elements of inference based on information theory applied to complex valued signals. The set of azimuth looks images is analyzed using mutual information measures and an equivalent channel capacity is derived. The localization of the "target" requires analysis in a small image window, thus resulting in imprecise estimation of the second order statistics of the signal. For a better precision, a Hausdorff measure is introduced. The method is applied to detect and characterize relevant objects in urban areas.

  16. Estimation of Boreal Forest Biomass Using Spaceborne SAR Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saatchi, Sassan; Moghaddam, Mahta

    1995-01-01

    In this paper, we report on the use of a semiempirical algorithm derived from a two layer radar backscatter model for forest canopies. The model stratifies the forest canopy into crown and stem layers, separates the structural and biometric attributes of the canopy. The structural parameters are estimated by training the model with polarimetric SAR (synthetic aperture radar) data acquired over homogeneous stands with known above ground biomass. Given the structural parameters, the semi-empirical algorithm has four remaining parameters, crown biomass, stem biomass, surface soil moisture, and surface rms height that can be estimated by at least four independent SAR measurements. The algorithm has been used to generate biomass maps over the entire images acquired by JPL AIRSAR and SIR-C SAR systems. The semi-empirical algorithms are then modified to be used by single frequency radar systems such as ERS-1, JERS-1, and Radarsat. The accuracy. of biomass estimation from single channel radars is compared with the case when the channels are used together in synergism or in a polarimetric system.

  17. Combined Use of Airborne Lidar and DBInSAR Data to Estimate LAI in Temperate Mixed Forests

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ross F. Nelson

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available The objective of this study was to determine whether leaf area index (LAI in temperate mixed forests is best estimated using multiple-return airborne laser scanning (lidar data or dual-band, single-pass interferometric synthetic aperture radar data (from GeoSAR alone, or both in combination. In situ measurements of LAI were made using the LiCor LAI-2000 Plant Canopy Analyzer on 61 plots (21 hardwood, 36 pine, 4 mixed pine hardwood; stand age ranging from 12-164 years; mean height ranging from 0.4 to 41.2 m in the Appomattox-Buckingham State Forest, Virginia, USA. Lidar distributional metrics were calculated for all returns and for ten one meter deep crown density slices (a new metric, five above and five below the mode of the vegetation returns for each plot. GeoSAR metrics were calculated from the X-band backscatter coefficients (four looks as well as both X- and P-band interferometric heights and magnitudes for each plot. Lidar metrics alone explained 69% of the variability in LAI, while GeoSAR metrics alone explained 52%. However, combining the lidar and GeoSAR metrics increased the R2 to 0.77 with a CV-RMSE of 0.42. This study indicates the clear potential for X-band backscatter and interferometric height (both now available from spaceborne sensors, when combined with small-footprint lidar data, to improve LAI estimation in temperate mixed forests.

  18. Effects of changing environmental conditions on synthetic aperture radar backscattering coefficient, scattering mechanisms, and class separability in a forest area

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mahdavi, Sahel; Maghsoudi, Yasser; Amani, Meisam

    2017-07-01

    Environmental conditions have considerable effects on synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery. Therefore, assessing these effects is important for obtaining accurate and reliable results. In this study, three series of RADARSAT-2 SAR images were evaluated. In each of these series, the sensor configuration was fixed, but the environmental conditions differed. The effects of variable environmental conditions were also investigated on co- and cross-polarized backscattering coefficients, Freeman-Durden scattering contributions, and the pedestal height in different classes of a forest area in Ottawa, Ontario. It was observed that the backscattering coefficient of wet snow was up to 2 dB more than that of dry snow. The absence of snow also caused a decrease of up to 3 dB in the surface scattering of ground and up to 5 dB in that of trees. In addition, the backscatter coefficients of ground vegetation, hardwood species, and softwood species were more similar at temperatures below 0°C than those at temperatures above 0°C. Moreover, the pedestal height was generally greater at temperatures above 0°C than at temperatures below 0°C. Finally, the highest class separability was observed when the temperature was at or above 0°C and there was no snow on the ground or trees.

  19. Towards Linking 3D SAR and Lidar Models with a Spatially Explicit Individual Based Forest Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Osmanoglu, B.; Ranson, J.; Sun, G.; Armstrong, A. H.; Fischer, R.; Huth, A.

    2017-12-01

    In this study, we present a parameterization of the FORMIND individual-based gap model (IBGM)for old growth Atlantic lowland rainforest in La Selva, Costa Rica for the purpose of informing multisensor remote sensing techniques for above ground biomass techniques. The model was successfully parameterized and calibrated for the study site; results show that the simulated forest reproduces the structural complexity of Costa Rican rainforest based on comparisons with CARBONO inventory plot data. Though the simulated stem numbers (378) slightly underestimated the plot data (418), particularly for canopy dominant intermediate shade tolerant trees and shade tolerant understory trees, overall there was a 9.7% difference. Aboveground biomass (kg/ha) showed a 0.1% difference between the simulated forest and inventory plot dataset. The Costa Rica FORMIND simulation was then used to parameterize a spatially explicit (3D) SAR and lidar backscatter models. The simulated forest stands were used to generate a Look Up Table as a tractable means to estimate aboveground forest biomass for these complex forests. Various combinations of lidar and radar variables were evaluated in the LUT inversion. To test the capability of future data for estimation of forest height and biomass, we considered data of 1) L- (or P-) band polarimetric data (backscattering coefficients of HH, HV and VV); 2) L-band dual-pol repeat-pass InSAR data (HH/HV backscattering coefficients and coherences, height of scattering phase center at HH and HV using DEM or surface height from lidar data as reference); 3) P-band polarimetric InSAR data (canopy height from inversion of PolInSAR data or use the coherences and height of scattering phase center at HH, HV and VV); 4) various height indices from waveform lidar data); and 5) surface and canopy top height from photon-counting lidar data. The methods for parameterizing the remote sensing models with the IBGM and developing Look Up Tables will be discussed. Results

  20. HF coherent backscatter in the ionosphere: In situ measurements of SuperDARN backscatter with e-POP RRI

    Science.gov (United States)

    Perry, G. W.; James, H. G.; Hussey, G. C.; Howarth, A. D.; Yau, A. W.

    2017-12-01

    We report in situ polarimetry measurements of HF scattering obtained by the Enhanced Polar Outflow Probe (e-POP) Radio Receiver Instrument (RRI) during a coherent backscatter scattering event detected by the Saskatoon Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN). On April 1, 2015, e-POP conducted a 4 minute coordinated experiment with SuperDARN Saskatoon, starting at 3:38:44 UT (21:38:44 LT). Throughout the experiment, SuperDARN was transmitting at 17.5 MHz and e-POP's ground track moved in a northeastward direction, along SuperDARN's field-of-view, increasing in altitude from 331 to 352 km. RRI was tuned to 17.505 MHz, and recorded nearly 12,000 SuperDARN radar pulses during the experiment. In the first half of the experiment, radar pulses recorded by RRI were "well behaved": they retained their transmitted amplitude envelope, and their pulse-to-pulse polarization characteristics were coherent - Faraday rotation was easily measured. During the second half of the experiment the pulses showed clear signs of scattering: their amplitude envelopes became degraded and dispersed, and their pulse-to-pulse polarization characteristics became incoherent - Faraday rotation was difficult to quantify. While these pulses were being received by RRI, SuperDARN Saskatoon detected a latitudinal band of coherent backscatter at e-POP's location, indicating that the scattered pulses measured by RRI may be a signature of HF backscatter. In this presentation, we will outline the polarimetric details of the scattered pulses, and provide an analytic interpretation of RRI's measurements to give new insight into the nature of HF coherent backscatter mechanism taking place in the terrestrial ionosphere.

  1. Simultaneous observations at different altitudes of ionospheric backscatter in the eastward electrojet

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. E. Milan

    1998-01-01

    Full Text Available A common feature of evening near-range ionospheric backscatter in the CUTLASS Iceland radar field of view is two parallel, approximately L-shell-aligned regions of westward flow which are attributed to irregularities in the auroral eastward electrojet region of the ionosphere. These backscatter channels are separated by approximately 100–200 km in range. The orientation of the CUTLASS Iceland radar beams and the zonally aligned nature of the flow allows an approximate determination of flow angle to be made without the necessity of bistatic measurements. The two flow channels have different azimuthal variations in flow velocity and spectral width. The nearer of the two regions has two distinct spectral signatures. The eastern beams detect spectra with velocities which saturate at or near the ion-acoustic speed, and have low spectral widths (less than 100 m s–1, while the western beams detect lower velocities and higher spectral widths (above 200 m s–1. The more distant of the two channels has only one spectral signature with velocities above the ion-acoustic speed and high spectral widths. The spectral characteristics of the backscatter are consistent with E-region scatter in the nearer channel and upper-E-region or F-region scatter in the further channel. Temporal variations in the characteristics of both channels support current theories of E-region turbulent heating and previous observations of velocity-dependent backscatter cross-section. In future, observations of this nature will provide a powerful tool for the investigation of simultaneous E- and F-region irregularity generation under similar (nearly co-located or magnetically conjugate electric field conditions.Key words. Auroral ionosphere · Ionospheric irregularities · Plasma convection

  2. Large Oil Spill Classification Using SAR Images Based on Spatial Histogram

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schvartzman, I.; Havivi, S.; Maman, S.; Rotman, S. R.; Blumberg, D. G.

    2016-06-01

    Among the different types of marine pollution, oil spill is a major threat to the sea ecosystems. Remote sensing is used in oil spill response. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is an active microwave sensor that operates under all weather conditions and provides information about the surface roughness and covers large areas at a high spatial resolution. SAR is widely used to identify and track pollutants in the sea, which may be due to a secondary effect of a large natural disaster or by a man-made one . The detection of oil spill in SAR imagery relies on the decrease of the backscattering from the sea surface, due to the increased viscosity, resulting in a dark formation that contrasts with the brightness of the surrounding area. Most of the use of SAR images for oil spill detection is done by visual interpretation. Trained interpreters scan the image, and mark areas of low backscatter and where shape is a-symmetrical. It is very difficult to apply this method for a wide area. In contrast to visual interpretation, automatic detection algorithms were suggested and are mainly based on scanning dark formations, extracting features, and applying big data analysis. We propose a new algorithm that applies a nonlinear spatial filter that detects dark formations and is not susceptible to noises, such as internal or speckle. The advantages of this algorithm are both in run time and the results retrieved. The algorithm was tested in genesimulations as well as on COSMO-SkyMed images, detecting the Deep Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico (occurred on 20/4/2010). The simulation results show that even in a noisy environment, oil spill is detected. Applying the algorithm to the Deep Horizon oil spill, the algorithm classified the oil spill better than focusing on dark formation algorithm. Furthermore, the results were validated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) data.

  3. LARGE OIL SPILL CLASSIFICATION USING SAR IMAGES BASED ON SPATIAL HISTOGRAM

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    I. Schvartzman

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Among the different types of marine pollution, oil spill is a major threat to the sea ecosystems. Remote sensing is used in oil spill response. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR is an active microwave sensor that operates under all weather conditions and provides information about the surface roughness and covers large areas at a high spatial resolution. SAR is widely used to identify and track pollutants in the sea, which may be due to a secondary effect of a large natural disaster or by a man-made one . The detection of oil spill in SAR imagery relies on the decrease of the backscattering from the sea surface, due to the increased viscosity, resulting in a dark formation that contrasts with the brightness of the surrounding area. Most of the use of SAR images for oil spill detection is done by visual interpretation. Trained interpreters scan the image, and mark areas of low backscatter and where shape is a-symmetrical. It is very difficult to apply this method for a wide area. In contrast to visual interpretation, automatic detection algorithms were suggested and are mainly based on scanning dark formations, extracting features, and applying big data analysis. We propose a new algorithm that applies a nonlinear spatial filter that detects dark formations and is not susceptible to noises, such as internal or speckle. The advantages of this algorithm are both in run time and the results retrieved. The algorithm was tested in genesimulations as well as on COSMO-SkyMed images, detecting the Deep Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico (occurred on 20/4/2010. The simulation results show that even in a noisy environment, oil spill is detected. Applying the algorithm to the Deep Horizon oil spill, the algorithm classified the oil spill better than focusing on dark formation algorithm. Furthermore, the results were validated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA data.

  4. Mechanisms of SAR Imaging of Shallow Water Topography of the Subei Bank

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shuangshang Zhang

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available In this study, the C-band radar backscatter features of the shallow water topography of Subei Bank in the Southern Yellow Sea are statistically investigated using 25 ENVISAT (Environmental Satellite ASAR (advanced synthetic aperture radar and ERS-2 (European Remote-Sensing Satellite-2 SAR images acquired between 2006 and 2010. Different bathymetric features are found on SAR imagery under different sea states. Under low to moderate wind speeds (3.1~6.3 m/s, the wide bright patterns with an average width of 6 km are shown and correspond to sea surface imprints of tidal channels formed by two adjacent sand ridges, while the sand ridges appear as narrower (only 1 km wide, fingerlike, quasi-linear features on SAR imagery in high winds (5.4~13.9 m/s. Two possible SAR imaging mechanisms of coastal bathymetry are proposed in the case where the flow is parallel to the major axes of tidal channels or sand ridges. When the surface Ekman current is opposite to the mean tidal flow, two vortexes will converge at the central line of the tidal channel in the upper layer and form a convergent zone over the sea surface. Thus, the tidal channels are shown as wide and bright stripes on SAR imagery. For the SAR imaging of sand ridges, all the SAR images were acquired at low tidal levels. In this case, the ocean surface waves are possibly broken up under strong winds when propagating from deep water to the shallower water, which leads to an increase of surface roughness over the sand ridges.

  5. Detecting Emergence, Growth, and Senescence of Wetland Vegetation with Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR Data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alisa L. Gallant

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Wetlands provide ecosystem goods and services vitally important to humans. Land managers and policymakers working to conserve wetlands require regularly updated information on the statuses of wetlands across the landscape. However, wetlands are challenging to map remotely with high accuracy and consistency. We investigated the use of multitemporal polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR data acquired with Canada’s Radarsat-2 system to track within-season changes in wetland vegetation and surface water. We speculated, a priori, how temporal and morphological traits of different types of wetland vegetation should respond over a growing season with respect to four energy-scattering mechanisms. We used ground-based monitoring data and other ancillary information to assess the limits and consistency of the SAR data for tracking seasonal changes in wetlands. We found the traits of different types of vertical emergent wetland vegetation were detected well with the SAR data and corresponded with our anticipated backscatter responses. We also found using data from Landsat’s optical/infrared sensors in conjunction with SAR data helped remove confusion of wetland features with upland grasslands. These results suggest SAR data can provide useful monitoring information on the statuses of wetlands over time.

  6. Detecting emergence, growth, and senescence of wetland vegetation with polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gallant, Alisa L.; Kaya, Shannon G.; White, Lori; Brisco, Brian; Roth, Mark F.; Sadinski, Walter J.; Rover, Jennifer

    2014-01-01

    Wetlands provide ecosystem goods and services vitally important to humans. Land managers and policymakers working to conserve wetlands require regularly updated information on the statuses of wetlands across the landscape. However, wetlands are challenging to map remotely with high accuracy and consistency. We investigated the use of multitemporal polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data acquired with Canada’s Radarsat-2 system to track within-season changes in wetland vegetation and surface water. We speculated, a priori, how temporal and morphological traits of different types of wetland vegetation should respond over a growing season with respect to four energy-scattering mechanisms. We used ground-based monitoring data and other ancillary information to assess the limits and consistency of the SAR data for tracking seasonal changes in wetlands. We found the traits of different types of vertical emergent wetland vegetation were detected well with the SAR data and corresponded with our anticipated backscatter responses. We also found using data from Landsat’s optical/infrared sensors in conjunction with SAR data helped remove confusion of wetland features with upland grasslands. These results suggest SAR data can provide useful monitoring information on the statuses of wetlands over time.

  7. Simultaneous observations at different altitudes of ionospheric backscatter in the eastward electrojet

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. E. Milan

    Full Text Available A common feature of evening near-range ionospheric backscatter in the CUTLASS Iceland radar field of view is two parallel, approximately L-shell-aligned regions of westward flow which are attributed to irregularities in the auroral eastward electrojet region of the ionosphere. These backscatter channels are separated by approximately 100–200 km in range. The orientation of the CUTLASS Iceland radar beams and the zonally aligned nature of the flow allows an approximate determination of flow angle to be made without the necessity of bistatic measurements. The two flow channels have different azimuthal variations in flow velocity and spectral width. The nearer of the two regions has two distinct spectral signatures. The eastern beams detect spectra with velocities which saturate at or near the ion-acoustic speed, and have low spectral widths (less than 100 m s–1, while the western beams detect lower velocities and higher spectral widths (above 200 m s–1. The more distant of the two channels has only one spectral signature with velocities above the ion-acoustic speed and high spectral widths. The spectral characteristics of the backscatter are consistent with E-region scatter in the nearer channel and upper-E-region or F-region scatter in the further channel. Temporal variations in the characteristics of both channels support current theories of E-region turbulent heating and previous observations of velocity-dependent backscatter cross-section. In future, observations of this nature will provide a powerful tool for the investigation of simultaneous E- and F-region irregularity generation under similar (nearly co-located or magnetically conjugate electric field conditions.

    Key words. Auroral ionosphere · Ionospheric irregularities · Plasma convection

  8. Mesoscale structures viewed by SAR and AVHRR near the Canary islands

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    E. D. Barton

    2001-07-01

    Full Text Available Comparison of Synthetic Aperture Radar and Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometry images of sea surface backscatter and temperature during the peak of the summer Trade winds reveals many aspects of the regional oceanography of the Canary Islands. A strong correspondence occurs between the SAR and AVHRR signals. The generally uniform wind field is perturbed as it flows past the islands producing regions of calm immediately downstream. These are bounded by lines of strong horizontal wind shear that coincide with temperature fronts between warmer lee waters and the cooler surrounding ocean. Weaker winds prevail up to 50 km downstream while enhanced wind speed on the boundaries of the lee can extend more than 150 km. Lee waves are excited in the atmospheric inversion layer where the wind passes over abrupt island topography. Quantitative estimates of wind speed made with the CMOD4 algorithm are unreliable in the downstream region because wind direction is variable and unknown and because spatial gradients in air-sea temperature difference affect atmospheric boundary layer stability. A large anticyclone south of Tenerife strongly influenced the estimated wind speed probably because higher ocean temperatures in its centre caused atmospheric instability and increased radar backscatter. The temperature fronts marking boundaries of the upwelling filament and strong eddies observed in AVHRR appear as lines of current shear in the SAR images.

  9. Detection and Characterization of Hedgerows Using TerraSAR-X Imagery

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Julie Betbeder

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available Whilst most hedgerow functions depend upon hedgerow structure and hedgerow network patterns, in many ecological studies information on the fragmentation of hedgerows network and canopy structure is often retrieved in the field in small areas using accurate ground surveys and estimated over landscapes in a semi-quantitative manner. This paper explores the use of radar SAR imagery to (i detect hedgerow networks; and (ii describe the hedgerow canopy heterogeneity using TerraSAR-X imagery. The extraction of hedgerow networks was achieved using an object-oriented method using two polarimetric parameters: the Single Bounce and the Shannon Entropy derived from one TerraSAR-X image. The hedgerow canopy heterogeneity estimated from field measurements was compared with two backscattering coefficients and three polarimetric parameters derived from the same image. The results show that the hedgerow network and its fragmentation can be identified with a very good accuracy (Kappa index: 0.92. This study also reveals the high correlation between one polarimetric parameter, the Shannon entropy, and the canopy fragmentation measured in the field. Therefore, VHSR radar images can both precisely detect the presence of wooded hedgerow networks and characterize their structure, which cannot be achieved with optical images.

  10. High Resolution SAR Imaging Employing Geometric Features for Extracting Seismic Damage of Buildings

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cui, L. P.; Wang, X. P.; Dou, A. X.; Ding, X.

    2018-04-01

    Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) image is relatively easy to acquire but difficult for interpretation. This paper probes how to identify seismic damage of building using geometric features of SAR. The SAR imaging geometric features of buildings, such as the high intensity layover, bright line induced by double bounce backscattering and dark shadow is analysed, and show obvious differences texture features of homogeneity, similarity and entropy in combinatorial imaging geometric regions between the un-collapsed and collapsed buildings in airborne SAR images acquired in Yushu city damaged by 2010 Ms7.1 Yushu, Qinghai, China earthquake, which implicates a potential capability to discriminate collapsed and un-collapsed buildings from SAR image. Study also shows that the proportion of highlight (layover & bright line) area (HA) is related to the seismic damage degree, thus a SAR image damage index (SARDI), which related to the ratio of HA to the building occupation are of building in a street block (SA), is proposed. While HA is identified through feature extraction with high-pass and low-pass filtering of SAR image in frequency domain. A partial region with 58 natural street blocks in the Yushu City are selected as study area. Then according to the above method, HA is extracted, SARDI is then calculated and further classified into 3 classes. The results show effective through validation check with seismic damage classes interpreted artificially from post-earthquake airborne high resolution optical image, which shows total classification accuracy 89.3 %, Kappa coefficient 0.79 and identical to the practical seismic damage distribution. The results are also compared and discussed with the building damage identified from SAR image available by other authors.

  11. Satellite SAR data assessment for Silk Road archaeological prospection

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Fulong; Lasaponara, Rosa; Masini, Nicola; Yang, Ruixia

    2015-04-01

    The development of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) in terms of multi-band, multi-polarization and high-resolution data, favored the application of this technology also in archaeology [1]. Different approaches based on both single and multitemporal data analysis, exploiting the backscattering and the penetration of radar data, have been used for a number of archaeological sites and landscapes [2-5]. Nevertheless, the capability of this technology in archaeological applications has so far not been fully assessed. It lacks a contribution aimed at evaluating the potential of SAR technology for the same study area by using different bands, spatial resolutions and data processing solutions. In the framework of the Chinese-Italian bilateral project "Smart management of cultural heritage sites in Italy and China: Earth Observation and pilot projects", we addressed some pioneering investigations to assess multi-mode (multi-band, temporal, resolution) satellite SAR data (including X-band TerraSAR, C-band Envisat and L-band ALOS PALSAR) in archaeological prospection of the Silk road [6]. The Silk Road, a series of trade and cultural transmission routes connecting China to Europe, is the witness of civilization and friendship between the East and West dated back to 2000 years ago, that left us various relics (e.g. lost cities) to be uncovered and investigated.. In particular, the assessment has been performed in the Xinjiang and Gansu section pf the Silk Road focusing on : i) the subsurface penetration capability of SAR data in the arid and semi-arid region ii) and sensitivity of SAR imaging geometry for the detection of relics As regards the point i) , apart from the soil moisture, the penetration is seriously restricted by the soil porosity. For instance, negligible penetration signs were detected in Yumen Frontier Pass either using X- or L-band SAR data due to the occurrence of Yardang landscape. As regards the point ii), the flight path of SAR images in parallel with the

  12. Seasonal variations in active microwave signatures of sea ice in the Greenland Sea during 1992 and 1993

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Thomsen, Bjørn Bavnehøj; Skriver, Henning; Pedersen, Leif Toudal

    1995-01-01

    into the research of other statistical features of the sea ice than the mean value and also their seasonal variations. This paper investigates the backscatter coefficient and texture of different sea ice types and water by using calibrated precision images (PRI) acquired by the synthetic aperture radar (SAR...

  13. Mapping Winter Wheat with Multi-Temporal SAR and Optical Images in an Urban Agricultural Region.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Tao; Pan, Jianjun; Zhang, Peiyu; Wei, Shanbao; Han, Tao

    2017-05-25

    Winter wheat is the second largest food crop in China. It is important to obtain reliable winter wheat acreage to guarantee the food security for the most populous country in the world. This paper focuses on assessing the feasibility of in-season winter wheat mapping and investigating potential classification improvement by using SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) images, optical images, and the integration of both types of data in urban agricultural regions with complex planting structures in Southern China. Both SAR (Sentinel-1A) and optical (Landsat-8) data were acquired, and classification using different combinations of Sentinel-1A-derived information and optical images was performed using a support vector machine (SVM) and a random forest (RF) method. The interference coherence and texture images were obtained and used to assess the effect of adding them to the backscatter intensity images on the classification accuracy. The results showed that the use of four Sentinel-1A images acquired before the jointing period of winter wheat can provide satisfactory winter wheat classification accuracy, with an F1 measure of 87.89%. The combination of SAR and optical images for winter wheat mapping achieved the best F1 measure-up to 98.06%. The SVM was superior to RF in terms of the overall accuracy and the kappa coefficient, and was faster than RF, while the RF classifier was slightly better than SVM in terms of the F1 measure. In addition, the classification accuracy can be effectively improved by adding the texture and coherence images to the backscatter intensity data.

  14. Performance Analysis of Satellite Missions for Multi-Temporal SAR Interferometry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bovenga, Fabio; Belmonte, Antonella; Refice, Alberto; Pasquariello, Guido; Nutricato, Raffaele; Nitti, Davide O; Chiaradia, Maria T

    2018-04-27

    Multi-temporal InSAR (MTI) applications pose challenges related to the availability of coherent scattering from the ground surface, the complexity of the ground deformations, atmospheric artifacts, and visibility problems related to ground elevation. Nowadays, several satellite missions are available providing interferometric SAR data at different wavelengths, spatial resolutions, and revisit time. A new and interesting opportunity is provided by Sentinel-1, which has a spatial resolution comparable to that of previous ESA C-band sensors, and revisit times improved by up to 6 days. According to these different SAR space-borne missions, the present work discusses current and future opportunities of MTI applications in terms of ground instability monitoring. Issues related to coherent target detection, mean velocity precision, and product geo-location are addressed through a simple theoretical model assuming backscattering mechanisms related to point scatterers. The paper also presents an example of a multi-sensor ground instability investigation over Lesina Marina, a village in Southern Italy lying over a gypsum diapir, where a hydration process, involving the underlying anhydride, causes a smooth uplift and the formation of scattered sinkholes. More than 20 years of MTI SAR data have been processed, coming from both legacy ERS and ENVISAT missions, and latest-generation RADARSAT-2, COSMO-SkyMed, and Sentinel-1A sensors. Results confirm the presence of a rather steady uplift process, with limited to null variations throughout the whole monitored time-period.

  15. Performance Analysis of Satellite Missions for Multi-Temporal SAR Interferometry

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fabio Bovenga

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Multi-temporal InSAR (MTI applications pose challenges related to the availability of coherent scattering from the ground surface, the complexity of the ground deformations, atmospheric artifacts, and visibility problems related to ground elevation. Nowadays, several satellite missions are available providing interferometric SAR data at different wavelengths, spatial resolutions, and revisit time. A new and interesting opportunity is provided by Sentinel-1, which has a spatial resolution comparable to that of previous ESA C-band sensors, and revisit times improved by up to 6 days. According to these different SAR space-borne missions, the present work discusses current and future opportunities of MTI applications in terms of ground instability monitoring. Issues related to coherent target detection, mean velocity precision, and product geo-location are addressed through a simple theoretical model assuming backscattering mechanisms related to point scatterers. The paper also presents an example of a multi-sensor ground instability investigation over Lesina Marina, a village in Southern Italy lying over a gypsum diapir, where a hydration process, involving the underlying anhydride, causes a smooth uplift and the formation of scattered sinkholes. More than 20 years of MTI SAR data have been processed, coming from both legacy ERS and ENVISAT missions, and latest-generation RADARSAT-2, COSMO-SkyMed, and Sentinel-1A sensors. Results confirm the presence of a rather steady uplift process, with limited to null variations throughout the whole monitored time-period.

  16. Utilization of a genetic algorithm for the automatic detection of oil spill from RADARSAT-2 SAR satellite data

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Marghany, Maged

    2014-01-01

    Highlights: • An oil platform located 70 km from the coast of Louisiana sank on Thursday. • Oil spill has backscatter values of −25 dB in RADARSAT-2 SAR. • Oil spill is portrayed in SCNB mode by shallower incidence angle. • Ideal detection of oil spills in SAR images requires moderate wind speeds. • Genetic algorithm is excellent tool for automatic detection of oil spill in RADARSAT-2 SAR data. - Abstract: In this work, a genetic algorithm is applied for the automatic detection of oil spills. The procedure is implemented using sequences from RADARSAT-2 SAR ScanSAR Narrow single-beam data acquired in the Gulf of Mexico. The study demonstrates that the implementation of crossover allows for the generation of an accurate oil spill pattern. This conclusion is confirmed by the receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The ROC curve indicates that the existence of oil slick footprints can be identified using the area between the ROC curve and the no-discrimination line of 90%, which is greater than that of other surrounding environmental features. In conclusion, the genetic algorithm can be used as a tool for the automatic detection of oil spills, and the ScanSAR Narrow single-beam mode serves as an excellent sensor for oil spill detection and survey

  17. Potential of X-Band TerraSAR-X and COSMO-SkyMed SAR Data for the Assessment of Physical Soil Parameters

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Azza Gorrab

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to analyze the potential of X-band SAR measurements (COSMO-SkyMed and TerraSAR-X made over bare soils for the estimation of soil moisture and surface geometry parameters at a semi-arid site in Tunisia (North Africa. Radar signals acquired with different configurations (HH and VV polarizations, incidence angles of 26° and 36° are statistically compared with ground measurements (soil moisture and roughness parameters. The radar measurements are found to be highly sensitive to the various soil parameters of interest. A linear relationship is determined for the radar signals as a function of volumetric soil moisture, and a logarithmic correlation is observed between the radar signals and three surface roughness parameters: the root mean square height (Hrms, the parameter Zs = Hrms2/l (where l is the correlation length and the parameter Zg = Hrms × (Hrms/lα (where α is the power of the surface height correlation function. The highest dynamic sensitivity is observed for Zg at high incidence angles. Finally, the performance of different physical and semi-empirical backscattering models (IEM, Baghdadi-calibrated IEM and Dubois models is compared with SAR measurements. The results provide an indication of the limits of validity of the IEM and Dubois models, for various radar configurations and roughness conditions. Considerable improvements in the IEM model performance are observed using the Baghdadi-calibrated version of this model.

  18. Mapping biomass for a northern forest ecosystem using multi-frequency SAR data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ranson, K. J.; Sun, Guoqing

    1992-01-01

    Image processing methods for mapping standing biomass for a forest in Maine, using NASA/JPL airborne synthetic aperture radar (AIRSAR) polarimeter data, are presented. By examining the dependence of backscattering on standing biomass, it is determined that the ratio of HV backscattering from a longer wavelength (P- or L-band) to a shorter wavelength (C) is a good combination for mapping total biomass. This ratio enhances the correlation of the image signature to the standing biomass and compensates for a major part of the variations in backscattering attributed to radar incidence angle. The image processing methods used include image calibration, ratioing, filtering, and segmentation. The image segmentation algorithm uses both means and variances of the image, and it is combined with the image filtering process. Preliminary assessment of the resultant biomass maps suggests that this is a promising method.

  19. Decomposition of Polarimetric SAR Images Based on Second- and Third-order Statics Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kojima, S.; Hensley, S.

    2012-12-01

    There are many papers concerning the research of the decomposition of polerimetric SAR imagery. Most of them are based on second-order statics analysis that Freeman and Durden [1] suggested for the reflection symmetry condition that implies that the co-polarization and cross-polarization correlations are close to zero. Since then a number of improvements and enhancements have been proposed to better understand the underlying backscattering mechanisms present in polarimetric SAR images. For example, Yamaguchi et al. [2] added the helix component into Freeman's model and developed a 4 component scattering model for the non-reflection symmetry condition. In addition, Arii et al. [3] developed an adaptive model-based decomposition method that could estimate both the mean orientation angle and a degree of randomness for the canopy scattering for each pixel in a SAR image without the reflection symmetry condition. This purpose of this research is to develop a new decomposition method based on second- and third-order statics analysis to estimate the surface, dihedral, volume and helix scattering components from polarimetric SAR images without the specific assumptions concerning the model for the volume scattering. In addition, we evaluate this method by using both simulation and real UAVSAR data and compare this method with other methods. We express the volume scattering component using the wire formula and formulate the relationship equation between backscattering echo and each component such as the surface, dihedral, volume and helix via linearization based on second- and third-order statics. In third-order statics, we calculate the correlation of the correlation coefficients for each polerimetric data and get one new relationship equation to estimate each polarization component such as HH, VV and VH for the volume. As a result, the equation for the helix component in this method is the same formula as one in Yamaguchi's method. However, the equation for the volume

  20. 1D-Var multilayer assimilation of X-band SAR data into a detailed snowpack model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Phan, X. V.; Ferro-Famil, L.; Gay, M.; Durand, Y.; Dumont, M.; Morin, S.; Allain, S.; D'Urso, G.; Girard, A.

    2014-10-01

    The structure and physical properties of a snowpack and their temporal evolution may be simulated using meteorological data and a snow metamorphism model. Such an approach may meet limitations related to potential divergences and accumulated errors, to a limited spatial resolution, to wind or topography-induced local modulations of the physical properties of a snow cover, etc. Exogenous data are then required in order to constrain the simulator and improve its performance over time. Synthetic-aperture radars (SARs) and, in particular, recent sensors provide reflectivity maps of snow-covered environments with high temporal and spatial resolutions. The radiometric properties of a snowpack measured at sufficiently high carrier frequencies are known to be tightly related to some of its main physical parameters, like its depth, snow grain size and density. SAR acquisitions may then be used, together with an electromagnetic backscattering model (EBM) able to simulate the reflectivity of a snowpack from a set of physical descriptors, in order to constrain a physical snowpack model. In this study, we introduce a variational data assimilation scheme coupling TerraSAR-X radiometric data into the snowpack evolution model Crocus. The physical properties of a snowpack, such as snow density and optical diameter of each layer, are simulated by Crocus, fed by the local reanalysis of meteorological data (SAFRAN) at a French Alpine location. These snowpack properties are used as inputs of an EBM based on dense media radiative transfer (DMRT) theory, which simulates the total backscattering coefficient of a dry snow medium at X and higher frequency bands. After evaluating the sensitivity of the EBM to snowpack parameters, a 1D-Var data assimilation scheme is implemented in order to minimize the discrepancies between EBM simulations and observations obtained from TerraSAR-X acquisitions by modifying the physical parameters of the Crocus-simulated snowpack. The algorithm then re

  1. Mapping Plastic-Mulched Farmland with C-Band Full Polarization SAR Remote Sensing Data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hasituya

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Plastic mulching is an important technology in agricultural production both in China and the rest of the world. In spite of its benefit of increasing crop yields, the booming expansion of the plastic mulching area has been changing the landscape patterns and affecting the environment. Accurate and effective mapping of Plastic-Mulched Farmland (PMF can provide useful information for leveraging its advantages and disadvantages. However, mapping the PMF with remote sensing is still challenging owing to its varying spectral characteristics with the crop growth and geographic spatial division. In this paper, we investigated the potential of Radarsat-2 data for mapping PMF. We obtained the backscattering intensity of different polarizations and multiple polarimetric decomposition descriptors. These remotely-sensed information was used as input features for Random Forest (RF and Support Vector Machine (SVM classifiers. The results indicated that the features from Radarsat-2 data have great potential for mapping PMF. The overall accuracies of PMF mapping with Radarsat-2 data were close to 75%. Although the classification accuracy with the back-scattering intensity information alone was relatively lower owing to the inherent speckle noise in SAR data, it has been improved significantly by introducing the polarimetric decomposition descriptors. The accuracy was nearly 75%. In addition, the features derived from the Entropy/Anisotropy/Alpha (H/A/Alpha polarimetric decomposition, such as Alpha, entropy, and so on, made a greater contribution to PMF mapping than the Freeman decomposition, Krogager decomposition and the Yamaguchi4 decomposition. The performances of different classifiers were also compared. In this study, the RF classifier performed better than the SVM classifier. However, it is expected that the classification accuracy of PMF with SAR remote sensing data can be improved by combining SAR remote sensing data with optical remote sensing data.

  2. C-Band SAR Imagery for Snow-Cover Monitoring at Treeline, Churchill, Manitoba, Canada

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Frédérique C. Pivot

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available RADARSAT and ERS-2 data collected at multiple incidence angles are used to characterize the seasonal variations in the backscatter of snow-covered landscapes in the northern Hudson Bay Lowlands during the winters of 1997/98 and 1998/99. The study evaluates the usefulness of C-band SAR systems for retrieving the snow water equivalent under dry snow conditions in the forest–tundra ecotone. The backscatter values are compared against ground measurements at six sampling sites, which are taken to be representative of the land-cover types found in the region. The contribution of dry snow to the radar return is evident when frost penetrates the first 20 cm of soil. Only then does the backscatter respond positively to changes in snow water equivalent, at least in the open and forested areas near the coast, where 1-dB increases in backscatter for each approximate 5–10 mm of accumulated water equivalent are observed at 20–31° incidence angles. Further inland, the backscatter shows either no change or a negative change with snow accumulation, which suggests that the radar signal there is dominated by ground surface scattering (e.g., fen when not attenuated by vegetation (e.g., forested and transition. With high-frequency ground-penetrating radar, we demonstrate the presence of a 10–20-cm layer of black ice underneath the snow cover, which causes the reduced radar returns (−15 dB and less observed in the inland fen. A correlation between the backscattering and the snow water equivalent cannot be determined due to insufficient observations at similar incidence angles. To establish a relationship between the snow water equivalent and the backscatter, only images acquired with similar incidence angles should be used, and they must be corrected for both vegetation and ground effects.

  3. A Range Ambiguity Suppression Processing Method for Spaceborne SAR with Up and Down Chirp Modulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wen, Xuejiao; Qiu, Xiaolan; Han, Bing; Ding, Chibiao; Lei, Bin; Chen, Qi

    2018-05-07

    Range ambiguity is one of the factors which affect the SAR image quality. Alternately transmitting up and down chirp modulation pulses is one of the methods used to suppress the range ambiguity. However, the defocusing range ambiguous signal can still hold the stronger backscattering intensity than the mainlobe imaging area in some case, which has a severe impact on visual effects and subsequent applications. In this paper, a novel hybrid range ambiguity suppression method for up and down chirp modulation is proposed. The method can obtain the ambiguity area image and reduce the ambiguity signal power appropriately, by applying pulse compression using a contrary modulation rate and CFAR detecting method. The effectiveness and correctness of the approach is demonstrated by processing the archive images acquired by Chinese Gaofen-3 SAR sensor in full-polarization mode.

  4. Structural Classification of Marshes with Polarimetric SAR Highlighting the Temporal Mapping of Marshes Exposed to Oil

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elijah Ramsey

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Empirical relationships between field-derived Leaf Area Index (LAI and Leaf Angle Distribution (LAD and polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR based biophysical indicators were created and applied to map S. alterniflora marsh canopy structure. PolSAR and field data were collected near concurrently in the summers of 2010, 2011, and 2012 in coastal marshes, and PolSAR data alone were acquired in 2009. Regression analyses showed that LAI correspondence with the PolSAR biophysical indicator variables equaled or exceeded those of vegetation water content (VWC correspondences. In the final six regressor model, the ratio HV/VV explained 49% of the total 77% explained LAI variance, and the HH-VV coherence and phase information accounted for the remainder. HV/HH dominated the two regressor LAD relationship, and spatial heterogeneity and backscatter mechanism followed by coherence information dominated the final three regressor model that explained 74% of the LAD variance. Regression results applied to 2009 through 2012 PolSAR images showed substantial changes in marsh LAI and LAD. Although the direct cause was not substantiated, following a release of freshwater in response to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the fairly uniform interior marsh structure of 2009 was more vertical and dense shortly after the oil spill cessation. After 2010, marsh structure generally progressed back toward the 2009 uniformity; however, the trend was more disjointed in oil impact marshes.

  5. Investigating the use of the dual-polarized and large incident angle of SAR data for mapping the fluvial and aeolian deposits

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ahmed Gaber

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Mapping the spatial distributions of the fluvial deposits in terms of particles size as well as imaging the near-surface features along the non-vegetated aeolian sand-sheets, provides valuable geological information. Thus this work aims at investigating the contribution of the dual-polarization SAR data in classifying and mapping the surface sediments as well as investigating the effect of the radar incident-angle on improving the images of the hidden features under the desert sand cover. For mapping the fluvial deposits, the covariance matrix ([C2] using four dual-polarized ALOS/PALSAR-1 scenes cover the Wadi El Matulla, East Qena, Egypt were generated. This [C2] matrix was used to generate a supervised classification map with three main classes (gravel, gravel/sand and sand. The polarimetric scattering response, spectral reflectance and temperatures brightness of these 3 classes were extracted. However for the aeolian deposits investigation, two Radarsat-1 and three full-polarimetric ALOS/PALSAR-1 images, which cover the northwestern sandy part of Sinai, Egypt were calibrated, filtered, geocoded and ingested in a GIS database to image the near-surface features. The fluvial mapping results show that the values of the radar backscattered coefficient (σ° and the degree of randomness of the obtained three classes are increasing respectively by increasing their grain size. Moreover, the large incident angle (θi = 39.7 of the Radarsat-1 image has revealed a meandering buried stream under the sand sheet of the northwestern part of Sinai. Such buried stream does not appear in the other optical, SRTM and SAR dataset. The main reason is the enhanced contrast between the low backscattered return from the revealed meandering stream and the surroundings as a result of the increased backscattering intensity, which is related to the relatively large incident angle along the undulated surface of the study area. All archaeological

  6. A general rough-surface inversion algorithm: Theory and application to SAR data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moghaddam, M.

    1993-01-01

    Rough-surface inversion has significant applications in interpretation of SAR data obtained over bare soil surfaces and agricultural lands. Due to the sparsity of data and the large pixel size in SAR applications, it is not feasible to carry out inversions based on numerical scattering models. The alternative is to use parameter estimation techniques based on approximate analytical or empirical models. Hence, there are two issues to be addressed, namely, what model to choose and what estimation algorithm to apply. Here, a small perturbation model (SPM) is used to express the backscattering coefficients of the rough surface in terms of three surface parameters. The algorithm used to estimate these parameters is based on a nonlinear least-squares criterion. The least-squares optimization methods are widely used in estimation theory, but the distinguishing factor for SAR applications is incorporating the stochastic nature of both the unknown parameters and the data into formulation, which will be discussed in detail. The algorithm is tested with synthetic data, and several Newton-type least-squares minimization methods are discussed to compare their convergence characteristics. Finally, the algorithm is applied to multifrequency polarimetric SAR data obtained over some bare soil and agricultural fields. Results will be shown and compared to ground-truth measurements obtained from these areas. The strength of this general approach to inversion of SAR data is that it can be easily modified for use with any scattering model without changing any of the inversion steps. Note also that, for the same reason it is not limited to inversion of rough surfaces, and can be applied to any parameterized scattering process.

  7. A Range Ambiguity Suppression Processing Method for Spaceborne SAR with Up and Down Chirp Modulation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xuejiao Wen

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available Range ambiguity is one of the factors which affect the SAR image quality. Alternately transmitting up and down chirp modulation pulses is one of the methods used to suppress the range ambiguity. However, the defocusing range ambiguous signal can still hold the stronger backscattering intensity than the mainlobe imaging area in some case, which has a severe impact on visual effects and subsequent applications. In this paper, a novel hybrid range ambiguity suppression method for up and down chirp modulation is proposed. The method can obtain the ambiguity area image and reduce the ambiguity signal power appropriately, by applying pulse compression using a contrary modulation rate and CFAR detecting method. The effectiveness and correctness of the approach is demonstrated by processing the archive images acquired by Chinese Gaofen-3 SAR sensor in full-polarization mode.

  8. Combined DEM Extration Method from StereoSAR and InSAR

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Z.; Zhang, J. X.; Duan, M. Y.; Huang, G. M.; Yang, S. C.

    2015-06-01

    A pair of SAR images acquired from different positions can be used to generate digital elevation model (DEM). Two techniques exploiting this characteristic have been introduced: stereo SAR and interferometric SAR. They permit to recover the third dimension (topography) and, at the same time, to identify the absolute position (geolocation) of pixels included in the imaged area, thus allowing the generation of DEMs. In this paper, StereoSAR and InSAR combined adjustment model are constructed, and unify DEM extraction from InSAR and StereoSAR into the same coordinate system, and then improve three dimensional positioning accuracy of the target. We assume that there are four images 1, 2, 3 and 4. One pair of SAR images 1,2 meet the required conditions for InSAR technology, while the other pair of SAR images 3,4 can form stereo image pairs. The phase model is based on InSAR rigorous imaging geometric model. The master image 1 and the slave image 2 will be used in InSAR processing, but the slave image 2 is only used in the course of establishment, and the pixels of the slave image 2 are relevant to the corresponding pixels of the master image 1 through image coregistration coefficient, and it calculates the corresponding phase. It doesn't require the slave image in the construction of the phase model. In Range-Doppler (RD) model, the range equation and Doppler equation are a function of target geolocation, while in the phase equation, the phase is also a function of target geolocation. We exploit combined adjustment model to deviation of target geolocation, thus the problem of target solution is changed to solve three unkonwns through seven equations. The model was tested for DEM extraction under spaceborne InSAR and StereoSAR data and compared with InSAR and StereoSAR methods respectively. The results showed that the model delivered a better performance on experimental imagery and can be used for DEM extraction applications.

  9. Structural classification of marshes with Polarimetric SAR highlighting the temporal mapping of marshes exposed to oil

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ramsey, Elijah W.; Rangoonwala, Amina; Jones, Cathleen E.

    2015-01-01

    Empirical relationships between field-derived Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Leaf Angle Distribution (LAD) and polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) based biophysical indicators were created and applied to map S. alterniflora marsh canopy structure. PolSAR and field data were collected near concurrently in the summers of 2010, 2011, and 2012 in coastal marshes, and PolSAR data alone were acquired in 2009. Regression analyses showed that LAI correspondence with the PolSAR biophysical indicator variables equaled or exceeded those of vegetation water content (VWC) correspondences. In the final six regressor model, the ratio HV/VV explained 49% of the total 77% explained LAI variance, and the HH-VV coherence and phase information accounted for the remainder. HV/HH dominated the two regressor LAD relationship, and spatial heterogeneity and backscatter mechanism followed by coherence information dominated the final three regressor model that explained 74% of the LAD variance. Regression results applied to 2009 through 2012 PolSAR images showed substantial changes in marsh LAI and LAD. Although the direct cause was not substantiated, following a release of freshwater in response to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the fairly uniform interior marsh structure of 2009 was more vertical and dense shortly after the oil spill cessation. After 2010, marsh structure generally progressed back toward the 2009 uniformity; however, the trend was more disjointed in oil impact marshes.             

  10. Estimation of rice grain yield from dual-polarization Radarsat-2 SAR data by integrating a rice canopy scattering model and a genetic algorithm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Yuan; Yang, Bin; Liu, Xiaohui; Wang, Cuizhen

    2017-05-01

    Fast and accurate estimation of rice yield plays a role in forecasting rice productivity for ensuring regional or national food security. Microwave synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data has been proved to have a great potential for rice monitoring and parameters retrieval. In this study, a rice canopy scattering model (RCSM) was revised and then was applied to simulate the backscatter of rice canopy. The combination of RCSM and genetic algorithm (GA) was proposed for retrieving two important rice parameters relating to grain yield, ear length and ear number density, from a C-band, dual-polarization (HH and HV) Radarsat-2 SAR data. The stability of retrieved results of GA inversion was also evaluated by changing various parameter configurations. Results show that RCSM can effectively simulate backscattering coefficients of rice canopy at HH and HV mode with an error of <1 dB. Reasonable selection of GA's parameters is essential for stability and efficiency of rice parameter retrieval. Two rice parameters are retrieved by the proposed RCSM-GA technology with better accuracy. The rice ear length are estimated with error of <1.5 cm, and ear number density with error of <23 #/m2. Rice grain yields are effectively estimated and mapped by the retrieved ear length and number density via a simple yield regression equation. This study further illustrates the capability of C-band Radarsat-2 SAR data on retrieval of rice ear parameters and the practicability of radar remote sensing technology for operational yield estimation.

  11. Analysis of ERS 1 synthetic aperture radar data of frozen lakes in northern Montana and implications for climate studies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hall, Dorothy K.; Fagre, Daniel B.; Klasner, Fritz; Linebaugh, Gregg; Liston, Glen E.

    1994-01-01

    Lakes that freeze each winter are good indicators of regional climate change if key parameters, such as freeze-up and breakup date and maximum ice thickness, are measured over a decade-scale time frame. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite data have proven to be especially useful for measurement of climatologically significant parameters characteristic of frozen lakes. In this paper, five lakes in Glacier National Park, Montana, have been studied both in the field and using Earth Remote-Sensing Satellite (ERS) 1 SAR data during the 1992-1993 winter. The lakes are characterized by clear ice, sometimes with tubular or rounded bubbles, and often with a layer of snow ice on top of the clear ice. They are also often snow covered. Freeze-up is detected quite easily using ERS 1 SAR data as soon as a thin layer of ice forms. The effect of snow ice on the backscatter is thought to be significant but is, as yet, undetermined. On the five lakes studied, relative backscatter was found to increase with ice thickness until a maximum was reached in February. Breakup, an often ill-defined occurrence, is difficult to detect because surface water causes the SAR signal to be absorbed, thus masking the ice below. Comparison of the bubble structure of thaw lakes in northern Alaska with lakes in northern Montana has shown that the ice structure is quite different, and this difference may contribute to differential SAR signature evolution in the lakes of the two areas.

  12. L-Band SAR Backscatter Related to Forest Cover, Height and Aboveground Biomass at Multiple Spatial Scales across Denmark

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Joshi, Neha P.; Mitchard, Edward T A; Schumacher, Johannes

    2015-01-01

    may be confounded by variations in biophysical forest structure (density, height or cover fraction) and differences in the resolution of satellite and ground data. Here, we attempt to quantify the effect of these factors by relating L-band ALOS PALSAR HV backscatter and unique country-wide Li...

  13. Dynamic coherent backscattering mirror

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zeylikovich, I.; Xu, M., E-mail: mxu@fairfield.edu [Physics Department, Fairfield University, Fairfield, CT 06824 (United States)

    2016-02-15

    The phase of multiply scattered light has recently attracted considerable interest. Coherent backscattering is a striking phenomenon of multiple scattered light in which the coherence of light survives multiple scattering in a random medium and is observable in the direction space as an enhancement of the intensity of backscattered light within a cone around the retroreflection direction. Reciprocity also leads to enhancement of backscattering light in the spatial space. The random medium behaves as a reciprocity mirror which robustly converts a diverging incident beam into a converging backscattering one focusing at a conjugate spot in space. Here we first analyze theoretically this coherent backscattering mirror (CBM) phenomenon and then demonstrate the capability of CBM compensating and correcting both static and dynamic phase distortions occurring along the optical path. CBM may offer novel approaches for high speed dynamic phase corrections in optical systems and find applications in sensing and navigation.

  14. THE LOW BACKSCATTERING OBJECTS CLASSIFICATION IN POLSAR IMAGE BASED ON BAG OF WORDS MODEL USING SUPPORT VECTOR MACHINE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    L. Yang

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Due to the forward scattering and block of radar signal, the water, bare soil, shadow, named low backscattering objects (LBOs, often present low backscattering intensity in polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR image. Because the LBOs rise similar backscattering intensity and polarimetric responses, the spectral-based classifiers are inefficient to deal with LBO classification, such as Wishart method. Although some polarimetric features had been exploited to relieve the confusion phenomenon, the backscattering features are still found unstable when the system noise floor varies in the range direction. This paper will introduce a simple but effective scene classification method based on Bag of Words (BoW model using Support Vector Machine (SVM to discriminate the LBOs, without relying on any polarimetric features. In the proposed approach, square windows are firstly opened around the LBOs adaptively to determine the scene images, and then the Scale-Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT points are detected in training and test scenes. The several SIFT features detected are clustered using K-means to obtain certain cluster centers as the visual word lists and scene images are represented using word frequency. At last, the SVM is selected for training and predicting new scenes as some kind of LBOs. The proposed method is executed over two AIRSAR data sets at C band and L band, including water, bare soil and shadow scenes. The experimental results illustrate the effectiveness of the scene method in distinguishing LBOs.

  15. SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) Data Collection and Processing Summary - 1984 SARSEX (SAR Internal Wave Signature Experiment) Experiment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    1985-03-01

    DIVISION ;! -0 N xr-0 n 0n4 1 1 I- C) 0 Ic 0 C WIx W Qr - - r -r 01............................. I Cq I1 -a I- I X 0’ an w I w kI~r 1 0r- r- r . 0~~~ Cs CW 1...object from the SAR platform . Ground range, the 102 ~RIM RADAR DIVISION 0 0 sc 0’. C4 C4 Xn en % >4-4 441i V-u -- - W 1-11 04 v4 0o 0 4 0 (A~U Go 4J...Rg = rRF -hy ,(3) for the flat earth or low-altitude case, where h is the platform altitude. Because the range and azimuth scales are not the same

  16. The Temporal-Spatial Distribution of Shule River Alluvial Fan Units in China Based on SAR Data and OSL Dating

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lu Zhang

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available Alluvial fans in arid and semi-arid regions can provide important evidence of geomorphic and climatic changes, which reveal the evolution of the regional tectonic activity and environment. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR remote sensing technology, which is sensitive to geomorphic features, plays an important role in quickly mapping alluvial fan units of different ages. In this paper, RADARSAT-2 (Canada’s C-band new-generation radar satellite and ALOS-PALSAR (Japan’s advanced land observing satellite, phased array type L-band SAR sensor data, acquired over the Shule River Alluvial Fan (SRAF, are used to extract backscattering coefficients, scattering mechanism-related information, and polarimetric characteristic parameters. The correlation between these SAR characteristic parameters and fan units of the SRAF of different ages was studied, and the spatial distribution of fan units, since the Late Pleistocene, was extracted based on the Maximum Likelihood classification method. The results prove that (1 some C-band SAR parameters can describe the geomorphic characteristics of alluvial fan units of different ages in the SRAF; (2 SAR data can be used to map the SRAF’s surface between the Late Pleistocene and the Holocene and to extract the spatial distribution of fan units; and (3 the time-spatial distribution of the SRAF can provide valuable information for tectonic and paleoenvironmental research of the study area.

  17. Soil Moisture Estimation in South-Eastern New Mexico Using High Resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR Data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A.K.M. Azad Hossain

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Soil moisture monitoring and characterization of the spatial and temporal variability of this hydrologic parameter at scales from small catchments to large river basins continues to receive much attention, reflecting its critical role in subsurface-land surface-atmospheric interactions and its importance to drought analysis, irrigation planning, crop yield forecasting, flood protection, and forest fire prevention. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR data acquired at different spatial resolutions have been successfully used to estimate soil moisture in different semi-arid areas of the world for many years. This research investigated the potential of linear multiple regressions and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN based models that incorporate different geophysical variables with Radarsat 1 SAR fine imagery and concurrently measured soil moisture measurements to estimate surface soil moisture in Nash Draw, NM. An artificial neural network based model with vegetation density, soil type, and elevation data as input in addition to radar backscatter values was found suitable to estimate surface soil moisture in this area with reasonable accuracy. This model was applied to a time series of SAR data acquired in 2006 to produce soil moisture data covering a normal wet season in the study site.

  18. The retrieval of two-dimensional distribution of the earth's surface aerodynamic roughness using SAR image and TM thermal infrared image

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    ZHANG; Renhua; WANG; Jinfeng; ZHU; Caiying; SUN; Xiaomin

    2004-01-01

    After having analyzed the requirement on the aerodynamic earth's surface roughness in two-dimensional distribution in the research field of interaction between land surface and atmosphere, this paper presents a new way to calculate the aerodynamic roughness using the earth's surface geometric roughness retrieved from SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) and TM thermal infrared image data. On the one hand, the SPM (Small Perturbation Model) was used as a theoretical SAR backscattering model to describe the relationship between the SAR backscattering coefficient and the earth's surface geometric roughness and its dielectric constant retrieved from the physical model between the soil thermal inertia and the soil surface moisture with the simultaneous TM thermal infrared image data and the ground microclimate data. On the basis of the SAR image matching with the TM image, the non-volume scattering surface geometric information was obtained from the SPM model at the TM image pixel scale, and the ground pixel surface's equivalent geometric roughness-height standard RMS (Root Mean Square) was achieved from the geometric information by the transformation of the typical topographic factors. The vegetation (wheat, tree) height retrieved from spectrum model was also transferred into its equivalent geometric roughness. A completely two-dimensional distribution map of the equivalent geometric roughness over the experimental area was produced by the data mosaic technique. On the other hand, according to the atmospheric eddy currents theory, the aerodynamic surface roughness was iterated out with the atmosphere stability correction method using the wind and the temperature profiles data measured at several typical fields such as bare soil field and vegetation field. After having analyzed the effect of surface equivalent geometric roughness together with dynamic and thermodynamic factors on the aerodynamic surface roughness within the working area, this paper first establishes a scale

  19. Functional genomics highlights differential induction of antiviral pathways in the lungs of SARS-CoV-infected macaques.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anna de Lang

    2007-08-01

    Full Text Available The pathogenesis of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV is likely mediated by disproportional immune responses and the ability of the virus to circumvent innate immunity. Using functional genomics, we analyzed early host responses to SARS-CoV infection in the lungs of adolescent cynomolgus macaques (Macaca fascicularis that show lung pathology similar to that observed in human adults with SARS. Analysis of gene signatures revealed induction of a strong innate immune response characterized by the stimulation of various cytokine and chemokine genes, including interleukin (IL-6, IL-8, and IP-10, which corresponds to the host response seen in acute respiratory distress syndrome. As opposed to many in vitro experiments, SARS-CoV induced a wide range of type I interferons (IFNs and nuclear translocation of phosphorylated signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 in the lungs of macaques. Using immunohistochemistry, we revealed that these antiviral signaling pathways were differentially regulated in distinctive subsets of cells. Our studies emphasize that the induction of early IFN signaling may be critical to confer protection against SARS-CoV infection and highlight the strength of combining functional genomics with immunohistochemistry to further unravel the pathogenesis of SARS.

  20. Preliminary Thermal Characterization of a Fully-Passive Wireless Backscattering Neuro-Recording Microsystem

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schwerdt, H. N.; Xu, W.; Shekhar, S.; Chae, J.; Miranda, F. A.

    2011-01-01

    We present analytical and experimental thermal characteristics of a battery-less, fully-passive wireless backscattering microsystem for recording of neuropotentials. A major challenge for cortically implantable microsystems involves minimizing the heat dissipated by on-chip circuitry, which can lead to permanent brain damage. Therefore, knowledge of temperature changes induced by implantable microsystems while in operation is of utmost importance. In this work, a discrete diode appended to the neuro-recording microsystem has been used to indirectly monitor the aforesaid temperature changes. Using this technique, the maximum temperature rise measured for the microsystem while in operation was 0.15 +/- 0.1 C, which is significantly less than current safety guidelines. Specific absorption ratio (SAR) due to the microsystem was also computed to further demonstrate fully-passive functionality of the neuro-recording microsystem.

  1. APPLICATION OF FUSION WITH SAR AND OPTICAL IMAGES IN LAND USE CLASSIFICATION BASED ON SVM

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    C. Bao

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available As the increment of remote sensing data with multi-space resolution, multi-spectral resolution and multi-source, data fusion technologies have been widely used in geological fields. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR and optical camera are two most common sensors presently. The multi-spectral optical images express spectral features of ground objects, while SAR images express backscatter information. Accuracy of the image classification could be effectively improved fusing the two kinds of images. In this paper, Terra SAR-X images and ALOS multi-spectral images were fused for land use classification. After preprocess such as geometric rectification, radiometric rectification noise suppression and so on, the two kind images were fused, and then SVM model identification method was used for land use classification. Two different fusion methods were used, one is joining SAR image into multi-spectral images as one band, and the other is direct fusing the two kind images. The former one can raise the resolution and reserve the texture information, and the latter can reserve spectral feature information and improve capability of identifying different features. The experiment results showed that accuracy of classification using fused images is better than only using multi-spectral images. Accuracy of classification about roads, habitation and water bodies was significantly improved. Compared to traditional classification method, the method of this paper for fused images with SVM classifier could achieve better results in identifying complicated land use classes, especially for small pieces ground features.

  2. THE LOW BACKSCATTERING TARGETS CLASSIFICATION IN URBAN AREAS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    L. Shi

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available The Polarimetric and Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (POLINSAR is widely used in urban area nowadays. Because of the physical and geometric sensitivity, the POLINSAR is suitable for the city classification, power-lines detection, building extraction, etc. As the new X-band POLINSAR radar, the china prototype airborne system, XSAR works with high spatial resolution in azimuth (0.1 m and slant range (0.4 m. In land applications, SAR image classification is a useful tool to distinguish the interesting area and obtain the target information. The bare soil, the cement road, the water and the building shadow are common scenes in the urban area. As it always exists low backscattering sign objects (LBO with the similar scattering mechanism (all odd bounce except for shadow in the XSAR images, classes are usually confused in Wishart-H-Alpha and Freeman-Durden methods. It is very hard to distinguish those targets only using the general information. To overcome the shortage, this paper explores an improved algorithm for LBO refined classification based on the Pre-Classification in urban areas. Firstly, the Pre-Classification is applied in the polarimetric datum and the mixture class is marked which contains LBO. Then, the polarimetric covariance matrix C3 is re-estimated on the Pre-Classification results to get more reliable results. Finally, the occurrence space which combining the entropy and the phase-diff standard deviation between HH and VV channel is used to refine the Pre-Classification results. The XSAR airborne experiments show the improved method is potential to distinguish the mixture classes in the low backscattering objects.

  3. Integrated analysis of PALSAR/Radarsat-1 InSAR and ENVISAT altimeter data for mapping of absolute water level changes in Louisiana wetlands

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, J.-W.; Lu, Z.; Lee, H.; Shum, C.K.; Swarzenski, C.M.; Doyle, T.W.; Baek, S.-H.

    2009-01-01

    Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) has been used to detect relative water level changes in wetlands. We developed an innovative method to integrate InSAR and satellite radar altimetry for measuring absolute or geocentric water level changes and applied the methodology to remote areas of swamp forest in coastal Louisiana. Coherence analysis of InSAR pairs suggested that the HH polarization is preferred for this type of observation, and polarimetric analysis can help to identify double-bounce backscattering areas in the wetland. ENVISAT radar altimeter-measured 18-Hz (along-track sampling of 417 m) water level data processed with regional stackfile method have been used to provide vertical references for water bodies separated by levees. The high-resolution (~ 40 m) relative water changes measured from ALOS PALSAR L-band and Radarsat-1 C-band InSAR are then integrated with ENVISAT radar altimetry to obtain absolute water level. The resulting water level time series were validated with in situ gauge observations within the swamp forest. We anticipate that this new technique will allow retrospective reconstruction and concurrent monitoring of water conditions and flow dynamics in wetlands, especially those lacking gauge networks.

  4. Toward Estimating Wetland Water Level Changes Based on Hydrological Sensitivity Analysis of PALSAR Backscattering Coefficients over Different Vegetation Fields

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ting Yuan

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR has been successfully used to map wetland’s inundation extents and types of vegetation based on the fact that the SAR backscatter signal from the wetland is mainly controlled by the wetland vegetation type and water level changes. This study describes the relation between L-band PALSAR  and seasonal water level changes obtained from Envisat altimetry over the island of Île Mbamou in the Congo Basin where two distinctly different vegetation types are found. We found positive correlations between and water level changes over the forested southern Île Mbamou whereas both positive and negative correlations were observed over the non-forested northern Île Mbamou depending on the amount of water level increase. Based on the analysis of sensitivity, we found that denser vegetation canopy leads to less sensitive  variation with respect to the water level changes regardless of forested or non-forested canopy. Furthermore, we attempted to estimate water level changes which were then compared with the Envisat altimetry and InSAR results. Our results demonstrated a potential to generate two-dimensional maps of water level changes over the wetlands, and thus may have substantial synergy with the planned Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT mission.

  5. TerraSAR-X InSAR multipass analysis on Venice, Italy)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nitti, D. O.; Nutricato, R.; Bovenga, F.; Refice, A.; Chiaradia, M. T.; Guerriero, L.

    2009-09-01

    The TerraSAR-X (copyright) mission, launched in 2007, carries a new X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensor optimally suited for SAR interferometry (InSAR), thus allowing very promising application of InSAR techniques for the risk assessment on areas with hydrogeological instability and especially for multi-temporal analysis, such as Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) techniques, originally developed at Politecnico di Milano. The SPINUA (Stable Point INterferometry over Unurbanised Areas) technique is a PSI processing methodology which has originally been developed with the aim of detection and monitoring of coherent PS targets in non or scarcely-urbanized areas. The main goal of the present work is to describe successful applications of the SPINUA PSI technique in processing X-band data. Venice has been selected as test site since it is in favorable settings for PSI investigations (urban area containing many potential coherent targets such as buildings) and in view of the availability of a long temporal series of TerraSAR-X stripmap acquisitions (27 scenes in all). The Venice Lagoon is affected by land sinking phenomena, whose origins are both natural and man-induced. The subsidence of Venice has been intensively studied for decades by determining land displacements through traditional monitoring techniques (leveling and GPS) and, recently, by processing stacks of ERS/ENVISAT SAR data. The present work is focused on an independent assessment of application of PSI techniques to TerraSAR-X stripmap data for monitoring the stability of the Venice area. Thanks to its orbital repeat cycle of only 11 days, less than a third of ERS/ENVISAT C-band missions, the maximum displacement rate that can be unambiguously detected along the Line-of-Sight (LOS) with TerraSAR-X SAR data through PSI techniques is expected to be about twice the corresponding value of ESA C-band missions, being directly proportional to the sensor wavelength and inversely proportional to the

  6. Evaluation of RISAT-1 SAR data for tropical forestry applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Padalia, Hitendra; Yadav, Sadhana

    2017-01-01

    India launched C band (5.35 GHz) RISAT-1 (Radar Imaging Satellite-1) on 26th April, 2012, equipped with the capability to image the Earth at multiple-resolutions and -polarizations. In this study the potential of Fine Resolution Strip (FRS) modes of RISAT-1 was evaluated for characterization and classification forests and estimation of biomass of early growth stages. The study was carried out at the two sites located in the foothills of western Himalaya, India. The pre-processing and classification of FRS-1 SAR data was performed using PolSAR Pro ver. 5.0 software. The scattering mechanisms derived from m-chi decomposition of FRS-1 RH/RV data were found physically meaningful for the characterization of various surface features types. The forest and land use type classification of the study area was developed applying Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm on FRS-1 derived appropriate polarimetric features. The biomass of early growth stages of Eucalyptus (up to 60 ton/ha) was estimated developing a multi-linear regression model using C band σ0 HV and σ0 HH backscatter information. The study outcomes has promise for wider application of RISAT-1 data for forest cover monitoring, especially for the tropical regions.

  7. Seasat synthetic aperture radar ( SAR) response to lowland vegetation types in eastern Maryland and Virginia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krohn, M.D.; Milton, N.M.; Segal, D.B.

    1983-01-01

    Examination of Seasat SAR images of eastern Maryland and Virginia reveals botanical distinctions between vegetated lowland areas and adjacent upland areas. Radar returns from the lowland areas can be either brighter or darker than returns from the upland forests. Scattering models and scatterometer measurements predict an increase of 6 dB in backscatter from vegetation over standing water. This agrees with the 30-digital number (DN) increase observed in the digital Seasat data. The density, morphology, and relative geometry of the lowland vegetation with respect to standing water can all affect the strength of the return L band signal.-from Authors

  8. Polarimetric SAR Interferometry based modeling for tree height and aboveground biomass retrieval in a tropical deciduous forest

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kumar, Shashi; Khati, Unmesh G.; Chandola, Shreya; Agrawal, Shefali; Kushwaha, Satya P. S.

    2017-08-01

    The regulation of the carbon cycle is a critical ecosystem service provided by forests globally. It is, therefore, necessary to have robust techniques for speedy assessment of forest biophysical parameters at the landscape level. It is arduous and time taking to monitor the status of vast forest landscapes using traditional field methods. Remote sensing and GIS techniques are efficient tools that can monitor the health of forests regularly. Biomass estimation is a key parameter in the assessment of forest health. Polarimetric SAR (PolSAR) remote sensing has already shown its potential for forest biophysical parameter retrieval. The current research work focuses on the retrieval of forest biophysical parameters of tropical deciduous forest, using fully polarimetric spaceborne C-band data with Polarimetric SAR Interferometry (PolInSAR) techniques. PolSAR based Interferometric Water Cloud Model (IWCM) has been used to estimate aboveground biomass (AGB). Input parameters to the IWCM have been extracted from the decomposition modeling of SAR data as well as PolInSAR coherence estimation. The technique of forest tree height retrieval utilized PolInSAR coherence based modeling approach. Two techniques - Coherence Amplitude Inversion (CAI) and Three Stage Inversion (TSI) - for forest height estimation are discussed, compared and validated. These techniques allow estimation of forest stand height and true ground topography. The accuracy of the forest height estimated is assessed using ground-based measurements. PolInSAR based forest height models showed enervation in the identification of forest vegetation and as a result height values were obtained in river channels and plain areas. Overestimation in forest height was also noticed at several patches of the forest. To overcome this problem, coherence and backscatter based threshold technique is introduced for forest area identification and accurate height estimation in non-forested regions. IWCM based modeling for forest

  9. Pi-SAR-L2 Observation of the Landslide Caused by Typhoon Wipha on Izu Oshima Island

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Manabu Watanabe

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available Pi-SAR-L2 full polarimetic data observed in four different observational directions over a landslide area on Izu Oshima Island, induced by Typhoon Wipha on 16 October 2013, were analyzed to clarify the most appropriate L-band full polarimetric parameters and observational direction to detect a landslide area. Japanese airborne Pi-SAR-L2 and PiSAR-L data were used in this analysis. Several L-band full polarimetric parameters, including backscattering coefficient (σ°, coherence between two polarimetric states, four-component decomposition parameters (double-bounce/volume/surface/helix scattering, and eigenvalue decomposition parameters (entropy/α/anisotropy, were calculated to determine the most appropriate parameters for detecting landslide areas. The change in land cover from forest before the disaster to bare soil after the disaster was detected well by α, and coherence between HH and VV. Observational data from the bottom to the top of the landslide detected the landslide well, whereas observations from the opposite sides were not as useful, indicating that a smaller local incident angle is better to distinguish landslide and forested areas. Soil from the landslide intruded into the urban areas; however, none of the full polarimetric parameters showed any significant differences between the landslide-affected urban areas after the disaster and unaffected areas before the disaster.

  10. SAR matrices: automated extraction of information-rich SAR tables from large compound data sets.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wassermann, Anne Mai; Haebel, Peter; Weskamp, Nils; Bajorath, Jürgen

    2012-07-23

    We introduce the SAR matrix data structure that is designed to elucidate SAR patterns produced by groups of structurally related active compounds, which are extracted from large data sets. SAR matrices are systematically generated and sorted on the basis of SAR information content. Matrix generation is computationally efficient and enables processing of large compound sets. The matrix format is reminiscent of SAR tables, and SAR patterns revealed by different categories of matrices are easily interpretable. The structural organization underlying matrix formation is more flexible than standard R-group decomposition schemes. Hence, the resulting matrices capture SAR information in a comprehensive manner.

  11. Semi-empirical modelling for forest above ground biomass estimation using hybrid and fully PolSAR data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tomar, Kiledar S.; Kumar, Shashi; Tolpekin, Valentyn A.; Joshi, Sushil K.

    2016-05-01

    Forests act as sink of carbon and as a result maintains carbon cycle in atmosphere. Deforestation leads to imbalance in global carbon cycle and changes in climate. Hence estimation of forest biophysical parameter like biomass becomes a necessity. PolSAR has the ability to discriminate the share of scattering element like surface, double bounce and volume scattering in a single SAR resolution cell. Studies have shown that volume scattering is a significant parameter for forest biophysical characterization which mainly occurred from vegetation due to randomly oriented structures. This random orientation of forest structure causes shift in orientation angle of polarization ellipse which ultimately disturbs the radar signature and shows overestimation of volume scattering and underestimation of double bounce scattering after decomposition of fully PolSAR data. Hybrid polarimetry has the advantage of zero POA shift due to rotational symmetry followed by the circular transmission of electromagnetic waves. The prime objective of this study was to extract the potential of Hybrid PolSAR and fully PolSAR data for AGB estimation using Extended Water Cloud model. Validation was performed using field biomass. The study site chosen was Barkot Forest, Uttarakhand, India. To obtain the decomposition components, m-alpha and Yamaguchi decomposition modelling for Hybrid and fully PolSAR data were implied respectively. The RGB composite image for both the decomposition techniques has generated. The contribution of all scattering from each plot for m-alpha and Yamaguchi decomposition modelling were extracted. The R2 value for modelled AGB and field biomass from Hybrid PolSAR and fully PolSAR data were found 0.5127 and 0.4625 respectively. The RMSE for Hybrid and fully PolSAR between modelled AGB and field biomass were 63.156 (t ha-1) and 73.424 (t ha-1) respectively. On the basis of RMSE and R2 value, this study suggests Hybrid PolSAR decomposition modelling to retrieve scattering

  12. Effects of Snow/ Soil Interface on Microwave Backscatter of Terrestrial Snowpack at X- and Ku- Band

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kang, D. H.; Tan, S.; Zhu, J.; Gu, W.; Tsang, L.; Kim, E. J.

    2017-12-01

    Recent advances in monitoring and modeling capabilities to support remote sensing of terrestrial snow is encouraging to develop satellite mission concept in monitoring cold-region hydrological processes on global scales. However, it is still challenging to link back the active microwave backscattering signals to physical snowpack parameters. One of the limitations resides in the ignorance of the vegetation and soil conditions beneath the snowpack in the microwave scattering/ emission modeling and the snow water equivalent (SWE) retrieval algorithm. During the SnowEx 2017 winter campaign in Grand Mesa, CO, a particular effort has been made on comprehensive measurements of the underlying vegetation and soil characteristics from the snowpit measurements. Besides conducting standard snow core sampling, we have made additional protocols to record the background information beneath the snowpack. Recent works on active SWE retrieval algorithm using backscatters at X- (9.6 GHz) and Ku- (17.2 GHz) band suggest the significant signals from the background scattering characterization. The background scattering arising from the rough snow/ soil interface and the buried vegetation inside and beneath the snowpack modifies the sensitivity of the total backscatter to SWE. In this paper, we summarize the snow/ soil interface conditions as observed in the SnowEx campaign. We also develop standards for future in-situ snowpit measurements to include regular snow/ soil interface observations to accommodate the interpretation of microwave backscatter both for modeling and observation of microwave signatures. These observations first provide inputs to the microwave scattering models to predict the backscattering contribution from background, which is one of the key factors to be included to improve the SWE retrieval performance.

  13. GOTCHA experience report: three-dimensional SAR imaging with complete circular apertures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ertin, Emre; Austin, Christian D.; Sharma, Samir; Moses, Randolph L.; Potter, Lee C.

    2007-04-01

    We study circular synthetic aperture radar (CSAR) systems collecting radar backscatter measurements over a complete circular aperture of 360 degrees. This study is motivated by the GOTCHA CSAR data collection experiment conducted by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). Circular SAR provides wide-angle information about the anisotropic reflectivity of the scattering centers in the scene, and also provides three dimensional information about the location of the scattering centers due to a non planar collection geometry. Three dimensional imaging results with single pass circular SAR data reveals that the 3D resolution of the system is poor due to the limited persistence of the reflectors in the scene. We present results on polarimetric processing of CSAR data and illustrate reasoning of three dimensional shape from multi-view layover using prior information about target scattering mechanisms. Next, we discuss processing of multipass (CSAR) data and present volumetric imaging results with IFSAR and three dimensional backprojection techniques on the GOTCHA data set. We observe that the volumetric imaging with GOTCHA data is degraded by aliasing and high sidelobes due to nonlinear flightpaths and sparse and unequal sampling in elevation. We conclude with a model based technique that resolves target features and enhances the volumetric imagery by extrapolating the phase history data using the estimated model.

  14. Integrating Physical and Topographic Information Into a Fuzzy Scheme to Map Flooded Area by SAR.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pierdicca, Nazzareno; Chini, Marco; Pulvirenti, Luca; Macina, Flavia

    2008-07-10

    A flood mapping procedure based on a fuzzy sets theory has been developed. The method is based on the integration of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) measurements with additional data on the inundated area, such as a land cover map and a digital elevation model (DEM). The information on land cover has allowed us to account for both specular reflection, typical of open water, and double bounce backscattering, typical of forested and urban areas. DEM has been exploited to include simple hydraulic considerations on the dependence of inundation probability on surface characteristics. Contextual information has been taken into account too. The proposed algorithm has been tested on a flood occurred in Italy on November 1994. A pair of ERS-1 images, collected before and after (three days later) the flood, has been used. The results have been compared with the data provided by a ground survey carried out when the flood reached its maximum extension. Despite the temporal mismatch between the survey and the post-inundation SAR image, the comparison has yielded encouraging results, with the 87% of the pixels correctly classified as inundated.

  15. Low cost realization of space-borne synthectic aperture radar - MicroSAR

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carter, D.; Hall, C.

    Spaceborne Earth Observation data has been used for decades in the areas of meteorology and optical imaging. The systems and satellites have, in the main, been owned and operated by a few government institutions and agencies. More recently industrial organizations in North America have joined the list. Few of these, however, include Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)., although the additional utility in terms of all weather, 24 hour measurement capability over the Earth's surface is well recognized. Three major factors explain this:1) Relationships between the SAR measurements of radar backscatter and images to the specific information needs have not been seen as sufficiently well understood or robust2) Availability of suitable sources, at the relevant performance and data quality have been inadequate to provide service assurance that is necessary to sustain commercial businesses3) Costs associated with building, launching and operating spaceborne SAR have not been low enough as to achieve an acceptable return of investment. A significant amount of research and development has been undertaken throughout the World to establish reliable and robust algorithms for information extraction from SAR data. Much of this work has been carried out utilizing airborne systems over localized and carefully controlled regions. In addition, an increasing number of pilot services have been offered by geo-information providers. This has allowed customer confidence to grow. With the status of spaceborne SAR being effectively in the development phase, commercial funding has been scarce, and there has been need to rely on government and institutional budgets. Today the increasing maturity of the technology of SAR and its applications is beginning to attract the commercial sector. This is the funding necessary to realize sufficient assets to be able to provide a robust supply of SAR data to the geo-information providers and subsequently a reliable service to customers. Reducing the costs

  16. SARS - Diagnosis

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    SARS - Diagnosis. Mainly by exclusion of known causes of atypical pneumonia; * X ray Chest; * PCR on body fluids- primers defined by WHO centres available from website.-ve result does not exclude SARS. * Sequencing of amplicons; * Viral Cultures – demanding; * Antibody tests.

  17. Building damage assessment from PolSAR data using texture parameters of statistical model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Linlin; Liu, Xiuguo; Chen, Qihao; Yang, Shuai

    2018-04-01

    Accurate building damage assessment is essential in providing decision support for disaster relief and reconstruction. Polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) has become one of the most effective means of building damage assessment, due to its all-day/all-weather ability and richer backscatter information of targets. However, intact buildings that are not parallel to the SAR flight pass (termed oriented buildings) and collapsed buildings share similar scattering mechanisms, both of which are dominated by volume scattering. This characteristic always leads to misjudgments between assessments of collapsed buildings and oriented buildings from PolSAR data. Because the collapsed buildings and the intact buildings (whether oriented or parallel buildings) have different textures, a novel building damage assessment method is proposed in this study to address this problem by introducing texture parameters of statistical models. First, the logarithms of the estimated texture parameters of different statistical models are taken as a new texture feature to describe the collapse of the buildings. Second, the collapsed buildings and intact buildings are distinguished using an appropriate threshold. Then, the building blocks are classified into three levels based on the building block collapse rate. Moreover, this paper also discusses the capability for performing damage assessment using texture parameters from different statistical models or using different estimators. The RADARSAT-2 and ALOS-1 PolSAR images are used to present and analyze the performance of the proposed method. The results show that using the texture parameters avoids the problem of confusing collapsed and oriented buildings and improves the assessment accuracy. The results assessed by using the K/G0 distribution texture parameters estimated based on the second moment obtain the highest extraction accuracies. For the RADARSAT-2 and ALOS-1 data, the overall accuracy (OA) for these three types of

  18. Bistatic sAR data processing algorithms

    CERN Document Server

    Qiu, Xiaolan; Hu, Donghui

    2013-01-01

    Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is critical for remote sensing. It works day and night, in good weather or bad. Bistatic SAR is a new kind of SAR system, where the transmitter and receiver are placed on two separate platforms. Bistatic SAR is one of the most important trends in SAR development, as the technology renders SAR more flexible and safer when used in military environments. Imaging is one of the most difficult and important aspects of bistatic SAR data processing. Although traditional SAR signal processing is fully developed, bistatic SAR has a more complex system structure, so sign

  19. Backscatter measurements for NIF ignition targets (invited).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moody, J D; Datte, P; Krauter, K; Bond, E; Michel, P A; Glenzer, S H; Divol, L; Niemann, C; Suter, L; Meezan, N; MacGowan, B J; Hibbard, R; London, R; Kilkenny, J; Wallace, R; Kline, J L; Knittel, K; Frieders, G; Golick, B; Ross, G; Widmann, K; Jackson, J; Vernon, S; Clancy, T

    2010-10-01

    Backscattered light via laser-plasma instabilities has been measured in early NIF hohlraum experiments on two beam quads using a suite of detectors. A full aperture backscatter system and near backscatter imager (NBI) instrument separately measure the stimulated Brillouin and stimulated Raman scattered light. Both instruments work in conjunction to determine the total backscattered power to an accuracy of ∼15%. In order to achieve the power accuracy we have added time-resolution to the NBI for the first time. This capability provides a temporally resolved spatial image of the backscatter which can be viewed as a movie.

  20. Backscatter measurements for NIF ignition targets (invited)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Moody, J. D.; Datte, P.; Krauter, K.; Bond, E.; Michel, P. A.; Glenzer, S. H.; Divol, L.; Suter, L.; Meezan, N.; MacGowan, B. J.; Hibbard, R.; London, R.; Kilkenny, J.; Wallace, R.; Knittel, K.; Frieders, G.; Golick, B.; Ross, G.; Widmann, K.; Jackson, J. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, P.O. Box 808, Livermore, California 94550 (United States); and others

    2010-10-15

    Backscattered light via laser-plasma instabilities has been measured in early NIF hohlraum experiments on two beam quads using a suite of detectors. A full aperture backscatter system and near backscatter imager (NBI) instrument separately measure the stimulated Brillouin and stimulated Raman scattered light. Both instruments work in conjunction to determine the total backscattered power to an accuracy of {approx}15%. In order to achieve the power accuracy we have added time-resolution to the NBI for the first time. This capability provides a temporally resolved spatial image of the backscatter which can be viewed as a movie.

  1. Backscatter measurements for NIF ignition targets (invited)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Moody, J. D.; Datte, P.; Krauter, K.; Bond, E.; Michel, P. A.; Glenzer, S. H.; Divol, L.; Suter, L.; Meezan, N.; MacGowan, B. J.; Hibbard, R.; London, R.; Kilkenny, J.; Wallace, R.; Knittel, K.; Frieders, G.; Golick, B.; Ross, G.; Widmann, K.; Jackson, J.

    2010-01-01

    Backscattered light via laser-plasma instabilities has been measured in early NIF hohlraum experiments on two beam quads using a suite of detectors. A full aperture backscatter system and near backscatter imager (NBI) instrument separately measure the stimulated Brillouin and stimulated Raman scattered light. Both instruments work in conjunction to determine the total backscattered power to an accuracy of ∼15%. In order to achieve the power accuracy we have added time-resolution to the NBI for the first time. This capability provides a temporally resolved spatial image of the backscatter which can be viewed as a movie.

  2. Mapping Changes and Damages in Areas of Conflict: From Archive C-Band SAR Data to New HR X-Band Imagery, Towards the Sentinels

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tapete, Deodato; Cigna, Francesca; Donoghue, Daniel N. M.; Philip, Graham

    2015-05-01

    On the turn of radar space science with the recent launch of Sentinel-1A, we investigate how to better exploit the opportunities offered by large C-band SAR archives and increasing datasets of HR to VHR X-band data, to map changes and damages in urban and rural areas affected by conflicts. We implement a dual approach coupling multi-interferogram processing and amplitude change detection, to assess the impact of the recent civil war on the city of Homs, Western Syria, and the surrounding semi-arid landscape. More than 280,000 coherent pixels are retrieved from Small BAseline Subset (SBAS) processing of the 8year-long ENVISAT ASAR IS2 archive, to quantify land subsidence due to pre-war water abstraction in rural areas. Damages in Homs are detected by analysing the changes of SAR backscattering (σ0), comparing 3m-resolution StripMap TerraSAR-X pairs from 2009 to 2014. Pre-war alteration is differentiated from war-related damages via operator-driven interpretation of the σ0 patterns.

  3. Complementarity of Two Rice Mapping Approaches: Characterizing Strata Mapped by Hypertemporal MODIS and Rice Paddy Identification Using Multitemporal SAR

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sonia Asilo

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available Different rice crop information can be derived from different remote sensing sources to provide information for decision making and policies related to agricultural production and food security. The objective of this study is to generate complementary and comprehensive rice crop information from hypertemporal optical and multitemporal high-resolution SAR imagery. We demonstrate the use of MODIS data for rice-based system characterization and X-band SAR data from TerraSAR-X and CosmoSkyMed for the identification and detailed mapping of rice areas and flooding/transplanting dates. MODIS was classified using ISODATA to generate cropping calendar, cropping intensity, cropping pattern and rice ecosystem information. Season and location specific thresholds from field observations were used to generate detailed maps of rice areas and flooding/transplanting dates from the SAR data. Error matrices were used for the accuracy assessment of the MODIS-derived rice characteristics map and the SAR-derived detailed rice area map, while Root Mean Square Error (RMSE and linear correlation were used to assess the TSX-derived flooding/transplanting dates. Results showed that multitemporal high spatial resolution SAR data is effective for mapping rice areas and flooding/transplanting dates with an overall accuracy of 90% and a kappa of 0.72 and that hypertemporal moderate-resolution optical imagery is effective for the basic characterization of rice areas with an overall accuracy that ranged from 62% to 87% and a kappa of 0.52 to 0.72. This study has also provided the first assessment of the temporal variation in the backscatter of rice from CSK and TSX using large incidence angles covering all rice crop stages from pre-season until harvest. This complementarity in optical and SAR data can be further exploited in the near future with the increased availability of space-borne optical and SAR sensors. This new information can help improve the identification of rice

  4. Multibeam sonar backscatter data processing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schimel, Alexandre C. G.; Beaudoin, Jonathan; Parnum, Iain M.; Le Bas, Tim; Schmidt, Val; Keith, Gordon; Ierodiaconou, Daniel

    2018-06-01

    Multibeam sonar systems now routinely record seafloor backscatter data, which are processed into backscatter mosaics and angular responses, both of which can assist in identifying seafloor types and morphology. Those data products are obtained from the multibeam sonar raw data files through a sequence of data processing stages that follows a basic plan, but the implementation of which varies greatly between sonar systems and software. In this article, we provide a comprehensive review of this backscatter data processing chain, with a focus on the variability in the possible implementation of each processing stage. Our objective for undertaking this task is twofold: (1) to provide an overview of backscatter data processing for the consideration of the general user and (2) to provide suggestions to multibeam sonar manufacturers, software providers and the operators of these systems and software for eventually reducing the lack of control, uncertainty and variability associated with current data processing implementations and the resulting backscatter data products. One such suggestion is the adoption of a nomenclature for increasingly refined levels of processing, akin to the nomenclature adopted for satellite remote-sensing data deliverables.

  5. Keynote presentation : SAR systems

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Halsema, D. van; Otten, M.P.G.; Maas, A.P.M.; Bolt, R.J.; Anitori, L.

    2011-01-01

    Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) systems are becoming increasingly important sensors in as well the military environment as in the civilian market. In this keynote presentation an overview will be given over more than 2 decades of SAR system∼ and SAR application development at TNO in the Netherlands.

  6. Bistatic SAR: Proof of Concept.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yocky, David A.; Doren, Neall E.; Bacon, Terry A.; Wahl, Daniel E.; Eichel, Paul H.; Jakowatz, Charles V,; Delaplain, Gilbert G.; Dubbert, Dale F.; Tise, Bertice L.; White, Kyle R.

    2014-10-01

    Typical synthetic aperture RADAR (SAR) imaging employs a co-located RADAR transmitter and receiver. Bistatic SAR imaging separates the transmitter and receiver locations. A bistatic SAR configuration allows for the transmitter and receiver(s) to be in a variety of geometric alignments. Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) / New Mexico proposed the deployment of a ground-based RADAR receiver. This RADAR receiver was coupled with the capability of digitizing and recording the signal collected. SNL proposed the possibility of creating an image of targets the illuminating SAR observes. This document describes the developed hardware, software, bistatic SAR configuration, and its deployment to test the concept of a ground-based bistatic SAR. In the proof-of-concept experiments herein, the RADAR transmitter will be a commercial SAR satellite and the RADAR receiver will be deployed at ground level, observing and capturing RADAR ground/targets illuminated by the satellite system.

  7. Knowledge-based sea ice classification by polarimetric SAR

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Skriver, Henning; Dierking, Wolfgang

    2004-01-01

    Polarimetric SAR images acquired at C- and L-band over sea ice in the Greenland Sea, Baltic Sea, and Beaufort Sea have been analysed with respect to their potential for ice type classification. The polarimetric data were gathered by the Danish EMISAR and the US AIRSAR which both are airborne...... systems. A hierarchical classification scheme was chosen for sea ice because our knowledge about magnitudes, variations, and dependences of sea ice signatures can be directly considered. The optimal sequence of classification rules and the rules themselves depend on the ice conditions/regimes. The use...... of the polarimetric phase information improves the classification only in the case of thin ice types but is not necessary for thicker ice (above about 30 cm thickness)...

  8. Application of Satellite SAR for Discovery and Quantification of Natural Marine Oil Seeps

    Science.gov (United States)

    Amos, J.; Lai, R.; Zimmer, B.; Leiva, A.; MacDonald, I.

    2006-12-01

    Natural marine oil seeps discharge gassy drops from the seafloor. Oil drops and gas bubbles reach the surface from water depths as great as 3000m. The oil spreads rapidly, forming an invisible layer that drifts down-wind and down-current in long, linear streaks called slicks. Oil slicks are visible in SAR data because the surfactant dampens capillary waves and reduces backscatter. Application of SAR as an exploration tool in energy prospecting is well-established. We have applied this technique for discovering the chemosynthetic communities that colonize the seafloor in the vicinity of deep-water seeps on the continental margin of the Gulf of Mexico. The management goal for this effort is to prevent harmful impact to these communities resulting from exploration or production activities. The scientific goals are to delineate the zoogeography of the chemosynthetic fauna, which is widespread on continental margins, and to establish study sites where their life history can be investigated. In the course of an ongoing, multidisciplinary study in the spring and summer of 2006, we explored 20 possible sites where SAR and geophysical data indicated seeps might occur. SAR was only partly diagnostic: all sites with SAR-detected slicks were found to have biologic communities, but communities were also found at geophysical anomalies that did not produce slicks. We acquired over 60 RADARSAT SAR images from the northern Gulf of Mexico in cooperation with the Alaska Satellite Facility. The ship RV ATLANTIS was at sea during the acquisition and collected synoptic weather and oceanographic data. To automate interpretation of large image dataset we have employed texture recognition with use of a library of textons applied iteratively to the images. This treatment shows promise in distinguishing floating oil from false targets generated by rain fronts and other phenomena. One goal of the analysis is to delineate bounding boxes to quantify the ocean area covered by the thin oil layer

  9. The Seamless SAR Archive (SSARA) Project and Other SAR Activities at UNAVCO

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baker, S.; Crosby, C. J.; Meertens, C. M.; Fielding, E. J.; Bryson, G.; Buechler, B.; Nicoll, J.; Baru, C.

    2014-12-01

    The seamless synthetic aperture radar archive (SSARA) implements a seamless distributed access system for SAR data and derived data products (i.e. interferograms). SSARA provides a unified application programming interface (API) for SAR data search and results at the Alaska Satellite Facility and UNAVCO (WInSAR and EarthScope data archives) through the use of simple web services. A federated query service was developed using the unified APIs, providing users a single search interface for both archives. Interest from the international community has prompted an effort to incorporate ESA's Virtual Archive 4 Geohazard Supersites and Natural Laboratories (GSNL) collections and other archives into the federated query service. SSARA also provides Digital Elevation Model access for topographic correction via a simple web service through OpenTopography and tropospheric correction products through JPL's OSCAR service. Additionally, UNAVCO provides data storage capabilities for WInSAR PIs with approved TerraSAR-X and ALOS-2 proposals which allows easier distribution to US collaborators on associated proposals and facilitates data access through the SSARA web services. Further work is underway to incorporate federated data discovery for GSNL across SAR, GPS, and seismic datasets provided by web services from SSARA, GSAC, and COOPEUS.

  10. Spatially coded backscatter radiography

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Thangavelu, S.; Hussein, E.M.A.

    2007-01-01

    Conventional radiography requires access to two opposite sides of an object, which makes it unsuitable for the inspection of extended and/or thick structures (airframes, bridges, floors etc.). Backscatter imaging can overcome this problem, but the indications obtained are difficult to interpret. This paper applies the coded aperture technique to gamma-ray backscatter-radiography in order to enhance the detectability of flaws. This spatial coding method involves the positioning of a mask with closed and open holes to selectively permit or block the passage of radiation. The obtained coded-aperture indications are then mathematically decoded to detect the presence of anomalies. Indications obtained from Monte Carlo calculations were utilized in this work to simulate radiation scattering measurements. These simulated measurements were used to investigate the applicability of this technique to the detection of flaws by backscatter radiography

  11. AUTOMATIC INTERPRETATION OF HIGH RESOLUTION SAR IMAGES: FIRST RESULTS OF SAR IMAGE SIMULATION FOR SINGLE BUILDINGS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. Tao

    2012-09-01

    Full Text Available Due to the all-weather data acquisition capabilities, high resolution space borne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR plays an important role in remote sensing applications like change detection. However, because of the complex geometric mapping of buildings in urban areas, SAR images are often hard to interpret. SAR simulation techniques ease the visual interpretation of SAR images, while fully automatic interpretation is still a challenge. This paper presents a method for supporting the interpretation of high resolution SAR images with simulated radar images using a LiDAR digital surface model (DSM. Line features are extracted from the simulated and real SAR images and used for matching. A single building model is generated from the DSM and used for building recognition in the SAR image. An application for the concept is presented for the city centre of Munich where the comparison of the simulation to the TerraSAR-X data shows a good similarity. Based on the result of simulation and matching, special features (e.g. like double bounce lines, shadow areas etc. can be automatically indicated in SAR image.

  12. Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)

    Science.gov (United States)

    SARS; Respiratory failure - SARS ... Complications may include: Respiratory failure Liver failure Heart failure ... 366. McIntosh K, Perlman S. Coronaviruses, including severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). ...

  13. Integrating Physical and Topographic Information Into a Fuzzy Scheme to Map Flooded Area by SAR

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Flavia Macina

    2008-07-01

    Full Text Available A flood mapping procedure based on a fuzzy sets theory has been developed. The method is based on the integration of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR measurements with additional data on the inundated area, such as a land cover map and a digital elevation model (DEM. The information on land cover has allowed us to account for both specular reflection, typical of open water, and double bounce backscattering, typical of forested and urban areas. DEM has been exploited to include simple hydraulic considerations on the dependence of inundation probability on surface characteristics. Contextual information has been taken into account too. The proposed algorithm has been tested on a flood occurred in Italy on November 1994. A pair of ERS-1 images, collected before and after (three days later the flood, has been used. The results have been compared with the data provided by a ground survey carried out when the flood reached its maximum extension. Despite the temporal mismatch between the survey and the post-inundation SAR image, the comparison has yielded encouraging results, with the 87% of the pixels correctly classified as inundated.

  14. LE NUOVE FRONTIERE DELL’ARCHEOLOGIA DALLA FOTOGRAFIA AEREA AL TELERILEVAMENTO SATELLITARE SAR

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nicole Dore

    2012-04-01

    Full Text Available

    Il grande progresso tecnologico ha dato la possibilità a campi di indagine più tradizionali, come l’archeologia, di usufruire di tecnologie per trarne il massimo vantaggio ai fini di indagini preventive sul campo. È sulla sciadi conquiste come il telerilevamento satellitare ottico ad alta risoluzione spaziale, che la presente ricerca si è spinta oltre tali confini, con lo scopo di indagare la tecnica polarimetrica SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar.

     

    New Frontiers in Archaeology. From Aerial Photography to Satellite Remote Sensing SAR

    This work is part of an ongoing PhD project held at the Area di Geodesia e Geomatica – University ofRome ‘La Sapienza’. The work involves the study of archaeological sites through the analysis of polarimetric L-band data from the PALSAR sensor (on the Japanese ALOS satellite, launched in May 2006 with the aim of understanding the spectral signature of archaeologicalremains (above and below ground. The Italian sites of Vulci (VTand Arpi (FG, analyzed through polarimetric imagery, were chosen according to the availability of polarimetric SAR data at the time of the study and to the different geomorphologic characteristics of theterrain, with the purpose of observing the scattering mechanisms associated to the features present in the scene.

  15. GPS tomography tests for DInSAR applications on Mt. Etna

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Massimo Aranzulla

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Tropospheric artifacts of SAR images in a volcanic area like Mt. Etna cause ambiguity in the interpretation of deformations with such technique. It would be useful to measure the delay caused by tropospheric anomalies in synthetic aperture radar (SAR satellite signals (phase of the back-scattered radar wave that could be interpreted as deformation. From the delay estimated through the GPS data processing, the tropospheric tomography of electromagnetic waves refractivity, has been performed using the SIMULps12 software. The aim of this study was to perform software synthetic tests by using SIMULps12 applied to atmospheric tomography and to verify the influence of the different GPS geodetic network configurations on obtaining a reliable tomography. Three different anomalies of increasing complexity have been investigated in order to understand the representative parameters of a correct tomography, the best spatial resolution and the portions of space in which the tomography is reliable. The tests also focused on fixing/establishing the a-priori atmospheric model and the critical values of the main parameters involved in the tomographic inversion. To this end, we made a random choice of two days, necessary to define the tomographic problem. Three different network configurations with 15, 30 and 90 GPS receivers were studied. The results indicate that the well-resolved area of tomographic images increases with the number of GPS receivers not linearly, and that the actual GPS network of 42 receivers is capable of revealing/detecting the atmospheric anomalies.

  16. SAR Target Recognition via Supervised Discriminative Dictionary Learning and Sparse Representation of the SAR-HOG Feature

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shengli Song

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Automatic target recognition (ATR in synthetic aperture radar (SAR images plays an important role in both national defense and civil applications. Although many methods have been proposed, SAR ATR is still very challenging due to the complex application environment. Feature extraction and classification are key points in SAR ATR. In this paper, we first design a novel feature, which is a histogram of oriented gradients (HOG-like feature for SAR ATR (called SAR-HOG. Then, we propose a supervised discriminative dictionary learning (SDDL method to learn a discriminative dictionary for SAR ATR and propose a strategy to simplify the optimization problem. Finally, we propose a SAR ATR classifier based on SDDL and sparse representation (called SDDLSR, in which both the reconstruction error and the classification error are considered. Extensive experiments are performed on the MSTAR database under standard operating conditions and extended operating conditions. The experimental results show that SAR-HOG can reliably capture the structures of targets in SAR images, and SDDL can further capture subtle differences among the different classes. By virtue of the SAR-HOG feature and SDDLSR, the proposed method achieves the state-of-the-art performance on MSTAR database. Especially for the extended operating conditions (EOC scenario “Training 17 ∘ —Testing 45 ∘ ”, the proposed method improves remarkably with respect to the previous works.

  17. Speckle Filtering of GF-3 Polarimetric SAR Data with Joint Restriction Principle.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xie, Jinwei; Li, Zhenfang; Zhou, Chaowei; Fang, Yuyuan; Zhang, Qingjun

    2018-05-12

    Polarimetric SAR (PolSAR) scattering characteristics of imagery are always obtained from the second order moments estimation of multi-polarization data, that is, the estimation of covariance or coherency matrices. Due to the extra-paths that signal reflected from separate scatterers within the resolution cell has to travel, speckle noise always exists in SAR images and has a severe impact on the scattering performance, especially on single look complex images. In order to achieve high accuracy in estimating covariance or coherency matrices, three aspects are taken into consideration: (1) the edges and texture of the scene are distinct after speckle filtering; (2) the statistical characteristic should be similar to the object pixel; and (3) the polarimetric scattering signature should be preserved, in addition to speckle reduction. In this paper, a joint restriction principle is proposed to meet the requirement. Three different restriction principles are introduced to the processing of speckle filtering. First, a new template, which is more suitable for the point or line targets, is designed to ensure the morphological consistency. Then, the extent sigma filter is used to restrict the pixels in the template aforementioned to have an identical statistic characteristic. At last, a polarimetric similarity factor is applied to the same pixels above, to guarantee the similar polarimetric features amongst the optional pixels. This processing procedure is named as speckle filtering with joint restriction principle and the approach is applied to GF-3 polarimetric SAR data acquired in San Francisco, CA, USA. Its effectiveness of keeping the image sharpness and preserving the scattering mechanism as well as speckle reduction is validated by the comparison with boxcar filters and refined Lee filter.

  18. Simultaneous Observation Data of GB-SAR/PiSAR to Detect Flooding in an Urban Area

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Manabu Watanabe

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available We analyzed simultaneous observation data with ground-based synthetic aperture radar (GB-SAR and airborne SAR (PiSAR over a flood test site at which a simple house was constructed in a field. The PiSAR σ∘ under flood condition was 0.9 to 3.4 dB higher than that under nonflood condition. GB-SAR gives high spatial resolution as we could identify a single scattering component and a double bounce component from the house. GB-SAR showed that the σ∘ difference between the flooding and nonflooding conditions came from the double bounce scattering. We also confirm that the entropy is a sensitive parameter in the eigenvalue decomposition parameters, if the scattering process is dominated by the double bounce scattering. We conclude that σ∘ and entropy are a good parameter to be used to detect flooding, not only in agricultural and forest regions, but also in urban areas. We also conclude that GB-SAR is a powerful tool to supplement satellite and airborne observation, which has a relatively low spatial resolution.

  19. Simultaneous Observation Data of GB-SAR/PiSAR to Detect Flooding in an Urban Area

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shimada Masanobu

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract We analyzed simultaneous observation data with ground-based synthetic aperture radar (GB-SAR and airborne SAR (PiSAR over a flood test site at which a simple house was constructed in a field. The PiSAR under flood condition was 0.9 to 3.4 dB higher than that under nonflood condition. GB-SAR gives high spatial resolution as we could identify a single scattering component and a double bounce component from the house. GB-SAR showed that the difference between the flooding and nonflooding conditions came from the double bounce scattering. We also confirm that the entropy is a sensitive parameter in the eigenvalue decomposition parameters, if the scattering process is dominated by the double bounce scattering. We conclude that and entropy are a good parameter to be used to detect flooding, not only in agricultural and forest regions, but also in urban areas. We also conclude that GB-SAR is a powerful tool to supplement satellite and airborne observation, which has a relatively low spatial resolution.

  20. SAR: Stroke Authorship Recognition

    KAUST Repository

    Shaheen, Sara

    2015-10-15

    Are simple strokes unique to the artist or designer who renders them? If so, can this idea be used to identify authorship or to classify artistic drawings? Also, could training methods be devised to develop particular styles? To answer these questions, we propose the Stroke Authorship Recognition (SAR) approach, a novel method that distinguishes the authorship of 2D digitized drawings. SAR converts a drawing into a histogram of stroke attributes that is discriminative of authorship. We provide extensive classification experiments on a large variety of data sets, which validate SAR\\'s ability to distinguish unique authorship of artists and designers. We also demonstrate the usefulness of SAR in several applications including the detection of fraudulent sketches, the training and monitoring of artists in learning a particular new style and the first quantitative way to measure the quality of automatic sketch synthesis tools. © 2015 The Eurographics Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  1. Identification of sea ice types in spaceborne synthetic aperture radar data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kwok, Ronald; Rignot, Eric; Holt, Benjamin; Onstott, R.

    1992-01-01

    This study presents an approach for identification of sea ice types in spaceborne SAR image data. The unsupervised classification approach involves cluster analysis for segmentation of the image data followed by cluster labeling based on previously defined look-up tables containing the expected backscatter signatures of different ice types measured by a land-based scatterometer. Extensive scatterometer observations and experience accumulated in field campaigns during the last 10 yr were used to construct these look-up tables. The classification approach, its expected performance, the dependence of this performance on radar system performance, and expected ice scattering characteristics are discussed. Results using both aircraft and simulated ERS-1 SAR data are presented and compared to limited field ice property measurements and coincident passive microwave imagery. The importance of an integrated postlaunch program for the validation and improvement of this approach is discussed.

  2. Crop Classification by Polarimetric SAR

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Skriver, Henning; Svendsen, Morten Thougaard; Nielsen, Flemming

    1999-01-01

    Polarimetric SAR-data of agricultural fields have been acquired by the Danish polarimetric L- and C-band SAR (EMISAR) during a number of missions at the Danish agricultural test site Foulum during 1995. The data are used to study the classification potential of polarimetric SAR data using...

  3. Monitoring of the Liquid Water Content During Snowmelt Using C-Band SAR Data and the Snow Model CROCUS

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rondeau-Genesse, G.; Trudel, M.; Leconte, R.

    2014-12-01

    Coupling C-Band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data to a multilayer snow model is a step in better understanding the temporal evolution of the radar backscattering coefficient during snowmelt. The watershed used for this study is the Nechako River Basin, located in the Rocky Mountains of British-Columbia (Canada). This basin has a snowpack of several meters in depth and part of its water is diverted to the Kemano hydropower system, managed by Rio-Tinto Alcan. Eighteen RADARSAT-2 ScanSAR Wide archive images were acquired in VV/VH polarization for the winter of 2011-2012, under different snow conditions. They are interpreted along with CROCUS, a multilayer physically-based snow model developed by Météo-France. This model discretizes the snowpack into 50 layers, which makes it possible to monitor various characteristics, such as liquid water content (LWC), throughout the season. CROCUS is used to model three specific locations of the Nechako River Basin. Results vary from one site to another, but in general there is a good agreement between the modeled LWC of the first layer of the snowpack and the backscattering coefficient of the RADARSAT-2 images, with a coefficient of determination (R²) of 0.80 and more. The radar images themselves were processed using an updated version of Nagler's methodology, which consists of subtracting an image in wet snow conditions to one in dry snow conditions, as wet snow can then be identified using a soft threshold centered around -3 dB. A second filter was used in order to differentiate dry snow and bare soil. That filter combines a VH/VV ratio threshold and an altitude criterion. The ensuing maps show a good agreement with the MODIS snow-covered area, which is already obtained daily over the Nechako River Basin, but with additional information on the location of wet snow and without sensibility to cloud cover. As a next step, the outputs of CROCUS will be used in Mätzler's Microwave Emission Model of Layered Snowpacks (MEMLS) to

  4. Investigating the Relationship between X-Band SAR Data from COSMO-SkyMed Satellite and NDVI for LAI Detection

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Antonino Maltese

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available Monitoring spatial and temporal variability of vegetation is important to manage land and water resources, with significant impact on the sustainability of modern agriculture. Cloud cover noticeably reduces the temporal resolution of retrievals based on optical data. COSMO-SkyMed (the new Italian Synthetic Aperture RADAR-SAR opened new opportunities to develop agro-hydrological applications. Indeed, it represents a valuable source of data for operational use, due to the high spatial and temporal resolutions. Although X-band is not the most suitable to model agricultural and hydrological processes, an assessment of vegetation development can be achieved combing optical vegetation indices (VIs and SAR backscattering data. In this paper, a correlation analysis has been performed between the crossed horizontal-vertical (HV backscattering (s°HV and optical VIs (VIopt on several plots. The correlation analysis was based on incidence angle, spatial resolution and polarization mode. Results have shown that temporal changes of s°HV (Δs°HV acquired with high angles (off nadir angle; θ > 40° best correlates with variations of VIopt (ΔVI. The correlation between ΔVI and Δs°HV has been shown to be temporally robust. Based on this experimental evidence, a model to infer a VI from s° (VISAR at the time, ti + 1, once known, the VIopt at a reference time, ti, and Δs°HV between times, ti + 1 and ti, was implemented and verified. This approach has led to the development and validation of an algorithm for coupling a VIopt derived from DEIMOS-1 images and s°HV. The study was carried out over the Sele plain (Campania, Italy, which is mainly characterized by herbaceous crops. In situ measurements included leaf area index (LAI, which were collected weekly between August and September 2011 in 25 sites, simultaneously to COSMO-SkyMed (CSK and DEIMOS-1 imaging. Results confirm that VISAR obtained using the combined model is able to increase the feasibility

  5. Polarimetric scattering and SAR information retrieval

    CERN Document Server

    Jin, Ya-Qiu

    2013-01-01

    Taking an innovative look at Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), this practical reference fully covers new developments in SAR and its various methodologies and enables readers to interpret SAR imagery An essential reference on polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), this book uses scattering theory and radiative transfer theory as a basis for its treatment of topics. It is organized to include theoretical scattering models and SAR data analysis techniques, and presents cutting-edge research on theoretical modelling of terrain surface. The book includes quantitative app

  6. Design and realization of an active SAR calibrator for TerraSAR-X

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dummer, Georg; Lenz, Rainer; Lutz, Benjamin; Kühl, Markus; Müller-Glaser, Klaus D.; Wiesbeck, Werner

    2005-10-01

    TerraSAR-X is a new earth observing satellite which will be launched in spring 2006. It carries a high resolution X-band SAR sensor. For high image data quality, accurate ground calibration targets are necessary. This paper describes a novel system concept for an active and highly integrated, digitally controlled SAR system calibrator. A total of 16 active transponder and receiver systems and 17 receiver only systems will be fabricated for a calibration campaign. The calibration units serve for absolute radiometric calibration of the SAR image data. Additionally, they are equipped with an extra receiver path for two dimensional satellite antenna pattern recognition. The calibrator is controlled by a dedicated digital Electronic Control Unit (ECU). The different voltages needed by the calibrator and the ECU are provided by the third main unit called Power Management Unit (PMU).

  7. Tropical forest plantation biomass estimation using RADARSAT-SAR and TM data of south china

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Chenli; Niu, Zheng; Gu, Xiaoping; Guo, Zhixing; Cong, Pifu

    2005-10-01

    Forest biomass is one of the most important parameters for global carbon stock model yet can only be estimated with great uncertainties. Remote sensing, especially SAR data can offers the possibility of providing relatively accurate forest biomass estimations at a lower cost than inventory in study tropical forest. The goal of this research was to compare the sensitivity of forest biomass to Landsat TM and RADARSAT-SAR data and to assess the efficiency of NDVI, EVI and other vegetation indices in study forest biomass based on the field survey date and GIS in south china. Based on vegetation indices and factor analysis, multiple regression and neural networks were developed for biomass estimation for each species of the plantation. For each species, the better relationships between the biomass predicted and that measured from field survey was obtained with a neural network developed for the species. The relationship between predicted and measured biomass derived from vegetation indices differed between species. This study concludes that single band and many vegetation indices are weakly correlated with selected forest biomass. RADARSAT-SAR Backscatter coefficient has a relatively good logarithmic correlation with forest biomass, but neither TM spectral bands nor vegetation indices alone are sufficient to establish an efficient model for biomass estimation due to the saturation of bands and vegetation indices, multiple regression models that consist of spectral and environment variables improve biomass estimation performance. Comparing with TM, a relatively well estimation result can be achieved by RADARSAT-SAR, but all had limitations in tropical forest biomass estimation. The estimation results obtained are not accurate enough for forest management purposes at the forest stand level. However, the approximate volume estimates derived by the method can be useful in areas where no other forest information is available. Therefore, this paper provides a better

  8. SAR Tomography for Terrestrial Snow Stratigraphy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lei, Y.; Xu, X.; Baldi, C.; Bleser, J. W. D.; Yueh, S. H.; Elder, K.

    2017-12-01

    Traditional microwave observation of snowpack includes brightness temperature and backscatter. The single baseline configuration and loss of phase information hinders the retrieval of snow stratigraphy information from microwave observations. In this paper, we are investigating the tomography of polarimetric SAR to measure snow stratigraphy. In the past two years, we have developed a homodyne frequency modulated continuous wave radar (FMCW), operation at three earth exploration satellite bands within the X-band and Ku-band spectrums (centered at 9.6 GHz, 13.5 GHz, and 17.2 GHz) at Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The transceiver is mounted to a dual-axis planar scanner (60cm in each direction), which translates the antenna beams across the target area creating a tomographic baseline in two directions. Dual-antenna architecture was implemented to improve the isolation between the transmitter and receiver. This technique offers a 50 dB improvement in signal-to-noise ratio versus conventional single-antenna FMCW radar systems. With current setting, we could have around 30cm vertical resolution. The system was deployed on a ground based tower at the Fraser Experimental Forest (FEF) Headquarters, near Fraser, CO, USA (39.847°N, 105.912°W) from February 1 to April 30, 2017 and run continuously with some gaps for required optional supports. FEF is a 93-km2 research watershed in the heart of the central Rocky Mountains approximately 80-km West of Denver. During the campaign, in situ measurements of snow depth and other snowpack properties were performed every week for comparison with the remotely sensed data. A network of soil moisture sensors, time-lapse cameras, acoustic depth sensors, laser depth sensor and meteorological instruments was installed next to the site to collect in situ measurements of snow, weather, and soil conditions. Preliminary tomographic processing of ground based SAR data of snowpack at X- and Ku- band has revealed the presence of multiple layers within

  9. Modelling of atmospheric effects on the angular distribution of a backscattering peak

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Powers, B.J.; Gerstl, S.A.W.

    1987-01-01

    If off-nadir satellite sensing of vegetative surfaces is considered, understanding the angular distribution of the radiance exiting the atmosphere in all upward directions is of interest. Of particular interest is the discovery of those reflectance features which are invariant to atmospheric perturbations. When mono-directional radiation is incident on a vegetative scene a characteristic angular signature called the hot-spot is produced in the solar retro-direction. The remotely sensed hot-spot is modified by atmospheric extinction of the direct and reflected solar radiation, atmospheric backscattering, and the diffuse sky irradiance incident on the surface. It is demonstrated, however, by radiative transfer calculations through model atmospheres that at least one parameter which characterizes the canopy hot-spot, namely its angular half width, is invariant to atmospheric perturbations. 7 refs., 4 figs., 1 tab

  10. Mapping Tropical Forest Mosaics with C- and L-band SAR: First Results from Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pinto, N.; Hensley, S.; Aguilar-Amuchastegui, N.; Broadbent, E. N.; Ahmed, R.

    2016-12-01

    In tropical countries, economic incentives and improved infrastructure are creating forest mosaics where small-scale farming and industrial plantations are embedded within and potentially replacing native ecosystems. Practices such as agroforestry, slash-and-burn cultivation, and oil palm monocultures bring widely different impacts on carbon stocks. Characterizing these production systems is not only critical to ascribe deforestation to particular drivers, but also essential to understand the impact of macroeconomic scenarios, national policies, and land tenure schemes on carbon fluxes. The last decade has experienced a dramatic improvement in the extent and consistency of tree cover and gross deforestation products from optical imagery. At the same time, recent work shows that Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) can complement optical data and reveal structural types that cannot be easily resolved with reflectance measurements alone. While these results demonstrate the validity of sensor fusion methodologies, they typically rely on local classifications or even manual delineation and as such they cannot support large-scale investigations. Furthermore, there have been few attempts to exploit PolInSAR or multiple wavelengths that can provide critical information to resolve natural and anthropogenic land cover types. We report results from our research at Costa Rica's Osa Peninsula. This site is ideal for algorithm development as it includes a highly diverse tropical forest within Corcovado National Park, as well as agroforestry zones, mangroves, and palm plantations. We first integrate SAR backscatter and coherence data from NASA's L-band UAVSAR, JAXA's ALOS/PALSAR, and ESA's Sentinel to produce a map of structural types. Second, we assess whether coherence measurements and PolInSAR retrievals can be used to resolve forest stand differences at 30m resolution and disitinguish between primary and secondary forest sites.

  11. Peptide Mimicrying Between SARS Coronavirus Spike Protein and Human Proteins Reacts with SARS Patient Serum

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    K.-Y. Hwa

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available Molecular mimicry, defined as similar structures shared by molecules from dissimilar genes or proteins, is a general strategy used by pathogens to infect host cells. Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS is a new human respiratory infectious disease caused by SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV. The spike (S protein of SARS-CoV plays an important role in the virus entry into a cell. In this study, eleven synthetic peptides from the S protein were selected based on its sequence homology with human proteins. Two of the peptides D07 (residues 927–937 and D08 (residues 942–951 were recognized by the sera of SARS patients. Murine hyperimmune sera against these peptides bound to proteins of human lung epithelial cells A549. Another peptide D10 (residues 490–502 stimulated A549 to proliferate and secrete IL-8. The present results suggest that the selected S protein regions, which share sequence homology with human proteins, may play important roles in SARS-CoV infection.

  12. Impact of the Regulators SigB, Rot, SarA and sarS on the Toxic Shock Tst Promoter and TSST-1 Expression in Staphylococcus aureus.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Diego O Andrey

    Full Text Available Staphylococcus aureus is an important pathogen manifesting virulence through diverse disease forms, ranging from acute skin infections to life-threatening bacteremia or systemic toxic shock syndromes. In the latter case, the prototypical superantigen is TSST-1 (Toxic Shock Syndrome Toxin 1, encoded by tst(H, and carried on a mobile genetic element that is not present in all S. aureus strains. Transcriptional regulation of tst is only partially understood. In this study, we dissected the role of sarA, sarS (sarH1, RNAIII, rot, and the alternative stress sigma factor sigB (σB. By examining tst promoter regulation predominantly in the context of its native sequence within the SaPI1 pathogenicity island of strain RN4282, we discovered that σB emerged as a particularly important tst regulator. We did not detect a consensus σB site within the tst promoter, and thus the effect of σB is likely indirect. We found that σB strongly repressed the expression of the toxin via at least two distinct regulatory pathways dependent upon sarA and agr. Furthermore rot, a member of SarA family, was shown to repress tst expression when overexpressed, although its deletion had no consistent measurable effect. We could not find any detectable effect of sarS, either by deletion or overexpression, suggesting that this regulator plays a minimal role in TSST-1 expression except when combined with disruption of sarA. Collectively, our results extend our understanding of complex multifactorial regulation of tst, revealing several layers of negative regulation. In addition to environmental stimuli thought to impact TSST-1 production, these findings support a model whereby sporadic mutation in a few key negative regulators can profoundly affect and enhance TSST-1 expression.

  13. Understanding the radar backscattering from flooded and nonflooded Amazonian forests: results from canopy backscatter modeling

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang, Y.; Hess, L.L.; Filoso, S.; Melack, J.M.

    1995-01-01

    To understand the potential of using multiwavelength imaging radars to detect flooding in Amazonian floodplain forests, we simulated the radar backscatter from a floodplain forest with a flooded or nonflooded ground condition at C-, L-, and P-bands. Field measurements of forest structure in the Anavilhanas archipelago of the Negro River, Brazil, were used as inputs to the model. Given the same wavelength or incidence angle, the ratio of backscatter from the flooded forest to that from the nonflooded forest was higher at HH polarization than at VV polarization. Given the same wavelength or polarization, the ratio was larger at small incidence angles than at large incidence angles. Given the same polarization or incidence angle, the ratio was larger at a long wavelength than at a short wavelength. As the surface soil moisture underneath the nonflooded forest increased from 10% to 50% of volumetric moisture, the flooded/nonflooded backscatter ratio decreased; the decreases were small at C- and L-band but large at P-band. When the leaf size was comparable to or larger than the wavelength of C-band, the leaf area index (LAI) had a large effect on the simulated C-band (not L-band or P-band) backscatter from the flooded and nonflooded forests. (author)

  14. Using snowflake surface-area-to-volume ratio to model and interpret snowfall triple-frequency radar signatures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gergely, Mathias; Cooper, Steven J.; Garrett, Timothy J.

    2017-10-01

    The snowflake microstructure determines the microwave scattering properties of individual snowflakes and has a strong impact on snowfall radar signatures. In this study, individual snowflakes are represented by collections of randomly distributed ice spheres where the size and number of the constituent ice spheres are specified by the snowflake mass and surface-area-to-volume ratio (SAV) and the bounding volume of each ice sphere collection is given by the snowflake maximum dimension. Radar backscatter cross sections for the ice sphere collections are calculated at X-, Ku-, Ka-, and W-band frequencies and then used to model triple-frequency radar signatures for exponential snowflake size distributions (SSDs). Additionally, snowflake complexity values obtained from high-resolution multi-view snowflake images are used as an indicator of snowflake SAV to derive snowfall triple-frequency radar signatures. The modeled snowfall triple-frequency radar signatures cover a wide range of triple-frequency signatures that were previously determined from radar reflectivity measurements and illustrate characteristic differences related to snow type, quantified through snowflake SAV, and snowflake size. The results show high sensitivity to snowflake SAV and SSD maximum size but are generally less affected by uncertainties in the parameterization of snowflake mass, indicating the importance of snowflake SAV for the interpretation of snowfall triple-frequency radar signatures.

  15. Nodule bottom backscattering study using multibeam echosounder

    Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

    Chakraborty, B.; Raju, Y.S.N.; Nair, R.R.

    A study is carried out to observe the angular dependence of backscattering strength at nodule area where grab sample and photographic data is available. Theoretical study along with the experimentally observed data shows that the backscattering...

  16. PolSAR Land Cover Classification Based on Roll-Invariant and Selected Hidden Polarimetric Features in the Rotation Domain

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chensong Tao

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available Land cover classification is an important application for polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR. Target polarimetric response is strongly dependent on its orientation. Backscattering responses of the same target with different orientations to the SAR flight path may be quite different. This target orientation diversity effect hinders PolSAR image understanding and interpretation. Roll-invariant polarimetric features such as entropy, anisotropy, mean alpha angle, and total scattering power are independent of the target orientation and are commonly adopted for PolSAR image classification. On the other aspect, target orientation diversity also contains rich information which may not be sensed by roll-invariant polarimetric features. In this vein, only using the roll-invariant polarimetric features may limit the final classification accuracy. To address this problem, this work uses the recently reported uniform polarimetric matrix rotation theory and a visualization and characterization tool of polarimetric coherence pattern to investigate hidden polarimetric features in the rotation domain along the radar line of sight. Then, a feature selection scheme is established and a set of hidden polarimetric features are selected in the rotation domain. Finally, a classification method is developed using the complementary information between roll-invariant and selected hidden polarimetric features with a support vector machine (SVM/decision tree (DT classifier. Comparison experiments are carried out with NASA/JPL AIRSAR and multi-temporal UAVSAR data. For AIRSAR data, the overall classification accuracy of the proposed classification method is 95.37% (with SVM/96.38% (with DT, while that of the conventional classification method is 93.87% (with SVM/94.12% (with DT, respectively. Meanwhile, for multi-temporal UAVSAR data, the mean overall classification accuracy of the proposed method is up to 97.47% (with SVM/99.39% (with DT, which is also higher

  17. An Ultrasonic Backscatter Instrument for Cancellous Bone Evaluation in Neonates

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chengcheng Liu

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Ultrasonic backscatter technique has shown promise as a noninvasive cancellous bone assessment tool. A novel ultrasonic backscatter bone diagnostic (UBBD instrument and an in vivo application for neonatal bone evaluation are introduced in this study. The UBBD provides several advantages, including noninvasiveness, non-ionizing radiation, portability, and simplicity. In this study, the backscatter signal could be measured within 5 s using the UBBD. Ultrasonic backscatter measurements were performed on 467 neonates (268 males and 199 females at the left calcaneus. The backscatter signal was measured at a central frequency of 3.5 MHz. The delay (T1 and duration (T2 of the backscatter signal of interest (SOI were varied, and the apparent integrated backscatter (AIB, frequency slope of apparent backscatter (FSAB, zero frequency intercept of apparent backscatter (FIAB, and spectral centroid shift (SCS were calculated. The results showed that the SOI selection had a direct influence on cancellous bone evaluation. The AIB and FIAB were positively correlated with the gestational age (|R| up to 0.45, P10 µs. Moderate positive correlations (|R| up to 0.45, P10 µs. The T2 mainly introduced fluctuations in the observed correlation coefficients. The moderate correlations observed with UBBD demonstrate the feasibility of using the backscatter signal to evaluate neonatal bone status. This study also proposes an explicit standard for in vivo SOI selection and neonatal cancellous bone assessment.

  18. Characterizing and estimating noise in InSAR and InSAR time series with MODIS

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barnhart, William D.; Lohman, Rowena B.

    2013-01-01

    InSAR time series analysis is increasingly used to image subcentimeter displacement rates of the ground surface. The precision of InSAR observations is often affected by several noise sources, including spatially correlated noise from the turbulent atmosphere. Under ideal scenarios, InSAR time series techniques can substantially mitigate these effects; however, in practice the temporal distribution of InSAR acquisitions over much of the world exhibit seasonal biases, long temporal gaps, and insufficient acquisitions to confidently obtain the precisions desired for tectonic research. Here, we introduce a technique for constraining the magnitude of errors expected from atmospheric phase delays on the ground displacement rates inferred from an InSAR time series using independent observations of precipitable water vapor from MODIS. We implement a Monte Carlo error estimation technique based on multiple (100+) MODIS-based time series that sample date ranges close to the acquisitions times of the available SAR imagery. This stochastic approach allows evaluation of the significance of signals present in the final time series product, in particular their correlation with topography and seasonality. We find that topographically correlated noise in individual interferograms is not spatially stationary, even over short-spatial scales (<10 km). Overall, MODIS-inferred displacements and velocities exhibit errors of similar magnitude to the variability within an InSAR time series. We examine the MODIS-based confidence bounds in regions with a range of inferred displacement rates, and find we are capable of resolving velocities as low as 1.5 mm/yr with uncertainties increasing to ∼6 mm/yr in regions with higher topographic relief.

  19. 3D Backscatter Imaging System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Whitaker, Ross (Inventor); Turner, D. Clark (Inventor)

    2016-01-01

    Systems and methods for imaging an object using backscattered radiation are described. The imaging system comprises both a radiation source for irradiating an object that is rotationally movable about the object, and a detector for detecting backscattered radiation from the object that can be disposed on substantially the same side of the object as the source and which can be rotationally movable about the object. The detector can be separated into multiple detector segments with each segment having a single line of sight projection through the object and so detects radiation along that line of sight. Thus, each detector segment can isolate the desired component of the backscattered radiation. By moving independently of each other about the object, the source and detector can collect multiple images of the object at different angles of rotation and generate a three dimensional reconstruction of the object. Other embodiments are described.

  20. Assessing ScanSAR Interferometry for Deformation Studies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buckley, S. M.; Gudipati, K.

    2007-12-01

    There is a trend in civil satellite SAR mission design to implement an imaging strategy that incorporates both stripmap mode and ScanSAR imaging. This represents a compromise between high resolution data collection and a desire for greater spatial coverage and more frequent revisit times. However, mixed mode imaging can greatly reduce the number of stripmap images available for measuring subtle ground deformation. Although ScanSAR-ScanSAR and ScanSAR-stripmap repeat-pass interferometry have been demonstrated, these approaches are infrequently used for single interferogram formation and nonexistent for InSAR time series analysis. For future mission design, e.g., a dedicated US InSAR mission, the effect of various ScanSAR system parameter choices on InSAR time series analysis also remains unexplored. Our objective is to determine the utility of ScanSAR differential interferometry. We will demonstrate the use of ScanSAR interferograms for several previous deformation studies: localized and broad-scale urban land subsidence, tunneling, volcanic surface movements and several examples associated with the seismic cycle. We also investigate the effect of various ScanSAR burst synchronization levels on our ability to detect and make quality measurements of deformation. To avoid the issues associated with Envisat ScanSAR burst alignment and to exploit a decade of InSAR measurements, we simulate ScanSAR data by bursting (throwing away range lines of) ERS-1/2 data. All the burst mode datasets are processed using a Modified SPECAN algorithm. To investigate the effects of burst misalignment, a number of cases with varying degrees of burst overlap are considered. In particular, we look at phase decorrelation as a function of percentage of burst overlap. Coherence clearly reduces as the percentage of overlap decreases and we find a useful threshold of 40-70% burst overlap depending on the study site. In order to get a more generalized understanding for different surface conditions

  1. Automated inundation monitoring using TerraSAR-X multitemporal imagery

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gebhardt, S.; Huth, J.; Wehrmann, T.; Schettler, I.; Künzer, C.; Schmidt, M.; Dech, S.

    2009-04-01

    The Mekong Delta in Vietnam offers natural resources for several million inhabitants. However, a strong population increase, changing climatic conditions and regulatory measures at the upper reaches of the Mekong lead to severe changes in the Delta. Extreme flood events occur more frequently, drinking water availability is increasingly limited, soils show signs of salinization or acidification, species and complete habitats diminish. During the Monsoon season the river regularly overflows its banks in the lower Mekong area, usually with beneficial effects. However, extreme flood events occur more frequently causing extensive damage, on the average once every 6 to 10 years river flood levels exceed the critical beneficial level X-band SAR data are well suited for deriving inundated surface areas. The TerraSAR-X sensor with its different scanning modi allows for the derivation of spatial and temporal high resolved inundation masks. The paper presents an automated procedure for deriving inundated areas from TerraSAR-X Scansar and Stripmap image data. Within the framework of the German-Vietnamese WISDOM project, focussing the Mekong Delta region in Vietnam, images have been acquired covering the flood season from June 2008 to November 2008. Based on these images a time series of the so called watermask showing inundated areas have been derived. The product is required as intermediate to (i) calibrate 2d inundation model scenarios, (ii) estimate the extent of affected areas, and (iii) analyze the scope of prior crisis. The image processing approach is based on the assumption that water surfaces are forward scattering the radar signal resulting in low backscatter signals to the sensor. It uses multiple grey level thresholds and image morphological operations. The approach is robust in terms of automation, accuracy, robustness, and processing time. The resulting watermasks show the seasonal flooding pattern with inundations starting in July, having their peak at the end

  2. Interlinking backscatter, grain size and benthic community structure

    Science.gov (United States)

    McGonigle, Chris; Collier, Jenny S.

    2014-06-01

    The relationship between acoustic backscatter, sediment grain size and benthic community structure is examined using three different quantitative methods, covering image- and angular response-based approaches. Multibeam time-series backscatter (300 kHz) data acquired in 2008 off the coast of East Anglia (UK) are compared with grain size properties, macrofaunal abundance and biomass from 130 Hamon and 16 Clamshell grab samples. Three predictive methods are used: 1) image-based (mean backscatter intensity); 2) angular response-based (predicted mean grain size), and 3) image-based (1st principal component and classification) from Quester Tangent Corporation Multiview software. Relationships between grain size and backscatter are explored using linear regression. Differences in grain size and benthic community structure between acoustically defined groups are examined using ANOVA and PERMANOVA+. Results for the Hamon grab stations indicate significant correlations between measured mean grain size and mean backscatter intensity, angular response predicted mean grain size, and 1st principal component of QTC analysis (all p PERMANOVA for the Hamon abundance shows benthic community structure was significantly different between acoustic groups for all methods (p ≤ 0.001). Overall these results show considerable promise in that more than 60% of the variance in the mean grain size of the Clamshell grab samples can be explained by mean backscatter or acoustically-predicted grain size. These results show that there is significant predictive capacity for sediment characteristics from multibeam backscatter and that these acoustic classifications can have ecological validity.

  3. Mapping the Extent and Magnitude of Severe Flooding Induced by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria with Sentinel-1 SAR and InSAR Observations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, B.; Koirala, R.; Oliver-Cabrera, T.; Wdowinski, S.; Osmanoglu, B.

    2017-12-01

    Hurricanes can cause winds, rainfall and storm surge, all of which could result in flooding. Between August and September 2017, Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria made landfall over Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico causing destruction and damages. Flood mapping is important for water management and to estimate risks and property damage. Though water gauges are able to monitor water levels, they are normally distributed sparsely. To map flooding products of these extreme events, we use Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) observations acquired by the European satellite constellation Sentinel-1. We obtained two acquisitions from before each flooding event, a single acquisition during the hurricane, and two after each event, a total of five acquisitions. We use both amplitude and phase observations to map extent and magnitude of flooding respectively. To map flooding extents, we use amplitude images from before, after and if possible during the hurricane pass. A calibration is used to convert the image raw data to backscatter coefficient, termed sigma nought. We generate a composite of the two image layers using red and green bands to show the change of sigma nought between acquisitions, which directly reflects the extent of flooding. Because inundation can result with either an increase or decrease of sigma nought values depending on the surface scattering characteristics, we map flooded areas in location where sigma nought changes were above a detection threshold. To study magnitude of flooding we study Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) phase changes. Changes in the water level can be detected by the radar when the signal is reflected away from water surface and bounces again by another object (e.g. trees and/or buildings) known as double bounce phase. To generate meaningful interferograms, we compare phase information with the nearest water gauge records to verify our results. Preliminary results show that the three hurricanes caused flooding condition over

  4. X-ray backscatter imaging with a spiral scanner

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bossi, R.H.; Cline, J.L.; Friddell, K.D.

    1989-01-01

    X-ray backscatter imaging allows radiographic inspections to be performed with access to only one side of the object. A collimated beam of radiation striking an object will scatter x-rays by Compton scatter and x-ray fluorescence. A detector located on the source side of the part will measure the backscatter signal. By plotting signal strength as gray scale intensity vs. beam position on the object, an image of the object can be constructed. A novel approach to the motion of the collimated incident beam is a spiral scanner. The spiral scanner approach, described in this paper, can image an area of an object without the synchronized motion of the object or detector, required by other backscatter imaging techniques. X-ray backscatter is particularly useful for flaw detection in light element materials such as composites. The ease of operation and the ability to operate non-contact from one side of an object make x-ray backscatter imaging of increasing interest to industrial inspection problems

  5. On line ultrasonic integrated backscatter

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Landini, L.; Picano, E.; Mazzarisi, A.; Santarelli, F.; Benassi, A.; De Pieri, G.

    1988-01-01

    A new equipment for on-line evaluation of index based on two-dimensional integrated backscatter from ultrasonic images is described. The new equipment is fully integrated into a B-mode ultrasonic apparatus which provides a simultaneous display of conventional information together with parameters of tissue characterization. The system has been tested with a backscattering model of microbubbles in polysaccharide solution, characterized by a physiological exponential time decay. An exponential fitting to the experimental data was performed which yielded r=0.95

  6. Improved techniques to utilize remotely sensed data from multi-frequency imaging radar polarimeter; Tashuha tahenha SAR data no riyoho no kenkyu

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Okada, K [Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. Ltd., Osaka (Japan); Maruyama, Y [Earth Remote Sensing Data Analysis Center, Tokyo (Japan); Tapley, I

    1997-05-27

    It was intended to serve for establishing specifications for a next generation SAR such as PALSAR through studying methods for evaluating and utilizing the multi-frequency, multi-polarized wave SAR data. Placing an emphasis on utilization of the NASA`s AIRSAR, identification was made on backscatter amount recorded on the SAR data, terrestrial constitutional substances, patterns of the ground surface, micro-topography and such terrestrial conditions as vegetation and land utilization. Their mutual relationships were also analyzed. A noise reduction method usable on multi-band data can be applied to the AIRSAR data, and can reduce noise effectively. Images with more volume of information can be acquired from multi-band images with the same polarization wave than from multi-polarization wave images with the same band. As a result of estimating terrestrial permitivity by using the method invented by Dubois and van Zyl, most of the subject area is judged to have terrestrial substances dried at the time of having acquired the images. A colluvium rich with exposed rock regions and gravels was identified as an area having higher permitivity than the former area. Images of terrestrial roughness were divided largely into smooth flat lands, sand and gravel distributed regions, exposed rock regions, and plant distributed regions along river basins. 3 refs., 2 figs., 1 tab.

  7. FUSION OF OPTICAL DATA AND SAR DATA FOR THE ESTIMATION OF NITROGEN CONCENTRATION IN PEARL RIVER ESTUARY HONG KONG SEAS, CHINA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    X. Liu

    2012-08-01

    Full Text Available The knowledge of nitrogen concentration in the ocean is fundamental for the study of oceanic biogeochemical processes. The objective of this research is to estimate total inorganic nitrogen (TIN by integrating optical parameters from HJ-1 CCD image and polarization parameters from RADARSAT-2 quad-polarization image. The situ data and HJ-1 CCD, RADARSAT-2 image were acquired from Pearl River Estuary Hong Kong Seas, China in August, 2010. The four sensitive parameters, reflectance of Band 4, NDSI (Normalized Difference Spectral Index, the backscattering coefficient of HV and VH were derived as input variables to assess the TIN. A multiple regression model was established between four input variables and TIN. The result showed that the fusion of optical data and SAR data was proved to be successful in estimating TIN in sea surface, with the correlation coefficient (R2 between measured TIN and predicated TIN of 0.774, and the root mean square error (RMSE of 0.063. The optical data in combination with SAR data is promising for detecting biochemical component in sea surface.

  8. Backscattering at a pulsed neutron source, the MUSICAL instrument

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alefeld, B.

    1995-01-01

    In the first part the principles of the neutron backscattering method are described and some simple considerations about the energy resolution and the intensity are presented. A prototype of a backscattering instrument, the first Juelich instrument, is explained in some detail and a representative measurement is shown which was performed on the backscattering instrument IN10 at the ILL in Grenoble. In the second part a backscattering instrument designed for a pulsed neutron source is proposed. It is shown that a rather simple modification, which consists in the replacement of the Doppler drive of the conventional backscattering instrument by a multi silicon monochromator crystal (MUSICAL) leads to a very effective instrument, benefitting from the peak flux of the pulsed source. ((orig.))

  9. Super-virtual Interferometric Separation and Enhancement of Back-scattered Surface Waves

    KAUST Repository

    Guo, Bowen

    2015-08-19

    Back-scattered surface waves can be migrated to detect near-surface reflectors with steep dips. A robust surface-wave migration requires the prior separation of the back-scattered surface-wave events from the data. This separation is often difficult to implement because the back-scattered surface waves are masked by the incident surface waves. We mitigate this problem by using a super-virtual interferometric method to enhance and separate the back-scattered surface waves. The key idea is to calculate the virtual back-scattered surface waves by stacking the resulting virtual correlated and convolved traces associated with the incident and back-scattered waves. Stacking the virtual back-scattered surface waves improves their signal-to-noise ratio and separates the back-scattered surface-waves from the incident field. Both synthetic and field data results validate the robustness of this method.

  10. SARS-related perceptions in Hong Kong.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lau, Joseph T F; Yang, Xilin; Pang, Ellie; Tsui, H Y; Wong, Eric; Wing, Yun Kwok

    2005-03-01

    To understand different aspects of community responses related to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), 2 population-based, random telephone surveys were conducted in June 2003 and January 2004 in Hong Kong. More than 70% of respondents would avoid visiting hospitals or mainland China to avoid contracting SARS. Most respondents believed that SARS could be transmitted through droplets, fomites, sewage, and animals. More than 90% believed that public health measures were efficacious means of prevention; 40.4% believed that SARS would resurge in Hong Kong; and approximately equals 70% would then wear masks in public places. High percentages of respondents felt helpless, horrified, and apprehensive because of SARS. Approximately 16% showed signs of posttraumatic symptoms, and approximately equals 40% perceived increased stress in family or work settings. The general public in Hong Kong has been very vigilant about SARS but needs to be more psychologically prepared to face a resurgence of the epidemic.

  11. SAR: Stroke Authorship Recognition

    KAUST Repository

    Shaheen, Sara; Rockwood, Alyn; Ghanem, Bernard

    2015-01-01

    Are simple strokes unique to the artist or designer who renders them? If so, can this idea be used to identify authorship or to classify artistic drawings? Also, could training methods be devised to develop particular styles? To answer these questions, we propose the Stroke Authorship Recognition (SAR) approach, a novel method that distinguishes the authorship of 2D digitized drawings. SAR converts a drawing into a histogram of stroke attributes that is discriminative of authorship. We provide extensive classification experiments on a large variety of data sets, which validate SAR's ability to distinguish unique authorship of artists and designers. We also demonstrate the usefulness of SAR in several applications including the detection of fraudulent sketches, the training and monitoring of artists in learning a particular new style and the first quantitative way to measure the quality of automatic sketch synthesis tools. © 2015 The Eurographics Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  12. Precision Rectification of Airborne SAR Image

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dall, Jørgen; Liao, M.; Zhang, Zhe

    1997-01-01

    A simple and direct procedure for the rectification of a certain class of airborne SAR data is presented. The relief displacements of SAR data are effectively removed by means of a digital elevation model and the image is transformed to the ground coordinate system. SAR data from the Danish EMISAR...

  13. SARS: systematic review of treatment effects.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lauren J Stockman

    2006-09-01

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: The SARS outbreak of 2002-2003 presented clinicians with a new, life-threatening disease for which they had no experience in treating and no research on the effectiveness of treatment options. The World Health Organization (WHO expert panel on SARS treatment requested a systematic review and comprehensive summary of treatments used for SARS-infected patients in order to guide future treatment and identify priorities for research. METHODS AND FINDINGS: In response to the WHO request we conducted a systematic review of the published literature on ribavirin, corticosteroids, lopinavir and ritonavir (LPV/r, type I interferon (IFN, intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG, and SARS convalescent plasma from both in vitro studies and in SARS patients. We also searched for clinical trial evidence of treatment for acute respiratory distress syndrome. Sources of data were the literature databases MEDLINE, EMBASE, BIOSIS, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL up to February 2005. Data from publications were extracted and evidence within studies was classified using predefined criteria. In total, 54 SARS treatment studies, 15 in vitro studies, and three acute respiratory distress syndrome studies met our inclusion criteria. Within in vitro studies, ribavirin, lopinavir, and type I IFN showed inhibition of SARS-CoV in tissue culture. In SARS-infected patient reports on ribavirin, 26 studies were classified as inconclusive, and four showed possible harm. Seven studies of convalescent plasma or IVIG, three of IFN type I, and two of LPV/r were inconclusive. In 29 studies of steroid use, 25 were inconclusive and four were classified as causing possible harm. CONCLUSIONS: Despite an extensive literature reporting on SARS treatments, it was not possible to determine whether treatments benefited patients during the SARS outbreak. Some may have been harmful. Clinical trials should be designed to validate a standard protocol for dosage

  14. CLASSIFICATION OF CROPLANDS THROUGH FUSION OF OPTICAL AND SAR TIME SERIES DATA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. Park

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Many satellite sensors including Landsat series have been extensively used for land cover classification. Studies have been conducted to mitigate classification problems associated with the use of single data (e.g., such as cloud contamination through multi-sensor data fusion and the use of time series data. This study investigated two areas with different environment and climate conditions: one in South Korea and the other in US. Cropland classification was conducted by using multi-temporal Landsat 5, Radarsat-1 and digital elevation models (DEM based on two machine learning approaches (i.e., random forest and support vector machines. Seven classification scenarios were examined and evaluated through accuracy assessment. Results show that SVM produced the best performance (overall accuracy of 93.87% when using all temporal and spectral data as input variables. Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI, SAR backscattering, and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI were identified as more contributing variables than the others for cropland classification.

  15. SARS knowledge, perceptions, and behaviors: a comparison between Finns and the Dutch during the SARS outbreak in 2003

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Vartti, A.M.; Oenema, A.; Schreck, M.; Uutela, A.; Zwart, de O.; Brug, J.; Aro, A.R.

    2009-01-01

    BACKGROUND: The SARS outbreak served to test both local and international outbreak management and risk communication practices. PURPOSE: The study compares SARS knowledge, perceptions, behaviors, and information between Finns and the Dutch during the SARS outbreak in 2003. METHOD: The participants

  16. MULTI-TEMPORAL SAR INTERFEROMETRY FOR LANDSLIDE MONITORING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    R. Dwivedi

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available In the past few years, SAR Interferometry specially InSAR and D-InSAR were extensively used for deformation monitoring related applications. Due to temporal and spatial decorrelation in dense vegetated areas, effectiveness of InSAR and D-InSAR observations were always under scrutiny. Multi-temporal InSAR methods are developed in recent times to retrieve the deformation signal from pixels with different scattering characteristics. Presently, two classes of multi-temporal InSAR algorithms are available- Persistent Scatterer (PS and Small Baseline (SB methods. This paper discusses the Stanford Method for Persistent Scatterer (StaMPS based PS-InSAR and the Small Baselines Subset (SBAS techniques to estimate the surface deformation in Tehri dam reservoir region in Uttarkhand, India. Both PS-InSAR and SBAS approaches used sixteen ENVISAT ASAR C-Band images for generating single master and multiple master interferograms stack respectively and their StaMPS processing resulted in time series 1D-Line of Sight (LOS mean velocity maps which are indicative of deformation in terms of movement towards and away from the satellites. From 1D LOS velocity maps, localization of landslide is evident along the reservoir rim area which was also investigated in the previous studies. Both PS-InSAR and SBAS effectively extract measurement pixels in the study region, and the general results provided by both approaches show a similar deformation pattern along the Tehri reservoir region. Further, we conclude that StaMPS based PS-InSAR method performs better in terms of extracting more number of measurement pixels and in the estimation of mean Line of Sight (LOS velocity as compared to SBAS method. It is also proposed to take up a few major landslides area in Uttarakhand for slope stability assessment.

  17. SARS: Key factors in crisis management.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tseng, Hsin-Chao; Chen, Thai-Form; Chou, Shieu-Ming

    2005-03-01

    This study was conducted at a single hospital selected in Taipei during the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak from March to July, 2003 in Taiwan. During this period of time, 104 SARS patients were admitted to the hospital. There were no negative reports related to the selected hospital despite its being located right in the center of an area struck by the epidemic. The purpose of this study was to identify the key factors enabling the hospital to survive SARS unscathed. Data were collected from in-depth interviews with the nursing directors and nursing managers of the SARS units, along with a review of relevant hospital documents. The five key elements identified as survival factors during this SARS crisis are as follows: 1. good control of timing for crisis management, 2. careful decision-making, 3. thorough implementation, 4. effective communication, and 5. trust between management and employees. The results of this study reconfirmed the selected hospital as a model for good crisis management during the SARS epidemic.

  18. Using snowflake surface-area-to-volume ratio to model and interpret snowfall triple-frequency radar signatures

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Gergely

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available The snowflake microstructure determines the microwave scattering properties of individual snowflakes and has a strong impact on snowfall radar signatures. In this study, individual snowflakes are represented by collections of randomly distributed ice spheres where the size and number of the constituent ice spheres are specified by the snowflake mass and surface-area-to-volume ratio (SAV and the bounding volume of each ice sphere collection is given by the snowflake maximum dimension. Radar backscatter cross sections for the ice sphere collections are calculated at X-, Ku-, Ka-, and W-band frequencies and then used to model triple-frequency radar signatures for exponential snowflake size distributions (SSDs. Additionally, snowflake complexity values obtained from high-resolution multi-view snowflake images are used as an indicator of snowflake SAV to derive snowfall triple-frequency radar signatures. The modeled snowfall triple-frequency radar signatures cover a wide range of triple-frequency signatures that were previously determined from radar reflectivity measurements and illustrate characteristic differences related to snow type, quantified through snowflake SAV, and snowflake size. The results show high sensitivity to snowflake SAV and SSD maximum size but are generally less affected by uncertainties in the parameterization of snowflake mass, indicating the importance of snowflake SAV for the interpretation of snowfall triple-frequency radar signatures.

  19. UAVSAR and TerraSAR-X Based InSAR Detection of Localized Subsidence in the New Orleans Area

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blom, R. G.; An, K.; Jones, C. E.; Latini, D.

    2014-12-01

    Vulnerability of the US Gulf coast to inundation has received increased attention since hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Compounding effects of sea level rise, wetland loss, and regional and local subsidence makes flood protection a difficult challenge, and particularly for the New Orleans area. Key to flood protection is precise knowledge of elevations and elevation changes. Analysis of historical and continuing geodetic measurements show surprising complexity, including locations subsiding more rapidly than considered during planning of hurricane protection and coastal restoration projects. Combining traditional, precise geodetic data with interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) observations can provide geographically dense constraints on surface deformation. The Gulf Coast environment is challenging for InSAR techniques, especially with systems not designed for interferometry. We use two InSAR capable systems, the L- band (24 cm wavelength) airborne JPL/NASA UAVSAR, and the DLR/EADS Astrium spaceborne TerraSAR X-band (3 cm wavelength), and compare results. First, we are applying pair-wise InSAR to the longer wavelength UAVSAR data to detect localized elevation changes potentially impacting flood protection infrastructure from 2009 - 2014. We focus on areas on and near flood protection infrastructure to identify changes indicative of subsidence, structural deformation, and/or seepage. The Spaceborne TerraSAR X-band SAR system has relatively frequent observations, and dense persistent scatterers in urban areas, enabling measurement of very small displacements. We compare L-band UAVSAR results with permanent scatterer (PS-InSAR) and Short Baseline Subsets (SBAS) interferometric analyses of a stack composed by 28 TerraSAR X-band images acquired over the same period. Thus we can evaluate results from the different radar frequencies and analyses techniques. Preliminary results indicate subsidence features potentially of a variety of causes, including ground water

  20. Irrigated Grassland Monitoring Using a Time Series of TerraSAR-X and COSMO-SkyMed X-Band SAR Data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohammad El Hajj

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available The objective of this study was to analyze the sensitivity of radar signals in the X-band in irrigated grassland conditions. The backscattered radar signals were analyzed according to soil moisture and vegetation parameters using linear regression models. A time series of radar (TerraSAR-X and COSMO-SkyMed and optical (SPOT and LANDSAT images was acquired at a high temporal frequency in 2013 over a small agricultural region in southeastern France. Ground measurements were conducted simultaneously with the satellite data acquisitions during several grassland growing cycles to monitor the evolution of the soil and vegetation characteristics. The comparison between the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI computed from optical images and the in situ Leaf Area Index (LAI showed a logarithmic relationship with a greater scattering for the dates corresponding to vegetation well developed before the harvest. The correlation between the NDVI and the vegetation parameters (LAI, vegetation height, biomass, and vegetation water content was high at the beginning of the growth cycle. This correlation became insensitive at a certain threshold corresponding to high vegetation (LAI ~2.5 m2/m2. Results showed that the radar signal depends on variations in soil moisture, with a higher sensitivity to soil moisture for biomass lower than 1 kg/m². HH and HV polarizations had approximately similar sensitivities to soil moisture. The penetration depth of the radar wave in the X-band was high, even for dense and high vegetation; flooded areas were visible in the images with higher detection potential in HH polarization than in HV polarization, even for vegetation heights reaching 1 m. Lower sensitivity was observed at the X-band between the radar signal and the vegetation parameters with very limited potential of the X-band to monitor grassland growth. These results showed that it is possible to track gravity irrigation and soil moisture variations from SAR

  1. SAR Raw Data Generation for Complex Airport Scenes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jia Li

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available The method of generating the SAR raw data of complex airport scenes is studied in this paper. A formulation of the SAR raw signal model of airport scenes is given. Via generating the echoes from the background, aircrafts and buildings, respectively, the SAR raw data of the unified SAR imaging geometry is obtained from their vector additions. The multipath scattering and the shadowing between the background and different ground covers of standing airplanes and buildings are analyzed. Based on the scattering characteristics, coupling scattering models and SAR raw data models of different targets are given, respectively. A procedure is given to generate the SAR raw data of airport scenes. The SAR images from the simulated raw data demonstrate the validity of the proposed method.

  2. A comparison of visual observations of surface oil with Synthetic Aperture Radar imagery of the Sea Empress oil spill

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jones, B.

    2001-06-15

    A comparison has been made between the visual observations of surface oil and four satellite-borne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images taken during the Sea Empress oil spill in February 1996. Whilst the basic oil slick imaging capabilities of SAR are well documented, to be of use at the time of a major oil spill, the imagery must be able to provide information on the thickness of oil. This analysis suggests that, under certain environmental conditions, this is possible. The optimum wind speed for the identification of heavy surface oil is around 5-6 m s{sup -1}. At this wind speed, light and medium sheen is not evident in the imagery and there is a distinction between the backscatter reductions due to heavy sheen and thick brown/black oil. At higher wind speeds, even thick oil slicks readily mix into the water column and their SAR signature weakens. In light winds, pattern recognition is very important to the identification of oil sticks. The images are more sensitive to the presence of sheen within the sheltered waters of Milford Haven than in the open coastal waters, indicating a possible relationship between sheen visibility in satellite-borne SAR and sea state. (author)

  3. Deep learning for SAR image formation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mason, Eric; Yonel, Bariscan; Yazici, Birsen

    2017-04-01

    The recent success of deep learning has lead to growing interest in applying these methods to signal processing problems. This paper explores the applications of deep learning to synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image formation. We review deep learning from a perspective relevant to SAR image formation. Our objective is to address SAR image formation in the presence of uncertainties in the SAR forward model. We present a recurrent auto-encoder network architecture based on the iterative shrinkage thresholding algorithm (ISTA) that incorporates SAR modeling. We then present an off-line training method using stochastic gradient descent and discuss the challenges and key steps of learning. Lastly, we show experimentally that our method can be used to form focused images in the presence of phase uncertainties. We demonstrate that the resulting algorithm has faster convergence and decreased reconstruction error than that of ISTA.

  4. Low-SAR metamaterial-inspired printed monopole antenna

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hossain, M. I.; Faruque, M. R. I.; Islam, M. T.; Ali, M. T.

    2017-01-01

    In this paper, a low-SAR metamaterial-embedded planar monopole antenna is introduced for a wireless communication system. A printed monopole antenna is designed for modern mobile, which operates in GSM, UMTS, LTE, WLAN, and Bluetooth frequency bands. A metamaterial structure is designed to use in the mobile handset with a multi-band printed monopole antenna. The finite integration technique of the CST microwave studio is used in this study. The measurement of antenna performances is taken in an anechoic chamber, and the SAR values are measured using COMOSAR system. The results indicate that metamaterial structure leads to reduce SAR without affecting antenna performance significantly. According to the measured results, the metamaterial attachment leads to reduce 87.7% peak SAR, 68.2% 1-g SAR, and 46.78% 10-g SAR compared to antenna without metamaterial.

  5. Evidence of a tropospheric aerosol backscatter background mode

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rothermel, Jeffry; Bowdle, David A.; Vaughan, J. Michael; Post, Madison J.

    1989-01-01

    Vertical profiles of atmospheric aerosol backscatter coefficients at 10.6 microns obtained with airborne and ground-based lidar are compared. Both sets of profiles show a high frequency of occurrence of low backscatter over a limited range of values in the middle and upper troposphere. It is suggested that this narrow range indicates a ubiquitous background mode for atmospheric backscatter around the globe. Implications of such a mode for global scale aerosol models and for the design of satellite-borne lidar-based sensors are discussed.

  6. Preliminary backscatter results from the hydrosweep multibeam system

    Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

    Hagen, R.A.; Chakraborty, B.; Schenke, H.W.

    of Oceanography to convert the measured electrical energy into acoustic backscatter energy. This conversion includes corrections for the position, slope, and area of the scattering surface. In this paper we present backscatter data from several areas surveyed...

  7. A NEW SAR CLASSIFICATION SCHEME FOR SEDIMENTS ON INTERTIDAL FLATS BASED ON MULTI-FREQUENCY POLARIMETRIC SAR IMAGERY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    W. Wang

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available We present a new classification scheme for muddy and sandy sediments on exposed intertidal flats, which is based on synthetic aperture radar (SAR data, and use ALOS-2 (L-band, Radarsat-2 (C-band and TerraSAR-X (X-band fully polarimetric SAR imagery to demonstrate its effectiveness. Four test sites on the German North Sea coast were chosen, which represent typical surface compositions of different sediments, vegetation, and habitats, and of which a large amount of SAR is used for our analyses. Both Freeman-Durden and Cloude-Pottier polarimetric decomposition are utilized, and an additional descriptor called Double-Bounce Eigenvalue Relative Difference (DERD is introduced into the feature sets instead of the original polarimetric intensity channels. The classification is conducted following Random Forest theory, and the results are verified using ground truth data from field campaigns and an existing classification based on optical imagery. In addition, the use of Kennaugh elements for classification purposes is demonstrated using both fully and dual-polarization multi-frequency and multi-temporal SAR data. Our results show that the proposed classification scheme can be applied for the discrimination of muddy and sandy sediments using L-, C-, and X-band SAR images, while SAR imagery acquired at short wavelengths (C- and X-band can also be used to detect more detailed features such as bivalve beds on intertidal flats.

  8. The SARS-unique domain (SUD of SARS coronavirus contains two macrodomains that bind G-quadruplexes.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jinzhi Tan

    2009-05-01

    Full Text Available Since the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS in 2003, the three-dimensional structures of several of the replicase/transcriptase components of SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV, the non-structural proteins (Nsps, have been determined. However, within the large Nsp3 (1922 amino-acid residues, the structure and function of the so-called SARS-unique domain (SUD have remained elusive. SUD occurs only in SARS-CoV and the highly related viruses found in certain bats, but is absent from all other coronaviruses. Therefore, it has been speculated that it may be involved in the extreme pathogenicity of SARS-CoV, compared to other coronaviruses, most of which cause only mild infections in humans. In order to help elucidate the function of the SUD, we have determined crystal structures of fragment 389-652 ("SUD(core" of Nsp3, which comprises 264 of the 338 residues of the domain. Both the monoclinic and triclinic crystal forms (2.2 and 2.8 A resolution, respectively revealed that SUD(core forms a homodimer. Each monomer consists of two subdomains, SUD-N and SUD-M, with a macrodomain fold similar to the SARS-CoV X-domain. However, in contrast to the latter, SUD fails to bind ADP-ribose, as determined by zone-interference gel electrophoresis. Instead, the entire SUD(core as well as its individual subdomains interact with oligonucleotides known to form G-quadruplexes. This includes oligodeoxy- as well as oligoribonucleotides. Mutations of selected lysine residues on the surface of the SUD-N subdomain lead to reduction of G-quadruplex binding, whereas mutations in the SUD-M subdomain abolish it. As there is no evidence for Nsp3 entering the nucleus of the host cell, the SARS-CoV genomic RNA or host-cell mRNA containing long G-stretches may be targets of SUD. The SARS-CoV genome is devoid of G-stretches longer than 5-6 nucleotides, but more extended G-stretches are found in the 3'-nontranslated regions of mRNAs coding for certain host-cell proteins

  9. SAR Image Classification Based on Its Texture Features

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    LI Pingxiang; FANG Shenghui

    2003-01-01

    SAR images not only have the characteristics of all-ay, all-eather, but also provide object information which is different from visible and infrared sensors. However, SAR images have some faults, such as more speckles and fewer bands. The authors conducted the experiments of texture statistics analysis on SAR image features in order to improve the accuracy of SAR image interpretation.It is found that the texture analysis is an effective method for improving the accuracy of the SAR image interpretation.

  10. Nd:YAG-laser-based time-domain reflectometry measurements of the intrinsic reflection signature from PMMA fiber splices

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lawson, Christopher M.; Michael, Robert R., Jr.; Dressel, Earl M.; Harmony, David W.

    1991-12-01

    Optical time domain reflectometry (OTDR) measurements have been performed on polished polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) plastic fiber splices. After the dominant splice reflection sources due to surface roughness, inexact index matching, and fiber core misalignment were eliminated, an intrinsic OTDR signature 3 - 8 dB above the Rayleigh backscatter floor remained with all tested fibers. This minimum splice reflectivity exhibits characteristics that are consistent with sub-surface polymer damage and can be used for detection of PMMA fiber splices.

  11. Transport equation theory of electron backscattering and x-ray production

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fathers, D.J.; Rez, P.

    1978-02-01

    A transport equation theory of electron backscattering and x ray production is derived and applied to energy dissipation of 30-KeV electrons for copper as a function of depth and to the energy distribution of backscattered electrons for copper, aluminum, and gold. These results are plotted and compared with experiment. Plots for variations of backscattering with atomic number and with angle of incidence, and polar plots of backscattering for 30-keV electrons at normal incidence are also presented. 10 references, seven figures

  12. Retrieving current and wind vectors from ATI SAR data: airborne evidence and inversion strategy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martin, Adrien; Gommenginger, Christine; Chapron, Bertrand; Marquez, José; Doody, Sam

    2017-04-01

    are not observed (HF radar, 4km resolution) or simulated (POLCOMS, 1.8km). The inversion strategy points to the need for accurate measurement of both the backscatter amplitude and the Doppler information (either as a Doppler centroid frequency anomaly for SAR DCA, or as an interferometric phase for ATI) as well as the need for dual polarization capability (VV+HH) for non-ambiguous inversion. Preliminary inversion results show that the retrieval accuracy for OSC velocity better than 10 cm/s can be achieved but that the OSC accuracy is strongly sensitive to the wind direction relative to the antennas orientation. This concept is a unique opportunity to improve our understanding of the air-sea interaction, the ocean submesoscale dynamic and its impact on the oceanic vertical transport. This concept is particularly well fitted for these ocean surface current and wind vectors observations in coastal and polar regions.

  13. The Ecosystems SAR (EcoSAR) an Airborne P-band Polarimetric InSAR for the Measurement of Vegetation Structure, Biomass and Permafrost

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rincon, Rafael F.; Fatoyinbo, Temilola; Ranson, K. Jon; Osmanoglu, Batuhan; Sun, Guoqing; Deshpande, Manohar D.; Perrine, Martin L.; Du Toit, Cornelis F.; Bonds, Quenton; Beck, Jaclyn; hide

    2014-01-01

    EcoSAR is a new synthetic aperture radar (SAR) instrument being developed at the NASA/ Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) for the polarimetric and interferometric measurements of ecosystem structure and biomass. The instrument uses a phased-array beamforming architecture and supports full polarimetric measurements and single pass interferometry. This Instrument development is part of NASA's Earth Science Technology Office Instrument Incubator Program (ESTO IIP).

  14. Strong Localization in Disordered Media: Analysis of the Backscattering Cone

    KAUST Repository

    Delgado, Edgar

    2012-06-01

    A very interesting effect in light propagation through a disordered system is Anderson localization of light, this phenomenon emerges as the result of multiple scattering of waves by electric inhomogeneities like spatial variations of index of refraction; as the amount of scattering is increased, light propagation is converted from quasi-diffusive to exponentially localized, with photons confined in a limited spatial region characterized by a fundamental quantity known as localization length. Light localization is strongly related to another interference phenomenon emerged from the multiple scattering effect: the coherent backscattering effect. In multiple scattering of waves, in fact, coherence is preserved in the backscattering direction and produces a reinforcement of the field flux originating an observable peak in the backscattered intensity, known as backscattering cone. The study of this peak provide quantitative information about the transport properties of light in the material. In this thesis we report a complete FDTD ab-initio study of light localization and coherent backscattering. In particular, we consider a supercontinuum pulse impinging on a sample composed of randomly positioned scatterers. We study coherent backscattering by averaging over several realizations of the sample properties. We study then the coherent backscattering cone properties as the relative permittivity of the sample is changed, relating the latter with the light localization inside the sample. We demonstrate important relationships between the width of the backscattering cone and the localization length, which shows a linear proportionality in the strong localization regime.

  15. FlexSAR, a high quality, flexible, cost effective, prototype SAR system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jensen, Mark; Knight, Chad; Haslem, Brent

    2016-05-01

    The FlexSAR radar system was designed to be a high quality, low-cost, flexible research prototype instrument. Radar researchers and practitioners often desire the ability to prototype new or advanced configurations, yet the ability to enhance or upgrade existing radar systems can be cost prohibitive. FlexSAR answers the need for a flexible radar system that can be extended easily, with minimal cost and time expenditures. The design approach focuses on reducing the resources required for developing and validating new advanced radar modalities. Such an approach fosters innovation and provides risk reduction since actual radar data can be collected in the appropriate mode, processed, and analyzed early in the development process. This allows for an accurate, detailed understanding of the corresponding trade space. This paper is a follow-on to last years paper and discusses the advancements that have been made to the FlexSAR system. The overall system architecture is discussed and presented along with several examples illustrating the system utility.

  16. Convolutional Neural Networks for SAR Image Segmentation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Malmgren-Hansen, David; Nobel-Jørgensen, Morten

    2015-01-01

    Segmentation of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images has several uses, but it is a difficult task due to a number of properties related to SAR images. In this article we show how Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) can easily be trained for SAR image segmentation with good results. Besides...

  17. PHARUS : PHased ARray Universal SAR

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Paquay, M.H.A.; Vermeulen, B.C.B.; Koomen, P.J.; Hoogeboom, P.; Snoeij, P.; Pouwels, H.

    1996-01-01

    In the Netherlands, a polarimetric C-band aircraft SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) has been developed. The project is called PHARUS, an acronm for PHased ARray Universal SAR. This instrument serves remote sensing applications. The antenna system contains 48 active modules (expandable to 96). A module

  18. Forest height estimation from mountain forest areas using general model-based decomposition for polarimetric interferometric synthetic aperture radar images

    Science.gov (United States)

    Minh, Nghia Pham; Zou, Bin; Cai, Hongjun; Wang, Chengyi

    2014-01-01

    The estimation of forest parameters over mountain forest areas using polarimetric interferometric synthetic aperture radar (PolInSAR) images is one of the greatest interests in remote sensing applications. For mountain forest areas, scattering mechanisms are strongly affected by the ground topography variations. Most of the previous studies in modeling microwave backscattering signatures of forest area have been carried out over relatively flat areas. Therefore, a new algorithm for the forest height estimation from mountain forest areas using the general model-based decomposition (GMBD) for PolInSAR image is proposed. This algorithm enables the retrieval of not only the forest parameters, but also the magnitude associated with each mechanism. In addition, general double- and single-bounce scattering models are proposed to fit for the cross-polarization and off-diagonal term by separating their independent orientation angle, which remains unachieved in the previous model-based decompositions. The efficiency of the proposed approach is demonstrated with simulated data from PolSARProSim software and ALOS-PALSAR spaceborne PolInSAR datasets over the Kalimantan areas, Indonesia. Experimental results indicate that forest height could be effectively estimated by GMBD.

  19. Spaceborne Polarimetric SAR Interferometry: Performance Analysis and Mission Concepts

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shane R. Cloude

    2005-12-01

    Full Text Available We investigate multichannel imaging radar systems employing coherent combinations of polarimetry and interferometry (Pol-InSAR. Such systems are well suited for the extraction of bio- and geophysical parameters by evaluating the combined scattering from surfaces and volumes. This combination leads to several important differences between the design of Pol-InSAR sensors and conventional single polarisation SAR interferometers. We first highlight these differences and then investigate the Pol-InSAR performance of two proposed spaceborne SAR systems (ALOS/PalSAR and TerraSAR-L operating in repeat-pass mode. For this, we introduce the novel concept of a phase tube which enables (1 a quantitative assessment of the Pol-InSAR performance, (2 a comparison between different sensor configurations, and (3 an optimization of the instrument settings for different Pol-InSAR applications. The phase tube may hence serve as an interface between system engineers and application-oriented scientists. The performance analysis reveals major limitations for even moderate levels of temporal decorrelation. Such deteriorations may be avoided in single-pass sensor configurations and we demonstrate the potential benefits from the use of future bi- and multistatic SAR interferometers.

  20. SARS-related Perceptions in Hong Kong

    OpenAIRE

    Lau, Joseph T.F.; Yang, Xilin; Pang, Ellie; Tsui, H.Y.; Wong, Eric; Wing, Yun Kwok

    2005-01-01

    To understand different aspects of community responses related to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), 2 population-based, random telephone surveys were conducted in June 2003 and January 2004 in Hong Kong. More than 70% of respondents would avoid visiting hospitals or mainland China to avoid contracting SARS. Most respondents believed that SARS could be transmitted through droplets, fomites, sewage, and animals. More than 90% believed that public health measures were efficacious means o...

  1. Verification of target motion effects on SAR imagery using the Gotcha GMTI challenge dataset

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hack, Dan E.; Saville, Michael A.

    2010-04-01

    This paper investigates the relationship between a ground moving target's kinematic state and its SAR image. While effects such as cross-range offset, defocus, and smearing appear well understood, their derivations in the literature typically employ simplifications of the radar/target geometry and assume point scattering targets. This study adopts a geometrical model for understanding target motion effects in SAR imagery, termed the target migration path, and focuses on experimental verification of predicted motion effects using both simulated and empirical datasets based on the Gotcha GMTI challenge dataset. Specifically, moving target imagery is generated from three data sources: first, simulated phase history for a moving point target; second, simulated phase history for a moving vehicle derived from a simulated Mazda MPV X-band signature; and third, empirical phase history from the Gotcha GMTI challenge dataset. Both simulated target trajectories match the truth GPS target position history from the Gotcha GMTI challenge dataset, allowing direct comparison between all three imagery sets and the predicted target migration path. This paper concludes with a discussion of the parallels between the target migration path and the measurement model within a Kalman filtering framework, followed by conclusions.

  2. Effect of the cortex on ultrasonic backscatter measurements of cancellous bone

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hoffmeister, Brent K; Holt, Andrew P; Kaste, Sue C

    2011-01-01

    Ultrasonic backscatter techniques offer a promising new approach for detecting changes in bone caused by osteoporosis. However, several challenges impede clinical implementation of backscatter techniques. This study examines how the dense outer surface of bone (the cortex) affects backscatter measurements of interior regions of porous (cancellous) bone tissue. Fifty-two specimens of bone were prepared from 13 human femoral heads so that the same region of cancellous bone could be ultrasonically interrogated through the cortex or along directions that avoided the cortex. Backscatter signals were analyzed over a frequency range of 0.8-3.0 MHz to determine two ultrasonic parameters: apparent integrated backscatter (AIB) and frequency slope of apparent backscatter (FSAB). The term 'apparent' means that the parameters are sensitive to the frequency-dependent effects of diffraction and attenuation. Significant (p < 0.001) changes in AIB and FSAB indicated that measurements through the cortex decreased the apparent backscattered power and increased the frequency dependence of the power. However, the cortex did not affect the correlation of AIB and FSAB with the x-ray bone mineral density of the specimens. This suggests that results from many previous in vitro backscatter studies of specimens of purely cancellous bone may be extrapolated with greater confidence to in vivo conditions.

  3. Effect of the cortex on ultrasonic backscatter measurements of cancellous bone

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hoffmeister, Brent K; Holt, Andrew P [Department of Physics, Rhodes College, Memphis, TN (United States); Kaste, Sue C, E-mail: hoffmeister@rhodes.edu [Department of Diagnostic Imaging, St Jude Children' s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN (United States)

    2011-10-07

    Ultrasonic backscatter techniques offer a promising new approach for detecting changes in bone caused by osteoporosis. However, several challenges impede clinical implementation of backscatter techniques. This study examines how the dense outer surface of bone (the cortex) affects backscatter measurements of interior regions of porous (cancellous) bone tissue. Fifty-two specimens of bone were prepared from 13 human femoral heads so that the same region of cancellous bone could be ultrasonically interrogated through the cortex or along directions that avoided the cortex. Backscatter signals were analyzed over a frequency range of 0.8-3.0 MHz to determine two ultrasonic parameters: apparent integrated backscatter (AIB) and frequency slope of apparent backscatter (FSAB). The term 'apparent' means that the parameters are sensitive to the frequency-dependent effects of diffraction and attenuation. Significant (p < 0.001) changes in AIB and FSAB indicated that measurements through the cortex decreased the apparent backscattered power and increased the frequency dependence of the power. However, the cortex did not affect the correlation of AIB and FSAB with the x-ray bone mineral density of the specimens. This suggests that results from many previous in vitro backscatter studies of specimens of purely cancellous bone may be extrapolated with greater confidence to in vivo conditions.

  4. Genome organization of the SARS-CoV

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Xu, Jing; Hu, Jianfei; Wang, Jing

    2003-01-01

    Annotation of the genome sequence of the SARS-CoV (severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus) is indispensable to understand its evolution and pathogenesis. We have performed a full annotation of the SARS-CoV genome sequences by using annotation programs publicly available or devel......Annotation of the genome sequence of the SARS-CoV (severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus) is indispensable to understand its evolution and pathogenesis. We have performed a full annotation of the SARS-CoV genome sequences by using annotation programs publicly available...

  5. How infectious is SARS virus

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    First page Back Continue Last page Overview Graphics. How infectious is SARS virus. Influenza: 1 patient infects ten people. SARS: 1 patient infects 2-4 people. Incubation period 10 days. Are there `silent´ cases ? Is quarantine enough ? How will it behave if and when it returns ?

  6. A Study on PolInSAR Coherence Based Regression Analysis of Forest Biomass (BARKOT Reserve Forest India), Using RADARSAT-2 Datasets

    Science.gov (United States)

    Singh, J.; Kumar, S.; Kushwaha, S. P. S.

    2015-04-01

    Forests cover 30% of the world's land surface, and are home to around 90% of the world's flora and fauna. They serve as one of the world's largest carbon sinks, absorbing 2.4 million tons of CO2 each year and storing billions more in form of biomass. Around 6 million hectares of forest is lost or changed each year and as much as a fifth of global emissions are estimated to come from deforestation. Hence accurate estimation of forest biophysical variables is necessary as it is a key parameter in determination of forest inventories, vegetation modeling and global carbon cycle. SAR Remote sensing technique is capable of providing accurate and reliable information about forest parameters. The present work aims to explore the potential of C-band Radarsat-2 Polarimetric Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolinSAR) technique for developing a relationship between complex coherence and forest aboveground biomass (t/ha). In order to attain our objective Radarsat-2 satellite interferometric pair of 4th March 2013(master image) and 28th March 2013(slave image) were acquired for Barkot Reserve Forest, Dehradun, India. Field inventory was done for 30 plots (31.62m x 31.62m) and tree height and stem diameter were procured for each plot which were later utilized in calculation of aboveground biomass(AGB).Work emphasizes on the application of PolinSAR coherence instead of using SAR backscatter which saturates after a certain value of biomass content. Complex coherence values for different polarization channels were computed with the help of polarimetric interferometric coherence matrix. Retrieved complex coherences were investigated individually and then regression analysis was carried with the field estimated aboveground biomass. R2 value of HV+VH complex coherence component was found to be relatively higher than other polarization channel components

  7. Imaging in severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Antonio, G.E.; Wong, K.T.; Chu, W.C.W.; Hui, D.S.C.; Cheng, F.W.T.; Yuen, E.H.Y.; Chung, S.S.C.; Fok, T.F.; Sung, J.J.Y.; Ahuja, A.T.

    2003-01-01

    Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a highly infectious disease caused by a novel coronavirus, and has become pandemic within a short period of time. Imaging plays an important role in the diagnosis, management and follow-up of patients with SARS. The current status of imaging in SARS is presented in this review

  8. PRF Ambiguity Detrmination for Radarsat ScanSAR System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jin, Michael Y.

    1998-01-01

    PRF ambiguity is a potential problem for a spaceborne SAR operated at high frequencies. For a strip mode SAR, there were several approaches to solve this problem. This paper, however, addresses PRF ambiguity determination algorithms suitable for a burst mode SAR system such as the Radarsat ScanSAR. The candidate algorithms include the wavelength diversity algorithm, range look cross correlation algorithm, and multi-PRF algorithm.

  9. Satellite on-board real-time SAR processor prototype

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bergeron, Alain; Doucet, Michel; Harnisch, Bernd; Suess, Martin; Marchese, Linda; Bourqui, Pascal; Desnoyers, Nicholas; Legros, Mathieu; Guillot, Ludovic; Mercier, Luc; Châteauneuf, François

    2017-11-01

    A Compact Real-Time Optronic SAR Processor has been successfully developed and tested up to a Technology Readiness Level of 4 (TRL4), the breadboard validation in a laboratory environment. SAR, or Synthetic Aperture Radar, is an active system allowing day and night imaging independent of the cloud coverage of the planet. The SAR raw data is a set of complex data for range and azimuth, which cannot be compressed. Specifically, for planetary missions and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) systems with limited communication data rates this is a clear disadvantage. SAR images are typically processed electronically applying dedicated Fourier transformations. This, however, can also be performed optically in real-time. Originally the first SAR images were optically processed. The optical Fourier processor architecture provides inherent parallel computing capabilities allowing real-time SAR data processing and thus the ability for compression and strongly reduced communication bandwidth requirements for the satellite. SAR signal return data are in general complex data. Both amplitude and phase must be combined optically in the SAR processor for each range and azimuth pixel. Amplitude and phase are generated by dedicated spatial light modulators and superimposed by an optical relay set-up. The spatial light modulators display the full complex raw data information over a two-dimensional format, one for the azimuth and one for the range. Since the entire signal history is displayed at once, the processor operates in parallel yielding real-time performances, i.e. without resulting bottleneck. Processing of both azimuth and range information is performed in a single pass. This paper focuses on the onboard capabilities of the compact optical SAR processor prototype that allows in-orbit processing of SAR images. Examples of processed ENVISAT ASAR images are presented. Various SAR processor parameters such as processing capabilities, image quality (point target analysis), weight and

  10. Quantitative characterization of abyssal seafloor with transit multibeam backscatter data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pockalny, R. A.; Ferrini, V. L.

    2014-12-01

    The expanding volume of deep-water multibeam echosounder data provides emerging opportunities for the improved characterization of the abyssal seafloor. Nearly 500 cruises criss-cross the oceans with modern wide-swath multibeam systems, and these cruise tracks have imaged a variety of morphologic, tectonic and magmatic environments. The qualitative analysis of the seafloor backscatter data strongly suggests a local and regional variability that correlates with sediment thickness, sediment type and/or depositional environment. We present our initial attempts to develop a method that quantifies this observed seafloor backscatter variability and to explore the causes and potential implications of this variability. Our approach is rooted in the Angular Range Analysis methodology, which utilizes changes in backscatter amplitude observed as a function of grazing angle, to characterize the seafloor. The primary difference in our approach is that we do not invert for geo-acoustical parameters, but rather explores empirical relationships between geological observations and stacked slope and y-intercept values. In addition, we also include the mean and the variance of detrended backscatter measurements. Our initial results indicate intriguing relationships between backscatter parameters and the CaCO3 content of surface sediments. Seafloor regions reported to have high manganese nodule concentrations also tend to have characteristic trends in backscatter parameters. We will present these regional correlations as well as some preliminary statistical analyses of the backscatter parameters and key environmental factors.

  11. Monitoring Building Deformation with InSAR: Experiments and Validation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Kui; Yan, Li; Huang, Guoman; Chen, Chu; Wu, Zhengpeng

    2016-01-01

    Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (InSAR) techniques are increasingly applied for monitoring land subsidence. The advantages of InSAR include high accuracy and the ability to cover large areas; nevertheless, research validating the use of InSAR on building deformation is limited. In this paper, we test the monitoring capability of the InSAR in experiments using two landmark buildings; the Bohai Building and the China Theater, located in Tianjin, China. They were selected as real examples to compare InSAR and leveling approaches for building deformation. Ten TerraSAR-X images spanning half a year were used in Permanent Scatterer InSAR processing. These extracted InSAR results were processed considering the diversity in both direction and spatial distribution, and were compared with true leveling values in both Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression and measurement of error analyses. The detailed experimental results for the Bohai Building and the China Theater showed a high correlation between InSAR results and the leveling values. At the same time, the two Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) indexes had values of approximately 1 mm. These analyses show that a millimeter level of accuracy can be achieved by means of InSAR technique when measuring building deformation. We discuss the differences in accuracy between OLS regression and measurement of error analyses, and compare the accuracy index of leveling in order to propose InSAR accuracy levels appropriate for monitoring buildings deformation. After assessing the advantages and limitations of InSAR techniques in monitoring buildings, further applications are evaluated. PMID:27999403

  12. Monitoring Building Deformation with InSAR: Experiments and Validation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kui Yang

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (InSAR techniques are increasingly applied for monitoring land subsidence. The advantages of InSAR include high accuracy and the ability to cover large areas; nevertheless, research validating the use of InSAR on building deformation is limited. In this paper, we test the monitoring capability of the InSAR in experiments using two landmark buildings; the Bohai Building and the China Theater, located in Tianjin, China. They were selected as real examples to compare InSAR and leveling approaches for building deformation. Ten TerraSAR-X images spanning half a year were used in Permanent Scatterer InSAR processing. These extracted InSAR results were processed considering the diversity in both direction and spatial distribution, and were compared with true leveling values in both Ordinary Least Squares (OLS regression and measurement of error analyses. The detailed experimental results for the Bohai Building and the China Theater showed a high correlation between InSAR results and the leveling values. At the same time, the two Root Mean Square Error (RMSE indexes had values of approximately 1 mm. These analyses show that a millimeter level of accuracy can be achieved by means of InSAR technique when measuring building deformation. We discuss the differences in accuracy between OLS regression and measurement of error analyses, and compare the accuracy index of leveling in order to propose InSAR accuracy levels appropriate for monitoring buildings deformation. After assessing the advantages and limitations of InSAR techniques in monitoring buildings, further applications are evaluated.

  13. A Parameterized Inversion Model for Soil Moisture and Biomass from Polarimetric Backscattering Coefficients

    Science.gov (United States)

    Truong-Loi, My-Linh; Saatchi, Sassan; Jaruwatanadilok, Sermsak

    2012-01-01

    A semi-empirical algorithm for the retrieval of soil moisture, root mean square (RMS) height and biomass from polarimetric SAR data is explained and analyzed in this paper. The algorithm is a simplification of the distorted Born model. It takes into account the physical scattering phenomenon and has three major components: volume, double-bounce and surface. This simplified model uses the three backscattering coefficients ( sigma HH, sigma HV and sigma vv) at low-frequency (P-band). The inversion process uses the Levenberg-Marquardt non-linear least-squares method to estimate the structural parameters. The estimation process is entirely explained in this paper, from initialization of the unknowns to retrievals. A sensitivity analysis is also done where the initial values in the inversion process are varying randomly. The results show that the inversion process is not really sensitive to initial values and a major part of the retrievals has a root-mean-square error lower than 5% for soil moisture, 24 Mg/ha for biomass and 0.49 cm for roughness, considering a soil moisture of 40%, roughness equal to 3cm and biomass varying from 0 to 500 Mg/ha with a mean of 161 Mg/ha

  14. Molecular mechanisms of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zabel Peter

    2005-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS is a new infectious disease caused by a novel coronavirus that leads to deleterious pulmonary pathological features. Due to its high morbidity and mortality and widespread occurrence, SARS has evolved as an important respiratory disease which may be encountered everywhere in the world. The virus was identified as the causative agent of SARS due to the efforts of a WHO-led laboratory network. The potential mutability of the SARS-CoV genome may lead to new SARS outbreaks and several regions of the viral genomes open reading frames have been identified which may contribute to the severe virulence of the virus. With regard to the pathogenesis of SARS, several mechanisms involving both direct effects on target cells and indirect effects via the immune system may exist. Vaccination would offer the most attractive approach to prevent new epidemics of SARS, but the development of vaccines is difficult due to missing data on the role of immune system-virus interactions and the potential mutability of the virus. Even in a situation of no new infections, SARS remains a major health hazard, as new epidemics may arise. Therefore, further experimental and clinical research is required to control the disease.

  15. Ocean subsurface particulate backscatter estimation from CALIPSO spaceborne lidar measurements

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Peng; Pan, Delu; Wang, Tianyu; Mao, Zhihua

    2017-10-01

    A method for ocean subsurface particulate backscatter estimation from the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) on the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) satellite was demonstrated. The effects of the CALIOP receiver's transient response on the attenuated backscatter profile were first removed. The two-way transmittance of the overlying atmosphere was then estimated as the ratio of the measured ocean surface attenuated backscatter to the theoretical value computed from wind driven wave slope variance. Finally, particulate backscatter was estimated from the depolarization ratio as the ratio of the column-integrated cross-polarized and co-polarized channels. Statistical results show that the derived particulate backscatter by the method based on CALIOP data agree reasonably well with chlorophyll-a concentration using MODIS data. It indicates a potential use of space-borne lidar to estimate global primary productivity and particulate carbon stock.

  16. Improvements in backscatter measurement devices

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Saunders, J.; Hay, W.D.

    1978-01-01

    Improvements in measuring the thickness of a coating on a substrate by the technique of backscattered particles are described. These improvements enable the measurements to be carried out continuously as an integral part of the coating production line and also permit measurements where the coated elements are separated from one another by a predetermined distance. The former is achieved by situating the backscatter probe and detector on the rim of the measurement wheel and rotating this wheel at a speed such that the coated element and probe are stationary relative to one another. The latter improvement is achieved by an indexing apparatus which automatically positions the probe beside a coated element. (U.K.)

  17. Unsupervised SBAS-DInSAR Processing of Space-borne SAR data for Earth Surface Displacement Time Series Generation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Casu, F.; de Luca, C.; Lanari, R.; Manunta, M.; Zinno, I.

    2016-12-01

    During the last 25 years, the Differential Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (DInSAR) has played an important role for understanding the Earth's surface deformation and its dynamics. In particular, the large collections of SAR data acquired by a number of space-borne missions (ERS, ENVISAT, ALOS, RADARSAT, TerraSAR-X, COSMO-SkyMed) have pushed toward the development of advanced DInSAR techniques for monitoring the temporal evolution of the ground displacements with an high spatial density. Moreover, the advent of the Copernicus Sentinel-1 (S1) constellation is providing a further increase in the SAR data flow available to the Earth science community, due to its characteristics of global coverage strategy and free and open access data policy. Therefore, managing and storing such a huge amount of data, processing it in an effcient way and maximizing the available archives exploitation are becoming high priority issues. In this work we present some recent advances in the DInSAR field for dealing with the effective exploitation of the present and future SAR data archives. In particular, an efficient parallel SBAS implementation (namely P-SBAS) that takes benefit from high performance computing is proposed. Then, the P-SBAS migration to the emerging Cloud Computing paradigm is shown, together with extensive tests carried out in the Amazon's Elastic Cloud Compute (EC2) infrastructure. Finally, the integration of the P-SBAS processing chain within the ESA Geohazards Exploitation Platform (GEP), for setting up operational on-demand and systematic web tools, open to every user, aimed at automatically processing stacks of SAR data for the generation of SBAS displacement time series, is also illustrated. A number of experimental results obtained by using the ERS, ENVISAT and S1 data in areas characterized by volcanic, seismic and anthropogenic phenomena will be shown. This work is partially supported by: the DPC-CNR agreement, the EPOS-IP project and the ESA GEP project.

  18. Spectral Properties of Homogeneous and Nonhomogeneous Radar Images

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Madsen, Søren Nørvang

    1987-01-01

    On the basis of a two-dimensional, nonstationary white noisemodel for the complex radar backscatter, the spectral properties ofa one-look synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) system is derived. It isshown that the power spectrum of the complex SAR image is sceneindependent. It is also shown that the sp......On the basis of a two-dimensional, nonstationary white noisemodel for the complex radar backscatter, the spectral properties ofa one-look synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) system is derived. It isshown that the power spectrum of the complex SAR image is sceneindependent. It is also shown...... that the spectrum of the intensityimage is in general related to the radar scene spectrum by a linearintegral equation, a Fredholm's integral equation of the third kind.Under simplifying assumptions, a closed-form equation giving theradar scene spectrum as a function of the SAR image spectrum canbe derived....

  19. Identification of major backscattering sources in trees and shrubs at 10 GHz

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zoughi, R.; Wu, L. K.; Moore, R. K.

    1986-01-01

    A short-range very-fine-resolution FM-CW radar scatterometer has been used to identify the primary contributors to 10-GHz radar backscatter from pine, pin oak, American sycamore and sugar maple trees, and from creeping juniper shrubs. This system provided a range resolution of 11 cm and gave a 16-cm diameter illumination area at the target range of about 4 m. For a pine tree, the needles caused the strongest backscatter as well as the strongest attenuation in the radar signal. Cones, although insignificant contributors to the total backscatter, were more important for backscattering than for attenuation. For the rest of the trees, leaves were the strongest cause of backscattering and attenuation. However, in the absence of leaves, the petioles, small twigs, and branches gave relatively strong backscatter. For American sycamore and sugar maple trees, the fruits did not affect the total backscatter unless they were packed in clusters. For creeping juniper the backscattered energy and attenuation in the radar signal were mainly due to the top two layers of the evergreen scales. The contribution of the tree trunks was not determined.

  20. Dynamic changes of serum SARS-Coronavirus IgG, pulmonary function and radiography in patients recovering from SARS after hospital discharge

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chen Liangan

    2005-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Objective The intent of this study was to examine the recovery of individuals who had been hospitalized for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS in the year following their discharge from the hospital. Parameters studied included serum levels of SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV IgG antibody, tests of lung function, and imaging data to evaluate changes in lung fibrosis. In addition, we explored the incidence of femoral head necrosis in some of the individuals recovering from SARS. Methods The subjects of this study were 383 clinically diagnosed SARS patients in Beijing, China. They were tested regularly for serum levels of SARS-CoV IgG antibody and lung function and were given chest X-rays and/or high resolution computerized tomography (HRCT examinations at the Chinese PLA General Hospital during the 12 months that followed their release from the hospital. Those individuals who were found to have lung diffusion abnormities (transfer coefficient for carbon monoxide [DLCO] Findings Of all the subjects, 81.2% (311 of 383 patients tested positive for serum SARS-CoV IgG. Of those testing positive, 27.3% (85 of 311 patients were suffering from lung diffusion abnormities (DLCO Interpretation The lack of sero-positive SARS-CoV in some individuals suggests that there may have been some misdiagnosed cases among the subjects included in this study. Of those testing positive, the serum levels of SARS-CoV IgG antibody decreased significantly during the 12 months after hospital discharge. Additionally, we found that the individuals who had lung fibrosis showed some spontaneous recovery. Finally, some of the subjects developed femoral head necrosis.

  1. BATS - Backscattering And Time-of-flight Spectrometer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Van Eijck, L.; Seydel, T.; Frick, B.; Schober, H.

    2011-01-01

    The new backscattering spectrometer IN16b will go into commissioning end 2011, providing in its final state about ten times higher count rate than its predecessor, IN16. Here we propose to increase its dynamic range by a factor of 7 with the TOF mode extension, BATS. This will make IN16b the leading high resolution backscattering spectrometer for incoherent quasi-elastic and inelastic neutron scattering; it will be competitive to the coarser resolution inverted geometry backscattering spectrometers that are being brought online at spallation sources. The increased dynamic range will extend the scope of science addressed on IN16b, generating considerable potential in fields such as the hydrogen economy (proton conduction, fuel cells, hydrogen storage), soft matter, biology and nano-science (nano-scale confinement, functionalized polymers). Such a large impact can be achieved using only a moderate investment. (authors)

  2. Nano(Q)SAR: Challenges, pitfalls and perspectives.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tantra, Ratna; Oksel, Ceyda; Puzyn, Tomasz; Wang, Jian; Robinson, Kenneth N; Wang, Xue Z; Ma, Cai Y; Wilkins, Terry

    2015-01-01

    Regulation for nanomaterials is urgently needed, and the drive to adopt an intelligent testing strategy is evident. Such a strategy will not only provide economic benefits but will also reduce moral and ethical concerns arising from animal testing. For regulatory purposes, such an approach is promoted by REACH, particularly the use of quantitative structure-activity relationships [(Q)SAR] as a tool for the categorisation of compounds according to their physicochemical and toxicological properties. In addition to compounds, (Q)SAR has also been applied to nanomaterials in the form of nano(Q)SAR. Although (Q)SAR in chemicals is well established, nano(Q)SAR is still in early stages of development and its successful uptake is far from reality. This article aims to identify some of the pitfalls and challenges associated with nano-(Q)SARs in relation to the categorisation of nanomaterials. Our findings show clear gaps in the research framework that must be addressed if we are to have reliable predictions from such models. Three major barriers were identified: the need to improve quality of experimental data in which the models are developed from, the need to have practical guidelines for the development of the nano(Q)SAR models and the need to standardise and harmonise activities for the purpose of regulation. Of these three, the first, i.e. the need to improve data quality requires immediate attention, as it underpins activities associated with the latter two. It should be noted that the usefulness of data in the context of nano-(Q)SAR modelling is not only about the quantity of data but also about the quality, consistency and accessibility of those data.

  3. Playback system designed for X-Band SAR

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yuquan, Liu; Changyong, Dou

    2014-01-01

    SAR(Synthetic Aperture Radar) has extensive application because it is daylight and weather independent. In particular, X-Band SAR strip map, designed by Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences, provides high ground resolution images, at the same time it has a large spatial coverage and a short acquisition time, so it is promising in multi-applications. When sudden disaster comes, the emergency situation acquires radar signal data and image as soon as possible, in order to take action to reduce loss and save lives in the first time. This paper summarizes a type of X-Band SAR playback processing system designed for disaster response and scientific needs. It describes SAR data workflow includes the payload data transmission and reception process. Playback processing system completes signal analysis on the original data, providing SAR level 0 products and quick image. Gigabit network promises radar signal transmission efficiency from recorder to calculation unit. Multi-thread parallel computing and ping pong operation can ensure computation speed. Through gigabit network, multi-thread parallel computing and ping pong operation, high speed data transmission and processing meet the SAR radar data playback real time requirement

  4. Playback system designed for X-Band SAR

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yuquan, Liu; Changyong, Dou

    2014-03-01

    SAR(Synthetic Aperture Radar) has extensive application because it is daylight and weather independent. In particular, X-Band SAR strip map, designed by Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences, provides high ground resolution images, at the same time it has a large spatial coverage and a short acquisition time, so it is promising in multi-applications. When sudden disaster comes, the emergency situation acquires radar signal data and image as soon as possible, in order to take action to reduce loss and save lives in the first time. This paper summarizes a type of X-Band SAR playback processing system designed for disaster response and scientific needs. It describes SAR data workflow includes the payload data transmission and reception process. Playback processing system completes signal analysis on the original data, providing SAR level 0 products and quick image. Gigabit network promises radar signal transmission efficiency from recorder to calculation unit. Multi-thread parallel computing and ping pong operation can ensure computation speed. Through gigabit network, multi-thread parallel computing and ping pong operation, high speed data transmission and processing meet the SAR radar data playback real time requirement.

  5. Wave directional spectrum from SAR imagery

    Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

    Fernandes, A.A.; Sarma, Y.V.B.; Menon, H.B.; Vethamony, P.

    < 2m and the zero-crossing period during the satellite overpass is small (< 6s, �O�O < 60m). We therefore utilized the visit of one of the authors (Sarma) to the Southampton Oceanographic Centre, U.K., to procure two ERS-1 digital image mode SAR...-dimensional FFT as well as a computer program for downloading SAR data from CCT. Finally we owe a debt of gratitude to J C da Silva, Southampton Oceanographic Centre, U K for sharing some of his SAR data with us. References Allan T. D. (Ed) (1983...

  6. Characterizing riverbed sediment using high-frequency acoustics 2: scattering signatures of Colorado River bed sediment in Marble and Grand Canyons

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buscombe, Daniel D.; Grams, Paul E.; Kaplinski, Matt A.

    2014-01-01

    In this, the second of a pair of papers on the statistical signatures of riverbed sediment in high-frequency acoustic backscatter, spatially explicit maps of the stochastic geometries (length- and amplitude-scales) of backscatter are related to patches of riverbed surfaces composed of known sediment types, as determined by geo-referenced underwater video observations. Statistics of backscatter magnitudes alone are found to be poor discriminators between sediment types. However, the variance of the power spectrum, and the intercept and slope from a power-law spectral form (termed the spectral strength and exponent, respectively) successfully discriminate between sediment types. A decision-tree approach was able to classify spatially heterogeneous patches of homogeneous sands, gravels (and sand-gravel mixtures), and cobbles/boulders with 95, 88, and 91% accuracy, respectively. Application to sites outside the calibration, and surveys made at calibration sites at different times, were plausible based on observations from underwater video. Analysis of decision trees built with different training data sets suggested that the spectral exponent was consistently the most important variable in the classification. In the absence of theory concerning how spatially variable sediment surfaces scatter high-frequency sound, the primary advantage of this data-driven approach to classify bed sediment over alternatives is that spectral methods have well understood properties and make no assumptions about the distributional form of the fluctuating component of backscatter over small spatial scales.

  7. Multi-beam backscatter image data processing techniques employed to EM 1002 system

    Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

    Fernandes, W.A.; Chakraborty, B.

    to compensate outer-beam backscatter strength data in such a way that the effect of angular backscatter strength is removed. In this work we have developed backscatter data processing techniques for EM1002 multi-beam system...

  8. A new automatic SAR-based flood mapping application hosted on the European Space Agency's grid processing on demand fast access to imagery environment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hostache, Renaud; Chini, Marco; Matgen, Patrick; Giustarini, Laura

    2013-04-01

    There is a clear need for developing innovative processing chains based on earth observation (EO) data to generate products supporting emergency response and flood management at a global scale. Here an automatic flood mapping application is introduced. The latter is currently hosted on the Grid Processing on Demand (G-POD) Fast Access to Imagery (Faire) environment of the European Space Agency. The main objective of the online application is to deliver flooded areas using both recent and historical acquisitions of SAR data in an operational framework. It is worth mentioning that the method can be applied to both medium and high resolution SAR images. The flood mapping application consists of two main blocks: 1) A set of query tools for selecting the "crisis image" and the optimal corresponding pre-flood "reference image" from the G-POD archive. 2) An algorithm for extracting flooded areas using the previously selected "crisis image" and "reference image". The proposed method is a hybrid methodology, which combines histogram thresholding, region growing and change detection as an approach enabling the automatic, objective and reliable flood extent extraction from SAR images. The method is based on the calibration of a statistical distribution of "open water" backscatter values inferred from SAR images of floods. Change detection with respect to a pre-flood reference image helps reducing over-detection of inundated areas. The algorithms are computationally efficient and operate with minimum data requirements, considering as input data a flood image and a reference image. Stakeholders in flood management and service providers are able to log onto the flood mapping application to get support for the retrieval, from the rolling archive, of the most appropriate pre-flood reference image. Potential users will also be able to apply the implemented flood delineation algorithm. Case studies of several recent high magnitude flooding events (e.g. July 2007 Severn River flood

  9. Reverse genetics of SARS-related coronavirus using vaccinia virus-based recombination.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sjoerd H E van den Worm

    Full Text Available Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS is a zoonotic disease caused by SARS-related coronavirus (SARS-CoV that emerged in 2002 to become a global health concern. Although the original outbreak was controlled by classical public health measures, there is a real risk that another SARS-CoV could re-emerge from its natural reservoir, either in its original form or as a more virulent or pathogenic strain; in which case, the virus would be difficult to control in the absence of any effective antiviral drugs or vaccines. Using the well-studied SARS-CoV isolate HKU-39849, we developed a vaccinia virus-based SARS-CoV reverse genetic system that is both robust and biosafe. The SARS-CoV genome was cloned in separate vaccinia virus vectors, (vSARS-CoV-5prime and vSARS-CoV-3prime as two cDNAs that were subsequently ligated to create a genome-length SARS-CoV cDNA template for in vitro transcription of SARS-CoV infectious RNA transcripts. Transfection of the RNA transcripts into permissive cells led to the recovery of infectious virus (recSARS-CoV. Characterization of the plaques produced by recSARS-CoV showed that they were similar in size to the parental SARS-CoV isolate HKU-39849 but smaller than the SARS-CoV isolate Frankfurt-1. Comparative analysis of replication kinetics showed that the kinetics of recSARS-CoV replication are similar to those of SARS-CoV Frankfurt-1, although the titers of virus released into the culture supernatant are approximately 10-fold less. The reverse genetic system was finally used to generate a recSARS-CoV reporter virus expressing Renilla luciferase in order to facilitate the analysis of SARS-CoV gene expression in human dendritic cells (hDCs. In parallel, a Renilla luciferase gene was also inserted into the genome of human coronavirus 229E (HCoV-229E. Using this approach, we demonstrate that, in contrast to HCoV-229E, SARS-CoV is not able to mediate efficient heterologous gene expression in hDCs.

  10. Spaceborne Differential SAR Interferometry: Data Analysis Tools for Deformation Measurement

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michele Crosetto

    2011-02-01

    Full Text Available This paper is focused on spaceborne Differential Interferometric SAR (DInSAR for land deformation measurement and monitoring. In the last two decades several DInSAR data analysis procedures have been proposed. The objective of this paper is to describe the DInSAR data processing and analysis tools developed at the Institute of Geomatics in almost ten years of research activities. Four main DInSAR analysis procedures are described, which range from the standard DInSAR analysis based on a single interferogram to more advanced Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI approaches. These different procedures guarantee a sufficient flexibility in DInSAR data processing. In order to provide a technical insight into these analysis procedures, a whole section discusses their main data processing and analysis steps, especially those needed in PSI analyses. A specific section is devoted to the core of our PSI analysis tools: the so-called 2+1D phase unwrapping procedure, which couples a 2D phase unwrapping, performed interferogram-wise, with a kind of 1D phase unwrapping along time, performed pixel-wise. In the last part of the paper, some examples of DInSAR results are discussed, which were derived by standard DInSAR or PSI analyses. Most of these results were derived from X-band SAR data coming from the TerraSAR-X and CosmoSkyMed sensors.

  11. An Adaptive Ship Detection Scheme for Spaceborne SAR Imagery

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiangguang Leng

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available With the rapid development of spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR and the increasing need of ship detection, research on adaptive ship detection in spaceborne SAR imagery is of great importance. Focusing on practical problems of ship detection, this paper presents a highly adaptive ship detection scheme for spaceborne SAR imagery. It is able to process a wide range of sensors, imaging modes and resolutions. Two main stages are identified in this paper, namely: ship candidate detection and ship discrimination. Firstly, this paper proposes an adaptive land masking method using ship size and pixel size. Secondly, taking into account the imaging mode, incidence angle, and polarization channel of SAR imagery, it implements adaptive ship candidate detection in spaceborne SAR imagery by applying different strategies to different resolution SAR images. Finally, aiming at different types of typical false alarms, this paper proposes a comprehensive ship discrimination method in spaceborne SAR imagery based on confidence level and complexity analysis. Experimental results based on RADARSAT-1, RADARSAT-2, TerraSAR-X, RS-1, and RS-3 images demonstrate that the adaptive scheme proposed in this paper is able to detect ship targets in a fast, efficient and robust way.

  12. Uniqueness for the inverse backscattering problem for angularly controlled potentials

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rakesh; Uhlmann, Gunther

    2014-01-01

    We consider the problem of recovering a smooth, compactly supported potential on R 3 from its backscattering data. We show that if two such potentials have the same backscattering data and the difference of the two potentials has controlled angular derivatives, then the two potentials are identical. In particular, if two potentials differ by a finite linear combination of spherical harmonics with radial coefficients and have the same backscattering data then the two potentials are identical. (paper)

  13. Quantitative Analysis of Venus Radar Backscatter Data in ArcGIS

    Science.gov (United States)

    Long, S. M.; Grosfils, E. B.

    2005-01-01

    Ongoing mapping of the Ganiki Planitia (V14) quadrangle of Venus and definition of material units has involved an integrated but qualitative analysis of Magellan radar backscatter images and topography using standard geomorphological mapping techniques. However, such analyses do not take full advantage of the quantitative information contained within the images. Analysis of the backscatter coefficient allows a much more rigorous statistical comparison between mapped units, permitting first order selfsimilarity tests of geographically separated materials assigned identical geomorphological labels. Such analyses cannot be performed directly on pixel (DN) values from Magellan backscatter images, because the pixels are scaled to the Muhleman law for radar echoes on Venus and are not corrected for latitudinal variations in incidence angle. Therefore, DN values must be converted based on pixel latitude back to their backscatter coefficient values before accurate statistical analysis can occur. Here we present a method for performing the conversions and analysis of Magellan backscatter data using commonly available ArcGIS software and illustrate the advantages of the process for geological mapping.

  14. Evaluation of the photon monitor backscatter in medical electron accelerators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zrenner, M.; Krieger, H.

    1999-01-01

    Background: Modern linear accelerators permit the use of irregular fields due to their flexible collimator systems with separately movable jaws or multileaf collimators. When using such irregular fields in the clinical practice output factors have to be corrected for enhanced backscatter to the dose monitor as compared with the conventional block shieldings. Methods: A method is presented to detect the monitor backscatter contributions to the output factor for irregular field settings. Results: The monitor backscatter factors have been measured using a telescopic device for 2 different treatment head geometries (Varian Clinac 2100C/D, General Electric Saturne 15) and for 3 photon radiation qualities (nominal energies X6, X18, X12). A method is introduced to calculate the monitor backscatter for arbitrary irregular treatment fields from the experimental data for square or rectangular fields. Conclusions: Besides the corrections for changes in phantom scatter and changes in the aperture, corrections for monitor backscatter have to be taken into account in many clinical cases. They can contribute up to more than 10% compared with the monitor values for free regular fields. (orig.) [de

  15. Pyrimidine and nucleoside gamma-esters of L-Glu-Sar

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Eriksson, André H; Elm, Peter L; Begtrup, Mikael

    2005-01-01

    -tetrahydrofuran-3-yl ester)-Sar (I), l-Glu(thymine-1-yl-methyl ester)-Sar (II) and l-Glu(acyclothymidine)-Sar (III) were synthesised and in vitro stability was studied in various aqueous and biological media. Affinity to and translocation via hPEPT1 was investigated in mature Caco-2 cell monolayers, grown......The aim of the present study was to improve the synthetic pathway of bioreversible dipeptide derivatives as well as evaluate the potential of using l-Glu-Sar as a pro-moiety for delivering three newly synthesised nucleoside and pyrimidine l-Glu-Sar derivatives. l-Glu(trans-2-thymine-1-yl...

  16. Use of SAR data for proliferation monitoring

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lafitte, M.; Robin, J.P.

    2013-01-01

    Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is an active and coherent system. SAR images are complex data which contain both amplitude and phase information. The analysis of single SAR data required a very good experience and a good understanding of SAR geometry regarding layover, shadowing, texture and speckle. Image analyst can depicts and describes most of the facilities related to nuclear proliferation and weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The Amplitude Change Detection (ACD) technique consists of a combination of two or three SAR amplitude data acquired with similar orbit and frequency parameters on different dates. That technique provides a very good overview of the changes and particularly regarding vehicles activity and constructions ongoing within the area of interest over the monitoring period. One of the particularities of the SAR systems is to be coherent. The phase of a single image is not exploitable. Thus when two or more SAR data have been acquired with identical orbit and frequency parameters, the phases shift are indicators of changes such as structural changes, terrain subsidence or motion. The Multi-Temporal Coherence (MTC) product merged the two type of information previously detailed: the ACD and coherence analysis. It consists of the combination of two amplitude images and the corresponding coherence computed image. The MTC image may highlights changes between two states of a target which on the ACD analysis appeared unchanged. EUSC uses the difference interferometry techniques in order to estimate volumes that have changed between two acquisition dates. The paper is followed by the slides of the presentation. (A.C.)

  17. SAR and LIDAR fusion: experiments and applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Edwards, Matthew C.; Zaugg, Evan C.; Bradley, Joshua P.; Bowden, Ryan D.

    2013-05-01

    In recent years ARTEMIS, Inc. has developed a series of compact, versatile Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) systems which have been operated on a variety of small manned and unmanned aircraft. The multi-frequency-band SlimSAR has demonstrated a variety of capabilities including maritime and littoral target detection, ground moving target indication, polarimetry, interferometry, change detection, and foliage penetration. ARTEMIS also continues to build upon the radar's capabilities through fusion with other sensors, such as electro-optical and infrared camera gimbals and light detection and ranging (LIDAR) devices. In this paper we focus on experiments and applications employing SAR and LIDAR fusion. LIDAR is similar to radar in that it transmits a signal which, after being reflected or scattered by a target area, is recorded by the sensor. The differences are that a LIDAR uses a laser as a transmitter and optical sensors as a receiver, and the wavelengths used exhibit a very different scattering phenomenology than the microwaves used in radar, making SAR and LIDAR good complementary technologies. LIDAR is used in many applications including agriculture, archeology, geo-science, and surveying. Some typical data products include digital elevation maps of a target area and features and shapes extracted from the data. A set of experiments conducted to demonstrate the fusion of SAR and LIDAR data include a LIDAR DEM used in accurately processing the SAR data of a high relief area (mountainous, urban). Also, feature extraction is used in improving geolocation accuracy of the SAR and LIDAR data.

  18. Cloaked similarity between HIV-1 and SARS-CoV suggests an anti-SARS strategy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kliger Yossef

    2003-09-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS is a febrile respiratory illness. The disease has been etiologically linked to a novel coronavirus that has been named the SARS-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV, whose genome was recently sequenced. Since it is a member of the Coronaviridae, its spike protein (S2 is believed to play a central role in viral entry by facilitating fusion between the viral and host cell membranes. The protein responsible for viral-induced membrane fusion of HIV-1 (gp41 differs in length, and has no sequence homology with S2. Results Sequence analysis reveals that the two viral proteins share the sequence motifs that construct their active conformation. These include (1 an N-terminal leucine/isoleucine zipper-like sequence, and (2 a C-terminal heptad repeat located upstream of (3 an aromatic residue-rich region juxtaposed to the (4 transmembrane segment. Conclusions This study points to a similar mode of action for the two viral proteins, suggesting that anti-viral strategy that targets the viral-induced membrane fusion step can be adopted from HIV-1 to SARS-CoV. Recently the FDA approved Enfuvirtide, a synthetic peptide corresponding to the C-terminal heptad repeat of HIV-1 gp41, as an anti-AIDS agent. Enfuvirtide and C34, another anti HIV-1 peptide, exert their inhibitory activity by binding to a leucine/isoleucine zipper-like sequence in gp41, thus inhibiting a conformational change of gp41 required for its activation. We suggest that peptides corresponding to the C-terminal heptad repeat of the S2 protein may serve as inhibitors for SARS-CoV entry.

  19. Optical Backscattering Measured by Airborne Lidar and Underwater Glider

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    James H. Churnside

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available The optical backscattering from particles in the ocean is an important quantity that has been measured by remote sensing techniques and in situ instruments. In this paper, we compare estimates of this quantity from airborne lidar with those from an in situ instrument on an underwater glider. Both of these technologies allow much denser sampling of backscatter profiles than traditional ship surveys. We found a moderate correlation (R = 0.28, p < 10−5, with differences that are partially explained by spatial and temporal sampling mismatches, variability in particle composition, and lidar retrieval errors. The data suggest that there are two different regimes with different scattering properties. For backscattering coefficients below about 0.001 m−1, the lidar values were generally greater than the glider values. For larger values, the lidar was generally lower than the glider. Overall, the results are promising and suggest that airborne lidar and gliders provide comparable and complementary information on optical particulate backscattering.

  20. Polarimetric SAR interferometry-based decomposition modelling for reliable scattering retrieval

    Science.gov (United States)

    Agrawal, Neeraj; Kumar, Shashi; Tolpekin, Valentyn

    2016-05-01

    Fully Polarimetric SAR (PolSAR) data is used for scattering information retrieval from single SAR resolution cell. Single SAR resolution cell may contain contribution from more than one scattering objects. Hence, single or dual polarized data does not provide all the possible scattering information. So, to overcome this problem fully Polarimetric data is used. It was observed in previous study that fully Polarimetric data of different dates provide different scattering values for same object and coefficient of determination obtained from linear regression between volume scattering and aboveground biomass (AGB) shows different values for the SAR dataset of different dates. Scattering values are important input elements for modelling of forest aboveground biomass. In this research work an approach is proposed to get reliable scattering from interferometric pair of fully Polarimetric RADARSAT-2 data. The field survey for data collection was carried out for Barkot forest during November 10th to December 5th, 2014. Stratified random sampling was used to collect field data for circumference at breast height (CBH) and tree height measurement. Field-measured AGB was compared with the volume scattering elements obtained from decomposition modelling of individual PolSAR images and PolInSAR coherency matrix. Yamaguchi 4-component decomposition was implemented to retrieve scattering elements from SAR data. PolInSAR based decomposition was the great challenge in this work and it was implemented with certain assumptions to create Hermitian coherency matrix with co-registered polarimetric interferometric pair of SAR data. Regression analysis between field-measured AGB and volume scattering element obtained from PolInSAR data showed highest (0.589) coefficient of determination. The same regression with volume scattering elements of individual SAR images showed 0.49 and 0.50 coefficients of determination for master and slave images respectively. This study recommends use of

  1. Federated query services provided by the Seamless SAR Archive project

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baker, S.; Bryson, G.; Buechler, B.; Meertens, C. M.; Crosby, C. J.; Fielding, E. J.; Nicoll, J.; Youn, C.; Baru, C.

    2013-12-01

    The NASA Advancing Collaborative Connections for Earth System Science (ACCESS) seamless synthetic aperture radar (SAR) archive (SSARA) project is a 2-year collaboration between UNAVCO, the Alaska Satellite Facility (ASF), the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and OpenTopography at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) to design and implement a seamless distributed access system for SAR data and derived data products (i.e. interferograms). A major milestone for the first year of the SSARA project was a unified application programming interface (API) for SAR data search and results at ASF and UNAVCO (WInSAR and EarthScope data archives) through the use of simple web services. A federated query service was developed using the unified APIs, providing users a single search interface for both archives (http://www.unavco.org/ws/brokered/ssara/sar/search). A command line client that utilizes this new service is provided as an open source utility for the community on GitHub (https://github.com/bakerunavco/SSARA). Further API development and enhancements added more InSAR specific keywords and quality control parameters (Doppler centroid, faraday rotation, InSAR stack size, and perpendicular baselines). To facilitate InSAR processing, the federated query service incorporated URLs for DEM (from OpenTopography) and tropospheric corrections (from the JPL OSCAR service) in addition to the URLs for SAR data. This federated query service will provide relevant QC metadata for selecting pairs of SAR data for InSAR processing and all the URLs necessary for interferogram generation. Interest from the international community has prompted an effort to incorporate other SAR data archives (the ESA Virtual Archive 4 and the DLR TerraSAR-X_SSC Geohazard Supersites and Natural Laboratories collections) into the federated query service which provide data for researchers outside the US and North America.

  2. SARS – Koch´Postulates proved.

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    SARS – Koch´Postulates proved. Novel coronavirus identified from fluids of patients. Virus cultured in Vero cell line. Sera of patients have antibodies to virus. Cultured virus produces disease in Macaque monkeys. -produces specific immune response; -isolated virus is SARS CoV; -pathology similar to human.

  3. Attribute Learning for SAR Image Classification

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chu He

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a classification approach based on attribute learning for high spatial resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR images. To explore the representative and discriminative attributes of SAR images, first, an iterative unsupervised algorithm is designed to cluster in the low-level feature space, where the maximum edge response and the ratio of mean-to-variance are included; a cross-validation step is applied to prevent overfitting. Second, the most discriminative clustering centers are sorted out to construct an attribute dictionary. By resorting to the attribute dictionary, a representation vector describing certain categories in the SAR image can be generated, which in turn is used to perform the classifying task. The experiments conducted on TerraSAR-X images indicate that those learned attributes have strong visual semantics, which are characterized by bright and dark spots, stripes, or their combinations. The classification method based on these learned attributes achieves better results.

  4. Study of multibeam techniques for bathymetry and seabottom backscatter applications

    Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

    Nair, R.R.; Chakraborty, B.

    Indian ocean is presented using Hydrosweep-multibeam installed onboard ORV Sagarkanya. A seabottom classification model is proposed which can be applied for multibeam backscatter data. Certain aspects of the multibeam backscatter signal data processing...

  5. SAR system development for UAV multicopter platforms

    OpenAIRE

    Escartin Martínez, Antonio

    2015-01-01

    SAR system development for UAV multicopter platforms This thesis describes the optimization of a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) at X-band and its integration into an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) of type octocopter. For such optimization the SAR system functionality was extended from singlepol to fulpol and it has been optimized at hardware level in order to improve its quality against noise figure. After its integration into the octocopter platform, its features has been used in order to ...

  6. Novel Polarimetric SAR Interferometry Algorithms, Phase I

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Polarimetric radar interferometry (PolInSAR) is a new SAR imaging mode that is rapidly becoming an important technique for bare earth topographic mapping, tree...

  7. An enhanced structure tensor method for sea ice ridge detection from GF-3 SAR imagery

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhu, T.; Li, F.; Zhang, Y.; Zhang, S.; Spreen, G.; Dierking, W.; Heygster, G.

    2017-12-01

    In SAR imagery, ridges or leads are shown as the curvilinear features. The proposed ridge detection method is facilitated by their curvilinear shapes. The bright curvilinear features are recognized as the ridges while the dark curvilinear features are classified as the leads. In dual-polarization HH or HV channel of C-band SAR imagery, the bright curvilinear feature may be false alarm because the frost flowers of young leads may show as bright pixels associated with changes in the surface salinity under calm surface conditions. Wind roughened leads also trigger the backscatter increasing that can be misclassified as ridges [1]. Thus the width limitation is considered in this proposed structure tensor method [2], since only shape feature based method is not enough for detecting ridges. The ridge detection algorithm is based on the hypothesis that the bright pixels are ridges with curvilinear shapes and the ridge width is less 30 meters. Benefited from GF-3 with high spatial resolution of 3 meters, we provide an enhanced structure tensor method for detecting the significant ridge. The preprocessing procedures including the calibration and incidence angle normalization are also investigated. The bright pixels will have strong response to the bandpass filtering. The ridge training samples are delineated from the SAR imagery in the Log-Gabor filters to construct structure tensor. From the tensor, the dominant orientation of the pixel representing the ridge is determined by the dominant eigenvector. For the post-processing of structure tensor, the elongated kernel is desired to enhance the ridge curvilinear shape. Since ridge presents along a certain direction, the ratio of the dominant eigenvector will be used to measure the intensity of local anisotropy. The convolution filter has been utilized in the constructed structure tensor is used to model spatial contextual information. Ridge detection results from GF-3 show the proposed method performs better compared to the

  8. Aspect sensitive E- and F-region SPEAR-enhanced incoherent backscatter observed by the EISCAT Svalbard radar

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    R. S. Dhillon

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available Previous studies of the aspect sensitivity of heater-enhanced incoherent radar backscatter in the high-latitude ionosphere have demonstrated the directional dependence of incoherent scatter signatures corresponding to artificially excited electrostatic waves, together with consistent field-aligned signatures that may be related to the presence of artificial field-aligned irregularities. These earlier high-latitude results have provided motivation for repeating the investigation in the different geophysical conditions that obtain in the polar cap ionosphere. The Space Plasma Exploration by Active Radar (SPEAR facility is located within the polar cap and has provided observations of RF-enhanced ion and plasma line spectra recorded by the EISCAT Svalbard UHF incoherent scatter radar system (ESR, which is collocated with SPEAR. In this paper, we present observations of aspect sensitive E- and F-region SPEAR-induced ion and plasma line enhancements that indicate excitation of both the purely growing mode and the parametric decay instability, together with sporadic E-layer results that may indicate the presence of cavitons. We note consistent enhancements from field-aligned, vertical and also from 5° south of field-aligned. We attribute the prevalence of vertical scatter to the importance of the Spitze region, and of that from field-aligned to possible wave/irregularity coupling.

  9. Light backscattering efficiency and related properties of some phytoplankters

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ahn, Yu-Hwan; Bricaud, Annick; Morel, André

    1992-11-01

    By using a set-up that combines an integrating sphere with a spectroradiometer LI-1800 UW, the backscattering properties of nine different phytoplankters grown in culture have been determined experimentally for the wavelengths domain ν = 400 up to 850 nm. Simultaneously, the absorption and attenuation properties, as well as the size distribution function, have been measured. This set of measurements allowed the spectral values of refractive index, and subsequently the volume scattering functions (VSF) of the cells, to be derived, by operating a scattering model previously developed for spherical and homogeneous cells. The backscattering properties, measured within a restricted angular domain (approximately between 132 and 174°), have been compared to theoretical predictions. Although there appear some discrepancies between experimental and predicted values (probably due to experimental errors as well as deviations of actual cells from computational hypotheses), the overall agreement is good; in particular the observed interspecific variations of backscattering values, as well as the backscattering spectral variation typical of each species, are well accounted for by theory. Using the computed VSF, the measured backscattering properties can be converted (assuming spherical and homogeneous cells) into efficiency factors for backscattering ( overlineQbb) . Thhe spectral behavior of overlineQbb appears to be radically different from that for total scattering overlineQb. For small cells, overlineQ (λ) is practically constant over the spectrum, whereas overlineQb(λ) varies approximately according to a power law (λ -2). As the cell size increases, overlineQbb conversely, becomes increasingly featured, whilst overlineQb becomes spectrally flat. The chlorophyll-specific backscattering coefficients ( b b∗ appear highly variable and span nearly two orders of magnitude. The chlorophyll-specific absorption and scattering coefficients, a ∗ and b ∗, are mainly ruled by

  10. PHARUS: A C-band Airborne SAR

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hoogeboom, P.; Koomen, P.J.; Pouwels, H.; Snoeij, P.

    1990-01-01

    In The Netherlands a plan to design aircraft and build a polarimetric C-band SAR system of a novel design, called PHARUS (PHased Array Universal SAR) is carried out by three institutes. These institutes are the Physics and Electronics Laboratory TNO in The Hague (prime contractor and project

  11. Acoustic backscatter at a Red Sea whale shark aggregation site

    KAUST Repository

    Hozumi, Aya; Kaartvedt, Stein; Rø stad, Anders; Berumen, Michael L.; Cochran, Jesse E.M.; Jones, Burton

    2018-01-01

    An aggregation of sexually immature whale sharks occurs at a coastal submerged reef near the Saudi Arabian Red Sea coast each spring. We tested the hypothesis that these megaplanktivores become attracted to a prey biomass peak coinciding with their aggregation. Acoustic backscatter of the water column at 120 kHz and 333 kHz –a proxy for potential prey biomass –was continuously measured spanning the period prior to, during, and subsequent to the seasonal whale shark aggregations. No peak in acoustic backscatter was observed at the time of the aggregation. However, we observed a decrease in acoustic backscatter in the last days of deployment, which coincided the trailing end of whale shark season. Organisms forming the main scattering layer performed inverse diel vertical migration, with backscatter peaking at mid-depths during the day and in the deeper half of the water column at night. Target strength analyses suggested the backscatter was likely composed of fish larvae. Subsurface foraging behavior of the whale sharks within this aggregation has not been described, yet this study does not support the hypothesis that seasonal peaks in local whale shark abundance correspond to similar peaks in prey availability.

  12. Acoustic backscatter at a Red Sea whale shark aggregation site

    KAUST Repository

    Hozumi, Aya

    2018-03-28

    An aggregation of sexually immature whale sharks occurs at a coastal submerged reef near the Saudi Arabian Red Sea coast each spring. We tested the hypothesis that these megaplanktivores become attracted to a prey biomass peak coinciding with their aggregation. Acoustic backscatter of the water column at 120 kHz and 333 kHz –a proxy for potential prey biomass –was continuously measured spanning the period prior to, during, and subsequent to the seasonal whale shark aggregations. No peak in acoustic backscatter was observed at the time of the aggregation. However, we observed a decrease in acoustic backscatter in the last days of deployment, which coincided the trailing end of whale shark season. Organisms forming the main scattering layer performed inverse diel vertical migration, with backscatter peaking at mid-depths during the day and in the deeper half of the water column at night. Target strength analyses suggested the backscatter was likely composed of fish larvae. Subsurface foraging behavior of the whale sharks within this aggregation has not been described, yet this study does not support the hypothesis that seasonal peaks in local whale shark abundance correspond to similar peaks in prey availability.

  13. Accelerated Scientific InSAR Processing, Phase I

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Neva Ridge Technologies proposes to develop a suite of software tools for the analysis of SAR and InSAR data, focused on having a robust and adopted capability well...

  14. Optimal Time Allocation in Backscatter Assisted Wireless Powered Communication Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lyu, Bin; Yang, Zhen; Gui, Guan; Sari, Hikmet

    2017-01-01

    This paper proposes a wireless powered communication network (WPCN) assisted by backscatter communication (BackCom). This model consists of a power station, an information receiver and multiple users that can work in either BackCom mode or harvest-then-transmit (HTT) mode. The time block is mainly divided into two parts corresponding to the data backscattering and transmission periods, respectively. The users first backscatter data to the information receiver in time division multiple access (TDMA) during the data backscattering period. When one user works in the BackCom mode, the other users harvest energy from the power station. During the data transmission period, two schemes, i.e., non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) and TDMA, are considered. To maximize the system throughput, the optimal time allocation policies are obtained. Simulation results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed model. PMID:28587171

  15. Polarimetric SAR image classification based on discriminative dictionary learning model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sang, Cheng Wei; Sun, Hong

    2018-03-01

    Polarimetric SAR (PolSAR) image classification is one of the important applications of PolSAR remote sensing. It is a difficult high-dimension nonlinear mapping problem, the sparse representations based on learning overcomplete dictionary have shown great potential to solve such problem. The overcomplete dictionary plays an important role in PolSAR image classification, however for PolSAR image complex scenes, features shared by different classes will weaken the discrimination of learned dictionary, so as to degrade classification performance. In this paper, we propose a novel overcomplete dictionary learning model to enhance the discrimination of dictionary. The learned overcomplete dictionary by the proposed model is more discriminative and very suitable for PolSAR classification.

  16. Interference phenomena at backscattering by ice crystals of cirrus clouds.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Borovoi, Anatoli; Kustova, Natalia; Konoshonkin, Alexander

    2015-09-21

    It is shown that light backscattering by hexagonal ice crystals of cirrus clouds is formed within the physical-optics approximation by both diffraction and interference phenomena. Diffraction determines the angular width of the backscattering peak and interference produces the interference rings inside the peak. By use of a simple model for distortion of the pristine hexagonal shape, we show that the shape distortion leads to both oscillations of the scattering (Mueller) matrix within the backscattering peak and to a strong increase of the depolarization, color, and lidar ratios needed for interpretation of lidar signals.

  17. Backscatter and attenuation characterization of ventricular myocardium

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gibson, Allyson Ann

    2009-12-01

    This Dissertation presents quantitative ultrasonic measurements of the myocardium in fetal hearts and adult human hearts with the goal of studying the physics of sound waves incident upon anisotropic and inhomogeneous materials. Ultrasound has been used as a clinical tool to assess heart structure and function for several decades. The clinical usefulness of this noninvasive approach has grown with our understanding of the physical mechanisms underlying the interaction of ultrasonic waves with the myocardium. In this Dissertation, integrated backscatter and attenuation analyses were performed on midgestational fetal hearts to assess potential differences in the left and right ventricular myocardium. The hearts were interrogated using a 50 MHz transducer that enabled finer spatial resolution than could be achieved at more typical clinical frequencies. Ultrasonic data analyses demonstrated different patterns and relative levels of backscatter and attenuation from the myocardium of the left ventricle and the right ventricle. Ultrasonic data of adult human hearts were acquired with a clinical imaging system and quantified by their magnitude and time delay of cyclic variation of myocardial backscatter. The results were analyzing using Bayes Classification and ROC analysis to quantify potential advantages of using a combination of two features of cyclic variation of myocardial backscatter over using only one or the other feature to distinguish between groups of subjects. When the subjects were classified based on hemoglobin A1c, the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance, and the ratio of triglyceride to high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, differences in the magnitude and normalized time delay of cyclic variation of myocardial backscatter were observed. The cyclic variation results also suggested a trend toward a larger area under the ROC curve when information from magnitude and time delay of cyclic variation is combined using Bayes classification than when

  18. (Non-) homomorphic approaches to denoise intensity SAR images with non-local means and stochastic distances

    Science.gov (United States)

    Penna, Pedro A. A.; Mascarenhas, Nelson D. A.

    2018-02-01

    The development of new methods to denoise images still attract researchers, who seek to combat the noise with the minimal loss of resolution and details, like edges and fine structures. Many algorithms have the goal to remove additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). However, it is not the only type of noise which interferes in the analysis and interpretation of images. Therefore, it is extremely important to expand the filters capacity to different noise models present in li-terature, for example the multiplicative noise called speckle that is present in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. The state-of-the-art algorithms in remote sensing area work with similarity between patches. This paper aims to develop two approaches using the non local means (NLM), developed for AWGN. In our research, we expanded its capacity for intensity SAR ima-ges speckle. The first approach is grounded on the use of stochastic distances based on the G0 distribution without transforming the data to the logarithm domain, like homomorphic transformation. It takes into account the speckle and backscatter to estimate the parameters necessary to compute the stochastic distances on NLM. The second method uses a priori NLM denoising with a homomorphic transformation and applies the inverse Gamma distribution to estimate the parameters that were used into NLM with stochastic distances. The latter method also presents a new alternative to compute the parameters for the G0 distribution. Finally, this work compares and analyzes the synthetic and real results of the proposed methods with some recent filters of the literature.

  19. Standards for backscattering analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mitchell, I.V.; Eschbach, H.L.

    1978-01-01

    The need for backscattering standards appears to be twofold and depends on the uses and requirements of the users. The first is as a calibrated reference by which samples of a similar nature to the standard may be absolutely compared. The second is as a means of intercomparing the relative results obtained by different laboratories using, as near as possible, identical samples. This type of comparison is of a relative nature and the absolute values are not necessarily required. In the present work the authors try to satisfy both needs by providing identical samples which have been absolutely calibrated to a high accuracy. Very thin copper and vanadium layers were evaporated onto bismuth implanted silicon crystals and on glass plates under carefully controlled conditions. The mass of the deposits was determined in situ using a sensitive UHV microbalance. In addition, two quartz oscillator monitors were used. The samples have been analysed by Rutherford backscattering and the absolute quantity of bismuth determined by a comparison with the known amounts of deposited material. (Auth.)

  20. Satellite SAR interferometric techniques applied to emergency mapping

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stefanova Vassileva, Magdalena; Riccardi, Paolo; Lecci, Daniele; Giulio Tonolo, Fabio; Boccardo Boccardo, Piero; Chiesa, Giuliana; Angeluccetti, Irene

    2017-04-01

    This paper aim to investigate the capabilities of the currently available SAR interferometric algorithms in the field of emergency mapping. Several tests have been performed exploiting the Copernicus Sentinel-1 data using the COTS software ENVI/SARscape 5.3. Emergency Mapping can be defined as "creation of maps, geo-information products and spatial analyses dedicated to providing situational awareness emergency management and immediate crisis information for response by means of extraction of reference (pre-event) and crisis (post-event) geographic information/data from satellite or aerial imagery". The conventional differential SAR interferometric technique (DInSAR) and the two currently available multi-temporal SAR interferometric approaches, i.e. Permanent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) and Small BAseline Subset (SBAS), have been applied to provide crisis information useful for the emergency management activities. Depending on the considered Emergency Management phase, it may be distinguished between rapid mapping, i.e. fast provision of geospatial data regarding the area affected for the immediate emergency response, and monitoring mapping, i.e. detection of phenomena for risk prevention and mitigation activities. In order to evaluate the potential and limitations of the aforementioned SAR interferometric approaches for the specific rapid and monitoring mapping application, five main factors have been taken into account: crisis information extracted, input data required, processing time and expected accuracy. The results highlight that DInSAR has the capacity to delineate areas affected by large and sudden deformations and fulfills most of the immediate response requirements. The main limiting factor of interferometry is the availability of suitable SAR acquisition immediately after the event (e.g. Sentinel-1 mission characterized by 6-day revisiting time may not always satisfy the immediate emergency request). PSI and SBAS techniques are suitable to produce

  1. Forest parameter estimation using polarimetric SAR interferometry techniques at low frequencies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Seung-Kuk

    2013-01-01

    Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (Pol-InSAR) is an active radar remote sensing technique based on the coherent combination of both polarimetric and interferometric observables. The Pol-InSAR technique provided a step forward in quantitative forest parameter estimation. In the last decade, airborne SAR experiments evaluated the potential of Pol-InSAR techniques to estimate forest parameters (e.g., the forest height and biomass) with high accuracy over various local forest test sites. This dissertation addresses the actual status, potentials and limitations of Pol-InSAR inversion techniques for 3-D forest parameter estimations on a global scale using lower frequencies such as L- and P-band. The multi-baseline Pol-InSAR inversion technique is applied to optimize the performance with respect to the actual level of the vertical wave number and to mitigate the impact of temporal decorrelation on the Pol-InSAR forest parameter inversion. Temporal decorrelation is a critical issue for successful Pol-InSAR inversion in the case of repeat-pass Pol-InSAR data, as provided by conventional satellites or airborne SAR systems. Despite the limiting impact of temporal decorrelation in Pol-InSAR inversion, it remains a poorly understood factor in forest height inversion. Therefore, the main goal of this dissertation is to provide a quantitative estimation of the temporal decorrelation effects by using multi-baseline Pol-InSAR data. A new approach to quantify the different temporal decorrelation components is proposed and discussed. Temporal decorrelation coefficients are estimated for temporal baselines ranging from 10 minutes to 54 days and are converted to height inversion errors. In addition, the potential of Pol-InSAR forest parameter estimation techniques is addressed and projected onto future spaceborne system configurations and mission scenarios (Tandem-L and BIOMASS satellite missions at L- and P-band). The impact of the system parameters (e.g., bandwidth

  2. Aerosol backscatter measurements at 10.6 microns with airborne and ground-based CO2 Doppler lidars over the Colorado High Plains. II - Backscatter structure

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bowdle, David A.; Rothermel, Jeffry; Vaughan, J. Michael; Post, Madison J.

    1991-01-01

    Measurements of tropospheric aerosol volume backscatter coefficients at 10.6-microns wavelength were obtained with airborne continuous wave and ground-based pulsed CO2 Doppler lidars over the Colorado High Plains during a 20-day period in summer 1982. A persistent 'background' layer was found between 6- and 10-km altitude, with a generally uniform backscatter mixing ratio of about 10 to the -10th sq m/kg per sr. The upper boundary of this background layer varied with the tropopause height; the lower boundary varied with the strength and diurnal cycle of convective mixing in the planetary boundary layer (PBL). For quiescent meteorological conditions, the transition from the PBL to the background layer was usually very sharp, with backscatter decreases sometimes as large as 3 decades in about 70 m. Sharp gradients were also found at the boundaries of shallow (tens of meters) subvisible cirrus clouds. For less stable conditions, associated with vertical aerosol transport by deep cumuliform clouds, backscatter tended to decrease exponentially with altitude.

  3. Human monoclonal antibody as prophylaxis for SARS coronavirus infection in ferrets

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    ter Meulen, Jan; Bakker, Alexander B. H.; van den Brink, Edward N.; Weverling, Gerrit J.; Martina, Byron E. E.; Haagmans, Bart L.; Kuiken, Thijs; de Kruif, John; Preiser, Wolfgang; Spaan, Willy; Gelderblom, Hans R.; Goudsmit, Jaap; Osterhaus, Albert D. M. E.

    2004-01-01

    SARS coronavirus continues to cause sporadic cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in China. No active or passive immunoprophylaxis for disease induced by SARS coronavirus is available. We investigated prophylaxis of SARS coronavirus infection with a neutralising human monoclonal

  4. Infrastructure monitoring with spaceborne SAR sensors

    CERN Document Server

    ANGHEL, ANDREI; CACOVEANU, REMUS

    2017-01-01

    This book presents a novel non-intrusive infrastructure monitoring technique based on the detection and tracking of scattering centers in spaceborne SAR images. The methodology essentially consists of refocusing each available SAR image on an imposed 3D point cloud associated to the envisaged infrastructure element and identifying the reliable scatterers to be monitored by means of four dimensional (4D) tomography. The methodology described in this book provides a new perspective on infrastructure monitoring with spaceborne SAR images, is based on a standalone processing chain, and brings innovative technical aspects relative to conventional approaches. The book is intended primarily for professionals and researchers working in the area of critical infrastructure monitoring by radar remote sensing.

  5. Backscatter Correction Algorithm for TBI Treatment Conditions

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sanchez-Nieto, B.; Sanchez-Doblado, F.; Arrans, R.; Terron, J.A. [Dpto. Fisiología Médica y Biofísica, Universidad de Sevilla, Avda. Sánchez Pizjuán, 4. E-41009, Sevilla (Spain); Errazquin, L. [Servicio Oncología Radioterápica, Hospital Univ.V. Macarena. Dr. Fedriani, s/n. E-41009, Sevilla (Spain)

    2015-01-15

    The accuracy requirements in target dose delivery is, according to ICRU, ±5%. This is so not only in standard radiotherapy but also in total body irradiation (TBI). Physical dosimetry plays an important role in achieving this recommended level. The semi-infinite phantoms, customarily used for dosimetry purposes, give scatter conditions different to those of the finite thickness of the patient. So dose calculated in patient’s points close to beam exit surface may be overestimated. It is then necessary to quantify the backscatter factor in order to decrease the uncertainty in this dose calculation. The backward scatter has been well studied at standard distances. The present work intends to evaluate the backscatter phenomenon under our particular TBI treatment conditions. As a consequence of this study, a semi-empirical expression has been derived to calculate (within 0.3% uncertainty) the backscatter factor. This factor depends lineally on the depth and exponentially on the underlying tissue. Differences found in the qualitative behavior with respect to standard distances are due to scatter in the bunker wall close to the measurement point.

  6. Geometric calibration of ERS satellite SAR images

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mohr, Johan Jacob; Madsen, Søren Nørvang

    2001-01-01

    Geometric calibration of the European Remote Sensing (ERS) Satellite synthetic aperture radar (SAR) slant range images is important in relation to mapping areas without ground reference points and also in relation to automated processing. The relevant SAR system parameters are discussed...

  7. Investigation on the separability of slums by multi-aspect TerraSAR-X dual-co-polarized high resolution spotlight images based on the multi-scale evaluation of local distributions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schmitt, Andreas; Sieg, Tobias; Wurm, Michael; Taubenböck, Hannes

    2018-02-01

    Following recent advances in distinguishing settlements vs. non-settlement areas from latest SAR data, the question arises whether a further automatic intra-urban delineation and characterization of different structural types is possible. This paper studies the appearance of the structural type ;slums; in high resolution SAR images. Geocoded Kennaugh elements are used as backscatter information and Schmittlet indices as descriptor of local texture. Three cities with a significant share of slums (Cape Town, Manila, Mumbai) are chosen as test sites. These are imaged by TerraSAR-X in the dual-co-polarized high resolution spotlight mode in any available aspect angle. Representative distributions are estimated and fused by a robust approach. Our observations identify a high similarity of slums throughout all three test sites. The derived similarity maps are validated with reference data sets from visual interpretation and ground truth. The final validation strategy is based on completeness and correctness versus other classes in relation to the similarity. High accuracies (up to 87%) in identifying morphologic slums are reached for Cape Town. For Manila (up to 60%) and Mumbai (up to 54%), the distinction is more difficult due to their complex structural configuration. Concluding, high resolution SAR data can be suitable to automatically trace potential locations of slums. Polarimetric information and the incidence angle seem to have a negligible impact on the results whereas the intensity patterns and the passing direction of the satellite are playing a key role. Hence, the combination of intensity images (brightness) acquired from ascending and descending orbits together with Schmittlet indices (spatial pattern) promises best results. The transfer from the automatically recognized physical similarity to the semantic interpretation remains challenging.

  8. Improved SAR Image Coregistration Using Pixel-Offset Series

    KAUST Repository

    Wang, Teng

    2014-03-14

    Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image coregistration is a key procedure before interferometric SAR (InSAR) time-series analysis can be started. However, many geophysical data sets suffer from severe decorrelation problems due to a variety of reasons, making precise coregistration a nontrivial task. Here, we present a new strategy that uses a pixel-offset series of detected subimage patches dominated by point-like targets (PTs) to improve SAR image coregistrations. First, all potentially coherent image pairs are coregistered in a conventional way. In this step, we propose a coregistration quality index for each image to rank its relative “significance” within the data set and to select a reference image for the SAR data set. Then, a pixel-offset series of detected PTs is made from amplitude maps to improve the geometrical mapping functions. Finally, all images are resampled depending on the pixel offsets calculated from the updated geometrical mapping functions. We used images from a rural region near the North Anatolian Fault in eastern Turkey to test the proposed method, and clear coregistration improvements were found based on amplitude stability. This enhanced the fact that the coregistration strategy should therefore lead to improved InSAR time-series analysis results.

  9. Improved SAR Image Coregistration Using Pixel-Offset Series

    KAUST Repository

    Wang, Teng; Jonsson, Sigurjon; Hanssen, Ramon F.

    2014-01-01

    Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image coregistration is a key procedure before interferometric SAR (InSAR) time-series analysis can be started. However, many geophysical data sets suffer from severe decorrelation problems due to a variety of reasons, making precise coregistration a nontrivial task. Here, we present a new strategy that uses a pixel-offset series of detected subimage patches dominated by point-like targets (PTs) to improve SAR image coregistrations. First, all potentially coherent image pairs are coregistered in a conventional way. In this step, we propose a coregistration quality index for each image to rank its relative “significance” within the data set and to select a reference image for the SAR data set. Then, a pixel-offset series of detected PTs is made from amplitude maps to improve the geometrical mapping functions. Finally, all images are resampled depending on the pixel offsets calculated from the updated geometrical mapping functions. We used images from a rural region near the North Anatolian Fault in eastern Turkey to test the proposed method, and clear coregistration improvements were found based on amplitude stability. This enhanced the fact that the coregistration strategy should therefore lead to improved InSAR time-series analysis results.

  10. URBAN MODELLING PERFORMANCE OF NEXT GENERATION SAR MISSIONS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    U. G. Sefercik

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available In synthetic aperture radar (SAR technology, urban mapping and modelling have become possible with revolutionary missions TerraSAR-X (TSX and Cosmo-SkyMed (CSK since 2007. These satellites offer 1m spatial resolution in high-resolution spotlight imaging mode and capable for high quality digital surface model (DSM acquisition for urban areas utilizing interferometric SAR (InSAR technology. With the advantage of independent generation from seasonal weather conditions, TSX and CSK DSMs are much in demand by scientific users. The performance of SAR DSMs is influenced by the distortions such as layover, foreshortening, shadow and double-bounce depend up on imaging geometry. In this study, the potential of DSMs derived from convenient 1m high-resolution spotlight (HS InSAR pairs of CSK and TSX is validated by model-to-model absolute and relative accuracy estimations in an urban area. For the verification, an airborne laser scanning (ALS DSM of the study area was used as the reference model. Results demonstrated that TSX and CSK urban DSMs are compatible in open, built-up and forest land forms with the absolute accuracy of 8–10 m. The relative accuracies based on the coherence of neighbouring pixels are superior to absolute accuracies both for CSK and TSX.

  11. InSAR deformation monitoring of high risk landslides

    Science.gov (United States)

    Singhroy, V.; Li, J.

    2013-05-01

    During the past year there were at least twenty five media reports of landslides and seismic activities some fatal, occurring in various areas in Canada. These high risk geohazards sites requires high resolution monitoring both spatially and temporally for mitigation purposes, since they are near populated areas and energy, transportation and communication corridors. High resolution air photos, lidar and satellite images are quite common in areas where the landslides can be fatal. Radar interferometry (InSAR) techniques using images from several radar satellites are increasingly being used in slope stability assessment. This presentation provides examples of using high-resolution (1-3m) frequent revisits InSAR techniques from RADARSAT 2 and TerraSAR X to monitor several types of high-risk landslides affecting transportation and energy corridors and populated areas. We have analyses over 200 high resolution InSAR images over a three year period on geologically different landslides. The high-resolution InSAR images are effective in characterizing differential motion within these low velocity landslides. The low velocity landslides become high risk during the active wet spring periods. The wet soils are poor coherent targets and corner reflectors provide an effective means of InSAR monitoring the slope activities.

  12. Card controlled beta backscatter thickness measuring instrument

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schlesinger, J.

    1978-01-01

    An improved beta backscatter instrument for the nondestructive measurement of the thickness of thin coatings on a substrate is described. Included therein is the utilization of a bank of memory stored data representative of isotope, substrate, coating material and thickness range characteristics in association with a control card having predetermined indicia thereon selectively representative of a particular isotope, substrate material, coating material and thickness range for conditioning electronic circuit means by memory stored data selected in accord with the predetermined indicia on a control card for converting backscattered beta particle counts into indicia of coating thickness

  13. Multiple scattering wavelength dependent backscattering of kaolin dust in the IR: Measurements and theory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ben-David, Avishai

    1992-01-01

    Knowing the optical properties of aerosol dust is important for designing electro-optical systems and for modeling the effect on propagation of light in the atmosphere. As CO2 lidar technology becomes more advanced and is used for multiwavelength measurements, information on the wavelength dependent backscattering of aerosol dust particles is required. The volume backscattering coefficient of aerosols in the IR is relatively small. Thus, only a few field measurements of backscattering, usually at only a few wavelengths, are reported in the literature. We present spectral field measurements of backscattering of kaolin dust in the 9-11 micron wavelength range. As the quantity of dust increases, multiple scattering contributes more to the measured backscattered signal. The measurements show the effect of the dust quantity of the spectral backscatter measurements. A simple analytical two stream radiative transfer model is applied to confirm the measurements and to give insight to the multiple scattering spectra of backscattering.

  14. Spacial Variation in SAR Images of Different Resolution for Agricultural Fields

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sandholt, Inge; Skriver, Henning

    1999-01-01

    The spatial variation in two types of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images covering agricultural fields is analysed. C-band polarimetric SAR data from the Danish airborne SAR, EMISAR, have been compared to space based ERS-1 C-band SAR with respect to scale and effect of polarization. The general...

  15. hPEPT1 Affinity and Translocation of Selected Gln-Sar and Glu-Sar Dipeptide Derivatives

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Eriksson, A. H.; Elm, Peter L.; Begtrup, Mikael

    2005-01-01

    using 14C-labeled Gly-Sar. Translocation was measured as fluorescence ratios induced by the substrates using the fluorescent probe BCECF and an epifluorescence microscope setup. All compounds showed high affinity to hPEPT1, but only the amides l-Gln(N,N-dimethyl)-Sar and l-Gln(N-piperidinyl)-Sar were...... been suggested. However, these are not necessarily predictive of compounds that are actually translocated by hPEPT1. More information on affinity to and translocation via hPEPT1 of side-chain-modified dipeptides may be gained by conducting a study of selected dipeptide derivatives with variety in size...... translocated by hPEPT1. hPEPT1 is very susceptible to modifications of the N-terminal amino acid side chain of dipeptidomimetic substrates, in terms of achieving compounds with high affinity for the transporter. However, as affinity is not predictive of translocation, derivatization in this position must...

  16. Flood extent and water level estimation from SAR using data-model integration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ajadi, O. A.; Meyer, F. J.

    2017-12-01

    Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images have long been recognized as a valuable data source for flood mapping. Compared to other sources, SAR's weather and illumination independence and large area coverage at high spatial resolution supports reliable, frequent, and detailed observations of developing flood events. Accordingly, SAR has the potential to greatly aid in the near real-time monitoring of natural hazards, such as flood detection, if combined with automated image processing. This research works towards increasing the reliability and temporal sampling of SAR-derived flood hazard information by integrating information from multiple SAR sensors and SAR modalities (images and Interferometric SAR (InSAR) coherence) and by combining SAR-derived change detection information with hydrologic and hydraulic flood forecast models. First, the combination of multi-temporal SAR intensity images and coherence information for generating flood extent maps is introduced. The application of least-squares estimation integrates flood information from multiple SAR sensors, thus increasing the temporal sampling. SAR-based flood extent information will be combined with a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) to reduce false alarms and to estimate water depth and flood volume. The SAR-based flood extent map is assimilated into the Hydrologic Engineering Center River Analysis System (Hec-RAS) model to aid in hydraulic model calibration. The developed technology is improving the accuracy of flood information by exploiting information from data and models. It also provides enhanced flood information to decision-makers supporting the response to flood extent and improving emergency relief efforts.

  17. The experience of SARS-related stigma at Amoy Gardens.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Sing; Chan, Lydia Y Y; Chau, Annie M Y; Kwok, Kathleen P S; Kleinman, Arthur

    2005-11-01

    Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) possesses characteristics that render it particularly prone to stigmatization. SARS-related stigma, despite its salience for public health and stigma research, has had little examination. This study combines survey and case study methods to examine subjective stigma among residents of Amoy Gardens (AG), the first officially recognized site of community outbreak of SARS in Hong Kong. A total of 903 residents of AG completed a self-report questionnaire derived from two focus groups conducted toward the end of the 3-month outbreak. Case studies of two residents who lived in Block E, the heart of the SARS epidemic at AG, complement the survey data. Findings show that stigma affected most residents and took various forms of being shunned, insulted, marginalized, and rejected in the domains of work, interpersonal relationships, use of services and schooling. Stigma was also associated with psychosomatic distress. Residents' strategies for diminishing stigma varied with gender, age, education, occupation, and proximity to perceived risk factors for SARS such as residential location, previous SARS infection and the presence of ex-SARS household members. Residents attributed stigma to government mismanagement, contagiousness of the mysterious SARS virus, and alarmist media reporting. Stigma clearly decreased, but never completely disappeared, after the outbreak. The findings confirm and add to existing knowledge on the varied origins, correlates, and impacts of stigma. They also highlight the synergistic roles of inconsistent health policy responses and risk miscommunication by the media in rapidly amplifying stigma toward an unfamiliar illness. While recognizing the intrinsically stigmatizing nature of public health measures to control SARS, we recommend that a consistent inter-sectoral approach is needed to minimize stigma and to make an effective health response to future outbreaks.

  18. Estimating Elevation Angles From SAR Crosstalk

    Science.gov (United States)

    Freeman, Anthony

    1994-01-01

    Scheme for processing polarimetric synthetic-aperture-radar (SAR) image data yields estimates of elevation angles along radar beam to target resolution cells. By use of estimated elevation angles, measured distances along radar beam to targets (slant ranges), and measured altitude of aircraft carrying SAR equipment, one can estimate height of target terrain in each resolution cell. Monopulselike scheme yields low-resolution topographical data.

  19. MEASURING THE PARTICULATE BACKSCATTERING OF INLAND WATERS: A COMPARISON OF TECHNIQUES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G. Campbell

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available The objective of this work was to examine whether the standard particulate backscattering IOP (Inherent Optical Properties measurement method could be simplified. IOP measurements are essential for parameterising several forms of algorithms used to estimate water quality parameters from airborne and satellite images. Field measurements of the backscattering IOPs are more difficult to make than absorption measurements as correction of the raw Hydroscat-6 backscattering sensor observations is required to allow for the systematic errors associated with the water and water quality parameter absorption. The standard approach involves making simultaneous measurement of the absorption and attenuation of the water with an absorption and attenuation meter (ac-9 or making assumptions about the particulate backscattering probability. Recently, a number of papers have been published that use an alternative method to retrieve the particulate backscattering spectrum by using laboratory measured absorption values and in situ spectroradiometric observations. The alternative method inverts a model of reflectance iteratively using non-linear least squares fitting to solve for the particulate backscattering at 532 nm (bbp0(532 and the particulate backscattering spectral slope (γ. In this paper, eleven observations made at Burdekin Falls Dam, Australia are used to compare the alternative reflectance method to the conventional corrected Hydroscat-6 observations. Assessment of the alternative reflectance method showed that the result of the inversions were highly dependent on the starting conditions. To overcome this limitation, Particle Swarm Optimisation, a stochastic search technique which includes a random element in the search approach, was used. It was found that when compared to the conventionally corrected Hydroscat-6 observations, the alternative reflectance method underestimated bbp0(532 by approximately 50% and overestimated γ by approximately 40

  20. Analytical purpose electron backscattering system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Desdin, L.; Padron, I.; Laria, J.

    1996-01-01

    In this work an analytical purposes electron backscattering system improved at the Center of Applied Studies for Nuclear Development is described. This system can be applied for fast, exact and nondestructive testing of binary and AL/Cu, AL/Ni in alloys and for other applications

  1. SAR Study of Mobile Phones as a function of Antenna Q

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bahramzy, Pevand; Svendsen, Simon; Jagielski, Ole

    2015-01-01

    density associated with high-Q antennas. The higher energy stored in the electric and magnetic near-field components can result in higher SAR. Hence, SAR study of high-Q antennas is necessary which, if not addressed, might not comply with the SAR safety guidelines. In this paper, SAR as a function...

  2. SAR calculation using FDTD simulations

    OpenAIRE

    Ferro, Francisco Nabais; Pinto, Guilherme Taveira; Pinho, Pedro

    2009-01-01

    The main intend of this work, is to determinate the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) on human head tissues exposed to radiation caused by sources of 900 and 1800MHz, since those are the typical frequencies for mobile communications systems nowadays. In order to determinate the SAR, has been used the FDTD (Finite Difference Time Domain), which is a numeric method in time domain, obtained from the Maxwell equations in differential mode. In order to do this, a computational model from the human he...

  3. Power Control for Passive QAM Multisensor Backscatter Communication Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shengbo Hu

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available To achieve good quality of service level such as throughput, power control is of great importance to passive quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM multisensor backscatter communication systems. First, we established the RF energy harvesting model and gave the energy condition. In order to minimize the interference of subcarriers and increase the spectral efficiency, then, the colocated passive QAM backscatter communication signal model is presented and the nonlinear optimization problems of power control are solved for passive QAM backscatter communication systems. Solutions include maximum and minimum access interval, the maximum and minimum duty cycle, and the minimal RF-harvested energy under the energy condition for node operating. Using the solutions above, the maximum throughput of passive QAM backscatter communication systems is analyzed and numerical calculation is made finally. Numerical calculation shows that the maximal throughput decreases with the consumed power and the number of sensors, and the maximum throughput is decreased quickly with the increase of the number of sensors. Especially, for a given consumed power of sensor, it can be seen that the throughput decreases with the duty cycle and the number of sensors has little effect on the throughput.

  4. High-Level Performance Modeling of SAR Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Curtis

    2006-01-01

    SAUSAGE (Still Another Utility for SAR Analysis that s General and Extensible) is a computer program for modeling (see figure) the performance of synthetic- aperture radar (SAR) or interferometric synthetic-aperture radar (InSAR or IFSAR) systems. The user is assumed to be familiar with the basic principles of SAR imaging and interferometry. Given design parameters (e.g., altitude, power, and bandwidth) that characterize a radar system, the software predicts various performance metrics (e.g., signal-to-noise ratio and resolution). SAUSAGE is intended to be a general software tool for quick, high-level evaluation of radar designs; it is not meant to capture all the subtleties, nuances, and particulars of specific systems. SAUSAGE was written to facilitate the exploration of engineering tradeoffs within the multidimensional space of design parameters. Typically, this space is examined through an iterative process of adjusting the values of the design parameters and examining the effects of the adjustments on the overall performance of the system at each iteration. The software is designed to be modular and extensible to enable consideration of a variety of operating modes and antenna beam patterns, including, for example, strip-map and spotlight SAR acquisitions, polarimetry, burst modes, and squinted geometries.

  5. Theoretical Modeling and Analysis of L- and P-band Radar Backscatter Sensitivity to Soil Active Layer Dielectric Variations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jinyang Du

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Freeze-thaw (FT and moisture dynamics within the soil active layer are critical elements of boreal, arctic and alpine ecosystems, and environmental change assessments. We evaluated the potential for detecting dielectric changes within different soil layers using combined L- and P-band radar remote sensing as a prerequisite for detecting FT and moisture profile changes within the soil active layer. A two-layer scattering model was developed and validated for simulating radar responses from vertically inhomogeneous soil. The model simulations indicated that inhomogeneity in the soil dielectric profile contributes to both L- and P-band backscatter, but with greater P-band sensitivity at depth. The difference in L- and P-band responses to soil dielectric profile inhomogeneity appears suitable for detecting associated changes in soil active layer conditions. Additional evaluation using collocated airborne radar (AIRSAR observations and in situ soil moisture measurements over alpine tundra indicates that combined L- and P-band SAR observations are sensitive to soil dielectric profile heterogeneity associated with variations in soil moisture and FT conditions.

  6. Automatic Coregistration for Multiview SAR Images in Urban Areas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xiang, Y.; Kang, W.; Wang, F.; You, H.

    2017-09-01

    Due to the high resolution property and the side-looking mechanism of SAR sensors, complex buildings structures make the registration of SAR images in urban areas becomes very hard. In order to solve the problem, an automatic and robust coregistration approach for multiview high resolution SAR images is proposed in the paper, which consists of three main modules. First, both the reference image and the sensed image are segmented into two parts, urban areas and nonurban areas. Urban areas caused by double or multiple scattering in a SAR image have a tendency to show higher local mean and local variance values compared with general homogeneous regions due to the complex structural information. Based on this criterion, building areas are extracted. After obtaining the target regions, L-shape structures are detected using the SAR phase congruency model and Hough transform. The double bounce scatterings formed by wall and ground are shown as strong L- or T-shapes, which are usually taken as the most reliable indicator for building detection. According to the assumption that buildings are rectangular and flat models, planimetric buildings are delineated using the L-shapes, then the reconstructed target areas are obtained. For the orignal areas and the reconstructed target areas, the SAR-SIFT matching algorithm is implemented. Finally, correct corresponding points are extracted by the fast sample consensus (FSC) and the transformation model is also derived. The experimental results on a pair of multiview TerraSAR images with 1-m resolution show that the proposed approach gives a robust and precise registration performance, compared with the orignal SAR-SIFT method.

  7. 3D Monitoring of Buildings Using TerraSAR-X InSAR, DInSAR and PolSAR Capacities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Flora Weissgerber

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available The rapid expansion of cities increases the need of urban remote sensing for a large scale monitoring. This paper provides greater understanding of how TerraSAR-X (TSX high-resolution abilities enable to reach the spatial precision required to monitor individual buildings, through the use of a 4 year temporal stack of 100 images over Paris (France. Three different SAR modes are investigated for this purpose. First a method involving a whole time-series is proposed to measure realistic heights of buildings. Then, we show that the small wavelength of TSX makes the interferometric products very sensitive to the ordinary building-deformation, and that daily deformation can be measured over the entire building with a centimetric accuracy, and without any a priori on the deformation evolution, even when neglecting the impact of the atmosphere. Deformations up to 4 cm were estimated for the Eiffel Tower and up to 1 cm for other lower buildings. These deformations were analyzed and validated with weather and in situ local data. Finally, four TSX polarimetric images were used to investigate geometric and dielectric properties of buildings under the deterministic framework. Despite of the resolution loss of this mode, the possibility to estimate the structural elements of a building orientations and their relative complexity in the spatial organization are demonstrated.

  8. Unsupervised Multi-Scale Change Detection from SAR Imagery for Monitoring Natural and Anthropogenic Disasters

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ajadi, Olaniyi A.

    Radar remote sensing can play a critical role in operational monitoring of natural and anthropogenic disasters. Despite its all-weather capabilities, and its high performance in mapping, and monitoring of change, the application of radar remote sensing in operational monitoring activities has been limited. This has largely been due to: (1) the historically high costs associated with obtaining radar data; (2) slow data processing, and delivery procedures; and (3) the limited temporal sampling that was provided by spaceborne radar-based satellites. Recent advances in the capabilities of spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensors have developed an environment that now allows for SAR to make significant contributions to disaster monitoring. New SAR processing strategies that can take full advantage of these new sensor capabilities are currently being developed. Hence, with this PhD dissertation, I aim to: (i) investigate unsupervised change detection techniques that can reliably extract signatures from time series of SAR images, and provide the necessary flexibility for application to a variety of natural, and anthropogenic hazard situations; (ii) investigate effective methods to reduce the effects of speckle and other noise on change detection performance; (iii) automate change detection algorithms using probabilistic Bayesian inferencing; and (iv) ensure that the developed technology is applicable to current, and future SAR sensors to maximize temporal sampling of a hazardous event. This is achieved by developing new algorithms that rely on image amplitude information only, the sole image parameter that is available for every single SAR acquisition.. The motivation and implementation of the change detection concept are described in detail in Chapter 3. In the same chapter, I demonstrated the technique's performance using synthetic data as well as a real-data application to map wildfire progression. I applied Radiometric Terrain Correction (RTC) to the data to

  9. Subsidence detection by TerraSAR-X interferometry on a network of natural persistent scatterers and artificial corner reflectors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, Bing; Liu, Guoxiang; Li, Zhilin; Zhang, Rui; Jia, Hongguo; Wang, Xiaowen; Cai, Guolin

    2013-08-01

    The German satellite TerraSAR-X (TSX) is able to provide high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images for mapping surface deformation by the persistent scatterer interferometry (PSI) technique. To extend the application of PSI in detecting subsidence in areas with frequent surface changes, this paper presents a method of TSX PSI on a network of natural persistent scatterers (NPSs) and artificial corner reflectors (CRs) deployed on site. We select a suburban area of southwest Tianjin (China) as the testing site where 16 CRs and 10 leveling points (LPs) are deployed, and utilize 13 TSX images collected over this area between 2009 and 2010 to extract subsidence by the method proposed. Two types of CRs are set around the fishponds and crop parcels. 6 CRs are the conventional ones, i.e., fixed CRs (FCRs), while 10 CRs are the newly-designed ones, i.e., so-called portable CRs (PCRs) with capability of repeatable installation. The numerical analysis shows that the PCRs have the higher temporal stability of radar backscattering than the FCRs, and both of them are better than the NPSs in performance of radar reflectivity. The comparison with the leveling data at the CRs and LPs indicates that the subsidence measurements derived by the TSX PSI method can reach up to a millimeter level accuracy. This demonstrates that the TSX PSI method based on a network of NPSs and CRs is useful for detecting land subsidence in cultivated lands.

  10. NORSE2015 - A Focused Experiment On Oil Emulsion Characterization Using PolSAR During the 2015 Norwegian Oil-On-Water Exercise

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holt, B.; Jones, C. E.; Brekke, C.; Breivik, O.; Skrunes, S.; Espeseth, M.

    2016-02-01

    A targeted experiment in characterizing the properties and development of mineral oil slicks was undertaken by NASA, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway, and the Norwegian Meteorological Institute during the 2015 Norwegian oil-on-water spill exercise in the North Sea (OPV2015). NORSE2015 (Norwegian Radar oil Spill Experiment) involved controlled release of plant oil and mineral emulsions of three different oil-to-water ratios, imaging of the slicks with satellite-borne synthetic aperture radars (SAR), and tracking their development with the NASA-UAVSAR instrument over a period of eight hours following release. During the experiment, in situ measurements were made from ship or aircraft with meteorological instruments, released drift buoys, and optical/IR imagers. The experiment was designed to provide validation data for development of a physical model relating polarization-dependent electromagnetic scattering to the dielectric properties of oil mixed with ocean water in a thick slick or emulsion. UAVSAR is a particularly low noise instrument, which enables detection of oil characteristics, and serves as the basis for a relative comparison of different radar frequencies and instruments in oil slick detection and characterization. The time series of UAVSAR polarimetric SAR (PolSAR) is used to track the spreading, movement, and change in backscatter of the different emulsion slicks and the plant oil, to look at movement relative to wind and wave directions, and to develop methods to differentiate between biogenic and mineral slicks based upon temporal changes in the slicks, including environment-driven changes. In this presentation, the experiment will be described and preliminary results presented. This work was carried out in part at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with NASA. The Norwegian experiment was partly financed by CIRFA - Centre for integrated remote sensing and forecasting for arctic operations.

  11. An analytical solution for improved HIFU SAR estimation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dillon, C R; Vyas, U; Christensen, D A; Roemer, R B; Payne, A

    2012-01-01

    Accurate determination of the specific absorption rates (SARs) present during high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) experiments and treatments provides a solid physical basis for scientific comparison of results among HIFU studies and is necessary to validate and improve SAR predictive software, which will improve patient treatment planning, control and evaluation. This study develops and tests an analytical solution that significantly improves the accuracy of SAR values obtained from HIFU temperature data. SAR estimates are obtained by fitting the analytical temperature solution for a one-dimensional radial Gaussian heating pattern to the temperature versus time data following a step in applied power and evaluating the initial slope of the analytical solution. The analytical method is evaluated in multiple parametric simulations for which it consistently (except at high perfusions) yields maximum errors of less than 10% at the center of the focal zone compared with errors up to 90% and 55% for the commonly used linear method and an exponential method, respectively. For high perfusion, an extension of the analytical method estimates SAR with less than 10% error. The analytical method is validated experimentally by showing that the temperature elevations predicted using the analytical method's SAR values determined for the entire 3D focal region agree well with the experimental temperature elevations in a HIFU-heated tissue-mimicking phantom. (paper)

  12. Mitigating the effect of optical back-scatter in multispectral underwater imaging

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mortazavi, Halleh; Oakley, John P; Barkat, Braham

    2013-01-01

    Multispectral imaging is a very useful technique for extracting information from the underwater world. However, optical back-scatter changes the intensity value in each spectral band and this distorts the estimated spectrum. In this work, a filter is used to detect the level of optical back-scatter in each spectral band from a set of multispectral images. Extraction of underwater object spectra can be done by subtracting the estimated level of optical back-scatter and scaling the remainder in each spectral band from the captured image in the corresponding band. An experiment has been designed to show the performance of the proposed filter for correcting the set of multispectral underwater images and recovering the pixel spectra. The multispectral images are captured by a B/W CCD digital camera with a fast tunable liquid-crystal filter in 33 narrow spectral bands in clear and different levels of turbid water. Reference estimates for the optical back-scatter spectra are found by comparing a clear and a degraded set of multispectral images. The accuracy and consistency of the proposed method, the extended Oakley–Bu cost function, is examined by comparing the estimated values with the reference level of an optical back-scatter spectrum. The same comparison is made for the simple estimation approach. The results show that the simple method is not reliable and fail to estimate the level of optical back-scatter spectrum accurately. The results from processing experimental images in turbid water show that the effect of optical back-scatter can be mitigated in the image of each spectral band and, as a result, the spectra of the object can be recovered. However, for a very high level of turbid water the recovery is limited because of the effect of extinction. (paper)

  13. Relations of SARS-Related Stressors and Coping to Chinese College Students' Psychological Adjustment during the 2003 Beijing SARS Epidemic

    Science.gov (United States)

    Main, Alexandra; Zhou, Qing; Ma, Yue; Luecken, Linda J.; Liu, Xin

    2011-01-01

    This study examined the main and interactive relations of stressors and coping related to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) with Chinese college students' psychological adjustment (psychological symptoms, perceived general health, and life satisfaction) during the 2003 Beijing SARS epidemic. All the constructs were assessed by self-report…

  14. A patient with asymptomatic severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and antigenemia from the 2003-2004 community outbreak of SARS in Guangzhou, China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Che, Xiao-yan; Di, Biao; Zhao, Guo-ping; Wang, Ya-di; Qiu, Li-wen; Hao, Wei; Wang, Ming; Qin, Peng-zhe; Liu, Yu-fei; Chan, Kwok-hong; Cheng, Vincent C C; Yuen, Kwok-yung

    2006-07-01

    An asymptomatic case of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) occurred early in 2004, during a community outbreak of SARS in Guangzhou, China. This was the first time that a case of asymptomatic SARS was noted in an individual with antigenemia and seroconversion. The asymptomatic case patient and the second index case patient with SARS in the 2003-2004 outbreak both worked in the same restaurant, where they served palm civets, which were found to carry SARS-associated coronaviruses. Epidemiological information and laboratory findings suggested that the findings for the patient with asymptomatic infection, together with the findings from previously reported serological analyses of handlers of wild animals and the 4 index case patients from the 2004 community outbreak, reflected a likely intermediate phase of animal-to-human transmission of infection, rather than a case of human-to-human transmission. This intermediate phase may be a critical stage for virus evolution and disease prevention.

  15. Scattering Mechanism Extraction by a Modified Cloude-Pottier Decomposition for Dual Polarization SAR

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kefeng Ji

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Dual polarization is a typical operational mode of polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR. However, few studies have considered the scattering mechanism extraction of dual-polarization SARs. A modified Cloude-Pottier decomposition is proposed to investigate the performance of the scattering mechanism extraction of dual-polarization SARs. It is theoretically demonstrated that only HH-VV SAR can discriminate the three canonical scattering mechanisms from an isotropic surface, horizontal dipole, and isotropic dihedral. Various experiments are conducted using 21 scenes from real datasets acquired by AIRSAR, Convair-580 SAR, EMISAR, E-SAR, Pi-SAR, and RADARSAT-2. Division of the dual-polarization H-α plane is experimentally obtained. The lack of cross-polarization induces the diffusion of scattering mechanisms and their overlap in the HH-VV H-α plane. However, the performance of HH-VV SAR for extracting scattering mechanisms is acceptable. Thus, HH-VV SAR is a suitable alternative to full-polarization SAR in certain cases. Meanwhile, the extraction performance of the other two dual-polarization SARs is badly degraded due to the lack of co-polarization. Therefore, HH-HV and HV-VV SARs cannot effectively extract the scattering mechanisms in the H-α plane.

  16. Toward an optimal inversion method for synthetic aperture radar wind retrieval

    OpenAIRE

    Portabella, M.; Stoffelen, A.; Johannessen, Johnny A.

    2002-01-01

    In recent years, particular efforts have been made to derive wind fields over the oceans from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. In contrast with the scatterometer, the SAR has a higher spatial resolution and therefore has the potential to provide higher resolution wind information. Since there are at least two geophysical parameters (wind speed and wind direction) modulating the single SAR backscatter measurements, the inversion of wind fields from SAR observations has an inherent proble...

  17. Super-virtual Interferometric Separation and Enhancement of Back-scattered Surface Waves

    KAUST Repository

    Guo, Bowen; Hanafy, Sherif; Schuster, Gerard T.

    2015-01-01

    Back-scattered surface waves can be migrated to detect near-surface reflectors with steep dips. A robust surface-wave migration requires the prior separation of the back-scattered surface-wave events from the data. This separation is often difficult

  18. AUTOMATIC COREGISTRATION FOR MULTIVIEW SAR IMAGES IN URBAN AREAS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Y. Xiang

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Due to the high resolution property and the side-looking mechanism of SAR sensors, complex buildings structures make the registration of SAR images in urban areas becomes very hard. In order to solve the problem, an automatic and robust coregistration approach for multiview high resolution SAR images is proposed in the paper, which consists of three main modules. First, both the reference image and the sensed image are segmented into two parts, urban areas and nonurban areas. Urban areas caused by double or multiple scattering in a SAR image have a tendency to show higher local mean and local variance values compared with general homogeneous regions due to the complex structural information. Based on this criterion, building areas are extracted. After obtaining the target regions, L-shape structures are detected using the SAR phase congruency model and Hough transform. The double bounce scatterings formed by wall and ground are shown as strong L- or T-shapes, which are usually taken as the most reliable indicator for building detection. According to the assumption that buildings are rectangular and flat models, planimetric buildings are delineated using the L-shapes, then the reconstructed target areas are obtained. For the orignal areas and the reconstructed target areas, the SAR-SIFT matching algorithm is implemented. Finally, correct corresponding points are extracted by the fast sample consensus (FSC and the transformation model is also derived. The experimental results on a pair of multiview TerraSAR images with 1-m resolution show that the proposed approach gives a robust and precise registration performance, compared with the orignal SAR-SIFT method.

  19. Monitoring of Three Case Studies of Creeping Landslides in Ecuador using L-band SAR Interferometry (InSAR)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mayorga Torres, T. M.; Mohseni Aref, M.

    2015-12-01

    Tannia Mayorga Torres1,21 Universidad Central del Ecuador. Faculty of Geology, Mining, Oil, and Environment 2 Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship 2015-16 IntroductionLandslides lead to human and economic losses across the country, mainly in the winter season. On the other hand, satellite radar data has cost-effective benefits due to open-source software and free availability of data. With the purpose of establishing an early warning system of landslide-related surface deformation, three case studies were designed in the Coast, Sierra (Andean), and Oriente (jungle) regions. The objective of this work was to assess the capability of L-band InSAR to get phase information. For the calculation of the interferograms in Repeat Orbit Interferometry PACkage, the displacement was detected as the error and was corrected. The coherence images (Figure 1) determined that L-band is suitable for InSAR processing. Under this frame, as a first approach, the stacking DInSAR technique [1] was applied in the case studies [2]; however, due to lush vegetation and steep topography, it is necessary to apply advanced InSAR techniques [3]. The purpose of the research is to determine a pattern of data acquisition and successful results to understand the spatial and temporal ground movements associated with landslides. The further work consists of establishing landslide inventories to combine phases of SAR images to generate maps of surface deformation in Tumba-San Francisco and Guarumales to compare the results with ground-based measurements to determine the maps' accuracy. References[1] Sandwell D., Price E. (1998). Phase gradient approach to stacking interferograms. Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 103, N. B12, pp. 30,183-30,204. [2] Mayorga T., Platzeck G. (2014). Using DInSAR as a tool to detect unstable terrain areas in an Andes region in Ecuador. NH3.5-Blue Poster B298, Vol. 16, EGU2014-16203. Austria. [3] Wasowski J., Bovenga F. (2014). Investigating landslides and unstable slopes with

  20. Applications of SAR Interferometry in Earth and Environmental Science Research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Xiaobing; Chang, Ni-Bin; Li, Shusun

    2009-01-01

    This paper provides a review of the progress in regard to the InSAR remote sensing technique and its applications in earth and environmental sciences, especially in the past decade. Basic principles, factors, limits, InSAR sensors, available software packages for the generation of InSAR interferograms were summarized to support future applications. Emphasis was placed on the applications of InSAR in seismology, volcanology, land subsidence/uplift, landslide, glaciology, hydrology, and forestry sciences. It ends with a discussion of future research directions.

  1. Characterizing floodplain evolution by joint analysis of SAR, GOES IR and local precipitation data: Case study of Rio Colorado, Bolivia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koenders, R.; Oyen, A. M.; Weltje, G.; Sarna, K.; Donselaar, R.

    2013-12-01

    Dryland rivers in an endorheic basin experience downstream decrease of channel width and depth as the consequence of transmission losses by percolation and evapo-transpiration. Major changes in the river morphology take place during short peak discharge periods when the volume of water and sediment by far exceeds the river capacity and, as a consequence, meander bends are cut off, and the river path may change position by avulsion. Successive avulsions create a complex network of cross-cutting abandoned river channels. The Río Colorado, located in the southeast part of the Altiplano basin in Bolivia, is such a river system. This system consists of a very low-gradient lacustrine coastal plain onto which is deposited a 400 km2 sheet of fluvial sediment over the last 4000 year. Traditional studies to monitor the morphological changes at the terminus of the river system are based on field data acquisition of the fluvial sediments. This is time consuming and only covers a small area of the total fluvial morphology. The combination of field measurements and remote sensing imagery allows for the analysis of the development of the entire river system terminus at a longer temporal scale. Changes of alluvial surfaces affect the reflectance of objects and patterns on the ground, which is recorded by satellite images. In this study we show the response of the delta to rainfall events of various intensities in the Rio Colorado watershed. We combine precipitation data in the watershed with spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data. We use two data sets that contain precipitation information: rainfall estimates based on Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) weather satellite IR window brightness temperatures and direct measures of rainfall from rain gauges in the vicinity of the delta. To detect changes on the surface water content we use the backscatter intensity or amplitude images from the European Remote Sensing Satellite (ERS) Synthetic Aperture

  2. SARS Risk Perception, Knowledge, Precautions, and Information Sources, the Netherlands

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aro, Arja R.; Oenema, Anke; de Zwart, Onno; Richardus, Jan Hendrik; Bishop, George D.

    2004-01-01

    Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)–related risk perceptions, knowledge, precautionary actions, and information sources were studied in the Netherlands during the 2003 SARS outbreak. Although respondents were highly aware of the SARS outbreak, the outbreak did not result in unnecessary precautionary actions or fears. PMID:15496256

  3. SAR antenna design for ambiguity and multipath suppression

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Christensen, Erik Lintz; Dich, Mikael

    1993-01-01

    A high resolution airborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) has been developed at the Electromagnetics Institute (EMI) for remote sensing applications. The paper considers the radiation of antennas for a SAR system from a systems perspective. The basic specifications of an idealised antenna...... are obtained from the required swath and the azimuth footprint needed for the SAR processing. The radiation from a real antenna causes unwanted signal returns that lead to intensity variations (multipath) and ghost echoes (ambiguity). Additional specifications are deduced by considering these signals...

  4. Backscatter, anisotropy, and polarization of solar hard X-rays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bai, T.; Ramaty, R.

    1978-01-01

    Hard X-rays incident upon the photosphere with energies > or approx. =15 keV have high probabilities of backscatter due to Compton collisions with electrons. This effect has a strong influence on the spectrum, intensity, and polarization of solar hard X-rays - especially for anisotropic models in which the primary X-rays are emitted predominantly toward the photosphere. We have carried out a detailed study of X-ray backscatter, and we have investigated the interrelated problems of anisotropy, polarization, center-to-limb variation of the X-ray spectrum, and Compton backscatter in a coherent fashion. The results of this study are compared with observational data. Because of the large contribution from backscatter, for an anisotropic primary X-ray source which is due to bremsstrahlung of accelerated electrons moving predominantly down toward the photosphere, the observed X-ray flux around 30 keV does not depend significantly on the position of flare on the Sun. For such an anisotropic source, the X-ray spectrum observed in the 15-50 keV range becomes steeper with the increasing heliocentric angle of the flare. These results are compatible with the data. The degree of polarization of the sum of the primary and reflected X-rays with energies between about 15 and 30 keV can be very large for anisotropic primary X-ray sources, but it is less than about 4% for isotropic sources. We also discuss the characteristics of the brightness distribution of the X-ray albedo patch created by the Compton backscatter. The height and anisotropy of the primary hard X-ray source might be inferred from the study of the albedo patch

  5. The relationship between VHF radar auroral backscatter amplitude and Doppler velocity: a statistical study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    B. A. Shand

    Full Text Available A statistical investigation of the relationship between VHF radar auroral backscatter intensity and Doppler velocity has been undertaken with data collected from 8 years operation of the Wick site of the Sweden And Britain Radar-auroral Experiment (SABRE. The results indicate three different regimes within the statistical data set; firstly, for Doppler velocities <200 m s–1, the backscatter intensity (measured in decibels remains relatively constant. Secondly, a linear relationship is observed between the backscatter intensity (in decibels and Doppler velocity for velocities between 200 m s–1 and 700 m s–1. At velocities greater than 700 m s–1 the backscatter intensity saturates at a maximum value as the Doppler velocity increases. There are three possible geophysical mechanisms for the saturation in the backscatter intensity at high phase speeds: a saturation in the irregularity turbulence level, a maximisation of the scattering volume, and a modification of the local ambient electron density. There is also a difference in the dependence of the backscatter intensity on Doppler velocity for the flow towards and away from the radar. The results for flow towards the radar exhibit a consistent relationship between backscatter intensity and measured velocities throughout the solar cycle. For flow away from the radar, however, the relationship between backscatter intensity and Doppler velocity varies during the solar cycle. The geometry of the SABRE system ensures that flow towards the radar is predominantly associated with the eastward electrojet, and flow away is associated with the westward electrojet. The difference in the backscatter intensity variation as a function of Doppler velocity is attributed to asymmetries between the eastward and westward electrojets and the geophysical parameters controlling the backscatter amplitude.

  6. The relationship between VHF radar auroral backscatter amplitude and Doppler velocity: a statistical study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    B. A. Shand

    1996-08-01

    Full Text Available A statistical investigation of the relationship between VHF radar auroral backscatter intensity and Doppler velocity has been undertaken with data collected from 8 years operation of the Wick site of the Sweden And Britain Radar-auroral Experiment (SABRE. The results indicate three different regimes within the statistical data set; firstly, for Doppler velocities <200 m s–1, the backscatter intensity (measured in decibels remains relatively constant. Secondly, a linear relationship is observed between the backscatter intensity (in decibels and Doppler velocity for velocities between 200 m s–1 and 700 m s–1. At velocities greater than 700 m s–1 the backscatter intensity saturates at a maximum value as the Doppler velocity increases. There are three possible geophysical mechanisms for the saturation in the backscatter intensity at high phase speeds: a saturation in the irregularity turbulence level, a maximisation of the scattering volume, and a modification of the local ambient electron density. There is also a difference in the dependence of the backscatter intensity on Doppler velocity for the flow towards and away from the radar. The results for flow towards the radar exhibit a consistent relationship between backscatter intensity and measured velocities throughout the solar cycle. For flow away from the radar, however, the relationship between backscatter intensity and Doppler velocity varies during the solar cycle. The geometry of the SABRE system ensures that flow towards the radar is predominantly associated with the eastward electrojet, and flow away is associated with the westward electrojet. The difference in the backscatter intensity variation as a function of Doppler velocity is attributed to asymmetries between the eastward and westward electrojets and the geophysical parameters controlling the backscatter amplitude.

  7. Bats and SARS

    Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Podcasts

    Bats are a natural reservoir for emerging viruses, among them henipaviruses and rabies virus variants. Dr. Nina Marano, Chief, Geographic Medicine and Health Promotion Branch, Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, CDC, explains connection between horseshoe bats and SARS coronavirus transmission.

  8. Ultrasonic characterization of cancellous bone using apparent integrated backscatter

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hoffmeister, B K [Department of Physics, Rhodes College, 2000 North Parkway, Memphis, TN 38112 (United States); III, C I Jones [Department of Physics, Rhodes College, 2000 North Parkway, Memphis, TN 38112 (United States); Caldwell, G J [Department of Physics, Rhodes College, 2000 North Parkway, Memphis, TN 38112 (United States); Kaste, S C [Department of Diagnostic Imaging, St Jude Children' s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN 38105 (United States)

    2006-06-07

    Apparent integrated backscatter (AIB) is a measure of the frequency-averaged (integrated) backscattered power contained in some portion of a backscattered ultrasonic signal. AIB has been used extensively to study soft tissues, but its usefulness as a tissue characterization technique for cancellous bone has not been demonstrated. To address this, we performed measurements on 17 specimens of cancellous bone over two different frequency ranges using a 1 MHz and 5 MHz broadband ultrasonic transducer. Specimens were obtained from bovine tibiae and prepared in the shape of cubes (15 mm side length) with faces oriented along transverse (anterior, posterior, medial and lateral) and longitudinal (superior and inferior) principal anatomic directions. A mechanical scanning system was used to acquire multiple backscatter signals from each direction for each cube. AIB demonstrated highly significant linear correlations with bone mineral density (BMD) for both the transverse (R{sup 2} = 0.817) and longitudinal (R{sup 2} = 0.488) directions using the 5 MHz transducer. In contrast, the correlations with density were much weaker for the 1 MHz transducer (R{sup 2} = 0.007 transverse, R{sup 2} = 0.228 longitudinal). In all cases where a significant correlation was observed, AIB was found to decrease with increasing BMD.

  9. Research on Airborne SAR Imaging Based on Esc Algorithm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dong, X. T.; Yue, X. J.; Zhao, Y. H.; Han, C. M.

    2017-09-01

    Due to the ability of flexible, accurate, and fast obtaining abundant information, airborne SAR is significant in the field of Earth Observation and many other applications. Optimally the flight paths are straight lines, but in reality it is not the case since some portion of deviation from the ideal path is impossible to avoid. A small disturbance from the ideal line will have a major effect on the signal phase, dramatically deteriorating the quality of SAR images and data. Therefore, to get accurate echo information and radar images, it is essential to measure and compensate for nonlinear motion of antenna trajectories. By means of compensating each flying trajectory to its reference track, MOCO method corrects linear phase error and quadratic phase error caused by nonlinear antenna trajectories. Position and Orientation System (POS) data is applied to acquiring accuracy motion attitudes and spatial positions of antenna phase centre (APC). In this paper, extend chirp scaling algorithm (ECS) is used to deal with echo data of airborne SAR. An experiment is done using VV-Polarization raw data of C-band airborne SAR. The quality evaluations of compensated SAR images and uncompensated SAR images are done in the experiment. The former always performs better than the latter. After MOCO processing, azimuth ambiguity is declined, peak side lobe ratio (PSLR) effectively improves and the resolution of images is improved obviously. The result shows the validity and operability of the imaging process for airborne SAR.

  10. RESEARCH ON AIRBORNE SAR IMAGING BASED ON ESC ALGORITHM

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    X. T. Dong

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Due to the ability of flexible, accurate, and fast obtaining abundant information, airborne SAR is significant in the field of Earth Observation and many other applications. Optimally the flight paths are straight lines, but in reality it is not the case since some portion of deviation from the ideal path is impossible to avoid. A small disturbance from the ideal line will have a major effect on the signal phase, dramatically deteriorating the quality of SAR images and data. Therefore, to get accurate echo information and radar images, it is essential to measure and compensate for nonlinear motion of antenna trajectories. By means of compensating each flying trajectory to its reference track, MOCO method corrects linear phase error and quadratic phase error caused by nonlinear antenna trajectories. Position and Orientation System (POS data is applied to acquiring accuracy motion attitudes and spatial positions of antenna phase centre (APC. In this paper, extend chirp scaling algorithm (ECS is used to deal with echo data of airborne SAR. An experiment is done using VV-Polarization raw data of C-band airborne SAR. The quality evaluations of compensated SAR images and uncompensated SAR images are done in the experiment. The former always performs better than the latter. After MOCO processing, azimuth ambiguity is declined, peak side lobe ratio (PSLR effectively improves and the resolution of images is improved obviously. The result shows the validity and operability of the imaging process for airborne SAR.

  11. Applications of SAR Interferometry in Earth and Environmental Science Research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Xiaobing; Chang, Ni-Bin; Li, Shusun

    2009-01-01

    This paper provides a review of the progress in regard to the InSAR remote sensing technique and its applications in earth and environmental sciences, especially in the past decade. Basic principles, factors, limits, InSAR sensors, available software packages for the generation of InSAR interferograms were summarized to support future applications. Emphasis was placed on the applications of InSAR in seismology, volcanology, land subsidence/uplift, landslide, glaciology, hydrology, and forestry sciences. It ends with a discussion of future research directions. PMID:22573992

  12. Applications of SAR Interferometry in Earth and Environmental Science Research

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiaobing Zhou

    2009-03-01

    Full Text Available This paper provides a review of the progress in regard to the InSAR remote sensing technique and its applications in earth and environmental sciences, especially in the past decade. Basic principles, factors, limits, InSAR sensors, available software packages for the generation of InSAR interferograms were summarized to support future applications. Emphasis was placed on the applications of InSAR in seismology, volcanology, land subsidence/uplift, landslide, glaciology, hydrology, and forestry sciences. It ends with a discussion of future research directions.

  13. Evaluation of the Wishart test statistics for polarimetric SAR data

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Skriver, Henning; Nielsen, Allan Aasbjerg; Conradsen, Knut

    2003-01-01

    A test statistic for equality of two covariance matrices following the complex Wishart distribution has previously been used in new algorithms for change detection, edge detection and segmentation in polarimetric SAR images. Previously, the results for change detection and edge detection have been...... quantitatively evaluated. This paper deals with the evaluation of segmentation. A segmentation performance measure originally developed for single-channel SAR images has been extended to polarimetric SAR images, and used to evaluate segmentation for a merge-using-moment algorithm for polarimetric SAR data....

  14. Effects of Biota on Backscatter: Experiments with the Portable Acoustic Laboratory (PAL)

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Jones, Christopher

    2003-01-01

    .... Monitoring showed a sudden drop in backscatter, but this was short lived. Abundant mysid shrimp appeared to have caused microtopographic changes that quickly raised backscatter intensity to near-background levels...

  15. Mapping Regional Inundation with Spaceborne L-Band SAR

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bruce Chapman

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available Shortly after the launch of ALOS PALSAR L-band SAR by the Japan Space Exploration Agency (JAXA, a program to develop an Earth Science Data Record (ESDR for inundated wetlands was funded by NASA. Using established methodologies, extensive multi-temporal L-band ALOS ScanSAR data acquired bi-monthly by the PALSAR instrument onboard ALOS were used to classify the inundation state for South America for delivery as a component of this Inundated Wetlands ESDR (IW-ESDR and in collaboration with JAXA’s ALOS Kyoto and Carbon Initiative science programme. We describe these methodologies and the final classification of the inundation state, then compared this with results derived from dual-season data acquired by the JERS-1 L-band SAR mission in 1995 and 1996, as well as with estimates of surface water extent measured globally every 10 days by coarser resolution sensors. Good correspondence was found when comparing open water extent classified from multi-temporal ALOS ScanSAR data with surface water fraction identified from coarse resolution sensors, except in those regions where there may be differences in sensitivity to widespread and shallow seasonal flooding event, or in areas that could be excluded through use of a continental-scale inundatable mask. It was found that the ALOS ScanSAR classification of inundated vegetation was relatively insensitive to inundated herbaceous vegetation. Inundation dynamics were examined using the multi-temporal ALOS ScanSAR acquisitions over the Pacaya-Samiria and surrounding areas in the Peruvian Amazon.

  16. New challenges for a SAR toolbox

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Loreaux, P.; Quin, G.

    2013-01-01

    High resolution multi-frequency synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery, available since early 2008, brings all weather capability and day/night operability in support of safeguards verification. Today, a combined approach of high resolution optical and radar imagery in monitoring exercise would enable looking at any area of interest on daily basis. One of the challenges is the co-registration of SAR images acquired with different acquisition mode and also with different optical images. We show in this paper the on-going research work to find a general co-register method and an automatic tool to detect changes. Before having an operational co-register tool, a method to find automatically tie points between SAR images acquired with different acquisition mode and with optical images has to be developed. Concerning an automatic change detection method we can conclude that the study of the Harmonic mean, Geometric mean and Arithmetic mean, enables several applications like change detection for SAR imagery. Thus, we developed the MAGMA (Method for Arithmetic and Geometric Means Analysis) change detection method. As shown in this paper, the MAGMA method improves the Maximum Likelihood techniques like GLRT, using Information-Theory concepts to detect changes between SAR amplitude images. The major improvement consists in a lower false detection rate, especially in low amplitude areas. The second improvement consists in a better location of the changes in clearly delimited areas, which enables precise interpretations. Results presented here reveal the potential of high resolution radar imagery for a baseline description of some sites, change detection based on repeat pass imagery acquisitions and site specific constraints in coherent change detection due to cover conditions. (A.C.)

  17. Correlation and uncertainties evaluation in backscattering of entrance surface air kerma measurements

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Teixeira, G.J.; Sousa, C.H.S.; Peixoto, J.G.P., E-mail: gt@ird.gov.br [Instituto de Radioproteção e Dosimetria (IRD/CNEN-RJ), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil)

    2017-07-01

    The air kerma measurement is important to verify the applied doses in radiodiagnostic. The literature determines some methods to measure the entrance surface air kerma or entrance surface dose but some of this methods may increase the measurement with the backscattering. Were done setups of measurements to do correlations between them. The expanded uncertainty exceeded 5% for measurements with backscattering, reaching 8.36%, while in situations where the backscattering was avoided, the uncertainty was 3.43%. (author)

  18. Wavelet Filter Banks for Super-Resolution SAR Imaging

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sheybani, Ehsan O.; Deshpande, Manohar; Memarsadeghi, Nargess

    2011-01-01

    This paper discusses Innovative wavelet-based filter banks designed to enhance the analysis of super resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images using parametric spectral methods and signal classification algorithms, SAR finds applications In many of NASA's earth science fields such as deformation, ecosystem structure, and dynamics of Ice, snow and cold land processes, and surface water and ocean topography. Traditionally, standard methods such as Fast-Fourier Transform (FFT) and Inverse Fast-Fourier Transform (IFFT) have been used to extract Images from SAR radar data, Due to non-parametric features of these methods and their resolution limitations and observation time dependence, use of spectral estimation and signal pre- and post-processing techniques based on wavelets to process SAR radar data has been proposed. Multi-resolution wavelet transforms and advanced spectral estimation techniques have proven to offer efficient solutions to this problem.

  19. The economic impact of SARS in Beijing, China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beutels, Philippe; Jia, Na; Zhou, Qing-Yi; Smith, Richard; Cao, Wu-Chun; de Vlas, Sake J

    2009-11-01

    To document the impact of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in Beijing on indicators of social and economic activity. Associations between time series of daily and monthly SARS cases and deaths and volume of public train, airplane and cargo transport, tourism, household consumption patterns and gross domestic product growth in Beijing were investigated using the cross-correlation function. Significant correlation coefficients were found for all indicators except wholesale accounts and expenditures on necessities, with the most significant correlations occurring with a delay of 1 day to 1 month. Especially leisure activities, local and international transport and tourism were affected by SARS particularly in May 2003. Much of this consumption was merely postponed; but irrecoverable losses to the tourist sector alone were estimated at about US$ 1.4 bn, or 300 times the cost of treatment for SARS cases in Beijing.

  20. Guided SAR image despeckling with probabilistic non local weights

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gokul, Jithin; Nair, Madhu S.; Rajan, Jeny

    2017-12-01

    SAR images are generally corrupted by granular disturbances called speckle, which makes visual analysis and detail extraction a difficult task. Non Local despeckling techniques with probabilistic similarity has been a recent trend in SAR despeckling. To achieve effective speckle suppression without compromising detail preservation, we propose an improvement for the existing Generalized Guided Filter with Bayesian Non-Local Means (GGF-BNLM) method. The proposed method (Guided SAR Image Despeckling with Probabilistic Non Local Weights) replaces parametric constants based on heuristics in GGF-BNLM method with dynamically derived values based on the image statistics for weight computation. Proposed changes make GGF-BNLM method adaptive and as a result, significant improvement is achieved in terms of performance. Experimental analysis on SAR images shows excellent speckle reduction without compromising feature preservation when compared to GGF-BNLM method. Results are also compared with other state-of-the-art and classic SAR depseckling techniques to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

  1. Prototype Theory Based Feature Representation for PolSAR Images

    OpenAIRE

    Huang Xiaojing; Yang Xiangli; Huang Pingping; Yang Wen

    2016-01-01

    This study presents a new feature representation approach for Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolSAR) image based on prototype theory. First, multiple prototype sets are generated using prototype theory. Then, regularized logistic regression is used to predict similarities between a test sample and each prototype set. Finally, the PolSAR image feature representation is obtained by ensemble projection. Experimental results of an unsupervised classification of PolSAR images show that our...

  2. One carbon metabolism in SAR11 pelagic marine bacteria.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jing Sun

    Full Text Available The SAR11 Alphaproteobacteria are the most abundant heterotrophs in the oceans and are believed to play a major role in mineralizing marine dissolved organic carbon. Their genomes are among the smallest known for free-living heterotrophic cells, raising questions about how they successfully utilize complex organic matter with a limited metabolic repertoire. Here we show that conserved genes in SAR11 subgroup Ia (Candidatus Pelagibacter ubique genomes encode pathways for the oxidation of a variety of one-carbon compounds and methyl functional groups from methylated compounds. These pathways were predicted to produce energy by tetrahydrofolate (THF-mediated oxidation, but not to support the net assimilation of biomass from C1 compounds. Measurements of cellular ATP content and the oxidation of (14C-labeled compounds to (14CO(2 indicated that methanol, formaldehyde, methylamine, and methyl groups from glycine betaine (GBT, trimethylamine (TMA, trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO, and dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP were oxidized by axenic cultures of the SAR11 strain Ca. P. ubique HTCC1062. Analyses of metagenomic data showed that genes for C1 metabolism occur at a high frequency in natural SAR11 populations. In short term incubations, natural communities of Sargasso Sea microbial plankton expressed a potential for the oxidation of (14C-labeled formate, formaldehyde, methanol and TMAO that was similar to cultured SAR11 cells and, like cultured SAR11 cells, incorporated a much larger percentage of pyruvate and glucose (27-35% than of C1 compounds (2-6% into biomass. Collectively, these genomic, cellular and environmental data show a surprising capacity for demethylation and C1 oxidation in SAR11 cultures and in natural microbial communities dominated by SAR11, and support the conclusion that C1 oxidation might be a significant conduit by which dissolved organic carbon is recycled to CO(2 in the upper ocean.

  3. Mapping and monitoring renewable resources with space SAR

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ulaby, F. T.; Brisco, B.; Dobson, M. C.; Moezzi, S.

    1983-01-01

    The SEASAT-A SAR and SIR-A imagery was examined to evaluate the quality and type of information that can be extracted and used to monitor renewable resources on Earth. Two tasks were carried out: (1) a land cover classification study which utilized two sets of imagery acquired by the SEASAT-A SAR, one set by SIR-A, and one LANDSAT set (4 bands); and (2) a change detection to examine differences between pairs of SEASAT-A SAR images and relates them to hydrologic and/or agronomic variations in the scene.

  4. Comparison of SAR calculation algorithms for the finite-difference time-domain method

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Laakso, Ilkka; Uusitupa, Tero; Ilvonen, Sami

    2010-01-01

    Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations of specific-absorption rate (SAR) have several uncertainty factors. For example, significantly varying SAR values may result from the use of different algorithms for determining the SAR from the FDTD electric field. The objective of this paper is to rigorously study the divergence of SAR values due to different SAR calculation algorithms and to examine if some SAR calculation algorithm should be preferred over others. For this purpose, numerical FDTD results are compared to analytical solutions in a one-dimensional layered model and a three-dimensional spherical object. Additionally, the implications of SAR calculation algorithms for dosimetry of anatomically realistic whole-body models are studied. The results show that the trapezium algorithm-based on the trapezium integration rule-is always conservative compared to the analytic solution, making it a good choice for worst-case exposure assessment. In contrast, the mid-ordinate algorithm-named after the mid-ordinate integration rule-usually underestimates the analytic SAR. The linear algorithm-which is approximately a weighted average of the two-seems to be the most accurate choice overall, typically giving the best fit with the shape of the analytic SAR distribution. For anatomically realistic models, the whole-body SAR difference between different algorithms is relatively independent of the used body model, incident direction and polarization of the plane wave. The main factors affecting the difference are cell size and frequency. The choice of the SAR calculation algorithm is an important simulation parameter in high-frequency FDTD SAR calculations, and it should be explained to allow intercomparison of the results between different studies. (note)

  5. Evidence of rock slope breathing using ground-based InSAR

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rouyet, Line; Kristensen, Lene; Derron, Marc-Henri; Michoud, Clément; Blikra, Lars Harald; Jaboyedoff, Michel; Lauknes, Tom Rune

    2017-07-01

    Ground-Based Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (GB-InSAR) campaigns were performed in summer 2011 and 2012 in the Romsdalen valley (Møre & Romsdal county, western Norway) in order to assess displacements on Mannen/Børa rock slope. Located 1 km northwest, a second GB-InSAR system continuously monitors the large Mannen rockslide. The availability of two GB-InSAR positions creates a wide coverage of the rock slope, including a slight dataset overlap valuable for validation. A phenomenon of rock slope breathing is detected in a remote and hard-to-access area in mid-slope. Millimetric upward displacements are recorded in August 2011. Analysis of 2012 GB-InSAR campaign, combined with the large dataset from the continuous station, shows that the slope is affected by inflation/deflation phenomenon between 5 and 10 mm along the line-of-sight. The pattern is not homogenous in time and inversions of movement have a seasonal recurrence. These seasonal changes are confirmed by satellite InSAR observations and can possibly be caused by hydrogeological variations. In addition, combination of GB-InSAR results, in situ measurements and satellite InSAR analyses contributes to a better overview of movement distribution over the whole area.

  6. A framework to quantify uncertainties of seafloor backscatter from swath mapping echosounders

    Science.gov (United States)

    Malik, Mashkoor; Lurton, Xavier; Mayer, Larry

    2018-06-01

    Multibeam echosounders (MBES) have become a widely used acoustic remote sensing tool to map and study the seafloor, providing co-located bathymetry and seafloor backscatter. Although the uncertainty associated with MBES-derived bathymetric data has been studied extensively, the question of backscatter uncertainty has been addressed only minimally and hinders the quantitative use of MBES seafloor backscatter. This paper explores approaches to identifying uncertainty sources associated with MBES-derived backscatter measurements. The major sources of uncertainty are catalogued and the magnitudes of their relative contributions to the backscatter uncertainty budget are evaluated. These major uncertainty sources include seafloor insonified area (1-3 dB), absorption coefficient (up to > 6 dB), random fluctuations in echo level (5.5 dB for a Rayleigh distribution), and sonar calibration (device dependent). The magnitudes of these uncertainty sources vary based on how these effects are compensated for during data acquisition and processing. Various cases (no compensation, partial compensation and full compensation) for seafloor insonified area, transmission losses and random fluctuations were modeled to estimate their uncertainties in different scenarios. Uncertainty related to the seafloor insonified area can be reduced significantly by accounting for seafloor slope during backscatter processing while transmission losses can be constrained by collecting full water column absorption coefficient profiles (temperature and salinity profiles). To reduce random fluctuations to below 1 dB, at least 20 samples are recommended to be used while computing mean values. The estimation of uncertainty in backscatter measurements is constrained by the fact that not all instrumental components are characterized and documented sufficiently for commercially available MBES. Further involvement from manufacturers in providing this essential information is critically required.

  7. Modification of diode characteristics by electron back-scatter from high-atomic-number anodes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mosher, D.; Cooperstein, G.; Rose, D.V.; Swanekamp, S.B.

    1996-01-01

    In high-power vacuum diodes with high-atomic-number anodes, back-scattered electrons alter the vacuum space charge and resulting electron and ion currents. Electron multiple back-scattering was studied through equilibrium solutions of the Poisson equation for 1-dimensional, bipolar diodes in order to predict their early-time behavior. Before ion turn-on, back-scattered electrons from high-Z anodes suppress the diode current by about 10%. After ion turn-on in the same diodes, electron back-scatter leads to substantial enhancements of both the electron and ion currents above the Child-Langmuir values. Current enhancements with ion flow from low-Z anodes are small. (author). 5 figs., 7 refs

  8. Modification of diode characteristics by electron back-scatter from high-atomic-number anodes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mosher, D; Cooperstein, G [Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC (United States); Rose, D V; Swanekamp, S B [JAYCOR, Vienna, VA (United States)

    1997-12-31

    In high-power vacuum diodes with high-atomic-number anodes, back-scattered electrons alter the vacuum space charge and resulting electron and ion currents. Electron multiple back-scattering was studied through equilibrium solutions of the Poisson equation for 1-dimensional, bipolar diodes in order to predict their early-time behavior. Before ion turn-on, back-scattered electrons from high-Z anodes suppress the diode current by about 10%. After ion turn-on in the same diodes, electron back-scatter leads to substantial enhancements of both the electron and ion currents above the Child-Langmuir values. Current enhancements with ion flow from low-Z anodes are small. (author). 5 figs., 7 refs.

  9. Global Rapid Flood Mapping System with Spaceborne SAR Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yun, S. H.; Owen, S. E.; Hua, H.; Agram, P. S.; Fattahi, H.; Liang, C.; Manipon, G.; Fielding, E. J.; Rosen, P. A.; Webb, F.; Simons, M.

    2017-12-01

    As part of the Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis (ARIA) project for Natural Hazards, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and California Institute of Technology, we have developed an automated system that produces derived products for flood extent map generation using spaceborne SAR data. The system takes user's input of area of interest polygons and time window for SAR data search (pre- and post-event). Then the system automatically searches and downloads SAR data, processes them to produce coregistered SAR image pairs, and generates log amplitude ratio images from each pair. Currently the system is automated to support SAR data from the European Space Agency's Sentinel-1A/B satellites. We have used the system to produce flood extent maps from Sentinel-1 SAR data for the May 2017 Sri Lanka floods, which killed more than 200 people and displaced about 600,000 people. Our flood extent maps were delivered to the Red Cross to support response efforts. Earlier we also responded to the historic August 2016 Louisiana floods in the United States, which claimed 13 people's lives and caused over $10 billion property damage. For this event, we made synchronized observations from space, air, and ground in close collaboration with USGS and NOAA. The USGS field crews acquired ground observation data, and NOAA acquired high-resolution airborne optical imagery within the time window of +/-2 hours of the SAR data acquisition by JAXA's ALOS-2 satellite. The USGS coordinates of flood water boundaries were used to calibrate our flood extent map derived from the ALOS-2 SAR data, and the map was delivered to FEMA for estimating the number of households affected. Based on the lessons learned from this response effort, we customized the ARIA system automation for rapid flood mapping and developed a mobile friendly web app that can easily be used in the field for data collection. Rapid automatic generation of SAR-based global flood maps calibrated with independent observations from

  10. Analysis of Spatiotemporal Characteristics of Pandemic SARS Spread in Mainland China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cao, Chunxiang; Chen, Wei; Zheng, Sheng; Zhao, Jian; Wang, Jinfeng; Cao, Wuchun

    2016-01-01

    Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is one of the most severe emerging infectious diseases of the 21st century so far. SARS caused a pandemic that spread throughout mainland China for 7 months, infecting 5318 persons in 194 administrative regions. Using detailed mainland China epidemiological data, we study spatiotemporal aspects of this person-to-person contagious disease and simulate its spatiotemporal transmission dynamics via the Bayesian Maximum Entropy (BME) method. The BME reveals that SARS outbreaks show autocorrelation within certain spatial and temporal distances. We use BME to fit a theoretical covariance model that has a sine hole spatial component and exponential temporal component and obtain the weights of geographical and temporal autocorrelation factors. Using the covariance model, SARS dynamics were estimated and simulated under the most probable conditions. Our study suggests that SARS transmission varies in its epidemiological characteristics and SARS outbreak distributions exhibit palpable clusters on both spatial and temporal scales. In addition, the BME modelling demonstrates that SARS transmission features are affected by spatial heterogeneity, so we analyze potential causes. This may benefit epidemiological control of pandemic infectious diseases.

  11. Optical diagnostics of CO2 laser-fusion targets using backscattered light

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Casperson, D.E.

    1981-01-01

    With the f/2.4 focusing optics on one of the eight Helios CO 2 laser beam lines, direct backscattered light from a variety of glass microballoon targets has been observed. The quantities that have been measured include: (1) the total backscattered energy; (2) relative amplitudes of the backscattered fundamental and low harmonics (n = 1, 2, 3) of the 10.6 μm incident light; (3) the 3/2 harmonic emission from a double pulse backscatter experiment; (4) the temporally resolved 10.6 μm light using a fast pyroelectric detector and a Los Alamos 5-GHz oscilloscope; and (5) the time-integrated spectrally resolved fundamental using a 3/4 meter spectrometer and a high resolution pyroelectric detector array (resolution approx. 40 A at 10.6 μm). The suitability of these diagnostics for evaluating the CO 2 laser plasma in terms of stimulated scattering processes, plasma density gradients, velocity of the critical surface, etc., is discussed

  12. Principles of electron backscattering by solids and thin films

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Niedrig, H.

    1977-01-01

    The parameters concerning the electron backscattering from thin films and solids (atomic scattering cross-section, atomic number, single/multiple scattering, film thickness of self-supporting films and of surface films on bulk substrates, scattering angular distribution, angle of incidence, diffraction effects) are described. Their influence on some important contrast mechanisms in scanning electron microscopy (thickness contrast, Z/material contrast, tilting/topography contrast, orientation contrast) is discussed. The main backscattering electron detection systems are briefly described. (orig.) [de

  13. Polarimetric signatures of sea ice in the Greenland Sea

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Skriver, Henning; Pedersen, Leif Toudal

    1995-01-01

    Polarimetric SAR data of sea ice have been acquired by the Danish polarimetric SAR (EMISAR) during a mission at the Greenland Sea in August 1994. Video recordings from a low-altitude acquisition have been used for interpretation of the SAR data. Also, ERS-1 SAR data and NOAA AVHRR-data have been...

  14. Methodology of dose calculation for the SRS SAR

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Price, J.B.

    1991-07-01

    The Savannah River Site (SRS) Safety Analysis Report (SAR) covering K reactor operation assesses a spectrum of design basis accidents. The assessment includes estimation of the dose consequences from the analyzed accidents. This report discusses the methodology used to perform the dose analysis reported in the SAR and also includes the quantified doses. Doses resulting from postulated design basis reactor accidents in Chapter 15 of the SAR are discussed, as well as an accident in which three percent of the fuel melts. Doses are reported for both atmospheric and aqueous releases. The methodology used to calculate doses from these accidents as reported in the SAR is consistent with NRC guidelines and industry standards. The doses from the design basis accidents for the SRS reactors are below the limits set for commercial reactors by the NRC and also meet industry criteria. A summary of doses for various postulated accidents is provided

  15. Random forest wetland classification using ALOS-2 L-band, RADARSAT-2 C-band, and TerraSAR-X imagery

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mahdianpari, Masoud; Salehi, Bahram; Mohammadimanesh, Fariba; Motagh, Mahdi

    2017-08-01

    Wetlands are important ecosystems around the world, although they are degraded due both to anthropogenic and natural process. Newfoundland is among the richest Canadian province in terms of different wetland classes. Herbaceous wetlands cover extensive areas of the Avalon Peninsula, which are the habitat of a number of animal and plant species. In this study, a novel hierarchical object-based Random Forest (RF) classification approach is proposed for discriminating between different wetland classes in a sub-region located in the north eastern portion of the Avalon Peninsula. Particularly, multi-polarization and multi-frequency SAR data, including X-band TerraSAR-X single polarized (HH), L-band ALOS-2 dual polarized (HH/HV), and C-band RADARSAT-2 fully polarized images, were applied in different classification levels. First, a SAR backscatter analysis of different land cover types was performed by training data and used in Level-I classification to separate water from non-water classes. This was followed by Level-II classification, wherein the water class was further divided into shallow- and deep-water classes, and the non-water class was partitioned into herbaceous and non-herbaceous classes. In Level-III classification, the herbaceous class was further divided into bog, fen, and marsh classes, while the non-herbaceous class was subsequently partitioned into urban, upland, and swamp classes. In Level-II and -III classifications, different polarimetric decomposition approaches, including Cloude-Pottier, Freeman-Durden, Yamaguchi decompositions, and Kennaugh matrix elements were extracted to aid the RF classifier. The overall accuracy and kappa coefficient were determined in each classification level for evaluating the classification results. The importance of input features was also determined using the variable importance obtained by RF. It was found that the Kennaugh matrix elements, Yamaguchi, and Freeman-Durden decompositions were the most important parameters

  16. Characterizing Indian Ocean manganese nodule-bearing seafloor using multi-beam angular backscatter

    Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

    Chakraborty, B.; Kodagali, V.N.

    backscattering in delineating seafloor parameters characteristic of nodule-rich sediments. In this paper, processed Hydrosweep multi-beam backscatter data from 45 spot locations in the CIOB (where nodule samples are available) were analysed to estimate seafloor...

  17. The experimental method of measurement for spatial distribution of full aperture backscatter light by circular PIN-array

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhao Xuefeng; Wang Chuanke; Hu Feng; Kuang Longyu; Wang Zhebin; Li Sanwei; Liu Shengye; Jiang Gang

    2011-01-01

    The spatial distribution of backscatter light is very important for understanding the production of backscatter light. The experimental method of spatial distribution of full aperture backscatter light is based on the circular PIN array composed of concentric orbicular multi-PIN detectors. The image of backscatter light spatial distribution of full aperture SBS is obtained by measuring spatial distribution of full aperture backscatter light using the method in the experiment of laser hohlraum targets interaction at 'Shenguang II'. A preliminary method to measure spatial distribution of full aperture backscatter light is established. (authors)

  18. Demonstrator for Automatic Target Classification in SAR Imagery

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wit, J.J.M. de; Broek, A.C. van den; Dekker, R.J.

    2006-01-01

    Due to the increasing use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition applications, the interest in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems is growing. In order to facilitate the processing of the enormous amount of SAR data on the ground, automatic

  19. SAR image effects on coherence and coherence estimation.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bickel, Douglas Lloyd

    2014-01-01

    Radar coherence is an important concept for imaging radar systems such as synthetic aperture radar (SAR). This document quantifies some of the effects in SAR which modify the coherence. Although these effects can disrupt the coherence within a single SAR image, this report will focus on the coherence between separate images, such as for coherent change detection (CCD) processing. There have been other presentations on aspects of this material in the past. The intent of this report is to bring various issues that affect the coherence together in a single report to support radar engineers in making decisions about these matters.

  20. Phase correction and error estimation in InSAR time series analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Y.; Fattahi, H.; Amelung, F.

    2017-12-01

    During the last decade several InSAR time series approaches have been developed in response to the non-idea acquisition strategy of SAR satellites, such as large spatial and temporal baseline with non-regular acquisitions. The small baseline tubes and regular acquisitions of new SAR satellites such as Sentinel-1 allows us to form fully connected networks of interferograms and simplifies the time series analysis into a weighted least square inversion of an over-determined system. Such robust inversion allows us to focus more on the understanding of different components in InSAR time-series and its uncertainties. We present an open-source python-based package for InSAR time series analysis, called PySAR (https://yunjunz.github.io/PySAR/), with unique functionalities for obtaining unbiased ground displacement time-series, geometrical and atmospheric correction of InSAR data and quantifying the InSAR uncertainty. Our implemented strategy contains several features including: 1) improved spatial coverage using coherence-based network of interferograms, 2) unwrapping error correction using phase closure or bridging, 3) tropospheric delay correction using weather models and empirical approaches, 4) DEM error correction, 5) optimal selection of reference date and automatic outlier detection, 6) InSAR uncertainty due to the residual tropospheric delay, decorrelation and residual DEM error, and 7) variance-covariance matrix of final products for geodetic inversion. We demonstrate the performance using SAR datasets acquired by Cosmo-Skymed and TerraSAR-X, Sentinel-1 and ALOS/ALOS-2, with application on the highly non-linear volcanic deformation in Japan and Ecuador (figure 1). Our result shows precursory deformation before the 2015 eruptions of Cotopaxi volcano, with a maximum uplift of 3.4 cm on the western flank (fig. 1b), with a standard deviation of 0.9 cm (fig. 1a), supporting the finding by Morales-Rivera et al. (2017, GRL); and a post-eruptive subsidence on the same

  1. Fast Superpixel Segmentation Algorithm for PolSAR Images

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhang Yue

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available As a pre-processing technique, superpixel segmentation algorithms should be of high computational efficiency, accurate boundary adherence and regular shape in homogeneous regions. A fast superpixel segmentation algorithm based on Iterative Edge Refinement (IER has shown to be applicable on optical images. However, it is difficult to obtain the ideal results when IER is applied directly to PolSAR images due to the speckle noise and small or slim regions in PolSAR images. To address these problems, in this study, the unstable pixel set is initialized as all the pixels in the PolSAR image instead of the initial grid edge pixels. In the local relabeling of the unstable pixels, the fast revised Wishart distance is utilized instead of the Euclidean distance in CIELAB color space. Then, a post-processing procedure based on dissimilarity measure is empolyed to remove isolated small superpixels as well as to retain the strong point targets. Finally, extensive experiments based on a simulated image and a real-world PolSAR image from Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AirSAR are conducted, showing that the proposed algorithm, compared with three state-of-the-art methods, performs better in terms of several commonly used evaluation criteria with high computational efficiency, accurate boundary adherence, and homogeneous regularity.

  2. Signature-based User Authentication

    OpenAIRE

    Hámorník, Juraj

    2015-01-01

    This work aims on missing handwritten signature authentication in Windows. Result of this work is standalone software that allow users to log into Windows by writing signature. We focus on security of signature authentification and best overall user experience. We implemented signature authentification service that accept signature and return user access token if signature is genuine. Signature authentification is done by comparing given signature to signature patterns by their similarity. Si...

  3. The Danish (Q)SAR Database Update Project

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nikolov, Nikolai Georgiev; Dybdahl, Marianne; Abildgaard Rosenberg, Sine

    2013-01-01

    The Danish (Q)SAR Database is a collection of predictions from quantitative structure–activity relationship ((Q)SAR) models for over 70 environmental and human health-related endpoints (covering biodegradation, metabolism, allergy, irritation, endocrine disruption, teratogenicity, mutagenicity......, carcinogenicity and others), each of them available for 185,000 organic substances. The database has been available online since 2005 (http://qsar.food.dtu.dk). A major update project for the Danish (Q)SAR database is under way, with a new online release planned in the beginning of 2015. The updated version...... will contain more than 600,000 discrete organic structures and new, more precise predictions for all endpoints, derived by consensus algorithms from a number of state-of-the-art individual predictions. Copyright © 2013 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd....

  4. First Image Products from EcoSAR - Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica

    Science.gov (United States)

    Osmanoglu, Batuhan; Lee, SeungKuk; Rincon, Rafael; Fatuyinbo, Lola; Bollian, Tobias; Ranson, Jon

    2016-01-01

    Designed especially for forest ecosystem studies, EcoSAR employs state-of-the-art digital beamforming technology to generate wide-swath, high-resolution imagery. EcoSARs dual antenna single-pass imaging capability eliminates temporal decorrelation from polarimetric and interferometric analysis, increasing the signal strength and simplifying models used to invert forest structure parameters. Antennae are physically separated by 25 meters providing single pass interferometry. In this mode the radar is most sensitive to topography. With 32 active transmit and receive channels, EcoSARs digital beamforming is an order of magnitude more versatile than the digital beamforming employed on the upcoming NISAR mission. EcoSARs long wavelength (P-band, 435 MHz, 69 cm) measurements can be used to simulate data products for ESAs future BIOMASS mission, allowing scientists to develop algorithms before the launch of the satellite. EcoSAR can also be deployed to collect much needed data where BIOMASS satellite wont be allowed to collect data (North America, Europe and Arctic), filling in the gaps to keep a watchful eye on the global carbon cycle. EcoSAR can play a vital role in monitoring, reporting and verification schemes of internationals programs such as UN-REDD (United Nations Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) benefiting global society. EcoSAR was developed and flown with support from NASA Earth Sciences Technology Offices Instrument Incubator Program.

  5. Research on the method of extracting DEM based on GBInSAR

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yue, Jianping; Yue, Shun; Qiu, Zhiwei; Wang, Xueqin; Guo, Leping

    2016-05-01

    Precise topographical information has a very important role in geology, hydrology, natural resources survey and deformation monitoring. The extracting DEM technology based on synthetic aperture radar interferometry (InSAR) obtains the three-dimensional elevation of the target area through the phase information of the radar image data. The technology has large-scale, high-precision, all-weather features. By changing track in the location of the ground radar system up and down, it can form spatial baseline. Then we can achieve the DEM of the target area by acquiring image data from different angles. Three-dimensional laser scanning technology can quickly, efficiently and accurately obtain DEM of target area, which can verify the accuracy of DEM extracted by GBInSAR. But research on GBInSAR in extracting DEM of the target area is a little. For lack of theory and lower accuracy problems in extracting DEM based on GBInSAR now, this article conducted research and analysis on its principle deeply. The article extracted the DEM of the target area, combined with GBInSAR data. Then it compared the DEM obtained by GBInSAR with the DEM obtained by three-dimensional laser scan data and made statistical analysis and normal distribution test. The results showed the DEM obtained by GBInSAR was broadly consistent with the DEM obtained by three-dimensional laser scanning. And its accuracy is high. The difference of both DEM approximately obeys normal distribution. It indicated that extracting the DEM of target area based on GBInSAR is feasible and provided the foundation for the promotion and application of GBInSAR.

  6. The effect of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) on emergency airway management.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wong, Evelyn; Ho, Khoy Kheng

    2006-07-01

    From early March 2003 to late May 2003, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) was detected in Singapore. The increase in workload and new infection control procedures were thought to affect resuscitation and airway management. Our aim was to study the effects of wearing of personal protective equipment (PPE) and powered air-purifying respirator (PAPR) and the restriction in the number of resuscitation personnel on airway management during the SARS crisis. Data was collected prospectively through an ongoing emergency airway registry. The data was divided into three periods: (1) before PPE was instituted from 1 November 2002 to 31 March 2003; (2) during SARS (when PPE use was mandatory) from 1 April to 31 July 2003; (3) post-SARs (when PPE use was non-mandatory but encouraged) from 1 August to 31 March 2004. There was no change in patient demographics during the three periods. There were significant increases in the proportion of resuscitation cases and airway interventions during the SARS period compared to the pre-SARS period. The resident medical officer intubation rate decreased from 45.1% pre-SARS to 35.2% during SARS and 17.7% post-SARS. The complication rates were 10.5%, 9.9% and 9.4% in periods 1-3, respectively. Restriction in the number of healthcare staff attending to each patient may have influenced the department's decision to allow only the most confident or experienced personnel to manage the airway. The exposure of junior medical officers in emergency airway management during SARS and the immediate post-SARS period was decreased. This trend should be monitored further and intervention may be necessary should it continue to decline.

  7. Effect of species structure and dielectric constant on C-band forest backscatter

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lang, R. H.; Landry, R.; Kilic, O.; Chauhan, N.; Khadr, N.; Leckie, D.

    1993-01-01

    A joint experiment between Canadian and USA research teams was conducted early in Oct. 1992 to determine the effect of species structure and dielectric variations on forest backscatter. Two stands, one red pine and one jack pine, in the Petawawa National Forestry Institute (PNFI) were utilized for the experiment. Extensive tree architecture measurements had been taken by the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing (CCRS) several months earlier by employing a Total Station surveying instrument which provides detailed information on branch structure. A second part of the experiment consisted of cutting down several trees and using dielectric probes to measure branch and needle permittivity values at both sites. The dielectric and the tree geometry data were used in the George Washington University (GWU) Vegetation Model to determine the C band backscattering coefficients of the individual stands for VV polarization. The model results show that backscatter at C band comes mainly from the needles and small branches and the upper portion of the trunks acts only as an attenuator. A discussion of variation of backscatter with specie structure and how dielectric variations in needles for both species may affect the total backscatter returns is provided.

  8. Synthetic aperture design for increased SAR image rate

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bielek, Timothy P [Albuquerque, NM; Thompson, Douglas G [Albuqerque, NM; Walker, Bruce C [Albuquerque, NM

    2009-03-03

    High resolution SAR images of a target scene at near video rates can be produced by using overlapped, but nevertheless, full-size synthetic apertures. The SAR images, which respectively correspond to the apertures, can be analyzed in sequence to permit detection of movement in the target scene.

  9. The Danish polarimetric SAR for remote sensing applications

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Christensen, Erik Lintz; Madsen, Søren Nørvang; Dall, Jørgen

    1994-01-01

    Presents the Danish polarimetric SAR system, EMISAR, and the approach taken in the system design to achieve a reliable high performance system. The design and implementation of the antenna system as well as the analog and digital hardware are discussed. The SAR utilises a dual polarised microstri...

  10. SEGMENTATION OF POLARIMETRIC SAR IMAGES USIG WAVELET TRANSFORMATION AND TEXTURE FEATURES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Rezaeian

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolSAR sensors can collect useful observations from earth’s surfaces and phenomena for various remote sensing applications, such as land cover mapping, change and target detection. These data can be acquired without the limitations of weather conditions, sun illumination and dust particles. As result, SAR images, and in particular Polarimetric SAR (PolSAR are powerful tools for various environmental applications. Unlike the optical images, SAR images suffer from the unavoidable speckle, which causes the segmentation of this data difficult. In this paper, we use the wavelet transformation for segmentation of PolSAR images. Our proposed method is based on the multi-resolution analysis of texture features is based on wavelet transformation. Here, we use the information of gray level value and the information of texture. First, we produce coherency or covariance matrices and then generate span image from them. In the next step of proposed method is texture feature extraction from sub-bands is generated from discrete wavelet transform (DWT. Finally, PolSAR image are segmented using clustering methods as fuzzy c-means (FCM and k-means clustering. We have applied the proposed methodology to full polarimetric SAR images acquired by the Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR L-band system, during July, in 2012 over an agricultural area in Winnipeg, Canada.

  11. Segmentation of Polarimetric SAR Images Usig Wavelet Transformation and Texture Features

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rezaeian, A.; Homayouni, S.; Safari, A.

    2015-12-01

    Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolSAR) sensors can collect useful observations from earth's surfaces and phenomena for various remote sensing applications, such as land cover mapping, change and target detection. These data can be acquired without the limitations of weather conditions, sun illumination and dust particles. As result, SAR images, and in particular Polarimetric SAR (PolSAR) are powerful tools for various environmental applications. Unlike the optical images, SAR images suffer from the unavoidable speckle, which causes the segmentation of this data difficult. In this paper, we use the wavelet transformation for segmentation of PolSAR images. Our proposed method is based on the multi-resolution analysis of texture features is based on wavelet transformation. Here, we use the information of gray level value and the information of texture. First, we produce coherency or covariance matrices and then generate span image from them. In the next step of proposed method is texture feature extraction from sub-bands is generated from discrete wavelet transform (DWT). Finally, PolSAR image are segmented using clustering methods as fuzzy c-means (FCM) and k-means clustering. We have applied the proposed methodology to full polarimetric SAR images acquired by the Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) L-band system, during July, in 2012 over an agricultural area in Winnipeg, Canada.

  12. Polarization signatures for abandoned agricultural fields in the Manix Basin area of the Mojave Desert - Can polarimetric SAR detect desertification?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ray, Terrill W.; Farr, Tom G.; Van Zyl, Jakob J.

    1992-01-01

    Radar backscatter from abandoned circular alfalfa fields in the Manix Basin area of the Mojave desert shows systematic changes with length of abandonment. The obliteration of circular planting rows by surface processes could account for the disappearance of bright spokes, which seem to be reflection patterns from remnants of the planting rows, with increasing length of abandonment. An observed shift in the location of the maximum L-band copolarization return away from VV, as well as an increase in surface roughness, both occurring with increasing age of abandonment, seems to be attributable to the formation of wind ripples on the relatively vegetationless fields.

  13. Excretion and detection of SARS coronavirus and its nucleic acid from digestive system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Xin-Wei; Li, Jin-Song; Guo, Ting-Kai; Zhen, Bei; Kong, Qing-Xin; Yi, Bin; Li, Zhong; Song, Nong; Jin, Min; Wu, Xiao-Ming; Xiao, Wen-Jun; Zhu, Xiu-Mei; Gu, Chang-Qing; Yin, Jing; Wei, Wei; Yao, Wei; Liu, Chao; Li, Jian-Feng; Ou, Guo-Rong; Wang, Min-Nian; Fang, Tong-Yu; Wang, Gui-Jie; Qiu, Yao-Hui; Wu, Huai-Huan; Chao, Fu-Huan; Li, Jun-Wen

    2005-01-01

    AIM: To study whether severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) could be excreted from digestive system. METHODS: Cell culture and semi-nested RT-PCR were used to detect SARS-CoV and its RNA from 21 stool and urine samples, and a kind of electropositive filter media particles was used to concentrate the virus in 10 sewage samples from two hospitals receiving SARS patients in Beijing in China. RESULTS: It was demonstrated that there was no live SARS-CoV in all samples collected, but the RNA of SARS-CoV could be detected in seven stool samples from SARS patients with any one of the symptoms of fever, malaise, cough, or dyspnea, in 10 sewage samples before disinfection and 3 samples after disinfection from the two hospitals. The RNA could not be detected in urine and stool samples from patients recovered from SARS. CONCLUSION: Nucleic acid of SARS-CoV can be excreted through the stool of patients into sewage system, and the possibility of SARS-CoV transmitting through digestive system cannot be excluded. PMID:16038039

  14. PSInSAR technology and its use for monitoring of the Earth's surface deformation; Technologia PSInSAR a jej vyuzitie na monitorovanie deformacii zemskeho povrchu

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Batorova, K [Univerzita Komenskeho v Bratislave, Prirodovedecka fakulta, Katedra inzinierskej geologie, 84215 Bratislava (Slovakia)

    2012-04-25

    Method of permanent reflex points (PSInSAR) allows to monitor the time evolution of deformations of the Earth's surface with a millimeter precision. For deformation size determination there are used the maps of movement speed or time delay of line set of data that are obtained by evaluating of SAR images. SAR files must be processed using the basic mathematical calculation presented in the work, with an emphasis on the parameters used in geology. Extensive processing of multiple SAR imagery showed that they can be used during monitoring of the field with an accurate identification of the objects on the Earth's surface, which provide a stable reflection of radar rays transmitted from the satellite. These objects are known as permanent reflection points (PS). PS can be geo-referenced, allowing accurate determination of the movement size of the Earth's surface deformation. In this paper an example of using of PSInSAR technology for monitoring of slope movements on the territory of Slovakia is presented. (authors)

  15. Analysis of Spatiotemporal Characteristics of Pandemic SARS Spread in Mainland China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chunxiang Cao

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS is one of the most severe emerging infectious diseases of the 21st century so far. SARS caused a pandemic that spread throughout mainland China for 7 months, infecting 5318 persons in 194 administrative regions. Using detailed mainland China epidemiological data, we study spatiotemporal aspects of this person-to-person contagious disease and simulate its spatiotemporal transmission dynamics via the Bayesian Maximum Entropy (BME method. The BME reveals that SARS outbreaks show autocorrelation within certain spatial and temporal distances. We use BME to fit a theoretical covariance model that has a sine hole spatial component and exponential temporal component and obtain the weights of geographical and temporal autocorrelation factors. Using the covariance model, SARS dynamics were estimated and simulated under the most probable conditions. Our study suggests that SARS transmission varies in its epidemiological characteristics and SARS outbreak distributions exhibit palpable clusters on both spatial and temporal scales. In addition, the BME modelling demonstrates that SARS transmission features are affected by spatial heterogeneity, so we analyze potential causes. This may benefit epidemiological control of pandemic infectious diseases.

  16. Validation of automated supervised segmentation of multibeam backscatter data from the Chatham Rise, New Zealand

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hillman, Jess I. T.; Lamarche, Geoffroy; Pallentin, Arne; Pecher, Ingo A.; Gorman, Andrew R.; Schneider von Deimling, Jens

    2018-06-01

    Using automated supervised segmentation of multibeam backscatter data to delineate seafloor substrates is a relatively novel technique. Low-frequency multibeam echosounders (MBES), such as the 12-kHz EM120, present particular difficulties since the signal can penetrate several metres into the seafloor, depending on substrate type. We present a case study illustrating how a non-targeted dataset may be used to derive information from multibeam backscatter data regarding distribution of substrate types. The results allow us to assess limitations associated with low frequency MBES where sub-bottom layering is present, and test the accuracy of automated supervised segmentation performed using SonarScope® software. This is done through comparison of predicted and observed substrate from backscatter facies-derived classes and substrate data, reinforced using quantitative statistical analysis based on a confusion matrix. We use sediment samples, video transects and sub-bottom profiles acquired on the Chatham Rise, east of New Zealand. Inferences on the substrate types are made using the Generic Seafloor Acoustic Backscatter (GSAB) model, and the extents of the backscatter classes are delineated by automated supervised segmentation. Correlating substrate data to backscatter classes revealed that backscatter amplitude may correspond to lithologies up to 4 m below the seafloor. Our results emphasise several issues related to substrate characterisation using backscatter classification, primarily because the GSAB model does not only relate to grain size and roughness properties of substrate, but also accounts for other parameters that influence backscatter. Better understanding these limitations allows us to derive first-order interpretations of sediment properties from automated supervised segmentation.

  17. Early appearance of SARS on chest CT scan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cheng Xiaoguang; Feng Suchen; Xia Guoguang; Zhao Tao; Gu Xiang; Qu Hui

    2003-01-01

    Objective: To evaluate the early appearance of SARS on chest CT scan and its role in the early diagnosis. Methods: Forty cases of SARS in keeping with the criteria of the Ministry of Health had chest CT scans within 7 days of onset of symptoms, and CR chest X-ray films were available as well. These chest X-rays and CT images were retrospectively reviewed to determine if there were any abnormalities on the images. The lesions on the chest CT images were then further analyzed in terms of the number, location, size, and density. Results: Positive abnormalities on chest CT scans were revealed in all 40 SARS cases. Positive findings on CR chest films were showed in only 25 cases, equivocal in 6, and normal in 9 cases. The main abnormalities seen on CT and X-rays were pulmonary infiltrations varied markedly in severity. 70 % cases had 1 or 2 lesions on chest CT scan, 30 % cases had 3 or more lesions. The lesions seen on chest CT scan tended to be ground-glass opacification, sometimes with consolidation which was very faint and inhomogeneous, easily missed on chest X-rays. Typically the lesions were located in the periphery of the lung, or both central and peripheral lung, but very rare in a pure central location. They were commonly in the shape of patch or ball. Conclusions: Chest CT scan is much more sensitive in detecting the lesions of the lung in SARS. The early appearance of SARS on chest CT scan is characteristic but non-specific, indicating that chest CT scan plays a very important role in the early diagnosis and differential diagnosis of SARS

  18. Polarization phenomena on coherent particle backscattering by random media

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gorodnichev, E.E.; Dudarev, S.L.; Rogozkin, D.B.

    1990-01-01

    An exact solution is found for the problem of coherent enhanced backscattering of spin 1/2 particles by random media with small-radius scatterers. The polarization features in the angular spectrum are analyzed for particles reflected by three- and two-dimensional disordered systems and by medium with Anderson disorder (periodic system of random scatterers). The analysis is carried out in the case of magnetic and spin-orbit interaction with the scattering centers. The effects predicted have not any analogues on coherent backscattering of light and scalar waves

  19. Slope Superficial Displacement Monitoring by Small Baseline SAR Interferometry Using Data from L-band ALOS PALSAR and X-band TerraSAR: A Case Study of Hong Kong, China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fulong Chen

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available Owing to the development of spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR platforms, and in particular the increase in the availability of multi-source (multi-band and multi-resolution data, it is now feasible to design a surface displacement monitoring application using multi-temporal SAR interferometry (MT-InSAR. Landslides have high socio-economic impacts in many countries because of potential geo-hazards and heavy casualties. In this study, taking into account the merits of ALOS PALSAR (L-band, good coherence preservation and TerraSAR (X-band, high resolution and short revisit times data, we applied an improved small baseline InSAR (SB-InSAR with 3-D phase unwrapping approach, to monitor slope superficial displacement in Hong Kong, China, a mountainous subtropical zone city influenced by over-urbanization and heavy monsoonal rains. Results revealed that the synergistic use of PALSAR and TerraSAR data produces different outcomes in relation to data reliability and spatial-temporal resolution, and hence could be of significant value for a comprehensive understanding and monitoring of unstable slopes.

  20. Selection Algorithm for the CALIPSO Lidar Aerosol Extinction-to-Backscatter Ratio

    Science.gov (United States)

    Omar, Ali H.; Winker, David M.; Vaughan, Mark A.

    2006-01-01

    The extinction-to-backscatter ratio (S(sub a)) is an important parameter used in the determination of the aerosol extinction and subsequently the optical depth from lidar backscatter measurements. We outline the algorithm used to determine Sa for the Cloud and Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Spaceborne Observations (CALIPSO) lidar. S(sub a) for the CALIPSO lidar will either be selected from a look-up table or calculated using the lidar measurements depending on the characteristics of aerosol layer. Whenever suitable lofted layers are encountered, S(sub a) is computed directly from the integrated backscatter and transmittance. In all other cases, the CALIPSO observables: the depolarization ratio, delta, the layer integrated attenuated backscatter, beta, and the mean layer total attenuated color ratio, gamma, together with the surface type, are used to aid in aerosol typing. Once the type is identified, a look-up-table developed primarily from worldwide observations, is used to determine the S(sub a) value. The CALIPSO aerosol models include desert dust, biomass burning, background, polluted continental, polluted dust, and marine aerosols.

  1. Segment-based change detection for polarimetric SAR data

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Skriver, Henning; Nielsen, Allan Aasbjerg; Conradsen, Knut

    2006-01-01

    that is needed compared to single polarisation SAR to provide reliable and robust detection of changes. Polarimetric SAR data will be available from satellites in the near future, e.g. the Japanese ALOS, the Canadian Radarsat-2 and the German TerraSAR-X. An appropriate way of representing multi-look fully...... be split into a number of smaller fields, a building may be removed from or added to some area, hedgerows may be removed/added or other type of vegetated areas may be partly removed or added. In this case, ambiguities may arise when segments have changed shape and extent from one image to another...

  2. Crop Classification Using Short-Revisit Multitemporal SAR Data

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Skriver, Henning; Mattia, Francesco; Satalino, Giuseppe

    2011-01-01

    Classification of crops and other land cover types is an important application of both optical/infrared and SAR satellite data. It is already an import application of present satellite systems, as it will be for planned missions, such as the Sentinels. An airborne SAR data set with a short revisi...

  3. Localized landslide risk assessment with multi pass L band DInSAR analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yun, HyeWon; Rack Kim, Jung; Lin, Shih-Yuan; Choi, YunSoo

    2014-05-01

    In terms of data availability and error correction, landslide forecasting by Differential Interferometric SAR (DInSAR) analysis is not easy task. Especially, the landslides by the anthropogenic construction activities frequently occurred in the localized cutting side of mountainous area. In such circumstances, it is difficult to attain sufficient enough accuracy because of the external factors inducing the error component in electromagnetic wave propagation. For instance, the local climate characteristics such as orographic effect and the proximity to water source can produce the significant anomalies in the water vapor distribution and consequently result in the error components of InSAR phase angle measurements. Moreover the high altitude parts of target area cause the stratified tropospheric delay error in DInSAR measurement. The other obstacle in DInSAR observation over the potential landside site is the vegetation canopy which causes the decorrelation of InSAR phase. Thus rather than C band sensor such as ENVISAT, ERS and RADARSAT, DInSAR analysis with L band ALOS PLASAR is more recommendable. Together with the introduction of L band DInSAR analysis, the improved DInSAR technique to cope all above obstacles is necessary. Thus we employed two approaches i.e. StaMPS/MTI (Stanford Method for Persistent Scatterers/Multi-Temporal InSAR, Hopper et al., 2007) which was newly developed for extracting the reliable deformation values through time series analysis and two pass DInSAR with the error term compensation based on the external weather information in this study. Since the water vapor observation from spaceborne radiometer is not feasible by the temporal gap in this case, the quantities from weather Research Forecasting (WRF) with 1 km spatial resolution was used to address the atmospheric phase error in two pass DInSAR analysis. Also it was observed that base DEM offset with time dependent perpendicular baselines of InSAR time series produce a significant error

  4. Science data collection with polarimetric SAR

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dall, Jørgen; Woelders, Kim; Madsen, Søren Nørvang

    1996-01-01

    Discusses examples on the use of polarimetric SAR in a number of Earth science studies. The studies are presently being conducted by the Danish Center for Remote Sensing. A few studies of the European Space Agency's EMAC programme are also discussed. The Earth science objectives are presented......, and the potential of polarimetric SAR is discussed and illustrated with data collected by the Danish airborne EMISAR system during a number of experiments in 1994 and 1995. The presentation will include samples of data acquired for the different studies...

  5. Potential of TCPInSAR in Monitoring Linear Infrastructure with a Small Dataset of SAR Images: Application of the Donghai Bridge, China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lei Zhang

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Reliably monitoring deformation associated with linear infrastructures, such as long-span bridges, is vitally important to assess their structural health. In this paper, we attempt to employ satellite interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR to map the deformation of Donghai Bridge over a half of an annual cycle. The bridge, as the fourth longest cross-sea bridge in the world, located in the north of Hangzhou Bay, East China Sea where the featureless sea surface largely occupied the radar image raises challenges to accurately co-register the coherent points along the bridge. To tackle the issues due to co-registration and the limited number of synthetic aperture radar (SAR images, we adopt the termed temporarily-coherent point (TCP InSAR (TCPInSAR technique to process the radar images. TCPs that are not necessarily coherent during the whole observation period can be identified within every two SAR acquisitions during the co-registration procedure based on the statistics of azimuth and range offsets. In the process, co-registration is performed only using the offsets of these TCPs, leading to improved interferometric phases and the local Delaunay triangulation is used to construct point pairs to reduce the atmospheric artifacts along the bridge. With the TCPInSAR method the deformation rate along the bridge is estimated with no need of phase unwrapping. The achieved result reveals that the Donghai Bridge suffered a line-of-sight (LOS deformation rate up to −2.3 cm/year from January 2009 to July 2009 at the cable-stayed part, which is likely due to the thermal expansion of cables.

  6. Real Traceable Signatures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chow, Sherman S. M.

    Traceable signature scheme extends a group signature scheme with an enhanced anonymity management mechanism. The group manager can compute a tracing trapdoor which enables anyone to test if a signature is signed by a given misbehaving user, while the only way to do so for group signatures requires revealing the signer of all signatures. Nevertheless, it is not tracing in a strict sense. For all existing schemes, T tracing agents need to recollect all N' signatures ever produced and perform RN' “checks” for R revoked users. This involves a high volume of transfer and computations. Increasing T increases the degree of parallelism for tracing but also the probability of “missing” some signatures in case some of the agents are dishonest.

  7. Detecting and monitoring UCG subsidence with InSAR

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mellors, R J; Foxall, W; Yang, X

    2012-03-23

    The use of interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) to measure surface subsidence caused by Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) is tested. InSAR is a remote sensing technique that uses Synthetic Aperture Radar images to make spatial images of surface deformation and may be deployed from satellite or an airplane. With current commercial satellite data, the technique works best in areas with little vegetation or farming activity. UCG subsidence is generally caused by roof collapse, which adversely affects UCG operations due to gas loss and is therefore important to monitor. Previous studies have demonstrated the usefulness of InSAR in measuring surface subsidence related to coal mining and surface deformation caused by a coal mining roof collapse in Crandall Canyon, Utah is imaged as a proof-of-concept. InSAR data is collected and processed over three known UCG operations including two pilot plants (Majuba, South Africa and Wulanchabu, China) and an operational plant (Angren, Uzbekistan). A clear f eature showing approximately 7 cm of subsidence is observed in the UCG field in Angren. Subsidence is not observed in the other two areas, which produce from deeper coal seams and processed a smaller volume. The results show that in some cases, InSAR is a useful tool to image UCG related subsidence. Data from newer satellites and improved algorithms will improve effectiveness.

  8. Cavitation inception by the backscattering of pressure waves from a bubble interface

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Takahira, Hiroyuki, E-mail: takahira@me.osakafu-u.ac.jp; Ogasawara, Toshiyuki, E-mail: oga@me.osakafu-u.ac.jp; Mori, Naoto, E-mail: su101064@edu.osakafu-u.ac.jp; Tanaka, Moe [Osaka Prefecture University, 1-1 Gakuen-cho, Naka-ku, Sakai-shi, Osaka 599-8531 (Japan)

    2015-10-28

    The secondary cavitation that occurs by the backscattering of focused ultrasound from a primary cavitation bubble caused by the negative pressure part of the ultrasound (Maxwell, et al., 2011) might be useful for the energy exchange due to bubble oscillations in High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU). The present study is concerned with the cavitation inception by the backscattering of ultrasound from a bubble. In the present experiment, a laser-induced bubble which is generated by a pulsed focused laser beam with high intensity is utilized as a primary cavitation bubble. After generating the bubble, focused ultrasound is emitted to the bubble. The acoustic field and the bubble motion are observed with a high-speed video camera. It is confirmed that the secondary cavitation bubble clouds are generated by the backscattering from the laser-induced bubble. The growth of cavitation bubble clouds is analyzed with the image processing method. The experimental results show that the height and width of the bubble clouds grow in stepwise during their evolution. The direct numerical simulations are also conducted for the backscattering of incident pressure waves from a bubble in order to evaluate a pressure field near the bubble. It is shown that the ratio of a bubble collapse time t{sub 0} to a characteristic time of wave propagation t{sub S}, η = t{sub 0}/t{sub s}, is an important determinant for generating negative pressure region by backscattering. The minimum pressure location by the backscattering in simulations is in good agreement with the experiment.

  9. Compton backscattered collmated X-ray source

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ruth, Ronald D.; Huang, Zhirong

    2000-01-01

    A high-intensity, inexpensive and collimated x-ray source for applications such as x-ray lithography is disclosed. An intense pulse from a high power laser, stored in a high-finesse resonator, repetitively collides nearly head-on with and Compton backscatters off a bunched electron beam, having relatively low energy and circulating in a compact storage ring. Both the laser and the electron beams are tightly focused and matched at the interaction region inside the optical resonator. The laser-electron interaction not only gives rise to x-rays at the desired wavelength, but also cools and stabilizes the electrons against intrabeam scattering and Coulomb repulsion with each other in the storage ring. This cooling provides a compact, intense bunch of electrons suitable for many applications. In particular, a sufficient amount of x-rays can be generated by this device to make it an excellent and flexible Compton backscattered x-ray (CBX) source for high throughput x-ray lithography and many other applications.

  10. Compton backscattered collimated x-ray source

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ruth, R.D.; Huang, Z.

    1998-10-20

    A high-intensity, inexpensive and collimated x-ray source is disclosed for applications such as x-ray lithography is disclosed. An intense pulse from a high power laser, stored in a high-finesse resonator, repetitively collides nearly head-on with and Compton backscatters off a bunched electron beam, having relatively low energy and circulating in a compact storage ring. Both the laser and the electron beams are tightly focused and matched at the interaction region inside the optical resonator. The laser-electron interaction not only gives rise to x-rays at the desired wavelength, but also cools and stabilizes the electrons against intrabeam scattering and Coulomb repulsion with each other in the storage ring. This cooling provides a compact, intense bunch of electrons suitable for many applications. In particular, a sufficient amount of x-rays can be generated by this device to make it an excellent and flexible Compton backscattered x-ray (CBX) source for high throughput x-ray lithography and many other applications. 4 figs.

  11. Signature Balancing

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Noordkamp, H.W.; Brink, M. van den

    2006-01-01

    Signatures are an important part of the design of a ship. In an ideal situation, signatures must be as low as possible. However, due to budget constraints it is most unlikely to reach this ideal situation. The arising question is which levels of signatures are optimal given the different scenarios

  12. Backscattering and negative polarization of agglomerate particles.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zubko, Evgenij; Shkuratov, Yuriy; Hart, Matthew; Eversole, Jay; Videen, Gorden

    2003-09-01

    We used the discrete dipole approximation to study the backscattering of agglomerate particles consisting of oblong monomers. We varied the aspect ratio of the monomers from approximately 1 (sphere) to 4, while we kept the total particle volume equivalent to that of an x = 10 sphere for m = 1.59 + i0 and 1.50 + i0 and considered two values of agglomerate packing density: rho = 0.25 and rho = 0.1. We found that these particles do not display a prominent brightness opposition effect but do produce significant negative polarization over a range of near-backscattering angles. Increasing the monomers' aspect ratio can make the negative polarization much more prominent. We have noted also that decreasing m and p can reduce the amplitude of the negative polarization for these particles.

  13. Ocean Classification of Dynamical Structures Detected by SAR and Spectral Methods

    Science.gov (United States)

    Redondo, J. M.; Martinez-Benjamin, J. J.; Tellez, J. D.; Jorge, J.; Diez, M.; Sekula, E.

    2016-08-01

    We discuss a taxonomy of different dynamical features in the ocean surface and provide some eddy and front statistics, as well as describing some events detected by several satellites and even with additional cruise observations and measurements, in the North-west Mediterranean Sea area between 1996 and 2012. The structure of the flows are presented using self-similar traces that may be used to parametrize mixing at both limits of the Rossby Deformation Radius scale, RL. Results show the ability to identify different SAR signatures and at the same time provide calibrations for the different local configurations of vortices, spirals, Langmuir cells, oil spills and tensioactive slicks that eventually allow the study of the self-similar structure of the turbulence. Depending on the surface wind and wave level, and also on the fetch. the bathimetry, the spiral parameters and the resolution of vortical features change. Previous descriptions did not include the new wind and buoyancy features. SAR images also show the turbulence structure of the coastal area and the Regions of Fresh Water Influence (ROFI). It is noteworthy tt such complex coastal field-dependent behavior is strongly influenced by stratification and rotation of the turbulence spectrum is observed only in the range smaller than the local Rossby deformation radius, RL. The measures of diffusivity from buoy or tracer experiments are used to calibrate the behavior of different tracers and pollutants, both natural and man-made in the NW Mediterranean Sea. Thanks to different polarization and intensity levels in ASAR satellite imagery, these can be used to distinguish between natural and man-made sea surface features due to their distinct self-similar and fractal as a function of spill and slick parameters, environmental conditions and history of both oil releases and weather conditions. Eddy diffusivity map derived from SAR measurements of the ocean surface, performing a feature spatial correlation of the

  14. Tropospheric aerosol backscatter background mode at CO2 wavelengths

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rothermel, Jeffry; Bowdle, David A.; Menzies, Robert T.; Post, Madison J.; Vaughan, J. Michael

    1989-01-01

    A comparison is made between three climatologies of backscatter measurements in the troposphere and lower stratosphere at CO2 wavelengths. These were obtained from several locations using ground-based and airborne lidar systems. All three measurement sets show similar features, specifically, a high frequency of occurrence of low backscatter over a limited range of values in the middle and upper atmosphere (the 'background mode'). This background mode is important for the design and performance simulation of the prospective satellite sensors that rely on atmospheric aerosols as scattering targets.

  15. Stimulated Brillouin backscattering losses in weakly inhomogeneous laser-produced plasmas

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Eidmann, K.; Brederlow, G.; Brodmann, R.; Petsch, R.; Sigel, R.; Tsarkiris, G.; Volk, R.; Witkowski, S.

    1979-02-01

    Studies of the reflection from a plane solid target plasma produced with a 1TW iodine laser (lambda = 1.3μm) at pulse durations of 300 ps are presented. The specularly reflected and the backscattered light was observed separately at different angles of incidence, intensities and spot sizes (up to 400 μm). Stimulated Brillouin scattering was identified as the main mechanism for backscattering with saturation at 20 - 30% reflection. (orig.) [de

  16. Performance Analysis for Airborne Interferometric SAR Affected by Flexible Baseline Oscillation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Liu Zhong-sheng

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available The airborne interferometric SAR platform suffers from instability factors, such as air turbulence and mechanical vibrations during flight. Such factors cause the oscillation of the flexible baseline, which leads to significant degradation of the performance of the interferometric SAR system. This study is concerned with the baseline oscillation. First, the error of the slant range model under baseline oscillation conditions is formulated. Then, the SAR complex image signal and dual-channel correlation coefficient are modeled based on the first-order, second-order, and generic slant range error. Subsequently, the impact of the baseline oscillation on the imaging and interferometric performance of the SAR system is analyzed. Finally, simulations of the echo data are used to validate the theoretical analysis of the baseline oscillation in the airborne interferometric SAR.

  17. Space Radar Image of West Texas - SAR scan

    Science.gov (United States)

    1999-01-01

    This radar image of the Midland/Odessa region of West Texas, demonstrates an experimental technique, called ScanSAR, that allows scientists to rapidly image large areas of the Earth's surface. The large image covers an area 245 kilometers by 225 kilometers (152 miles by 139 miles). It was obtained by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) flying aboard the space shuttle Endeavour on October 5, 1994. The smaller inset image is a standard SIR-C image showing a portion of the same area, 100 kilometers by 57 kilometers (62 miles by 35 miles) and was taken during the first flight of SIR-C on April 14, 1994. The bright spots on the right side of the image are the cities of Odessa (left) and Midland (right), Texas. The Pecos River runs from the top center to the bottom center of the image. Along the left side of the image are, from top to bottom, parts of the Guadalupe, Davis and Santiago Mountains. North is toward the upper right. Unlike conventional radar imaging, in which a radar continuously illuminates a single ground swath as the space shuttle passes over the terrain, a Scansar radar illuminates several adjacent ground swaths almost simultaneously, by 'scanning' the radar beam across a large area in a rapid sequence. The adjacent swaths, typically about 50 km (31 miles) wide, are then merged during ground processing to produce a single large scene. Illumination for this L-band scene is from the top of the image. The beams were scanned from the top of the scene to the bottom, as the shuttle flew from left to right. This scene was acquired in about 30 seconds. A normal SIR-C image is acquired in about 13 seconds. The ScanSAR mode will likely be used on future radar sensors to construct regional and possibly global radar images and topographic maps. The ScanSAR processor is being designed for 1996 implementation at NASA's Alaska SAR Facility, located at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and will produce digital images from the

  18. Genomic Characterization of Two Novel SAR11 Isolates From the Red Sea, Including the First Strain of the SAR11 Ib clade

    KAUST Repository

    Jimenez Infante, Francy M.

    2017-06-22

    The SAR11 clade (Pelagibacterales) is a diverse group that forms a monophyletic clade within the Alphaproteobacteria, and constitutes up to one third of all prokaryotic cells in the photic zone of most oceans. Pelagibacterales are very abundant in the warm and highly saline surface waters of the Red Sea, raising the question of adaptive traits of SAR11 populations in this water body and warmer oceans through the world. In this study, two pure cultures were successfully obtained from surface waters on the Red Sea, one isolate of subgroup Ia and one of the previously uncultured SAR11 Ib lineage. The novel genomes were very similar to each other and to genomes of isolates of SAR11 subgroup Ia (Ia pan-genome), both in terms of gene content and synteny. Among the genes that were not present in the Ia pan-genome, 108 (RS39, Ia) and 151 genes (RS40, Ib) were strain-specific. Detailed analyses showed that only 51 (RS39, Ia) and 55 (RS40, Ib) of these strain-specific genes had not reported before on genome fragments of Pelagibacterales. Further analyses revealed the potential production of phosphonates by some SAR11 members and possible adaptations for oligotrophic life, including pentose sugar utilization and adhesion to marine particulate matter.

  19. Genomic Characterization of Two Novel SAR11 Isolates From the Red Sea, Including the First Strain of the SAR11 Ib clade

    KAUST Repository

    Jimenez Infante, Francy M.; Ngugi, David; Vinu, Manikandan; Blom, Jochen; Alam, Intikhab; Bajic, Vladimir B.; Stingl, Ulrich

    2017-01-01

    The SAR11 clade (Pelagibacterales) is a diverse group that forms a monophyletic clade within the Alphaproteobacteria, and constitutes up to one third of all prokaryotic cells in the photic zone of most oceans. Pelagibacterales are very abundant in the warm and highly saline surface waters of the Red Sea, raising the question of adaptive traits of SAR11 populations in this water body and warmer oceans through the world. In this study, two pure cultures were successfully obtained from surface waters on the Red Sea, one isolate of subgroup Ia and one of the previously uncultured SAR11 Ib lineage. The novel genomes were very similar to each other and to genomes of isolates of SAR11 subgroup Ia (Ia pan-genome), both in terms of gene content and synteny. Among the genes that were not present in the Ia pan-genome, 108 (RS39, Ia) and 151 genes (RS40, Ib) were strain-specific. Detailed analyses showed that only 51 (RS39, Ia) and 55 (RS40, Ib) of these strain-specific genes had not reported before on genome fragments of Pelagibacterales. Further analyses revealed the potential production of phosphonates by some SAR11 members and possible adaptations for oligotrophic life, including pentose sugar utilization and adhesion to marine particulate matter.

  20. SAR compliance assessment of PMR 446 and FRS walkie-talkies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vermeeren, Günter; Joseph, Wout; Martens, Luc

    2015-10-01

    The vast amount of studies on radiofrequency dosimetry deal with exposure due to mobile devices and base station antennas for cellular communication systems. This study investigates compliance of walkie-talkies to exposure guidelines established by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection and the Federal Communications Committee. The generic walkie-talkie consisted of a helical antenna and a ground plane and was derived by reverse engineering of a commercial walkie-talkie. Measured and simulated values of antenna characteristics and electromagnetic near fields of the generic walkie-talkie were within 2% and 8%, respectively. We also validated normalized electromagnetic near fields of the generic walkie-talkie against a commercial device and observed a very good agreement (deviation based on magnetic near field. Finally, we found that SAR of commercial devices is within current SAR limits for general public exposure for a worst-case duty cycle of 100%, that is, about 3 times and 6 times lower than the limit on the 1 g SAR (1.6 W/kg) and 10 g SAR (2 W/kg), respectively. But, an effective radiated power as specified by the Private Mobile Radio at 446 MHz (PMR 446) radio standard can cause localized SAR exceeding SAR limits for 1 g of tissue. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  1. Estimating soil moisture using the Danish polarimetric SAR

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jiankang, Ji; Thomsen, A.; Skriver, Henning

    1995-01-01

    The results of applying data from the Danish polarimetric SAR (EMISAR) to estimate soil moisture for bare fields are presented. Fully calibrated C-band SAR images for hh, vv and cross polarizations have been used in this study. The measured surface roughness data showed that classical roughness a...... of surface parameters with the bilinear model, the correlation coefficient between the estimated and measured soil moisture, as well as rms height, is about 0.77. To improve the result, the local incidence angles need to be taken into account......The results of applying data from the Danish polarimetric SAR (EMISAR) to estimate soil moisture for bare fields are presented. Fully calibrated C-band SAR images for hh, vv and cross polarizations have been used in this study. The measured surface roughness data showed that classical roughness...... autocorrelation functions (Gaussian and Exponential) were not able to fit natural surfaces well. A Gauss-Exp hybrid model which agreed better with the measured data has been proposed. Theoretical surface scattering models (POM, IEM), as well as an empirical model for retrieval of soil moisture and surface rms...

  2. A compact Compton backscatter X-ray source for mammography and coronary angiography

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nguyen, D.C.; Kinross-Wright, J.M.; Weber, M.E.; Volz, S.K.; Gierman, S.M.; Hayes, K.; Vernon, W.; Goldstein, D.J.

    1998-01-01

    This is the final report of a three-year, Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The project objective is to generate a large flux of tunable, monochromatic x-rays for use in mammography and coronary angiography. The approach is based on Compton backscattering of an ultraviolet solid-state laser beam against the high-brightness 20-MeV electron beams from a compact linear accelerator. The direct Compton backscatter approach failed to produce a large flux of x-rays due to the low photon flux of the scattering solid-state laser. The authors have modified the design of a compact x-ray source to the new Compton backscattering geometry with use of a regenerative amplifier free-electron laser. They have successfully demonstrated the production of a large flux of infrared photons and a high-brightness electron beam focused in both dimensions for performing Compton backscattering in a regenerative amplifier geometry

  3. A New Empirical Model for Radar Scattering from Bare Soil Surfaces

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nicolas Baghdadi

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available The objective of this paper is to propose a new semi-empirical radar backscattering model for bare soil surfaces based on the Dubois model. A wide dataset of backscattering coefficients extracted from synthetic aperture radar (SAR images and in situ soil surface parameter measurements (moisture content and roughness is used. The retrieval of soil parameters from SAR images remains challenging because the available backscattering models have limited performances. Existing models, physical, semi-empirical, or empirical, do not allow for a reliable estimate of soil surface geophysical parameters for all surface conditions. The proposed model, developed in HH, HV, and VV polarizations, uses a formulation of radar signals based on physical principles that are validated in numerous studies. Never before has a backscattering model been built and validated on such an important dataset as the one proposed in this study. It contains a wide range of incidence angles (18°–57° and radar wavelengths (L, C, X, well distributed, geographically, for regions with different climate conditions (humid, semi-arid, and arid sites, and involving many SAR sensors. The results show that the new model shows a very good performance for different radar wavelengths (L, C, X, incidence angles, and polarizations (RMSE of about 2 dB. This model is easy to invert and could provide a way to improve the retrieval of soil parameters.

  4. SAR11 bacteria linked to ocean anoxia and nitrogen loss

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tsementzi, Despina; Wu, Jieying; Deutsch, Samuel

    2016-01-01

    Bacteria of the SAR11 clade constitute up to one half of all microbial cells in the oxygen-rich surface ocean. SAR11 bacteria are also abundant in oxygen minimum zones (OMZs), where oxygen falls below detection and anaerobic microbes have vital roles in converting bioavailable nitrogen to N2 gas...... activity. These results link SAR11 to pathways of ocean nitrogen loss, redefining the ecological niche of Earth’s most abundant organismal group....

  5. High Resolution Bathymetry and Backscatter of a High-Frequency Test Area

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Flood, Roger

    2001-01-01

    .... This is due to the presence of east-west trending wave-generated ripples with amplitudes of about 15 cm and wavelengths of about 75 cm on the ridge, with backscatter being higher when the sound beams are perpendicular to the ripples. The backscatter patterns on multi beam records may thus be used for determining the presence and orientation of small-scale topographic relief.

  6. On Signal Modeling of Moon-Based Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR Imaging of Earth

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhen Xu

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available The Moon-based Synthetic Aperture Radar (Moon-Based SAR, using the Moon as a platform, has a great potential to offer global-scale coverage of the earth’s surface with a high revisit cycle and is able to meet the scientific requirements for climate change study. However, operating in the lunar orbit, Moon-Based SAR imaging is confined within a complex geometry of the Moon-Based SAR, Moon, and Earth, where both rotation and revolution have effects. The extremely long exposure time of Moon-Based SAR presents a curved moving trajectory and the protracted time-delay in propagation makes the “stop-and-go” assumption no longer valid. Consequently, the conventional SAR imaging technique is no longer valid for Moon-Based SAR. This paper develops a Moon-Based SAR theory in which a signal model is derived. The Doppler parameters in the context of lunar revolution with the removal of ‘stop-and-go’ assumption are first estimated, and then characteristics of Moon-Based SAR imaging’s azimuthal resolution are analyzed. In addition, a signal model of Moon-Based SAR and its two-dimensional (2-D spectrum are further derived. Numerical simulation using point targets validates the signal model and enables Doppler parameter estimation for image focusing.

  7. The Correlation Characteristics of Polarization Backscattering Matrix of Dense Chaff Clouds

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    B. Tang

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available This paper studied the correlation characteristics of the polarization backscattering matrix of the dense chaff cloud with uniform orientation and location distributions in circular symmetry region. Based on the theoretical analysis and numerical experiments, the correlation coefficients of the four elements in the polarization backscattering matrix are obtained, and the results indicate that the cross to co-polar correlation coefficient is still zero; and that the sum of the co-polar cross-correlation coefficient and the two times of linear depolarization ratio equals one. The results are beneficial for better understanding of the backscattering characteristics of dense chaff clouds, and are useful in the application of jamming recognition in radar electronic warfare. Numerical experiments are performed by using the method of moments.

  8. SAR Ambiguity Study for the Cassini Radar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hensley, Scott; Im, Eastwood; Johnson, William T. K.

    1993-01-01

    The Cassini Radar's synthetic aperture radar (SAR) ambiguity analysis is unique with respect to other spaceborne SAR ambiguity analyses owing to the non-orbiting spacecraft trajectory, asymmetric antenna pattern, and burst mode of data collection. By properly varying the pointing, burst mode timing, and radar parameters along the trajectory this study shows that the signal-to-ambiguity ratio of better than 15 dB can be achieved for all images obtained by the Cassini Radar.

  9. Pulse-based internal calibration of polarimetric SAR

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dall, Jørgen; Skou, Niels; Christensen, Erik Lintz

    1994-01-01

    Internal calibration greatly diminishes the dependence on calibration target deployment compared to external calibration. Therefore the Electromagnetics Institute (EMI) at the Technical University of Denmark (TUD) has equipped its polarimetric SAR, EMISAR, with several calibration loops and devel......Internal calibration greatly diminishes the dependence on calibration target deployment compared to external calibration. Therefore the Electromagnetics Institute (EMI) at the Technical University of Denmark (TUD) has equipped its polarimetric SAR, EMISAR, with several calibration loops...

  10. Multi-look polarimetric SAR image filtering using simulated annealing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schou, Jesper

    2000-01-01

    Based on a previously published algorithm capable of estimating the radar cross-section in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) intensity images, a new filter is presented utilizing multi-look polarimetric SAR images. The underlying mean covariance matrix is estimated from the observed sample covariance...

  11. Radio-analysis of hydrogenous material using neutron back-scattering technique

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Holly, Wiam Ahmed Alteghany

    2014-10-01

    In this work, we have explored the possibility of using neutron back-scattering technique in performing radio analysis for samples of hydrogenous materials such as explosives, drugs, crude oil and water, looking for different signals that may be used to discriminate these samples. Monte Carlo simulations were carried out to model the detection system and select the optimal geometry as well. The results were determined in terms of the energy spectra of the back-scattered neutrons.(Author)

  12. RFID tag modification for full depth backscatter modulation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scott, Jeffrey Wayne [Pasco, WA; Pratt, Richard M [Richland, WA

    2010-07-20

    A modulated backscatter radio frequency identification device includes a diode detector configured to selectively modulate a reply signal onto an incoming continuous wave; communications circuitry configured to provide a modulation control signal to the diode detector, the diode detector being configured to modulate the reply signal in response to be modulation control signal; and circuitry configured to increase impedance change at the diode detector which would otherwise not occur because the diode detector rectifies the incoming continuous wave while modulating the reply signal, whereby reducing the rectified signal increases modulation depth by removing the reverse bias effects on impedance changes. Methods of improving depth of modulation in a modulated backscatter radio frequency identification device are also provided.

  13. Standard-target calibration of an acoustic backscatter system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Foote, Kenneth G.; Martini, Marinna A.

    2010-01-01

    The standard-target method used to calibrate scientific echo sounders and other scientific sonars by a single, solid elastic sphere is being adapted to acoustic backscatter (ABS) systems. Its first application, to the AQUAscat 1000, is described. The on-axis sensitivity and directional properties of transducer beams at three operating frequencies, nominally 1, 2.5, and 4 MHz, have been determined using a 10-mm-diameter sphere of tungsten carbide with 6% cobalt binder. Preliminary results are reported for the 1-MHz transducer. Their application to measurements of suspended sediment made in situ with the same device is described. This will enable the data to be expressed directly in physical units of volume backscattering.

  14. The integration of Human Factors (HF) in the SAR process training course text

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ryan, T.G.

    1995-03-01

    This text provides the technical basis for a two-day course on human factors (HF), as applied to the Safety Analysis Report (SAR) process. The overall objective of this text and course is to: provide the participant with a working knowledge of human factors-related requirements, suggestions for doing a human safety analysis applying a graded approach, and an ability to demonstrate using the results of the human safety analysis, that human factors elements as defined by DOE (human factors engineering, procedures, training, oversight, staffing, qualifications), can support wherever necessary, nuclear safety commitments in the SAR. More specifically, the objectives of the text and course are: (1) To provide the SAR preparer with general guidelines for doing HE within the context of a graded approach for the SAR; (2) To sensitize DOE facility managers and staff, safety analysts and SAR preparers, independent reviewers, and DOE reviewers and regulators, to DOE Order 5480.23 requirements for HE in the SAR; (3) To provide managers, analysts, reviewers and regulators with a working knowledge of HE concepts and techniques within the context of a graded approach for the SAR, and (4) To provide SAR managers and DOE reviewers and regulators with general guidelines for monitoring and coordinating the work of preparers of HE inputs throughout the SAR process, and for making decisions regarding the safety relevance of HE inputs to the SAR. As a ready reference for implementing the human factors requirements of DOE Order 5480.22 and DOE Standard 3009-94, this course text and accompanying two-day course are intended for all persons who are involved in the SAR

  15. The integration of Human Factors (HF) in the SAR process training course text

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ryan, T.G.

    1995-03-01

    This text provides the technical basis for a two-day course on human factors (HF), as applied to the Safety Analysis Report (SAR) process. The overall objective of this text and course is to: provide the participant with a working knowledge of human factors-related requirements, suggestions for doing a human safety analysis applying a graded approach, and an ability to demonstrate using the results of the human safety analysis, that human factors elements as defined by DOE (human factors engineering, procedures, training, oversight, staffing, qualifications), can support wherever necessary, nuclear safety commitments in the SAR. More specifically, the objectives of the text and course are: (1) To provide the SAR preparer with general guidelines for doing HE within the context of a graded approach for the SAR; (2) To sensitize DOE facility managers and staff, safety analysts and SAR preparers, independent reviewers, and DOE reviewers and regulators, to DOE Order 5480.23 requirements for HE in the SAR; (3) To provide managers, analysts, reviewers and regulators with a working knowledge of HE concepts and techniques within the context of a graded approach for the SAR, and (4) To provide SAR managers and DOE reviewers and regulators with general guidelines for monitoring and coordinating the work of preparers of HE inputs throughout the SAR process, and for making decisions regarding the safety relevance of HE inputs to the SAR. As a ready reference for implementing the human factors requirements of DOE Order 5480.22 and DOE Standard 3009-94, this course text and accompanying two-day course are intended for all persons who are involved in the SAR.

  16. ISIS 1 measurements of high-frequency backscatter inside the ionosphere

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    James, H.G.

    1989-01-01

    A study has been made of high-frequency backscatter observed by the ISIS 1 topside sounder at orbital heights from approximately 600 to 800 km. Signals are detected during high-latitude passes at radar ranges x of up to about 400 km and at frequencies from about the X mode cutoff at the spacecraft (usually around 5 MHz) up to 10 MHz typically and 18 MHz occasionally. The signals are interpreted as coherent aspect-sensitive scatter. The absolute power of return signals at high latitudes usually varies as x -2 for x ≤ 150 km. This implies that the scattering cross-section density σ is constant for all azimuths about the magnetic field and for ranges out to 150 km or, in other words, that irregularity patches have a constant σ over cross-field dimensions of 300 km. At larger ranges the signal often falls off more sharply with x, indicating azimuthal variations in σ. The cross section scaled from the data using the radar equation is found to have values centered near 10 -8 to 10 -7 m -1 for the most intense signals, referred to an assumed polar-aspect angle sensitivity. However, the magnitude of σ drops by about 2 orders of magnitude in the frequency range 5-15 MHz. Previous statistical studies have established that strong backscatter is restricted to auroral latitudes. Here the polar distribution of backscatter has been plotted for two sets of passes over the south pole, one collected during austral winter and the other during summer. The strongest backscatter is located at invariant latitudes around 80 degree. Backscatter is significantly stronger and distributed more extensively over the polar cap in winter than in summer

  17. Fusion method of SAR and optical images for urban object extraction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jia, Yonghong; Blum, Rick S.; Li, Fangfang

    2007-11-01

    A new image fusion method of SAR, Panchromatic (Pan) and multispectral (MS) data is proposed. First of all, SAR texture is extracted by ratioing the despeckled SAR image to its low pass approximation, and is used to modulate high pass details extracted from the available Pan image by means of the á trous wavelet decomposition. Then, high pass details modulated with the texture is applied to obtain the fusion product by HPFM (High pass Filter-based Modulation) fusion method. A set of image data including co-registered Landsat TM, ENVISAT SAR and SPOT Pan is used for the experiment. The results demonstrate accurate spectral preservation on vegetated regions, bare soil, and also on textured areas (buildings and road network) where SAR texture information enhances the fusion product, and the proposed approach is effective for image interpret and classification.

  18. Classification of Vessels in Single-Pol COSMO-SkyMed Images Based on Statistical and Structural Features

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fan Wu

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available Vessel monitoring is one of the most important maritime applications of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR data. Because of the dihedral reflections between the vessel hull and sea surface and the trihedral reflections among superstructures, vessels usually have strong backscattering in SAR images. Furthermore, in high-resolution SAR images, detailed information on vessel structures can be observed, allowing for vessel classification in high-resolution SAR images. This paper focuses on the feature analysis of merchant vessels, including bulk carriers, container ships and oil tankers, in 3 m resolution COSMO-SkyMed stripmap HIMAGE mode images and proposes a method for vessel classification. After preprocessing, a feature vector is estimated by calculating the average value of the kernel density estimation, three structural features and the mean backscattering coefficient. Support vector machine (SVM classifier is used for the vessel classification, and the results are compared with traditional methods, such as the K-nearest neighbor algorithm (K-NN and minimum distance classifier (MDC. In situ investigations are conducted during the SAR data acquisition. Corresponding Automatic Identification System (AIS reports are also obtained as ground truth to evaluate the effectiveness of the classifier. The preliminary results show that the combination of the average value of the kernel density estimation and mean backscattering coefficient has good ability for classifying the three types of vessels. When adding the three structural features, the results slightly improve. The result of the SVM classifier is better than that of K-NN and MDC. However, the SVM requires more time, when the parameters of the kernel are estimated.

  19. Risk factors for chronic post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in SARS survivors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mak, Ivan Wing Chit; Chu, Chung Ming; Pan, Pey Chyou; Yiu, Michael Gar Chung; Ho, Suzanne C; Chan, Veronica Lee

    2010-01-01

    Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one of the most prevalent long-term psychiatric diagnoses among survivors of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). The objective of this study was to identify the predictors of chronic PTSD in SARS survivors. PTSD at 30 months after the SARS outbreak was assessed by the Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM-IV. Survivors' demographic data, medical information and psychosocial variables were collected for risk factor analysis. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that female gender as well as the presence of chronic medical illnesses diagnosed before the onset of SARS and avascular necrosis were independent predictors of PTSD at 30 months post-SARS. Associated factors included higher-chance external locus of control, higher functional disability and higher average pain intensity. The study of PTSD at 30 months post-SARS showed that the predictive value of acute medical variables may fade out. Our findings do not support some prior hypotheses that the use of high dose corticosteroids is protective against the development of PTSD. On the contrary, the adversity both before and after the SARS outbreak may be more important in hindering recovery from PTSD. The risk factor analysis can not only improve the detection of hidden psychiatric complications but also provide insight for the possible model of care delivery for the SARS survivors. With the complex interaction of the biopsychosocial challenges of SARS, an integrated multidisciplinary clinic setting may be a superior approach in the long-term management of complicated PTSD cases. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  20. Forty-five degree backscattering-mode nonlinear absorption imaging in turbid media.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cui, Liping; Knox, Wayne H

    2010-01-01

    Two-color nonlinear absorption imaging has been previously demonstrated with endogenous contrast of hemoglobin and melanin in turbid media using transmission-mode detection and a dual-laser technology approach. For clinical applications, it would be generally preferable to use backscattering mode detection and a simpler single-laser technology. We demonstrate that imaging in backscattering mode in turbid media using nonlinear absorption can be obtained with as little as 1-mW average power per beam with a single laser source. Images have been achieved with a detector receiving backscattered light at a 45-deg angle relative to the incoming beams' direction. We obtain images of capillary tube phantoms with resolution as high as 20 microm and penetration depth up to 0.9 mm for a 300-microm tube at SNR approximately 1 in calibrated scattering solutions. Simulation results of the backscattering and detection process using nonimaging optics are demonstrated. A Monte Carlo-based method shows that the nonlinear signal drops exponentially as the depth increases, which agrees well with our experimental results. Simulation also shows that with our current detection method, only 2% of the signal is typically collected with a 5-mm-radius detector.

  1. Assessment of Aboveground Woody Biomass Dynamics Using Terrestrial Laser Scanner and L-Band ALOS PALSAR Data in South African Savanna

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Victor Onyango Odipo

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available The use of optical remote sensing data for savanna vegetation structure mapping is hindered by sparse and heterogeneous distribution of vegetation canopy, leading to near-similar spectral signatures among lifeforms. An additional challenge to optical sensors is the high cloud cover and unpredictable weather conditions. Longwave microwave data, with its low sensitivity to clouds addresses some of these problems, but many space borne studies are still limited by low quality structural reference data. Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS derived canopy cover and height metrics can improve aboveground biomass (AGB prediction at both plot and landscape level. To date, few studies have explored the strength of TLS for vegetation structural mapping, and particularly few focusing on savannas. In this study, we evaluate the potential of high resolution TLS-derived canopy cover and height metrics to estimate plot-level aboveground biomass, and to extrapolate to a landscape-wide biomass estimation using multi-temporal L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR within a 9 km2 area savanna in Kruger National Park (KNP. We inventoried 42 field plots in the wet season and computed AGB for each plot using site-specific allometry. Canopy cover, canopy height, and their product were regressed with plot-level AGB over the TLS-footprint, while SAR backscatter was used to model dry season biomass for the years 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010 for the study area. The results from model validation showed a significant linear relationship between TLS-derived predictors with field biomass, p < 0.05 and adjusted R2 ranging between 0.56 for SAR to 0.93 for the TLS-derived canopy cover and height. Log-transformed AGB yielded lower errors with TLS metrics compared with non-transformed AGB. An assessment of the backscatter based on root mean square error (RMSE showed better AGB prediction with cross-polarized (RMSE = 6.6 t/ha as opposed to co-polarized data (RMSE = 6.7 t/ha, attributed to

  2. Laser-based air data system for aircraft control using Raman and elastic backscatter for the measurement of temperature, density, pressure, moisture, and particle backscatter coefficient.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fraczek, Michael; Behrendt, Andreas; Schmitt, Nikolaus

    2012-01-10

    Flight safety in all weather conditions demands exact and reliable determination of flight-critical air parameters. Air speed, temperature, density, and pressure are essential for aircraft control. Conventional air data systems can be impacted by probe failure caused by mechanical damage from hail, volcanic ash, and icing. While optical air speed measurement methods have been discussed elsewhere, in this paper, a new concept for optically measuring the air temperature, density, pressure, moisture, and particle backscatter is presented, being independent on assumptions on the atmospheric state and eliminating the drawbacks of conventional aircraft probes by providing a different measurement principle. The concept is based on a laser emitting laser pulses into the atmosphere through a window and detecting the signals backscattered from a fixed region just outside the disturbed area of the fuselage flows. With four receiver channels, different spectral portions of the backscattered light are extracted. The measurement principle of air temperature and density is based on extracting two signals out of the rotational Raman (RR) backscatter signal of air molecules. For measuring the water vapor mixing ratio-and thus the density of the moist air-a water vapor Raman channel is included. The fourth channel serves to detect the elastic backscatter signal, which is essential for extending the measurements into clouds. This channel contributes to the detection of aerosols, which is interesting for developing a future volcanic ash warning system for aircraft. Detailed and realistic optimization and performance calculations have been performed based on the parameters of a first prototype of such a measurement system. The impact and correction of systematic error sources, such as solar background at daytime and elastic signal cross talk appearing in optically dense clouds, have been investigated. The results of the simulations show the high potential of the proposed system for

  3. Analysis of seafloor backscatter strength dependence on the survey azimuth using multibeam echosounder data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lurton, Xavier; Eleftherakis, Dimitrios; Augustin, Jean-Marie

    2018-06-01

    The sediment backscatter strength measured by multibeam echosounders is a key feature for seafloor mapping either qualitative (image mosaics) or quantitative (extraction of classifying features). An important phenomenon, often underestimated, is the dependence of the backscatter level on the azimuth angle imposed by the survey line directions: strong level differences at varying azimuth can be observed in case of organized roughness of the seabed, usually caused by tide currents over sandy sediments. This paper presents a number of experimental results obtained from shallow-water cruises using a 300-kHz multibeam echosounder and specially dedicated to the study of this azimuthal effect, with a specific configuration of the survey strategy involving a systematic coverage of reference areas following "compass rose" patterns. The results show for some areas a very strong dependence of the backscatter level, up to about 10-dB differences at intermediate oblique angles, although the presence of these ripples cannot be observed directly—neither from the bathymetry data nor from the sonar image, due to the insufficient resolution capability of the sonar. An elementary modeling of backscattering from rippled interfaces explains and comforts these observations. The consequences of this backscatter dependence upon survey azimuth on the current strategies of backscatter data acquisition and exploitation are discussed.

  4. Optical Modeling of Spectral Backscattering and Remote Sensing Reflectance From Emiliania huxleyi Blooms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Griet Neukermans

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available In this study we develop an analytical model for spectral backscattering and ocean color remote sensing of blooms of the calcifying phytoplankton species Emiliania huxleyi. Blooms of this coccolithophore species are ubiquitous and particularly intense in temperate and subpolar ocean waters. We first present significant improvements to our previous analytical light backscattering model for E. huxleyi coccoliths and coccospheres by accounting for the elliptical shape of coccoliths and the multi-layered coccosphere architecture observed on detailed imagery of E. huxleyi liths and coccospheres. Our new model also includes a size distribution function that closely matches measured E. huxleyi size distributions. The model for spectral backscattering is then implemented in an analytical radiative transfer model to evaluate the variability of spectral remote sensing reflectance with respect to changes in the size distribution of the coccoliths and during a hypothetical E. huxleyi bloom decay event in which coccospheres shed their liths. Our modeled remote sensing reflectance spectra reproduced well the bright milky turquoise coloring of the open ocean typically associated with the final stages of E. huxleyi blooms, with peak reflectance at a wavelength of 0.49 μm. Our results also show that the magnitude of backscattering from coccoliths when attached to or freed from the coccosphere does not differ much, contrary to what is commonly assumed, and that the spectral shape of backscattering is mainly controlled by the size and morphology of the coccoliths, suggesting that they may be estimated from spectral backscattering.

  5. SAR Cross-Ambiguities in SAOCOM-CS Large Baseline Bistatic Configuration

    OpenAIRE

    Bordoni, Federica; Rodriguez-Cassola, Marc; Younis, Marwan; Prats-Iraola, Pau; Lopez-Dekker, Paco; Krieger, Gerhard

    2016-01-01

    The evaluation of the ambiguous signal level, the Ambiguity-to-Signal Ratio (ASR), plays a key role in the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) design and performance prediction. In conventional SAR acquisition scenarios, the computation of the ASR is based on the evaluation of the range and azimuth ambiguous contributes. Though appealing for its simplicity, this approach could be inaccurate in case of complex SAR acquisition geometries. In this paper we focus on the ASR performance of the SAOCOM-...

  6. Rice Crop Monitoring and Yield Estimation Through Cosmo Skymed and TerraSAR-X: A SAR-Based Experience in India

    OpenAIRE

    Pazhanivelan, S.; Kannan, P.; Christy Nirmala Mary, P.; Subramanian, E.; Jeyaraman, S.; Nelson, A.; Setiyono, T.; Holecz, F.; Barbieri, M.; Yadav, M.

    2015-01-01

    Rice is the most important cereal crop governing food security in Asia. Reliable and regular information on the area under rice production is the basis of policy decisions related to imports, exports and prices which directly affect food security. Recent and planned launches of SAR sensors coupled with automated processing can provide sustainable solutions to the challenges on mapping and monitoring rice systems. High resolution (3m) Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imageries were used...

  7. Integrating interferometric SAR data with levelling measurements of land subsidence using geostatistics

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Zhou, Y.; Stein, A.; Molenaar, M.

    2003-01-01

    Differential Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) interferometric (D-InSAR) data of ground surface deformation are affected by several error sources associated with image acquisitions and data processing. In this paper, we study the use of D-InSAR for quantifying land subsidence due to groundwater

  8. Ion backscattering techniques applied in materials science research

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sood, D.K.

    1978-01-01

    The applications of Ion Backscattering Technique (IBT) to material analysis have expanded rapidly during the last decade. It is now regarded as an analysis tool indispensable for a versatile materials research program. The technique consists of simply shooting a beam of monoenergetic ions (usually 4 He + ions at about 2 MeV) onto a target, and measuring their energy distribution after backscattering at a fixed angle. Simple Rutherford scattering analysis of the backscattered ion spectrum yields information on the mass, the absolute amount and the depth profile of elements present upto a few microns of the target surface. The technique is nondestructive, quick, quantitative and the only known method of analysis which gives quantitative results without recourse to calibration standards. Its major limitations are the inability to separate elements of similar mass and a complete absence of chemical-binding information. A typical experimental set up and spectrum analysis have been described. Examples, some of them based on the work at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Bombay, have been given to illustrate the applications of this technique to semiconductor technology, thin film materials science and nuclear energy materials. Limitations of IBT have been illustrated and a few remedies to partly overcome these limitations are presented. (auth.)

  9. Comparison of SeaWinds Backscatter Imaging Algorithms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Long, David G.

    2017-01-01

    This paper compares the performance and tradeoffs of various backscatter imaging algorithms for the SeaWinds scatterometer when multiple passes over a target are available. Reconstruction methods are compared with conventional gridding algorithms. In particular, the performance and tradeoffs in conventional ‘drop in the bucket’ (DIB) gridding at the intrinsic sensor resolution are compared to high-spatial-resolution imaging algorithms such as fine-resolution DIB and the scatterometer image reconstruction (SIR) that generate enhanced-resolution backscatter images. Various options for each algorithm are explored, including considering both linear and dB computation. The effects of sampling density and reconstruction quality versus time are explored. Both simulated and actual data results are considered. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of high-resolution reconstruction using SIR as well as its limitations and the limitations of DIB and fDIB. PMID:28828143

  10. Bats and SARS

    Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Podcasts

    2006-11-08

    Bats are a natural reservoir for emerging viruses, among them henipaviruses and rabies virus variants. Dr. Nina Marano, Chief, Geographic Medicine and Health Promotion Branch, Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, CDC, explains connection between horseshoe bats and SARS coronavirus transmission.  Created: 11/8/2006 by Emerging Infectious Diseases.   Date Released: 11/17/2006.

  11. Backscatter in a cloudy atmosphere as a lightning-threat indicator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kocifaj, Miroslav; Videen, Gorden; Klačka, Jozef

    2015-01-01

    We present a remote-sensing method for identifying electrically charged droplets in clouds. Our methodology utilizes the electromagnetic (EM) radiation backscattered by the cloud at multiple wavelengths. In general, the backscatter from collections of charged and neutral particles differs in Rayleigh regime. While a uniformly charged sphere can resonate with an incident EM radiation depending on electrostatic potential at the particle surface, the scatter by a neutral particle is governed by the Lorenz–Mie theory, thus resulting in different surface excitations. The effects of electric charges and other microphysical parameters on the electromagnetic interactions with particles are not easily separable. Because the spectral profile of the dielectric function for liquid water (or alternatively icy grains) is known, retrieval of net charges are possible based on the optical behavior of the backscattered EM signals. Such information can be used to determine charge build-up in the atmosphere, which is a condition for lightning. A basic configuration of a measuring system for lightning threats is discussed and described schematically. - Highlights: • Electrically charged and neutral particles scatter in a different way. • Net surface charge on spherical particles is a modulator of backscatter signal. • Radar echoes are source of information on electrically charged droplets. • Remote-sensing method can be used to identify increased chance of lightning

  12. G0-WISHART Distribution Based Classification from Polarimetric SAR Images

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hu, G. C.; Zhao, Q. H.

    2017-09-01

    Enormous scientific and technical developments have been carried out to further improve the remote sensing for decades, particularly Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar(PolSAR) technique, so classification method based on PolSAR images has getted much more attention from scholars and related department around the world. The multilook polarmetric G0-Wishart model is a more flexible model which describe homogeneous, heterogeneous and extremely heterogeneous regions in the image. Moreover, the polarmetric G0-Wishart distribution dose not include the modified Bessel function of the second kind. It is a kind of simple statistical distribution model with less parameter. To prove its feasibility, a process of classification has been tested with the full-polarized Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) image by the method. First, apply multilook polarimetric SAR data process and speckle filter to reduce speckle influence for classification result. Initially classify the image into sixteen classes by H/A/α decomposition. Using the ICM algorithm to classify feature based on the G0-Wshart distance. Qualitative and quantitative results show that the proposed method can classify polaimetric SAR data effectively and efficiently.

  13. The Generalized Gamma-DBN for High-Resolution SAR Image Classification

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhiqiang Zhao

    2018-06-01

    Full Text Available With the increase of resolution, effective characterization of synthetic aperture radar (SAR image becomes one of the most critical problems in many earth observation applications. Inspired by deep learning and probability mixture models, a generalized Gamma deep belief network (g Γ-DBN is proposed for SAR image statistical modeling and land-cover classification in this work. Specifically, a generalized Gamma-Bernoulli restricted Boltzmann machine (gΓB-RBM is proposed to capture high-order statistical characterizes from SAR images after introducing the generalized Gamma distribution. After stacking the g Γ B-RBM and several standard binary RBMs in a hierarchical manner, a gΓ-DBN is constructed to learn high-level representation of different SAR land-covers. Finally, a discriminative neural network is constructed by adding an additional predict layer for different land-covers over the constructed deep structure. Performance of the proposed approach is evaluated via several experiments on some high-resolution SAR image patch sets and two large-scale scenes which are captured by ALOS PALSAR-2 and COSMO-SkyMed satellites respectively.

  14. a Statistical Texture Feature for Building Collapse Information Extraction of SAR Image

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, L.; Yang, H.; Chen, Q.; Liu, X.

    2018-04-01

    Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) has become one of the most important ways to extract post-disaster collapsed building information, due to its extreme versatility and almost all-weather, day-and-night working capability, etc. In view of the fact that the inherent statistical distribution of speckle in SAR images is not used to extract collapsed building information, this paper proposed a novel texture feature of statistical models of SAR images to extract the collapsed buildings. In the proposed feature, the texture parameter of G0 distribution from SAR images is used to reflect the uniformity of the target to extract the collapsed building. This feature not only considers the statistical distribution of SAR images, providing more accurate description of the object texture, but also is applied to extract collapsed building information of single-, dual- or full-polarization SAR data. The RADARSAT-2 data of Yushu earthquake which acquired on April 21, 2010 is used to present and analyze the performance of the proposed method. In addition, the applicability of this feature to SAR data with different polarizations is also analysed, which provides decision support for the data selection of collapsed building information extraction.

  15. Multi-Pixel Simultaneous Classification of PolSAR Image Using Convolutional Neural Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Xin; Gui, Rong; Pu, Fangling

    2018-01-01

    Convolutional neural networks (CNN) have achieved great success in the optical image processing field. Because of the excellent performance of CNN, more and more methods based on CNN are applied to polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) image classification. Most CNN-based PolSAR image classification methods can only classify one pixel each time. Because all the pixels of a PolSAR image are classified independently, the inherent interrelation of different land covers is ignored. We use a fixed-feature-size CNN (FFS-CNN) to classify all pixels in a patch simultaneously. The proposed method has several advantages. First, FFS-CNN can classify all the pixels in a small patch simultaneously. When classifying a whole PolSAR image, it is faster than common CNNs. Second, FFS-CNN is trained to learn the interrelation of different land covers in a patch, so it can use the interrelation of land covers to improve the classification results. The experiments of FFS-CNN are evaluated on a Chinese Gaofen-3 PolSAR image and other two real PolSAR images. Experiment results show that FFS-CNN is comparable with the state-of-the-art PolSAR image classification methods. PMID:29510499

  16. Diffuse optical microscopy for quantification of depth-dependent epithelial backscattering in the cervix

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bodenschatz, Nico; Lam, Sylvia; Carraro, Anita; Korbelik, Jagoda; Miller, Dianne M.; McAlpine, Jessica N.; Lee, Marette; Kienle, Alwin; MacAulay, Calum

    2016-06-01

    A fiber optic imaging approach is presented using structured illumination for quantification of almost pure epithelial backscattering. We employ multiple spatially modulated projection patterns and camera-based reflectance capture to image depth-dependent epithelial scattering. The potential diagnostic value of our approach is investigated on cervical ex vivo tissue specimens. Our study indicates a strong backscattering increase in the upper part of the cervical epithelium caused by dysplastic microstructural changes. Quantization of relative depth-dependent backscattering is confirmed as a potentially useful diagnostic feature for detection of precancerous lesions in cervical squamous epithelium.

  17. Electron backscattering for process control in electron beam welding

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ardenne, T. von; Panzer, S.

    1983-01-01

    A number of solutions to the automation of electron beam welding is presented. On the basis of electron backscattering a complex system of process control has been developed. It allows an enlarged imaging of the material's surface, improved adjustment of the beam focusing and definite focus positioning. Furthermore, both manual and automated positioning of the electron beam before and during the welding process has become possible. Monitoring of the welding process for meeting standard welding requirements can be achieved with the aid of a control quantity derived from the results of electronic evaluation of the high-frequency electron backscattering

  18. The ionospheric signature of transient dayside reconnection and the associated pulsed convection return flow

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. E. Milan

    Full Text Available Three SuperDARN coherent HF radars are employed to investigate the excitation of convection in the dayside high-latitude ionosphere in response to transient reconnection occurring in the cusp region. This study demonstrates the existence of transient antisunward-propagating backscatter features at the expected location of the ionospheric footprint of the cusp region, which have a repetition rate near 10 min. These are interpreted as the ionospheric signature of flux transfer events. Moreover, transient sunward-propagating regions of backscatter are observed in the convection return flow regions of both the pre- and post-noon sectors. These patches are observed to propagate towards the noon sector from at least as far around the auroral zone as 07 MLT in the pre-noon sector and 17 MLT in the post-noon sector, travelling with a velocity of approximately 1.5 to 2 km s-1. These return flow patches have a repetition rate similar to that of the transient features observed at local noon. While providing supporting evidence for the impulsive nature of convection flow, the observation of sunward-propagating features in the return flow region is not consistent with current conceptual models of the excitation of convection.

    Key words. Ionosphere (plasma convection · Magnetospheric physics (magnetopause · cusp · and boundary layers; magnetosphere-ionosphere interactions

  19. Evaluation of Polarimetric SAR Decomposition for Classifying Wetland Vegetation Types

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sang-Hoon Hong

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available The Florida Everglades is the largest subtropical wetland system in the United States and, as with subtropical and tropical wetlands elsewhere, has been threatened by severe environmental stresses. It is very important to monitor such wetlands to inform management on the status of these fragile ecosystems. This study aims to examine the applicability of TerraSAR-X quadruple polarimetric (quad-pol synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR data for classifying wetland vegetation in the Everglades. We processed quad-pol data using the Hong & Wdowinski four-component decomposition, which accounts for double bounce scattering in the cross-polarization signal. The calculated decomposition images consist of four scattering mechanisms (single, co- and cross-pol double, and volume scattering. We applied an object-oriented image analysis approach to classify vegetation types with the decomposition results. We also used a high-resolution multispectral optical RapidEye image to compare statistics and classification results with Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR observations. The calculated classification accuracy was higher than 85%, suggesting that the TerraSAR-X quad-pol SAR signal had a high potential for distinguishing different vegetation types. Scattering components from SAR acquisition were particularly advantageous for classifying mangroves along tidal channels. We conclude that the typical scattering behaviors from model-based decomposition are useful for discriminating among different wetland vegetation types.

  20. SAR11 Bacteria: The Most Abundant Plankton in the Oceans.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Giovannoni, Stephen J

    2017-01-03

    SAR11 is a group of small, carbon-oxidizing bacteria that reach a global estimated population size of 2.4×10 28 cells-approximately 25% of all plankton. They are found throughout the oceans but reach their largest numbers in stratified, oligotrophic gyres, which are an expanding habitat in the warming oceans. SAR11 likely had a Precambrian origin and, over geological time, evolved into the niche of harvesting labile, low-molecular-weight dissolved organic matter (DOM). SAR11 cells are minimal in size and complexity, a phenomenon known as streamlining that is thought to benefit them by lowering the material costs of replication and maximizing transport functions that are essential to competition at ultralow nutrient concentrations. One of the surprises in SAR11 metabolism is their ability to both oxidize and produce a variety of volatile organic compounds that can diffuse into the atmosphere. SAR11 cells divide slowly and lack many forms of regulation commonly used by bacterial cells to adjust to changing environmental conditions. As a result of genome reduction, they require an unusual range of nutrients, which leads to complex biochemical interactions with other plankton. The study of SAR11 is providing insight into the biogeochemistry of labile DOM and is affecting microbiology beyond marine science by providing a model for understanding the evolution and function of streamlined cells.

  1. New free Danish online (Q)SAR predictions database with >600,000 substances

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wedebye, Eva Bay; Dybdahl, Marianne; Reffstrup, Trine Klein

    Since 2005 the Danish (Q)SAR Database has been freely available on the Internet. It is a tool that allows single chemical substance profiling and screenings based on predicted hazard information. The database is also included in the OECD (Q)SAR Application Toolbox which is used worldwide...... by regulators and industry. A lot of progress in (Q)SAR model development, application and documentation has been made since the publication in 2005. A new and completely rebuild online (Q)SAR predictions database was therefore published in November 2015 at http://qsar.food.dtu.dk. The number of chemicals...... in the database has been expanded from 185,000 to >600,000. As far as possible all organic single constituent substances that were pre-registered under REACH have been included in the new structure set. The new Danish (Q)SAR Database includes estimates from more than 200 (Q)SARs covering a wide range of hazardous...

  2. What is missing? An operational inundation mapping framework by SAR data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shen, X.; Anagnostou, E. N.; Zeng, Z.; Kettner, A.; Hong, Y.

    2017-12-01

    Compared to optical sensors, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) works all-day all-weather. In addition, its spatial resolution does not decrease with the height of the platform and is thus applicable to a range of important studies. However, existing studies did not address the operational demands of real-time inundation mapping. The direct proof is that no water body product exists for any SAR-based satellites. Then what is missing between science and products? Automation and quality. What makes it so difficult to develop an operational inundation mapping technique based on SAR data? Spectrum-wise, unlike optical water indices such as MNDWI, AWEI etc., where a relative constant threshold may apply across acquisition of images, regions and sensors, the threshold to separate water from non-water pixels in each SAR images has to be individually chosen. The optimization of the threshold is the first obstacle to the automation of the SAR data algorithm. Morphologically, the quality and reliability of the results have been compromised by over-detection caused by smooth surface and shadowing area, the noise-like speckle and under-detection caused by strong-scatter disturbance. In this study, we propose a three-step framework that addresses all aforementioned issues of operational inundation mapping by SAR data. The framework consists of 1) optimization of Wishart distribution parameters of single/dual/fully-polarized SAR data, 2) morphological removal of over-detection, and 3) machine-learning based removal of under-detection. The framework utilizes not only the SAR data, but also the synergy of digital elevation model (DEM), and optical sensor-based products of fine resolution, including the water probability map, land cover classification map (optional), and river width. The framework has been validated throughout multiple areas in different parts of the world using different satellite SAR data and globally available ancillary data products. Therefore, it has the potential

  3. Comparing satellite SAR and wind farm wake models

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hasager, Charlotte Bay; Vincent, P.; Husson, R.

    2015-01-01

    . These extend several tens of kilometres downwind e.g. 70 km. Other SAR wind maps show near-field fine scale details of wake behind rows of turbines. The satellite SAR wind farm wake cases are modelled by different wind farm wake models including the PARK microscale model, the Weather Research and Forecasting...... (WRF) model in high resolution and WRF with coupled microscale parametrization....

  4. Some Proxy Signature and Designated verifier Signature Schemes over Braid Groups

    OpenAIRE

    Lal, Sunder; Verma, Vandani

    2009-01-01

    Braids groups provide an alternative to number theoretic public cryptography and can be implemented quite efficiently. The paper proposes five signature schemes: Proxy Signature, Designated Verifier, Bi-Designated Verifier, Designated Verifier Proxy Signature And Bi-Designated Verifier Proxy Signature scheme based on braid groups. We also discuss the security aspects of each of the proposed schemes.

  5. Genomic characterization of two novel SAR11 isolates from the Red Sea, including the first strain of the SAR11 Ib clade.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jimenez-Infante, Francy; Ngugi, David Kamanda; Vinu, Manikandan; Blom, Jochen; Alam, Intikhab; Bajic, Vladimir B; Stingl, Ulrich

    2017-07-01

    The SAR11 clade (Pelagibacterales) is a diverse group that forms a monophyletic clade within the Alphaproteobacteria, and constitutes up to one third of all prokaryotic cells in the photic zone of most oceans. Pelagibacterales are very abundant in the warm and highly saline surface waters of the Red Sea, raising the question of adaptive traits of SAR11 populations in this water body and warmer oceans through the world. In this study, two pure cultures were successfully obtained from surface waters on the Red Sea: one isolate of subgroup Ia and one of the previously uncultured SAR11 Ib lineage. The novel genomes were very similar to each other and to genomes of isolates of SAR11 subgroup Ia (Ia pan-genome), both in terms of gene content and synteny. Among the genes that were not present in the Ia pan-genome, 108 (RS39, Ia) and 151 genes (RS40, Ib) were strain specific. Detailed analyses showed that only 51 (RS39, Ia) and 55 (RS40, Ib) of these strain-specific genes had not reported before on genome fragments of Pelagibacterales. Further analyses revealed the potential production of phosphonates by some SAR11 members and possible adaptations for oligotrophic life, including pentose sugar utilization and adhesion to marine particulate matter. © FEMS 2017. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  6. TOWARDS CHANGE DETECTION IN URBAN AREA BY SAR INTERFEROMETRY AND RADARGRAMMETRY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    C. Dubois

    2013-04-01

    Full Text Available Change detection in urban area is an active topic in remote sensing. However, well-dealt subject in optical remote sensing, this research topic is still at an early stage and needs deeper investigations and improvement in what concerns SAR and InSAR remote sensing. Due to their weather and daylight-independency, SAR sensors allow an all-time observation of the earth. This is determining in cases where rapid change detection is required after a natural – or technological – disaster. Due to the high resolution that can be achieved, the new generation of space-borne radar sensors opens up new perspectives for analysing buildings in urban areas. Moreover, due to their short revisiting cycle, they give rise to monitoring and change detection applications. In this paper, we present a concept for change detection in urban area at building level, relying only on SAR- and InSAR data. In this approach, interferometric and radargrammetric SAR data are merged in order to detect changes. Here, we present the overall workflow, the test area, the required data as well as first findings on the best-suited stereo-configurations for change detection.

  7. SAR China Land Mapping Project: Development, Production and Potential Applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang, Lu; Guo, Huadong; Liu, Guang; Fu, Wenxue; Yan, Shiyong; Song, Rui; Ji, Peng; Wang, Xinyuan

    2014-01-01

    Large-area, seamless synthetic aperture radar (SAR) mosaics can reflect overall environmental conditions and highlight general trends in observed areas from a macroscopic standpoint, and effectively support research at the global scale, which is in high demand now across scientific fields. The SAR China Land Mapping Project (SCLM), supported by the Digital Earth Science Platform Project initiated and managed by the Center for Earth Observation and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CEODE), is introduced in this paper. This project produced a large-area SAR mosaic dataset and generated the first complete seamless SAR map covering the entire land area of China using EnviSat-ASAR images. The value of the mosaic map is demonstrated by some potential applications in studies of urban distribution, rivers and lakes, geologic structures, geomorphology and paleoenvironmental change

  8. Vegetation Parameter Extraction Using Dual Baseline Polarimetric SAR Interferometry Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, H.; Wang, C.; Chen, X.; Tang, Y.

    2009-04-01

    For vegetation parameter inversion, the single baseline polarimetric SAR interferometry (POLinSAR) technique, such as the three-stage method and the ESPRIT algorithm, is limited by the observed data with the minimum ground to volume amplitude ration, which effects the estimation of the effective phase center for the vegetation canopy or the surface, and thus results in the underestimated vegetation height. In order to remove this effect of the single baseline inversion techniques in some extend, another baseline POLinSAR data is added on vegetation parameter estimation in this paper, and a dual baseline POLinSAR technique for the extraction of the vegetation parameter is investigated and improved to reduce the dynamic bias for the vegetation parameter estimation. Finally, the simulated data and real data are used to validate this dual baseline technique.

  9. Exploring cloud and big data components for SAR archiving and analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baker, S.; Crosby, C. J.; Meertens, C.; Phillips, D.

    2017-12-01

    Under the Geodesy Advancing Geoscience and EarthScope (GAGE) NSF Cooperative Agreement, UNAVCO has seen the volume of the SAR Data Archive grow at a substantial rate, from 2 TB in Y1 and 5 TB in Y2 to 41 TB in Y3 primarily due to WInSAR PI proposal management of ALOS-­2/JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) data and to a lesser extent Supersites and other data collections. JAXA provides a fixed number of scenes per year for each PI, and some data files are 50­-60GB each, which accounts for the large volume of data. In total, over 100TB of SAR data are in the WInSAR/UNAVCO archive and a large portion of these are available unrestricted for WInSAR members. In addition to the existing data, newer data streams from the Sentinel-1 and NISAR missions will require efficient processing pipelines and easily scalable infrastructure to handle processed results. With these growing data sizes and space concerns, the SAR archive operations migrated to the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) via an NSF XSEDE proposal in spring 2017. Data are stored on an HPC system while data operations are running on Jetstream virtual machines within the same datacenter. In addition to the production data operations, testing was done in early 2017 with container based InSAR processing analysis using JupyterHub and Docker images deployed on a VM cluster on Jetstream. The JupyterHub environment is well suited for short courses and other training opportunities for the community such as labs for university courses on InSAR. UNAVCO is also exploring new processing methodologies using DC/OS (the datacenter operating system) for batch and stream processing workflows and time series analysis with Big Data open source components like the Spark, Mesos, Akka, Cassandra, Kafka (SMACK) stack. The comparison of the different methodologies will provide insight into the pros and cons for each and help the SAR community with decisions about infrastructure and software requirements to meet their research

  10. Recommendations for processing atmospheric attenuated backscatter profiles from Vaisala CL31 ceilometers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kotthaus, Simone; O'Connor, Ewan; Münkel, Christoph; Charlton-Perez, Cristina; Haeffelin, Martial; Gabey, Andrew M.; Grimmond, C. Sue B.

    2016-08-01

    Ceilometer lidars are used for cloud base height detection, to probe aerosol layers in the atmosphere (e.g. detection of elevated layers of Saharan dust or volcanic ash), and to examine boundary layer dynamics. Sensor optics and acquisition algorithms can strongly influence the observed attenuated backscatter profiles; therefore, physical interpretation of the profiles requires careful application of corrections. This study addresses the widely deployed Vaisala CL31 ceilometer. Attenuated backscatter profiles are studied to evaluate the impact of both the hardware generation and firmware version. In response to this work and discussion within the CL31/TOPROF user community (TOPROF, European COST Action aiming to harmonise ground-based remote sensing networks across Europe), Vaisala released new firmware (versions 1.72 and 2.03) for the CL31 sensors. These firmware versions are tested against previous versions, showing that several artificial features introduced by the data processing have been removed. Hence, it is recommended to use this recent firmware for analysing attenuated backscatter profiles. To allow for consistent processing of historic data, correction procedures have been developed that account for artefacts detected in data collected with older firmware. Furthermore, a procedure is proposed to determine and account for the instrument-related background signal from electronic and optical components. This is necessary for using attenuated backscatter observations from any CL31 ceilometer. Recommendations are made for the processing of attenuated backscatter observed with Vaisala CL31 sensors, including the estimation of noise which is not provided in the standard CL31 output. After taking these aspects into account, attenuated backscatter profiles from Vaisala CL31 ceilometers are considered capable of providing valuable information for a range of applications including atmospheric boundary layer studies, detection of elevated aerosol layers, and model

  11. Calibration of SAR probes in waveguide at 900 MHz

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jokela, K.; Puranen, L.; Hyysalo, P.

    1998-01-01

    The radiation safety tests for hand-held mobile phones require precise calibration of the small electric field probes used for the measurement of SAR in phantoms simulating the human body. In this study a calibration based on a rectangular waveguide was developed for SAR calibrations at 900 MHz

  12. Project PHARUS: Towards a polarimetric C-band airborne SAR

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hoogeboom, P.; Koomen, P.J.; Otten, M.P.G.; Pouwels, H.; Snoeij, P.

    1989-01-01

    A few years ago three institutes in the Netherlands developed a plan to design and build a polarimetric C-band aircraft SAR system of a novel design, called PHARUS (PHased Array Universal SAR), meant as a replacement for our current digital SLAR system. These institutes are the Physics and

  13. Influence of Plastic Deformation of Steel Samples on the Fast electron Backscattering

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sierra Trujillo, J. X.; Herrera Palma, V.; Desdin Garcia, L. F.; Codorniu Pujals, D.

    2013-01-01

    A considerable fraction of a fast electron beam incident on a target is scattered in backward direction. It is a very complex process involving electron - nucleus and electron - electron collisions. The fraction of backscattered electrons is described by a parameterization as a function of the atomic number and energy of the incident electrons. In such approaches the possible influence of the material structure is not taken into account. In this paper, the behavior of the 90 Sr/ 90 Y backscattered electrons from 08JuA and 15GJuT steel strained samples is investigated. A clear dependence between the degree of plastic deformation and the fraction of backscattered electrons was observed. This relationship is explained by the interaction of electrons with the dislocations in the material, whose density depends on the magnitude of the strain in the plastic region. On the basis of a simple model for describing this interaction, a mathematical expression is obtained for the relationship between the fraction of backscattered electrons and the degree of deformation. (Author)

  14. Modification of Spalart-Allmaras model with consideration of turbulence energy backscatter using velocity helicity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liu, Yangwei; Lu, Lipeng; Fang, Le; Gao, Feng

    2011-01-01

    The correlation between the velocity helicity and the energy backscatter is proved in a DNS case of 256 3 -grid homogeneous isotropic decaying turbulence. The helicity is then proposed to be employed to improve turbulence models and SGS models. Then Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model (SA) is modified with the helicity to take account of the energy backscatter, which is significant in the region of corner separation in compressors. By comparing the numerical results with experiments, it can be concluded that the modification for SA model with helicity can appropriately represent the energy backscatter, and greatly improves the predictive accuracy for simulating the corner separation flow in compressors. -- Highlights: → We study the relativity between the velocity helicity and the energy backscatter. → Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model is modified with the velocity helicity. → The modified model is employed to simulate corner separation in compressor cascade. → The modification can greatly improve the accuracy for predicting corner separation. → The helicity can represent the energy backscatter in turbulence and SGS models.

  15. Immune responses against SARS-coronavirus nucleocapsid protein induced by DNA vaccine

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhao Ping; Cao Jie; Zhao Lanjuan; Qin Zhaolin; Ke Jinshan; Pan Wei; Ren Hao; Yu Jianguo; Qi Zhongtian

    2005-01-01

    The nucleocapsid (N) protein of SARS-coronavirus (SARS-CoV) is the key protein for the formation of the helical nucleocapsid during virion assembly. This protein is believed to be more conserved than other proteins of the virus, such as spike and membrane glycoprotein. In this study, the N protein of SARS-CoV was expressed in Escherichia coli DH5α and identified with pooled sera from patients in the convalescence phase of SARS. A plasmid pCI-N, encoding the full-length N gene of SARS-CoV, was constructed. Expression of the N protein was observed in COS1 cells following transfection with pCI-N. The immune responses induced by intramuscular immunization with pCI-N were evaluated in a murine model. Serum anti-N immunoglobulins and splenocytes proliferative responses against N protein were observed in immunized BALB/c mice. The major immunoglobulin G subclass recognizing N protein was immunoglobulin G2a, and stimulated splenocytes secreted high levels of gamma interferon and IL-2 in response to N protein. More importantly, the immunized mice produced strong delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) and CD8 + CTL responses to N protein. The study shows that N protein of SARS-CoV not only is an important B cell immunogen, but also can elicit broad-based cellular immune responses. The results indicate that the N protein may be of potential value in vaccine development for specific prophylaxis and treatment against SARS

  16. Change Detection with Polarimetric SAR Imagery for Nuclear Verification

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Canty, M.

    2015-01-01

    This paper investigates the application of multivariate statistical change detection with high-resolution polarimetric SAR imagery acquired from commercial satellite platforms for observation and verification of nuclear activities. A prototype software tool comprising a processing chain starting from single look complex (SLC) multitemporal data through to change detection maps is presented. Multivariate change detection algorithms applied to polarimetric SAR data are not common. This is because, up until recently, not many researchers or practitioners have had access to polarimetric data. However with the advent of several spaceborne polarimetric SAR instruments such as the Japanese ALOS, the Canadian Radarsat-2, the German TerraSAR-X, the Italian COSMO-SkyMed missions and the European Sentinal SAR platform, the situation has greatly improved. There is now a rich source of weather-independent satellite radar data which can be exploited for Nuclear Safeguards purposes. The method will also work for univariate data, that is, it is also applicable to scalar or single polarimetric SAR data. The change detection procedure investigated here exploits the complex Wishart distribution of dual and quad polarimetric imagery in look-averaged covariance matrix format in order to define a per-pixel change/no-change hypothesis test. It includes approximations for the probability distribution of the test statistic, and so permits quantitative significance levels to be quoted for change pixels. The method has been demonstrated previously with polarimetric images from the airborne EMISAR sensor, but is applied here for the first time to satellite platforms. In addition, an improved multivariate method is used to estimate the so-called equivalent number of looks (ENL), which is a critical parameter of the hypothesis test. (author)

  17. The Full Aperture Backscatter Station Measurement System on the National Ignition Facility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bower, D; McCarville, T; Alvarez, S; Ault, L; Brown, M; Chrisp, M; Damian, C; DeHope, W; Froula, D; Glenzer, S; Grace, S; Gu, K; Holdener, F; Huffer, C; Kamperschroer, J; Kelleher, T; Kimbrough, J

    2004-01-01

    A Full Aperture Backscatter Station (FABS) target diagnostic has been activated on the first four beams of the National Ignition Facility (NIF). Backscattered light from the target propagates back down the beam path into the FABS diagnostic system. FABS measures both stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) and stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) with a suite of measurement instruments. Digital cameras and spectrometers record spectrally resolved energy for both P and S polarized light. Streaked spectrometers measure the spectral and temporal behavior of the backscattered light. Calorimeters and fast photodetectors measure the integrated energy and temporal behavior of the light, respectively. This paper provides an overview of the FABS measurements system and detailed descriptions of the diagnostic instruments and the optical path

  18. Evaluation of backscatter dose from internal lead shielding in clinical electron beams using EGSnrc Monte Carlo simulations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    De Vries, Rowen J; Marsh, Steven

    2015-11-08

    Internal lead shielding is utilized during superficial electron beam treatments of the head and neck, such as lip carcinoma. Methods for predicting backscattered dose include the use of empirical equations or performing physical measurements. The accuracy of these empirical equations required verification for the local electron beams. In this study, a Monte Carlo model of a Siemens Artiste linac was developed for 6, 9, 12, and 15 MeV electron beams using the EGSnrc MC package. The model was verified against physical measurements to an accuracy of better than 2% and 2mm. Multiple MC simulations of lead interfaces at different depths, corresponding to mean electron energies in the range of 0.2-14 MeV at the interfaces, were performed to calculate electron backscatter values. The simulated electron backscatter was compared with current empirical equations to ascertain their accuracy. The major finding was that the current set of backscatter equations does not accurately predict electron backscatter, particularly in the lower energies region. A new equation was derived which enables estimation of electron backscatter factor at any depth upstream from the interface for the local treatment machines. The derived equation agreed to within 1.5% of the MC simulated electron backscatter at the lead interface and upstream positions. Verification of the equation was performed by comparing to measurements of the electron backscatter factor using Gafchromic EBT2 film. These results show a mean value of 0.997 ± 0.022 to 1σ of the predicted values of electron backscatter. The new empirical equation presented can accurately estimate electron backscatter factor from lead shielding in the range of 0.2 to 14 MeV for the local linacs.

  19. Waterfall notch-filtering for restoration of acoustic backscatter records from Admiralty Bay, Antarctica

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fonseca, Luciano; Hung, Edson Mintsu; Neto, Arthur Ayres; Magrani, Fábio José Guedes

    2018-06-01

    A series of multibeam sonar surveys were conducted from 2009 to 2013 around Admiralty Bay, Shetland Islands, Antarctica. These surveys provided a detailed bathymetric model that helped understand and characterize the bottom geology of this remote area. Unfortunately, the acoustic backscatter records registered during these bathymetric surveys were heavily contaminated with noise and motion artifacts. These artifacts persisted in the backscatter records despite the fact that the proper acquisition geometry and the necessary offsets and delays were applied during the survey and in post-processing. These noisy backscatter records were very difficult to interpret and to correlate with gravity-core samples acquired in the same area. In order to address this issue, a directional notch-filter was applied to the backscatter waterfall in the along-track direction. The proposed filter provided better estimates for the backscatter strength of each sample by considerably reducing residual motion artifacts. The restoration of individual samples was possible since the waterfall frame of reference preserves the acquisition geometry. Then, a remote seafloor characterization procedure based on an acoustic model inversion was applied to the restored backscatter samples, generating remote estimates of acoustic impedance. These remote estimates were compared to Multi Sensor Core Logger measurements of acoustic impedance obtained from gravity core samples. The remote estimates and the Core Logger measurements of acoustic impedance were comparable when the shallow seafloor was homogeneous. The proposed waterfall notch-filtering approach can be applied to any sonar record, provided that we know the system ping-rate and sampling frequency.

  20. From genome to antivirals: SARS as a test tube.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kliger, Yossef; Levanon, Erez Y; Gerber, Doron

    2005-03-01

    The severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic brought into the spotlight the need for rapid development of effective anti-viral drugs against newly emerging viruses. Researchers have leveraged the 20-year battle against AIDS into a variety of possible treatments for SARS. Most prominently, based solely on viral genome information, silencers of viral genes, viral-enzyme blockers and viral-entry inhibitors were suggested as potential therapeutic agents for SARS. In particular, inhibitors of viral entry, comprising therapeutic peptides, were based on the recently launched anti-HIV drug enfuvirtide. This could represent one of the most direct routes from genome sequencing to the discovery of antiviral drugs.

  1. Target discrimination method for SAR images based on semisupervised co-training

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Yan; Du, Lan; Dai, Hui

    2018-01-01

    Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) target discrimination is usually performed in a supervised manner. However, supervised methods for SAR target discrimination may need lots of labeled training samples, whose acquirement is costly, time consuming, and sometimes impossible. This paper proposes an SAR target discrimination method based on semisupervised co-training, which utilizes a limited number of labeled samples and an abundant number of unlabeled samples. First, Lincoln features, widely used in SAR target discrimination, are extracted from the training samples and partitioned into two sets according to their physical meanings. Second, two support vector machine classifiers are iteratively co-trained with the extracted two feature sets based on the co-training algorithm. Finally, the trained classifiers are exploited to classify the test data. The experimental results on real SAR images data not only validate the effectiveness of the proposed method compared with the traditional supervised methods, but also demonstrate the superiority of co-training over self-training, which only uses one feature set.

  2. Multi-angle backscatter classification and sub-bottom profiling for improved seafloor characterization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alevizos, Evangelos; Snellen, Mirjam; Simons, Dick; Siemes, Kerstin; Greinert, Jens

    2018-06-01

    This study applies three classification methods exploiting the angular dependence of acoustic seafloor backscatter along with high resolution sub-bottom profiling for seafloor sediment characterization in the Eckernförde Bay, Baltic Sea Germany. This area is well suited for acoustic backscatter studies due to its shallowness, its smooth bathymetry and the presence of a wide range of sediment types. Backscatter data were acquired using a Seabeam1180 (180 kHz) multibeam echosounder and sub-bottom profiler data were recorded using a SES-2000 parametric sonar transmitting 6 and 12 kHz. The high density of seafloor soundings allowed extracting backscatter layers for five beam angles over a large part of the surveyed area. A Bayesian probability method was employed for sediment classification based on the backscatter variability at a single incidence angle, whereas Maximum Likelihood Classification (MLC) and Principal Components Analysis (PCA) were applied to the multi-angle layers. The Bayesian approach was used for identifying the optimum number of acoustic classes because cluster validation is carried out prior to class assignment and class outputs are ordinal categorical values. The method is based on the principle that backscatter values from a single incidence angle express a normal distribution for a particular sediment type. The resulting Bayesian classes were well correlated to median grain sizes and the percentage of coarse material. The MLC method uses angular response information from five layers of training areas extracted from the Bayesian classification map. The subsequent PCA analysis is based on the transformation of these five layers into two principal components that comprise most of the data variability. These principal components were clustered in five classes after running an external cluster validation test. In general both methods MLC and PCA, separated the various sediment types effectively, showing good agreement (kappa >0.7) with the Bayesian

  3. Retrieval method of aerosol extinction coefficient profile based on backscattering, side-scattering and Raman-scattering lidar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shan, Huihui; Zhang, Hui; Liu, Junjian; Tao, Zongming; Wang, Shenhao; Ma, Xiaomin; Zhou, Pucheng; Yao, Ling; Liu, Dong; Xie, Chenbo; Wang, Yingjian

    2018-03-01

    Aerosol extinction coefficient profile is an essential parameter for atmospheric radiation model. It is difficult to get higher signal to noise ratio (SNR) of backscattering lidar from the ground to the tropopause especially in near range. Higher SNR problem can be solved by combining side-scattering and backscattering lidar. Using Raman-scattering lidar, aerosol extinction to backscatter ratio (lidar ratio) can be got. Based on side-scattering, backscattering and Raman-scattering lidar system, aerosol extinction coefficient is retrieved precisely from the earth's surface to the tropopause. Case studies show this method is reasonable and feasible.

  4. A multislice theory of electron scattering in crystals including backscattering and inelastic effects.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spiegelberg, Jakob; Rusz, Ján

    2015-12-01

    In the framework of the slice transition operator technique, a general multislice theory for electron scattering in crystals is developed. To achieve this generalization, we combine the approaches for inelastic scattering derived by Yoshioka [J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 12, 6 (1957)] and backscattering based on the formalism of Chen and Van Dyck [Ultramicroscopy 70, 29-44 (1997)]. A computational realization of the obtained equations is suggested. The proposed computational scheme is tested on elastic backscattering of electrons, where we consider single backscattering in analogy to the computational scheme proposed by Chen and Van Dyck. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  5. Numerical simulation of range and backscattering for keV protons incident on random targets

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Robinson, J.E.; Agamy, S.

    1975-01-01

    Using a Monte-Carlo technique, projected range distributions and backscattering coefficients have been calculated for keV protons normally incident on heavy targets. For an incident reduced energy range of 1 less than epsilon 0 less than 20, both the projected range distributions and backscattering coefficients have been found to be in good agreement with a third order Edgeworth range approximation. Backscattered energy and angular distributions have also been calculated and are compared to available theoretical and experimental data. (4 figs.) (U.S.)

  6. Investigation of the Capability of Compact Polarimetric SAR Interferometry to Estimate Forest Height

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Hong; Xie, Lei; Wang, Chao; Chen, Jiehong

    2013-08-01

    The main objective of this paper is to investigate the capability of compact Polarimetric SAR Interferometry (C-PolInSAR) on forest height estimation. For this, the pseudo fully polarimetric interferomteric (F-PolInSAR) covariance matrix is firstly reconstructed, then the three- stage inversion algorithm, hybrid algorithm, Music and Capon algorithm are applied to both C-PolInSAR covariance matrix and pseudo F-PolInSAR covariance matrix. The availability of forest height estimation is demonstrated using L-band data generated by simulator PolSARProSim and X-band airborne data acquired by East China Research Institute of Electronic Engineering, China Electronics Technology Group Corporation.

  7. Information theoretic bounds for compressed sensing in SAR imaging

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jingxiong, Zhang; Ke, Yang; Jianzhong, Guo

    2014-01-01

    Compressed sensing (CS) is a new framework for sampling and reconstructing sparse signals from measurements significantly fewer than those prescribed by Nyquist rate in the Shannon sampling theorem. This new strategy, applied in various application areas including synthetic aperture radar (SAR), relies on two principles: sparsity, which is related to the signals of interest, and incoherence, which refers to the sensing modality. An important question in CS-based SAR system design concerns sampling rate necessary and sufficient for exact or approximate recovery of sparse signals. In the literature, bounds of measurements (or sampling rate) in CS have been proposed from the perspective of information theory. However, these information-theoretic bounds need to be reviewed and, if necessary, validated for CS-based SAR imaging, as there are various assumptions made in the derivations of lower and upper bounds on sub-Nyquist sampling rates, which may not hold true in CS-based SAR imaging. In this paper, information-theoretic bounds of sampling rate will be analyzed. For this, the SAR measurement system is modeled as an information channel, with channel capacity and rate-distortion characteristics evaluated to enable the determination of sampling rates required for recovery of sparse scenes. Experiments based on simulated data will be undertaken to test the theoretic bounds against empirical results about sampling rates required to achieve certain detection error probabilities

  8. Pixel Classification of SAR ice images using ANFIS-PSO Classifier

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G. Vasumathi

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR is playing a vital role in taking extremely high resolution radar images. It is greatly used to monitor the ice covered ocean regions. Sea monitoring is important for various purposes which includes global climate systems and ship navigation. Classification on the ice infested area gives important features which will be further useful for various monitoring process around the ice regions. Main objective of this paper is to classify the SAR ice image that helps in identifying the regions around the ice infested areas. In this paper three stages are considered in classification of SAR ice images. It starts with preprocessing in which the speckled SAR ice images are denoised using various speckle removal filters; comparison is made on all these filters to find the best filter in speckle removal. Second stage includes segmentation in which different regions are segmented using K-means and watershed segmentation algorithms; comparison is made between these two algorithms to find the best in segmenting SAR ice images. The last stage includes pixel based classification which identifies and classifies the segmented regions using various supervised learning classifiers. The algorithms includes Back propagation neural networks (BPN, Fuzzy Classifier, Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference Classifier (ANFIS classifier and proposed ANFIS with Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO classifier; comparison is made on all these classifiers to propose which classifier is best suitable for classifying the SAR ice image. Various evaluation metrics are performed separately at all these three stages.

  9. SIGNATURE: A workbench for gene expression signature analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chang Jeffrey T

    2011-11-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The biological phenotype of a cell, such as a characteristic visual image or behavior, reflects activities derived from the expression of collections of genes. As such, an ability to measure the expression of these genes provides an opportunity to develop more precise and varied sets of phenotypes. However, to use this approach requires computational methods that are difficult to implement and apply, and thus there is a critical need for intelligent software tools that can reduce the technical burden of the analysis. Tools for gene expression analyses are unusually difficult to implement in a user-friendly way because their application requires a combination of biological data curation, statistical computational methods, and database expertise. Results We have developed SIGNATURE, a web-based resource that simplifies gene expression signature analysis by providing software, data, and protocols to perform the analysis successfully. This resource uses Bayesian methods for processing gene expression data coupled with a curated database of gene expression signatures, all carried out within a GenePattern web interface for easy use and access. Conclusions SIGNATURE is available for public use at http://genepattern.genome.duke.edu/signature/.

  10. Research on Strong Clutter Suppression for Gaofen-3 Dual-Channel SAR/GMTI

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mingjie Zheng

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available In spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR, moving targets are almost buried in ground clutter due to the wide clutter Doppler spectrum and the restricted pulse repetition frequency (PRF, which increases the difficulty of moving target detection. Clutter suppression is one of the key issues in the spaceborne SAR moving target indicator operation. In this paper, we describe the clutter suppression principle and analyze the influence of amplitude and phase error on clutter suppression. In the following, a novel dual-channel SAR clutter suppression algorithm is proposed, which is suitable for the Gaofen-3(GF-3 SAR sensor. The proposed algorithm consists of three technique steps, namely adaptive two-dimensional (2D channel calibration, refined amplitude error correction and refined phase error correction. After channel error is corrected by these procedures, the clutter component, especially a strong clutter component, can be well suppressed. The validity of the proposed algorithm is verified by GF-3 SAR real data which demonstrates the ground moving-target indication (GMTI capability of GF-3 SAR sensor.

  11. Advanced InSAR imaging for dune mapping

    Science.gov (United States)

    Havivi, Shiran; August, Yitzhak; Blumberg, Dan G.; Rotman, Stanley R.

    2015-04-01

    Aeolian morphologies are formed in the presence of sufficient wind energy and available particles. These processes occur naturally or are further enhanced or reduced by human intervention. The dimensions of change are dependent primarily on the wind energy and surface properties. Since the 1970's, remote sensing imagery both optical and radar, are used for documentation and interpretation of the geomorphologic changes of sand dunes. Remote sensing studies of Aeolian morphologies is mostly useful to document major changes, yet, subtle changes, occurring in a period of days or months in scales of centimeters, are very difficult to detect in imagery. Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) is an imaging technique for measuring Earth's surface topography and deformation. InSAR images are produced by measuring the radar phase difference between two separated antennas that view the same surface area. Classical InSAR is based on high coherence between two images or more. The output (interferogram) can show subtle changes with an accuracy of several millimeters to centimeters. Very little work has been done on measuring or identifying the changes in dunes using InSAR. The reason is that dunes tend to be less coherent than firm, stable, surfaces. This research aims to demonstrate how interferometric decorrelation, or, coherence change detection, can be used for identifying dune instability. We hypothesize and demonstrate that the loss of radar coherence over time on dunes can be used as an indication of the dune's instability. When SAR images are acquired at sufficiently close intervals one can measure the time it takes to lose coherence and associate this time with geomorphic stability. To achieve our goals, the Nitzanim coastal dunes along the Mediterranean, 40 km south of Tel-Aviv, Israel, were chosen as a case study. The dunes in this area are of varying levels of stability and vegetation cover and have been monitored meteorologically, geomorphologically and

  12. Latitudinal dynamics of SAR-arcs relative to the local time

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alekseev, V.N.; Ievenko, I.B.

    1991-01-01

    In November-December, 1988, January-April, 1989-1990, at the Maymaga station in Yakutia according to spectrophotometric data 47 events of the occurrence of red stable middle-latitudinal arcs (SAR-arcs) were recorded. On the basis of these data the latitudinal dynamics of SAR-arcs was studied depending on the local time and geomagnetic disturbance level. The uniform equatorial shift of SAR arcs in the night time is noticed, and a sharp increase of the speed of this motion can be caused by the nonstationary character of the magnetospheric activity

  13. Alaska Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Facility science data processing architecture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hilland, Jeffrey E.; Bicknell, Thomas; Miller, Carol L.

    1991-01-01

    The paper describes the architecture of the Alaska SAR Facility (ASF) at Fairbanks, being developed to generate science data products for supporting research in sea ice motion, ice classification, sea-ice-ocean interaction, glacier behavior, ocean waves, and hydrological and geological study areas. Special attention is given to the individual substructures of the ASF: the Receiving Ground Station (RGS), the SAR Processor System, and the Interactive Image Analysis System. The SAR data will be linked to the RGS by the ESA ERS-1 and ERS-2, the Japanese ERS-1, and the Canadian Radarsat.

  14. Wind mapping offshore in coastal Mediterranean area using SAR images

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Calaudi, Rosamaria; Arena, Felice; Badger, Merete

    Satellite observations of the ocean surface from Synthetic Aperture Radars (SAR) provide information about the spatial wind variability over large areas. This is of special interest in the Mediterranean, where spatial wind information is only provided by sparse buoys, often with long periods...... of missing data. Here, we focus on evaluating the use of SAR for offshore wind mapping. Preliminary results from the analysis of SAR-based ocean winds in Mediterranean areas show interesting large scale wind flow features consistent with results from previous studies using numerical models and space borne...

  15. LTE modem power consumption, SAR and RF signal strength emulation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Musiige, Deogratius; Vincent, Laulagnet; Anton, François

    2012-01-01

    This paper presents a new methodology for emulating the LTE modem power consumption, emitted SAR and RF signal strength when transmitting an LTE signal. The inputs of the methodology are: modem logical/protocol commands, time advance, near-field specifier, and antenna characteristics. The power...... emulation model(s) are computed by a two layer 451 neural network based on physical power measurements. SAR is emulated by polynomial interpolation models based on FDTD simulations. The accuracies of the mathematical function approximations for the emulation models of power and SAR are 5.19% and 3...

  16. Blood donors--Serious adverse reactions (SAR) 2010-2014 EFS Châteauroux, France.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Riga, A; Sapey, T; Bacanu, M; Py, J-Y; Dehaut, F

    2015-06-01

    In 2013, the national French incidence of serious adverse reactions (SAR) was 155.7 per 100,000 donations and 82% of SAR were grade 2 (French classification of SAR related to blood donors) The purpose of our study was to describe the profile of blood donator candidate which had a SAR in our center. The study contains all the SAR superior to grade 1 occurred on the site EFS Châteauroux (site and mobile blood collection) from January 2010 to October 31, 2014. We analyzed 37 parameters from the e-fit files (e-site French blood vigilance) and In-log software. We identified 82 SAR for 72,553 blood donations (incidence: 113.02 SAR per 100,000 donations). Forty-one men and 41 women, middle age 39 years (18-66). Average height: 1.68 m (1.49-1.85); average weight: 68 kg (50-98); body mass index (kg/m(2)): 24,13(18.6-31.9). All donors were Caucasian and 30% unemployed. We found 74 vasovagal syncope (VVS), 5 hematomas, 2 arterial injuries and an adverse reaction to citrate. In 90%, the SAR was immediate and of grade 2 in 85% of cases. Thirty-seven percent of SAR were first donation in connection with whole blood in 87% of cases. Regarding the seniority of donors, the number of average donations (whole blood, plasma, platelets) was 16.5. An SAR determined the stop of blood donation in 65% of cases with nearly 80% stoppage if it was a first donation. Seventy-three percent of SAR as a VVS took place during blood collection or within 5 minutes following the end of the donation. Sixty-one percent were men. Forty-four percent of cases were a first donation and 83% occurred in mobile blood collection. Average age was 36 years. The result was a permanent stop of all type of donations in 76% of cases. Twenty-seven percent of SAR as a VVS took place beyond 5 minutes after the end of the donation. Seventy-five percent were women. Thirty percent of cases were a first donation and 95% of SAR occurred in mobile blood collection. Average age was 42 years. The result was a permanent stop of

  17. The planned Alaska SAR Facility - An overview

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carsey, Frank; Weeks, Wilford

    1987-01-01

    The Alaska SAR Facility (ASF) is described in an overview fashion. The facility consists of three major components, a Receiving Ground System, a SAR Processing System and an Analysis and Archiving System; the ASF Program also has a Science Working Team and the requisite management and operations systems. The ASF is now an approved and fully funded activity; detailed requirements and science background are presented for the facility to be implemented for data from the European ERS-1, the Japanese ERS-1 and Radarsat.

  18. Satellite sar detection of hurricane helene (2006)

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ju, Lian; Cheng, Yongcun; Xu, Qing

    2013-01-01

    In this paper, the wind structure of hurricane Helene (2006) over the Atlantic Ocean is investigated from a C-band RADARSAT-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image acquired on 20 September 2006. First, the characteristics, e.g., the center, scale and area of the hurricane eye (HE) are determined. ...... observations from the stepped frequency microwave radiometer (SFMR) on NOAA P3 aircraft. All the results show the capability of hurricane monitoring by satellite SAR. Copyright © 2013 by the International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers (ISOPE)....

  19. Geologic mapping in Greenland with polarimetric SAR

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dall, Jørgen; Madsen, Søren Nørvang; Brooks, C. K.

    1995-01-01

    The application of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) for geologic mapping in Greenland is investigated by the Danish Center for Remote Sensing (DCRS) in co-operation with the Danish Lithosphere Centre (DLC). In 1994 a pilot project was conducted in East Greenland. The Danish airborne SAR, EMISAR...... mapping is complicated by an extreme topography leading to massive shadowing, foreshortening and layover. An artifact characterised by high cross-polarisation is observed behind many sharp mountain ridges. A multi-reflection hypothesis has been investigated without finding the ultimate proof...

  20. Evaluation of Sentinel-1A Data For Above Ground Biomass Estimation in Different Forests in India

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vadrevu, Krishna Prasad

    2017-01-01

    Use of remote sensing data for mapping and monitoring of forest biomass across large spatial scales can aid in addressing uncertainties in carbon cycle. Earlier, several researchers reported on the use of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data for characterizing forest structural parameters and the above ground biomass estimation. However, these studies cannot be generalized and the algorithms cannot be applied to all types of forests without additional information on the forest physiognomy, stand structure and biomass characteristics. The radar backscatter signal also saturates as forest parameters such as biomass and the tree height increase. It is also not clear how different polarizations (VV versus VH) impact the backscatter retrievals in different forested regions. Thus, it is important to evaluate the potential of SAR data in different landscapes for characterizing forest structural parameters. In this study, the SAR data from Sentinel-1A has been used to characterize forest structural parameters including the above ground biomass from tropical forests of India. Ground based data on tree density, basal area and above ground biomass data from thirty-eight different forested sites has been collected to relate to SAR data. After the pre-processing of Sentinel 1-A data for radiometric calibration, geo-correction, terrain correction and speckle filtering, the variability in the backscatter signal in relation tree density, basal area and above biomass density has been investigated. Results from the curve fitting approach suggested exponential model between the Sentinel-1A backscatter versus tree density and above ground biomass whereas the relationship was almost linear with the basal area in the VV polarization mode. Of the different parameters, tree density could explain most of the variations in backscatter. Both VV and VH backscatter signals could explain only thirty and thirty three percent of variation in above biomass in different forest sites of India

  1. Computation of Nonlinear Backscattering Using a High-Order Numerical Method

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fibich, G.; Ilan, B.; Tsynkov, S.

    2001-01-01

    The nonlinear Schrodinger equation (NLS) is the standard model for propagation of intense laser beams in Kerr media. The NLS is derived from the nonlinear Helmholtz equation (NLH) by employing the paraxial approximation and neglecting the backscattered waves. In this study we use a fourth-order finite-difference method supplemented by special two-way artificial boundary conditions (ABCs) to solve the NLH as a boundary value problem. Our numerical methodology allows for a direct comparison of the NLH and NLS models and for an accurate quantitative assessment of the backscattered signal.

  2. Three-dimensional imaging of hidden objects using positron emission backscatter

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Dongwon; Cowee, Misa; Fenimore, Ed; Galassi, Mark; Looker, Quinn; Mcneil, Wendy V.; Stonehill, Laura; Wallace, Mark

    2009-01-01

    Positron emission backscatter imaging is a technique for interrogation and three-dimensional (3-D) reconstruction of hidden objects when we only have access to the objects from one side. Using time-of-flight differences in detected direct and backscattered positron-emitted photons, we construct 3-D images of target objects. Recently at Los Alamos National Laboratory, a fully three-dimensional imaging system has been built and the experimental results are discussed in this paper. Quantitative analysis of images reconstructed in both two- and three-dimensions are also presented.

  3. Backscatter dose from metallic materials due to obliquely incident high-energy photon beams

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nadrowitz, Roger; Feyerabend, Thomas

    2001-01-01

    If metallic material is exposed to ionizing radiation of sufficient high energy, an increase in dose due to backscatter radiation occurs in front of this material. Our purpose in this study was to quantify these doses at variable distances between scattering materials and the detector at axial beam angles between 0 deg. (zero angle in beams eye view) and 90 deg. . Copper, silver and lead sheets embedded in a phantom of perspex were exposed to 10 MV-bremsstrahlung. The detector we developed is based on the fluorescence property of pyromellitic acid (1,2,4,5 benzenetetracarboxylic acid) after exposure to ionizing radiation. Our results show that the additional doses and the corresponding dose distribution in front of the scattering materials depend quantitatively and qualitatively on the beam angle. The backscatter dose increases with varying beam angle from 0 deg. to 90 deg. up to a maximum at 55 deg. for copper and silver. At angles of 0 deg. and 55 deg. the integral backscatter doses over a tissue-equivalent depth of 2 mm are 11.2% and 21.6% for copper and 24% and 28% for silver, respectively. In contrast, in front of lead there are no obvious differences of the measured backscatter doses at angles between 0 deg. and 55 deg. With a further increase of the beam angle from 55 deg. to 90 deg. the backscatter dose decreases steeply for all three materials. In front of copper a markedly lower penetrating depth of the backscattered electrons was found for an angle of 0 deg. compared to 55 deg. This dependence from the beam angle was less pronounced in front of silver and not detectable in front of lead. In conclusion, the dependence of the backscatter dose from the angle between axial beam and scattering material must be considered, as higher scattering doses have to be considered than previously expected. This may have a clinical impact since the surface of metallic implants is usually curved

  4. Backscatter dose from metallic materials due to obliquely incident high-energy photon beams

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Nadrowitz, Roger; Feyerabend, Thomas [Medical University of Luebeck, Germany, Department of Radiotherapy and Nuclear Medicine, Ratzeburger Allee 160, Luebeck, D-23538 (Germany)

    2001-06-01

    If metallic material is exposed to ionizing radiation of sufficient high energy, an increase in dose due to backscatter radiation occurs in front of this material. Our purpose in this study was to quantify these doses at variable distances between scattering materials and the detector at axial beam angles between 0 deg. (zero angle in beams eye view) and 90 deg. . Copper, silver and lead sheets embedded in a phantom of perspex were exposed to 10 MV-bremsstrahlung. The detector we developed is based on the fluorescence property of pyromellitic acid (1,2,4,5 benzenetetracarboxylic acid) after exposure to ionizing radiation. Our results show that the additional doses and the corresponding dose distribution in front of the scattering materials depend quantitatively and qualitatively on the beam angle. The backscatter dose increases with varying beam angle from 0 deg. to 90 deg. up to a maximum at 55 deg. for copper and silver. At angles of 0 deg. and 55 deg. the integral backscatter doses over a tissue-equivalent depth of 2 mm are 11.2% and 21.6% for copper and 24% and 28% for silver, respectively. In contrast, in front of lead there are no obvious differences of the measured backscatter doses at angles between 0 deg. and 55 deg. With a further increase of the beam angle from 55 deg. to 90 deg. the backscatter dose decreases steeply for all three materials. In front of copper a markedly lower penetrating depth of the backscattered electrons was found for an angle of 0 deg. compared to 55 deg. This dependence from the beam angle was less pronounced in front of silver and not detectable in front of lead. In conclusion, the dependence of the backscatter dose from the angle between axial beam and scattering material must be considered, as higher scattering doses have to be considered than previously expected. This may have a clinical impact since the surface of metallic implants is usually curved.

  5. PRELIMINARY RESULTS OF ESTIMATING SOIL MOISTURE OVER BARE SOIL USING FULL-POLARIMETRIC ALOS-2 DATA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Sekertekin

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR imaging system is one of the most effective way for Earth observation. The aim of this study is to present the preliminary results about estimating soil moisture using L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR data. Full-polarimetric (HH, HV, VV, VH ALOS-2 data, acquired on 22.04.2016 with the incidence angle of 30.4o, were used in the study. Simultaneously with the SAR acquisition, in-situ soil moisture samples over bare agricultural lands were collected and evaluated using gravimetric method. Backscattering coefficients for all polarizations were obtained and linear regression analysis was carried out with in situ moisture measurements. The best correlation coefficient was observed with VV polarization. Cross-polarized backscattering coefficients were not so sensitive to soil moisture content. In the study, it was observed that soil moisture maps can be retrieved with the accuracy about 14% (RMSE.

  6. SAR processing in the cloud for oil detection in the Arctic

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garron, J.; Stoner, C.; Meyer, F. J.

    2016-12-01

    A new world of opportunity is being thawed from the ice of the Arctic, driven by decreased persistent Arctic sea-ice cover, increases in shipping, tourism, natural resource development. Tools that can automatically monitor key sea ice characteristics and potential oil spills are essential for safe passage in these changing waters. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data can be used to discriminate sea ice types and oil on the ocean surface and also for feature tracking. Additionally, SAR can image the earth through the night and most weather conditions. SAR data is volumetrically large and requires significant computing power to manipulate. Algorithms designed to identify key environmental features, like oil spills, in SAR imagery require secondary processing, and are computationally intensive, which can functionally limit their application in a real-time setting. Cloud processing is designed to manage big data and big data processing jobs by means of small cycles of off-site computations, eliminating up-front hardware costs. Pairing SAR data with cloud processing has allowed us to create and solidify a processing pipeline for SAR data products in the cloud to compare operational algorithms efficiency and effectiveness when run using an Alaska Satellite Facility (ASF) defined Amazon Machine Image (AMI). The products created from this secondary processing, were compared to determine which algorithm was most accurate in Arctic feature identification, and what operational conditions were required to produce the results on the ASF defined AMI. Results will be used to inform a series of recommendations to oil-spill response data managers and SAR users interested in expanding their analytical computing power.

  7. Automatic Detection and Positioning of Ground Control Points Using TerraSAR-X Multiaspect Acquisitions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Montazeri, Sina; Gisinger, Christoph; Eineder, Michael; Zhu, Xiao xiang

    2018-05-01

    Geodetic stereo Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is capable of absolute three-dimensional localization of natural Persistent Scatterer (PS)s which allows for Ground Control Point (GCP) generation using only SAR data. The prerequisite for the method to achieve high precision results is the correct detection of common scatterers in SAR images acquired from different viewing geometries. In this contribution, we describe three strategies for automatic detection of identical targets in SAR images of urban areas taken from different orbit tracks. Moreover, a complete work-flow for automatic generation of large number of GCPs using SAR data is presented and its applicability is shown by exploiting TerraSAR-X (TS-X) high resolution spotlight images over the city of Oulu, Finland and a test site in Berlin, Germany.

  8. Moessbauer backscatter spectrometer with full data processing capability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1976-01-01

    The design and operation of a Moessbauer backscatter spectrometer with full data processing capability is described, and the investigation of the applicability of this technique to a variety of practical metallurgical problems is discussed

  9. Sentinel-3 SAR Altimetry Toolbox

    Science.gov (United States)

    Benveniste, Jerome; Lucas, Bruno; DInardo, Salvatore

    2015-04-01

    The prime objective of the SEOM (Scientific Exploitation of Operational Missions) element is to federate, support and expand the large international research community that the ERS, ENVISAT and the Envelope programmes have build up over the last 20 years for the future European operational Earth Observation missions, the Sentinels. Sentinel-3 builds directly on a proven heritage of ERS-2 and Envisat, and CryoSat-2, with a dual-frequency (Ku and C band) advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar Altimeter (SRAL) that provides measurements at a resolution of ~300m in SAR mode along track. Sentinel-3 will provide exact measurements of sea-surface height along with accurate topography measurements over sea ice, ice sheets, rivers and lakes. The first of the two Sentinels is expected to be launched in early 2015. The current universal altimetry toolbox is BRAT (Basic Radar Altimetry Toolbox) which can read all previous and current altimetry mission's data, but it does not have the capabilities to read the upcoming Sentinel-3 L1 and L2 products. ESA will endeavour to develop and supply this capability to support the users of the future Sentinel-3 SAR Altimetry Mission. BRAT is a collection of tools and tutorial documents designed to facilitate the processing of radar altimetry data. This project started in 2005 from the joint efforts of ESA (European Space Agency) and CNES (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales), and it is freely available at http://earth.esa.int/brat. The tools enable users to interact with the most common altimetry data formats, the BratGUI is the front-end for the powerful command line tools that are part of the BRAT suite. BRAT can also be used in conjunction with Matlab/IDL (via reading routines) or in C/C++/Fortran via a programming API, allowing the user to obtain desired data, bypassing the data-formatting hassle. BRAT can be used simply to visualise data quickly, or to translate the data into other formats such as netCDF, ASCII text files, KML (Google Earth

  10. Wind class sampling of satellite SAR imagery for offshore wind resource mapping

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Badger, Merete; Badger, Jake; Nielsen, Morten

    2010-01-01

    developed for mesoscale modeling of wind resources. Its performance in connection with sampling of SAR scenes is tested against two sets of random SAR samples and meteorological observations at three sites in the North Sea during 2005–08. Predictions of the mean wind speed and the Weibull scale parameter......High-resolution wind fields retrieved from satellite synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery are combined for mapping of wind resources offshore where site measurements are costly and sparse. A new sampling strategy for the SAR scenes is introduced, based on a method for statistical......-dynamical downscaling of large-scale wind conditions using a set of wind classes that describe representative wind situations. One or more SAR scenes are then selected to represent each wind class and the classes are weighted according to their frequency of occurrence. The wind class methodology was originally...

  11. An Advanced Rotation Invariant Descriptor for SAR Image Registration

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yuming Xiang

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available The Scale-Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT algorithm and its many variants have been widely used in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR image registration. The SIFT-like algorithms maintain rotation invariance by assigning a dominant orientation for each keypoint, while the calculation of dominant orientation is not robust due to the effect of speckle noise in SAR imagery. In this paper, we propose an advanced local descriptor for SAR image registration to achieve rotation invariance without assigning a dominant orientation. Based on the improved intensity orders, we first divide a circular neighborhood into several sub-regions. Second, rotation-invariant ratio orientation histograms of each sub-region are proposed by accumulating the ratio values of different directions in a rotation-invariant coordinate system. The proposed descriptor is composed of the concatenation of the histograms of each sub-region. In order to increase the distinctiveness of the proposed descriptor, multiple image neighborhoods are aggregated. Experimental results on several satellite SAR images have shown an improvement in the matching performance over other state-of-the-art algorithms.

  12. InSAR observations of active volcanoes in Latin America

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morales Rivera, A. M.; Chaussard, E.; Amelung, F.

    2012-12-01

    Over the last decade satellite-based interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) has developed into a well-known technique to gauge the status of active volcanoes. The InSAR technique can detect the ascent of magma to shallow levels of the volcanic plumbing system because new arriving magma pressurizes the system. This is likely associated with the inflation of the volcanic edifice and the surroundings. Although the potential of InSAR to detect magma migration is well known, the principal limitation was that only for few volcanoes frequent observations were acquired. The ALOS-1 satellite of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) acquired a global L-band data set of 15-20 acquisitions during 2006-2011. Here we use ALOS InSAR and Small Baseline (SB) time-series methods for a ground deformation survey of Latin America with emphasis on the northern Andes. We present time-dependent ground deformation data for the volcanoes in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru and interpret the observations in terms of the dynamics of the volcanic systems.

  13. Emergency product generation for disaster management using RISAT and DMSAR quick look SAR processors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Desai, Nilesh; Sharma, Ritesh; Kumar, Saravana; Misra, Tapan; Gujraty, Virendra; Rana, SurinderSingh

    2006-12-01

    Since last few years, ISRO has embarked upon the development of two complex Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) missions, viz. Spaceborne Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT) and Airborne SAR for Disaster Mangement (DMSAR), as a capacity building measure under country's Disaster Management Support (DMS) Program, for estimating the extent of damage over large areas (~75 Km) and also assess the effectiveness of the relief measures undertaken during natural disasters such as cyclones, epidemics, earthquakes, floods and landslides, forest fires, crop diseases etc. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) has an unique role to play in mapping and monitoring of large areas affected by natural disasters especially floods, owing to its unique capability to see through clouds as well as all-weather imaging capability. The generation of SAR images with quick turn around time is very essential to meet the above DMS objectives. Thus the development of SAR Processors, for these two SAR systems poses considerable challenges and design efforts. Considering the growing user demand and inevitable necessity for a full-fledged high throughput processor, to process SAR data and generate image in real or near-real time, the design and development of a generic SAR Processor has been taken up and evolved, which will meet the SAR processing requirements for both Airborne and Spaceborne SAR systems. This hardware SAR processor is being built, to the extent possible, using only Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) DSP and other hardware plug-in modules on a Compact PCI (cPCI) platform. Thus, the major thrust has been on working out Multi-processor Digital Signal Processor (DSP) architecture and algorithm development and optimization rather than hardware design and fabrication. For DMSAR, this generic SAR Processor operates as a Quick Look SAR Processor (QLP) on-board the aircraft to produce real time full swath DMSAR images and as a ground based Near-Real Time high precision full swath Processor (NRTP). It will

  14. [SARS: a new emergency in the world health].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Calza, Leonardo; Manfredi, Roberto; Verucchi, Gabriella; Chiodo, Francesco

    2003-01-01

    The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) is a new life-threatening respiratory disease which has its origins in Guangdong province, China, where the earliest known cases were identified in November 2002. Since then, probable cases of SARS have been reported in 30 countries and the current cumulative number of cases is 8,240 with 745 deaths and a global fatality rate of 9%. The most frequently involved areas include China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada, Vietnam and Philippines. Most cases of SARS to date have occurred in young adults and this disease appears to spread most commonly by close person-to-person contact, involving exposure to infectious droplets and body fluids. This transmission pattern generally involves household members, health care workers and international travellers, while a large and sudden cluster of almost simultaneous cases in an housing estate of Hong Kong has raised the possibility of transmission from an environmental source. The most common presenting symptoms are fever, malaise, non-productive cough and dyspnea, associated with pulmonary interstitial infiltrates on chest radiography. A novel coronavirus is associated with this outbreak, and the laboratory evidences indicate that this virus has an etiologic role in SARS, but the role of other concurrent viral agents (such as metapneumovirus) identified in these patients requires further investigation.

  15. Risk factors for SARS transmission from patients requiring intubation: a multicentre investigation in Toronto, Canada.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Janet Raboud

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: In the 2003 Toronto SARS outbreak, SARS-CoV was transmitted in hospitals despite adherence to infection control procedures. Considerable controversy resulted regarding which procedures and behaviours were associated with the greatest risk of SARS-CoV transmission. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was conducted to identify risk factors for transmission of SARS-CoV during intubation from laboratory confirmed SARS patients to HCWs involved in their care. All SARS patients requiring intubation during the Toronto outbreak were identified. All HCWs who provided care to intubated SARS patients during treatment or transportation and who entered a patient room or had direct patient contact from 24 hours before to 4 hours after intubation were eligible for this study. Data was collected on patients by chart review and on HCWs by interviewer-administered questionnaire. Generalized estimating equation (GEE logistic regression models and classification and regression trees (CART were used to identify risk factors for SARS transmission. RESULTS: 45 laboratory-confirmed intubated SARS patients were identified. Of the 697 HCWs involved in their care, 624 (90% participated in the study. SARS-CoV was transmitted to 26 HCWs from 7 patients; 21 HCWs were infected by 3 patients. In multivariate GEE logistic regression models, presence in the room during fiberoptic intubation (OR = 2.79, p = .004 or ECG (OR = 3.52, p = .002, unprotected eye contact with secretions (OR = 7.34, p = .001, patient APACHE II score > or = 20 (OR = 17.05, p = .009 and patient Pa0(2/Fi0(2 ratio < or = 59 (OR = 8.65, p = .001 were associated with increased risk of transmission of SARS-CoV. In CART analyses, the four covariates which explained the greatest amount of variation in SARS-CoV transmission were covariates representing individual patients. CONCLUSION: Close contact with the airway of severely ill patients and failure of infection control practices to prevent exposure

  16. Study on Zero-Doppler Centroid Control for GEO SAR Ground Observation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yicheng Jiang

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available In geosynchronous Earth orbit SAR (GEO SAR, Doppler centroid compensation is a key step for imaging process, which could be performed by the attitude steering of a satellite platform. However, this zero-Doppler centroid control method does not work well when the look angle of radar is out of an expected range. This paper primarily analyzes the Doppler properties of GEO SAR in the Earth rectangular coordinate. Then, according to the actual conditions of the GEO SAR ground observation, the effective range is presented by the minimum and maximum possible look angles which are directly related to the orbital parameters. Based on the vector analysis, a new approach for zero-Doppler centroid control in GEO SAR, performing the attitude steering by a combination of pitch and roll rotation, is put forward. This approach, considering the Earth’s rotation and elliptical orbit effects, can accurately reduce the residual Doppler centroid. All the simulation results verify the correctness of the range of look angle and the proposed steering method.

  17. Feature Fusion Based Road Extraction for HJ-1-C SAR Image

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lu Ping-ping

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Road network extraction in SAR images is one of the key tasks of military and civilian technologies. To solve the issues of road extraction of HJ-1-C SAR images, a road extraction algorithm is proposed based on the integration of ratio and directional information. Due to the characteristic narrow dynamic range and low signal to noise ratio of HJ-1-C SAR images, a nonlinear quantization and an image filtering method based on a multi-scale autoregressive model are proposed here. A road extraction algorithm based on information fusion, which considers ratio and direction information, is also proposed. By processing Radon transformation, main road directions can be extracted. Cross interferences can be suppressed, and the road continuity can then be improved by the main direction alignment and secondary road extraction. The HJ-1-C SAR image acquired in Wuhan, China was used to evaluate the proposed method. The experimental results show good performance with correctness (80.5% and quality (70.1% when applied to a SAR image with complex content.

  18. A MATCHING METHOD TO REDUCE THE INFLUENCE OF SAR GEOMETRIC DEFORMATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    C. Gao

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available There are large geometrical deformations in SAR image, including foreshortening, layover, shade,which leads to SAR Image matching with low accuracy. Especially in complex terrain area, the control points are difficult to obtain, and the matching is difficult to achieve. Considering the impact of geometric distortions in SAR image pairs, a matching algorithm with a combination of speeded up robust features (SURF and summed of normalize cross correlation (SNCC was proposed, which can avoid the influence of SAR geometric deformation. Firstly, SURF algorithm was utilized to predict the search area. Then the matching point pairs was selected based on summed of normalized cross correlation. Finally, false match points were eliminated by the bidirectional consistency. SURF algorithm can control the range of matching points, and the matching points extracted from the deformation area are eliminated, and the matching points with stable and even distribution are obtained. The experimental results demonstrated that the proposed algorithm had high precision, and can effectively avoid the effect of geometric distortion on SAR image matching. Meet accuracy requirements of the block adjustment with sparse control points.

  19. Ionospheric errors compensation for ground deformation estimation with new generation SAR

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gomba, Giorgio; De Zan, Francesco; Rodriguez Gonzalez, Fernando

    2017-04-01

    Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and interferometric SAR (InSAR) measurements are disturbed by the propagation velocity changes of microwaves that are caused by the high density of free electrons in the ionosphere. Most affected are low-frequency (L- or P-band) radars, as the recently launched ALOS-2 and the future Tandem-L and NISAR, although higher frequency (C- or X-band) systems, as the recently launched Sentinel-1, are not immune. Since the ionosphere is an obstacle to increasing the precision of new generation SAR systems needed to remotely measure the Earth's dynamic processes as for example ground deformation, it is necessary to estimate and compensate ionospheric propagation delays in SAR signals. In this work we discuss about the influence of the ionosphere on interferograms and the possible correction methods with relative accuracies. Consequently, the effect of ionospheric induced errors on ground deformation measurements prior and after ionosphere compensation will be analyzed. Examples will be presented of corrupted measurements of earthquakes and fault motion along with the corrected results using different methods.

  20. Estimating snow water equivalent (SWE) using interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deeb, Elias J.

    Since the early 1990s, radar interferometry and interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) have been used extensively to measure changes in the Earth's surface. Previous research has presented theory for estimating snow properties, including potential for snow water equivalent (SWE) retrieval, using InSAR. The motivation behind using remote sensing to estimate SWE is to provide a more complete, continuous set of "observations" to assist in water management operations, climate change studies, and flood hazard forecasting. The research presented here primarily investigates the feasibility of using the InSAR technique at two different wavelengths (C-Band and L-Band) for SWE retrieval of dry snow within the Kuparuk watershed, North Slope, Alaska. Estimating snow distribution around meteorological towers on the coastal plain using a three-day repeat orbit of C-Band InSAR data was successful (Chapter 2). A longer wavelength L-band SAR is evaluated for SWE retrievals (Chapter 3) showing the ability to resolve larger snow accumulation events over a longer period of time. Comparisons of InSAR estimates and late spring manual sampling of SWE show a R2 = 0.61 when a coherence threshold is used to eliminate noisy SAR data. Qualitative comparisons with a high resolution digital elevation model (DEM) highlight areas of scour on windward slopes and areas of deposition on leeward slopes. When compared to a mid-winter transect of manually sampled snow depths, the InSAR SWE estimates yield a RMSE of 2.21cm when a bulk snow density is used and corrections for bracketing the satellite acquisition timing is performed. In an effort to validate the interaction of radar waves with a snowpack, the importance of the "dry snow" assumption for the estimation of SWE using InSAR is tested with an experiment in Little Cottonwood Canyon, Alta, Utah (Chapter 5). Snow wetness is shown to have a significant effect on the velocity of propagation within the snowpack. Despite the radar