The local ionospheric modeling by integration ground GPS observations and satellite altimetry data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohammad Ali Sharifi

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The free electrons in the ionosphere have a strong impact on the propagation of radio waves. When the signals pass through the ionosphere, both their group and phase velocity are disturbed. Several space geodetic techniques such as satellite altimetry, low Earth orbit (LEO satellite and very long baseline interferometry (VLBI can be used to model the total electron content. At present, the classical input data for development of ionospheric models are based on dual-frequency GPS observations, However, a major problem with this observation type is the nonuniform distribution of the terrestrial GPS reference stations with large gaps notably over the sea surface and ocean where only some single stations are located on islands, leading to lower the precision of the model over these areas. In these regions the dual-frequency satellite altimeters provide precise information about the parameters of the ionosphere. Combination of GPS and satellite altimetry observations allows making best use of the advantages of their different spatial and temporal distributions. In this study, the local ionosphere modeling was done by the combination of space geodetic observations using spherical Slepian function. The combination of the data from ground GPS observations over the western part of the USA and the altimetry mission Jason-2 was performed on the normal equation level in the least-square procedure and a least-square variance component estimation (LS-VCE was applied to take into account the different accuracy levels of the observations. The integrated ionosphere model is more accurate and more reliable than the results derived from the ground GPS observations over the oceans.

A multi-source satellite data approach for modelling Lake Turkana water level: calibration and validation using satellite altimetry data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N. M. Velpuri

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Lake Turkana is one of the largest desert lakes in the world and is characterized by high degrees of inter- and intra-annual fluctuations. The hydrology and water balance of this lake have not been well understood due to its remote location and unavailability of reliable ground truth datasets. Managing surface water resources is a great challenge in areas where in-situ data are either limited or unavailable. In this study, multi-source satellite-driven data such as satellite-based rainfall estimates, modelled runoff, evapotranspiration, and a digital elevation dataset were used to model Lake Turkana water levels from 1998 to 2009. Due to the unavailability of reliable lake level data, an approach is presented to calibrate and validate the water balance model of Lake Turkana using a composite lake level product of TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1, and ENVISAT satellite altimetry data. Model validation results showed that the satellite-driven water balance model can satisfactorily capture the patterns and seasonal variations of the Lake Turkana water level fluctuations with a Pearson's correlation coefficient of 0.90 and a Nash-Sutcliffe Coefficient of Efficiency (NSCE of 0.80 during the validation period (2004–2009. Model error estimates were within 10% of the natural variability of the lake. Our analysis indicated that fluctuations in Lake Turkana water levels are mainly driven by lake inflows and over-the-lake evaporation. Over-the-lake rainfall contributes only up to 30% of lake evaporative demand. During the modelling time period, Lake Turkana showed seasonal variations of 1–2 m. The lake level fluctuated in the range up to 4 m between the years 1998–2009. This study demonstrated the usefulness of satellite altimetry data to calibrate and validate the satellite-driven hydrological model for Lake Turkana without using any in-situ data. Furthermore, for Lake Turkana, we identified and outlined opportunities and challenges of using a calibrated

CryoSat-2 satellite radar altimetry for river analysis and modelling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schneider, Raphael

The global coverage of in situ observations of surface water dynamics is insufficient to effectively manage water resources. Moreover, the availability of these data is decreasing, due to the lack of gauging stations and data sharing. Satellite radar altimetry, initially developed to monitor ocean...... water levels, also offers measurements of water levels of rivers and lakes on a global scale. Because of the continuous upstart of new missions, and sensor and processing innovations, the importance of satellite altimetry data for the hydrologic community is increasing. CryoSat-2, launched......) and Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometric (SARIn) mode. SAR and SARIn have reduced footprint size in the along-track direction owing to delay/Doppler processing, potentially increasing observation accuracy. Second, CryoSat-2 is placed on a unique long-repeat orbit with a cycle of 369 days. This is different...

Using satellite altimetry and tide gauges for storm surge warning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, O. B.; Cheng, Yongcun; Deng, X.

2014-01-01

of Australia. For both locations we have tried to investigate the possibilities and limitations of the use of satellite altimetry to capture high frequency signals (surges) using data from the past 20 years. The two regions are chosen to represent extra-tropical and tropical storm surge conditions. We have...

Preface to the Special Issue on Satellite Altimetry over Land and Coastal Zones: Applications and Challenges

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cheinway Hwang

2008-01-01

Full Text Available This special issue publishes peer reviewed papers stemming from the International Workshop on Coast and Land applications of satellite altimetry, held 21 -22 July 2006, Beijing, China. This workshop is financially supported by the Chinese Academy of Surveying and Mapping, National Chiao Tung University, Asia GIS and GPS Co., Chung-Hsing Surv. Co., Huanyu Surv. Eng. Cons. Inc., and Real-World Eng. Cons. Inc. Twenty-two papers were submitted to this issue for review, and 16 papers were accepted following an iterative peer-review process. The accepted papers cover subjects on: ICESat coastal altimetry (1, satellite altimetry applications in solid earth sciences (2, hydrology (4, land/coast gravity field modeling (4, and coastal oceanography (5.

A multi-source satellite data approach for modelling Lake Turkana water level: Calibration and validation using satellite altimetry data

Science.gov (United States)

Velpuri, N.M.; Senay, G.B.; Asante, K.O.

2012-01-01

Lake Turkana is one of the largest desert lakes in the world and is characterized by high degrees of interand intra-annual fluctuations. The hydrology and water balance of this lake have not been well understood due to its remote location and unavailability of reliable ground truth datasets. Managing surface water resources is a great challenge in areas where in-situ data are either limited or unavailable. In this study, multi-source satellite-driven data such as satellite-based rainfall estimates, modelled runoff, evapotranspiration, and a digital elevation dataset were used to model Lake Turkana water levels from 1998 to 2009. Due to the unavailability of reliable lake level data, an approach is presented to calibrate and validate the water balance model of Lake Turkana using a composite lake level product of TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1, and ENVISAT satellite altimetry data. Model validation results showed that the satellitedriven water balance model can satisfactorily capture the patterns and seasonal variations of the Lake Turkana water level fluctuations with a Pearson's correlation coefficient of 0.90 and a Nash-Sutcliffe Coefficient of Efficiency (NSCE) of 0.80 during the validation period (2004-2009). Model error estimates were within 10% of the natural variability of the lake. Our analysis indicated that fluctuations in Lake Turkana water levels are mainly driven by lake inflows and over-the-lake evaporation. Over-the-lake rainfall contributes only up to 30% of lake evaporative demand. During the modelling time period, Lake Turkana showed seasonal variations of 1-2m. The lake level fluctuated in the range up to 4m between the years 1998-2009. This study demonstrated the usefulness of satellite altimetry data to calibrate and validate the satellite-driven hydrological model for Lake Turkana without using any in-situ data. Furthermore, for Lake Turkana, we identified and outlined opportunities and challenges of using a calibrated satellite-driven water balance

The DTU13 MSS (Mean Sea Surface) and MDT (Mean Dynamic Topography) from 20 Years of Satellite Altimetry

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Ole Baltazar; Knudsen, Per; Stenseng, Lars

2015-01-01

The DTU13MSS is the latest release of the global high resolution mean sea surface (MSS) from DTU Space. The new MSS is based on multi-mission satellite altimetry from 10 different satellites. Three major advances have been made in order to release the new MSS. The time series have been extended t...

A Fiducial Reference Stie for Satellite Altimetry in Crete, Greece

Science.gov (United States)

Mertikas, Stelios; Donlon, Craig; Mavrocordatos, Constantin; Bojkov, Bojan; Femenias, Pierre; Parrinello, Tommaso; Picot, Nicolas; Desjonqueres, Jean-Damien; Andersen, Ole Baltazar

2016-08-01

With the advent of diverse satellite altimeters and variant measuring techniques, it has become mature in the scientific community, that an absolute reference Cal/Val site is regularly maintained to define, monitor, control the responses of any altimetric system.This work sets the ground for the establishment of a Fiducial Reference Site for ESA satellite altimetry in Gavdos and West Crete, Greece. It will consistently and reliably determine (a) absolute altimeter biases and their drifts; (b) relative bias among diverse missions; but also (c) continuously and independently connect different missions, on a common and reliable reference and also to SI-traceable measurements. Results from this fiducial reference site will be based on historic Cal/Val site measurement records, and will be the yardstick for building up capacity for monitoring climate change. This will be achieved by defining and assessing any satellite altimeter measurements to known, controlled and absolute reference signals with different techniques, processes and instrumentation.

Stage-discharge rating curves based on satellite altimetry and modeled discharge in the Amazon basin

OpenAIRE

Paris, Adrien; Dias de Paiva, Rodrigo; Santos da Silva, Joecila; Medeiros Moreira, Daniel; Calmant, Stephane; Garambois, Pierre-André; Collischonn, Walter; Bonnet, Marie-Paule; Seyler, Frederique

2016-01-01

In this study, rating curves (RCs) were determined by applying satellite altimetry to a poorly gauged basin. This study demonstrates the synergistic application of remote sensing and watershed modeling to capture the dynamics and quantity of flow in the Amazon River Basin, respectively. Three major advancements for estimating basin-scale patterns in river discharge are described. The first advancement is the preservation of the hydrological meanings of the parameters expressed by ...

Errors of Mean Dynamic Topography and Geostrophic Current Estimates in China's Marginal Seas from GOCE and Satellite Altimetry

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jin, Shuanggen; Feng, Guiping; Andersen, Ole Baltazar

2014-01-01

and geostrophic current estimates from satellite gravimetry and altimetry are investigated and evaluated in China's marginal seas. The cumulative error in MDT from GOCE is reduced from 22.75 to 9.89 cm when compared to the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) gravity field model ITG-Grace2010 results......The Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) and satellite altimetry can provide very detailed and accurate estimates of the mean dynamic topography (MDT) and geostrophic currents in China's marginal seas, such as, the newest high-resolution GOCE gravity field model GO......-CONS-GCF-2-TIM-R4 and the new Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales mean sea surface model MSS_CNES_CLS_11 from satellite altimetry. However, errors and uncertainties of MDT and geostrophic current estimates from satellite observations are not generally quantified. In this paper, errors and uncertainties of MDT...

Gravity field modeling at the sea areas using satellite altimetry observations Case study: Gravity field modeling at the Coastal Fars

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jomegi, A.

2007-01-01

Nowadays, satellite altimetry observations had made it possible to determine sea surface variations, in the global scale, to high degree of precision. Using satellite altimetry observations, Mean Sea Level (MSL) can be determined, which by Kowing Sea Surface Topography (SST), can be converted into high-resolution marine geoid. In this paper we are proposing a method for computation of the Earth's gravity field at the sea areas, which is different from usual methods. Indeed, our method is based on conversion of geoidal heights into gravity potential values at the reference ellipsoid 2 Ea,b , by using ellipsoidal Brun's formula, and forward application of solution of Fixed-Free Two Boundary Value Problem (FFTBVP), previously proposed by the authors for the geoid computations without application of Stokes formula. Numerical results of application of the proposed method at the test area of CoastalFars (at southern part of Iran) show the success of the method. Considering the low cost and high precision of satellite altimetry observations, the proposed method suggests an efficient substitution to shipborne gravity observations for gravity field molding at the sea areas

Arctic sea level change over the past 2 decades from GRACE gradiometry and multi-mission satellite altimetry

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, O. B.; Stenseng, L.; Sørensen, C. S.

2014-01-01

The Arctic is still an extremely challenging region for theuse of remote sensing for sea level studies. Despite the availability of 20 years of altimetry, only very limited sea level observations exist in the interior of the Arctic Ocean. However, with Cryosat-2 SAR altimetry the situation...... gradiometer observations from the ESA GOCE mission, we are now able to derive a mean dynamic topography of the Arctic Ocean with unprecedented accuracy to constrain the Arctic Ocean circulation controlling sea level variations in the Arctic. We present both a new estimation of the mean ocean circulation...... and new estimates of large scale sea level changes based on satellite data and perform an estimation of the fresh waterstorage increase over the last decade using temporal gravity changes from the GRACE satellite....

Water Level Fluctuations in the Congo Basin Derived from ENVISAT Satellite Altimetry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mélanie Becker

2014-09-01

Full Text Available In the Congo Basin, the elevated vulnerability of food security and the water supply implies that sustainable development strategies must incorporate the effects of climate change on hydrological regimes. However, the lack of observational hydro-climatic data over the past decades strongly limits the number of studies investigating the effects of climate change in the Congo Basin. We present the largest altimetry-based dataset of water levels ever constituted over the entire Congo Basin. This dataset of water levels illuminates the hydrological regimes of various tributaries of the Congo River. A total of 140 water level time series are extracted using ENVISAT altimetry over the period of 2003 to 2009. To improve the understanding of the physical phenomena dominating the region, we perform a K-means cluster analysis of the altimeter-derived river level height variations to identify groups of hydrologically similar catchments. This analysis reveals nine distinct hydrological regions. The proposed regionalization scheme is validated and therefore considered reliable for estimating monthly water level variations in the Congo Basin. This result confirms the potential of satellite altimetry in monitoring spatio-temporal water level variations as a promising and unprecedented means for improved representation of the hydrologic characteristics in large ungauged river basins.

Merging of airborne gravity and gravity derived from satellite altimetry: Test cases along the coast of greenland

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olesen, Arne Vestergaard; Andersen, Ole Baltazar; Tscherning, C.C.

2002-01-01

for the use of gravity data especially, when computing geoid models in coastal regions. The presence of reliable marine gravity data for independent control offers an opportunity to study procedures for the merging of airborne and satellite data around Greenland. Two different merging techniques, both based......The National Survey and Cadastre - Denmark (KMS) has for several years produced gravity anomaly maps over the oceans derived from satellite altimetry. During the last four years, KMS has also conducted airborne gravity surveys along the coast of Greenland dedicated to complement the existing...... onshore gravity coverage and fill in new data in the very-near coastal area, where altimetry data may contain gross errors. The airborne surveys extend from the coastline to approximately 100 km offshore, along 6000 km of coastline. An adequate merging of these different data sources is important...

On the unification of geodetic leveling datums using satellite altimetry

Science.gov (United States)

Mather, R. S.; Rizos, C.; Morrison, T.

1978-01-01

Techniques are described for determining the height of Mean Sea Level (MSL) at coastal sites from satellite altimetry. Such information is of value in the adjustment of continental leveling networks. Numerical results are obtained from the 1977 GEOS-3 altimetry data bank at Goddard Space Flight Center using the Bermuda calibration of the altimeter. Estimates are made of the heights of MSL at the leveling datums for Australia and a hypothetical Galveston datum for central North America. The results obtained are in reasonable agreement with oceanographic estimates obtained by extrapolation. It is concluded that all gravity data in the Australian bank AUSGAD 76 and in the Rapp data file for central North America refer to the GEOS-3 altimeter geoid for 1976.0 with uncertainties which do not exceed + or - 0.1 mGal.

New satellite altimetry products for coastal oceans

Science.gov (United States)

Dufau, Claire; Mercier, F.; Ablain, M.; Dibarboure, G.; Carrere, L.; Labroue, S.; Obligis, E.; Sicard, P.; Thibaut, P.; Birol, F.; Bronner, E.; Lombard, A.; Picot, N.

Since the launch of Topex-Poseidon in 1992, satellite altimetry has become one of the most essential elements of the Earth's observing system. Its global view of the ocean state has permitted numerous improvements in the environment understanding, particularly in the global monitoring of climate changes and ocean circulation. Near the coastlines where human activities have a major impact on the ocean, satellite altimeter techniques are unfortunately limited by a growth of their error budget. This quality loss is due to land contamination in the altimetric and radiometric footprints but also to inaccurate geophysical corrections (tides, high-frequency processes linked to atmospheric forcing).Despite instrumental perturbations by emerged lands until 10 km (altimeter) and 50 km (radiometer) off the coasts, measurements are made and may contain useful information for coastal studies. In order to recover these data close to the coast, the French Spatial Agency (CNES) has funded the development of the PISTACH prototype dedicated to Jason-2 altimeter processing in coastal ocean. Since November 2008, these new satellite altimeter products have been providing new retracking solutions, several state-of-the-art or with higher resolution corrections in addition to standard fields. This presentation will present and illustrate this new set of satellite data for the coastal oceans.

Stage-discharge rating curves based on satellite altimetry and modeled discharge in the Amazon basin

Science.gov (United States)

Paris, Adrien; Dias de Paiva, Rodrigo; Santos da Silva, Joecila; Medeiros Moreira, Daniel; Calmant, Stephane; Garambois, Pierre-André; Collischonn, Walter; Bonnet, Marie-Paule; Seyler, Frederique

2016-05-01

In this study, rating curves (RCs) were determined by applying satellite altimetry to a poorly gauged basin. This study demonstrates the synergistic application of remote sensing and watershed modeling to capture the dynamics and quantity of flow in the Amazon River Basin, respectively. Three major advancements for estimating basin-scale patterns in river discharge are described. The first advancement is the preservation of the hydrological meanings of the parameters expressed by Manning's equation to obtain a data set containing the elevations of the river beds throughout the basin. The second advancement is the provision of parameter uncertainties and, therefore, the uncertainties in the rated discharge. The third advancement concerns estimating the discharge while considering backwater effects. We analyzed the Amazon Basin using nearly one thousand series that were obtained from ENVISAT and Jason-2 altimetry for more than 100 tributaries. Discharge values and related uncertainties were obtained from the rain-discharge MGB-IPH model. We used a global optimization algorithm based on the Monte Carlo Markov Chain and Bayesian framework to determine the rating curves. The data were randomly allocated into 80% calibration and 20% validation subsets. A comparison with the validation samples produced a Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (Ens) of 0.68. When the MGB discharge uncertainties were less than 5%, the Ens value increased to 0.81 (mean). A comparison with the in situ discharge resulted in an Ens value of 0.71 for the validation samples (and 0.77 for calibration). The Ens values at the mouths of the rivers that experienced backwater effects significantly improved when the mean monthly slope was included in the RC. Our RCs were not mission-dependent, and the Ens value was preserved when applying ENVISAT rating curves to Jason-2 altimetry at crossovers. The cease-to-flow parameter of our RCs provided a good proxy for determining river bed elevation. This proxy was validated

River monitoring from satellite radar altimetry in the Zambezi River basin

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. I. Michailovsky

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Satellite radar altimetry can be used to monitor surface water levels from space. While current and past altimetry missions were designed to study oceans, retracking the waveforms returned over land allows data to be retrieved for smaller water bodies or narrow rivers. The objective of this study is the assessment of the potential for river monitoring from radar altimetry in terms of water level and discharge in the Zambezi River basin. Retracked Envisat altimetry data were extracted over the Zambezi River basin using a detailed river mask based on Landsat imagery. This allowed for stage measurements to be obtained for rivers down to 80 m wide with an RMSE relative to in situ levels of 0.32 to 0.72 m at different locations. The altimetric levels were then converted to discharge using three different methods adapted to different data-availability scenarios: first with an in situ rating curve available, secondly with one simultaneous field measurement of cross-section and discharge, and finally with only historical discharge data available. For the two locations at which all three methods could be applied, the accuracies of the different methods were found to be comparable, with RMSE values ranging from 4.1 to 6.5% of the mean annual in situ gauged amplitude for the first method and from 6.9 to 13.8% for the second and third methods. The precision obtained with the different methods was analyzed by running Monte Carlo simulations and also showed comparable values for the three approaches with standard deviations found between 5.7 and 7.2% of the mean annual in situ gauged amplitude for the first method and from 8.7 to 13.0% for the second and third methods.

A new Ellipsoidal Gravimetric-Satellite Altimetry Boundary Value Problem; Case study: High Resolution Geoid of Iran

Science.gov (United States)

Ardalan, A.; Safari, A.; Grafarend, E.

2003-04-01

A new ellipsoidal gravimetric-satellite altimetry boundary value problem has been developed and successfully tested. This boundary value problem has been constructed for gravity observables of the type (i) gravity potential (ii) gravity intensity (iii) deflection of vertical and (iv) satellite altimetry data. The developed boundary value problem is enjoying the ellipsoidal nature and as such can take advantage of high precision GPS observations in the set-up of the problem. The highlights of the solution are as follows: begin{itemize} Application of ellipsoidal harmonic expansion up to degree/order and ellipsoidal centrifugal field for the reduction of global gravity and isostasy effects from the gravity observable at the surface of the Earth. Application of ellipsoidal Newton integral on the equal area map projection surface for the reduction of residual mass effects within a radius of 55 km around the computational point. Ellipsoidal harmonic downward continuation of the residual observables from the surface of the earth down to the surface of reference ellipsoid using the ellipsoidal height of the observation points derived from GPS. Restore of the removed effects at the application points on the surface of reference ellipsoid. Conversion of the satellite altimetry derived heights of the water bodies into potential. Combination of the downward continued gravity information with the potential equivalent of the satellite altimetry derived heights of the water bodies. Application of ellipsoidal Bruns formula for converting the potential values on the surface of the reference ellipsoid into the geoidal heights (i.e. ellipsoidal heights of the geoid) with respect to the reference ellipsoid. Computation of the high-resolution geoid of Iran has successfully tested this new methodology!

Sea level variability in the Arctic Ocean observed by satellite altimetry

OpenAIRE

Prandi, P.; Ablain, M.; Cazenave, A.; Picot, N.

2012-01-01

We investigate sea level variability in the Arctic Ocean from observations. Variability estimates are derived both at the basin scale and on smaller local spatial scales. The periods of the signals studied vary from high frequency (intra-annual) to long term trends. We also investigate the mechanisms responsible for the observed variability. Different data types are used, the main one being a recent reprocessing of satellite altimetry data...

Synthesis of a quarter-century of satellite and airborne altimetry records to resolve long-term ice sheet elevation change

Science.gov (United States)

Nilsson, J.; Paolo, F. S.; Simonsen, S.; Gardner, A. S.

2017-12-01

Satellite and airborne altimetry provide the longest continuous record from which the mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet can be derived, starting with the launch of ERS-1 in 1992. Accurate knowledge of the long-term mass balance is vital for understanding the geophysical processes governing the ice sheet contribution to present day sea-level rise. However, this record is comprised of several different measurement systems, with different accuracies and varying resolution. This poses a major challenge on the interpretation and reconstruction of consistent elevation-change time series for determining long-term ice sheet trends and variability. Previous studies using data from multiple satellite altimetry missions have relied on a cross-calibration technique based on crossover bias analysis to merge records from different sensors. This methodology, though accurate, limits the spatial coverage to typical resolutions of 10-50 km, restricting the approach to regional or continental-wide studies. In this study, we present a novel framework for seamless integration of heterogeneous altimetry records, using an adaptive least-squares minimization technique. The procedure allows reconstructing time series at fine spatial (sheet, including both data from the European Space Agency (ERS-1, ERS-2, Envisat and CryoSat-2) and NASA (ICESat and Operation IceBridge), with future inclusion of data from NASA's ICESat-2. Mission specific errors, estimated from independent airborne measurements and crossover analysis, are propagated to derive uncertainty bounds for each individual time series. We also perform an extensive analysis of the major corrections applied to raw satellite altimetry data to assess their overall effect on the estimated uncertainty. This methodology will allow us to determine robust long-term changes in the surface elevation of grounded Antarctic ice. Such a dataset will be invaluable to advancing ice sheet assimilation efforts and to disentangle causal

HYDROGRAV - Hydrological model calibration and terrestrial water storage monitoring from GRACE gravimetry and satellite altimetry, First results

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, O.B.; Krogh, P.E.; Michailovsky, C.

2008-01-01

Space-borne and ground-based time-lapse gravity observations provide new data for water balance monitoring and hydrological model calibration in the future. The HYDROGRAV project (www.hydrograv.dk) will explore the utility of time-lapse gravity surveys for hydrological model calibration and terre...... change from 2002 to 2008 along with in-situ gravity time-lapse observations and radar altimetry monitoring of surface water for the southern Africa river basins will be presented.......Space-borne and ground-based time-lapse gravity observations provide new data for water balance monitoring and hydrological model calibration in the future. The HYDROGRAV project (www.hydrograv.dk) will explore the utility of time-lapse gravity surveys for hydrological model calibration...... and terrestrial water storage monitoring. Merging remote sensing data from GRACE with other remote sensing data like satellite altimetry and also ground based observations are important to hydrological model calibration and water balance monitoring of large regions and can serve as either supplement or as vital...

CryoSat-2 Altimetry Applications over Rivers and Lakes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jiang, Liguang; Schneider, Raphael; Andersen, Ole Baltazar

2017-01-01

challenges conventional ways of dealing with satellite inland water altimetry data because virtual station time series cannot be directly derived for rivers. We review the CryoSat-2 mission characteristics, data products, and its use and perspectives for inland water applications. We discuss all......Monitoring the variation of rivers and lakes is of great importance. Satellite radar altimetry is a promising technology to do this on a regional to global scale. Satellite radar altimetry data has been used successfully to observe water levels in lakes and (large) rivers, and has also been...

CONTRIBUTION OF SATELLITE ALTIMETRY DATA IN GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE RESEARCH IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

T. D. Tran

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The study area is bordered on the East China Sea, the Philippine Sea, and the Australian-Indo plate in the Northeast, in the East and in the South, respectively. It is a large area with the diversely complicated conditions of geological structure. In spite of over the past many years of investigation, marine geological structure in many places have remained poorly understood because of a thick seawater layer as well as of the sensitive conflicts among the countries in the region. In recent years, the satellite altimeter technology allows of enhancement the marine investigation in any area. The ocean surface height is measured by a very accurate radar altimeter mounted on a satellite. Then, that surface can be converted into marine gravity anomaly or bathymetry by using the mathematical model. It is the only way to achieve the data with a uniform resolution in acceptable time and cost. The satellite altimetry data and its variants are essential for understanding marine geological structure. They provide a reliable opportunity to geologists and geophysicists for studying the geological features beneath the ocean floor. Also satellite altimeter data is perfect for planning the more detailed shipboard surveys. Especially, it is more meaningful in the remote or sparsely surveyed regions. In this paper, the authors have effectively used the satellite altimetry and shipboard data in combination. Many geological features, such as seafloor spreading ridges, fault systems, volcanic chains as well as distribution of sedimentary basins are revealed through the 2D, 3D model methods of interpretation of satellite-shipboard-derived data and the others. These results are improved by existing boreholes and seismic data in the study area.

The value of ocean reflections of GPS signals to enhance satellite altimetry: data distribution and error analysis

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Wagner, C.; Klokočník, Jaroslav

2003-01-01

Roč. 77, 3-4 (2003), s. 128-138 ISSN 0949-7714 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z1003909 Keywords : bistatic * satellite * altimetry Subject RIV: BN - Astronomy, Celestial Mechanics, Astrophysics Impact factor: 0.983, year: 2003

Ranging error analysis of single photon satellite laser altimetry under different terrain conditions

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Jiapeng; Li, Guoyuan; Gao, Xiaoming; Wang, Jianmin; Fan, Wenfeng; Zhou, Shihong

2018-02-01

Single photon satellite laser altimeter is based on Geiger model, which has the characteristics of small spot, high repetition rate etc. In this paper, for the slope terrain, the distance of error's formula and numerical calculation are carried out. Monte Carlo method is used to simulate the experiment of different terrain measurements. The experimental results show that ranging accuracy is not affected by the spot size under the condition of the flat terrain, But the inclined terrain can influence the ranging error dramatically, when the satellite pointing angle is 0.001° and the terrain slope is about 12°, the ranging error can reach to 0.5m. While the accuracy can't meet the requirement when the slope is more than 70°. Monte Carlo simulation results show that single photon laser altimeter satellite with high repetition rate can improve the ranging accuracy under the condition of complex terrain. In order to ensure repeated observation of the same point for 25 times, according to the parameters of ICESat-2, we deduce the quantitative relation between the footprint size, footprint, and the frequency repetition. The related conclusions can provide reference for the design and demonstration of the domestic single photon laser altimetry satellite.

Challenges for Greenland-wide mass balance from Cryosat-2 radar-altimetry

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Simonsen, Sebastian Bjerregaard; Forsberg, René; Sørensen, Louise Sandberg

As the Greenland ice sheet warms, a change in the structure of the upper snow/firn occurs. This change further induces changes in the reflective properties of the firn seen from satellite radar altimetry. If not identified as changes in the reflective properties of the firn, these may be interpre......As the Greenland ice sheet warms, a change in the structure of the upper snow/firn occurs. This change further induces changes in the reflective properties of the firn seen from satellite radar altimetry. If not identified as changes in the reflective properties of the firn, these may...... be interpreted as actual surface elevation changes seen from the satellite radar altimetry (Nilsson et al., 2015).Here, we investigate how to correct the elevation change observed from the ESA Cryosat-2 radar altimetry mission to derive elevation change of the air/snow interface of the Greenland ice sheet....... The elevation change of this “real” physical surface is crucial, if the goal is to derive Greenland mass balance as done for LiDAR missions.The investigations look into waveform parameters to correct for the observed bias between Radar and LiDAR observations when using Croysat-2 level-2 data. Based...

Combining high-resolution satellite images and altimetry to estimate the volume of small lakes

Science.gov (United States)

Baup, F.; Frappart, F.; Maubant, J.

2014-05-01

This study presents an approach to determining the volume of water in small lakes (manager of the lake. Three independent approaches are developed to estimate the lake volume and its temporal variability. The first two approaches (HRBV and ABV) are empirical and use synchronous ground measurements of the water volume and the satellite data. The results demonstrate that altimetry and imagery can be effectively and accurately used to monitor the temporal variations of the lake (R2ABV = 0.98, RMSEABV = 5%, R2HRBV = 0.90, and RMSEABV = 7.4%), assuming a time-varying triangular shape for the shore slope of the lake (this form is well adapted since it implies a difference inferior to 2% between the theoretical volume of the lake and the one estimated from bathymetry). The third method (AHRBVC) combines altimetry (to measure the lake level) and satellite images (of the lake surface) to estimate the volume changes of the lake and produces the best results (R2AHRBVC = 0.98) of the three methods, demonstrating the potential of future Sentinel and SWOT missions to monitor small lakes and reservoirs for agricultural and irrigation applications.

Bottom Pressure Tides Along a Line in the Southeast Atlantic Ocean and Comparisons with Satellite Altimetry

Science.gov (United States)

Ray, Richard D.; Byrne, Deidre A.

2010-01-01

Seafloor pressure records, collected at 11 stations aligned along a single ground track of the Topex/Poseidon and Jason satellites, are analyzed for their tidal content. With very low background noise levels and approximately 27 months of high-quality records, tidal constituents can be estimated with unusually high precision. This includes many high-frequency lines up through the seventh-diurnal band. The station deployment provides a unique opportunity to compare with tides estimated from satellite altimetry, point by point along the satellite track, in a region of moderately high mesoscale variability. That variability can significantly corrupt altimeter-based tide estimates, even with 17 years of data. A method to improve the along-track altimeter estimates by correcting the data for nontidal variability is found to yield much better agreement with the bottom-pressure data. The technique should prove useful in certain demanding applications, such as altimetric studies of internal tides.

The role of satellite altimetry in gravity field modelling in coastal areas

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Ole Baltazar; Knudsen, Per

2000-01-01

global uniform gravity information with very high resolution, and these global marine gravity fields are registered on a two by two minute grid corresponding to 4 by 4 kilometres at the equator. In this presentation several coastal complications in deriving the marine gravity field from satellite...... altimetry will be investigated using the KMS98 gravity field. Comparison with other sources of gravity field information like airborne and marine gravity observations will be carried out and two fundamentally different test areas (Azores and Skagerak) will be studied to investigated the different role...

Impact study of the Argo array definition in the Mediterranean Sea based on satellite altimetry gridded data

Science.gov (United States)

Sanchez-Roman, Antonio; Ruiz, Simón; Pascual, Ananda; Guinehut, Stéphanie; Mourre, Baptiste

2016-04-01

The existing Argo network provides essential data in near real time to constrain monitoring and forecasting centers and strongly complements the observations of the ocean surface from space. The comparison of Sea Level Anomalies (SLA) provided by satellite altimeters with in-situ Dynamic Heights Anomalies (DHA) derived from the temperature and salinity profiles of Argo floats contribute to better characterize the error budget associated with the altimeter observations. In this work, performed in the frame of the E-AIMS FP7 European Project, we focus on the Argo observing system in the Mediterranean Sea and its impact on SLA fields provided by satellite altimetry measurements in the basin. Namely, we focus on the sensitivity of specific SLA gridded merged products provided by AVISO in the Mediterranean to the reference depth (400 or 900 dbar) selected in the computation of the Argo Dynamic Height (DH) as an integration of the Argo T/S profiles through the water column. This reference depth will have impact on the number of valid Argo profiles and therefore on their temporal sampling and the coverage by the network used to compare with altimeter data. To compare both datasets, altimeter grids and synthetic climatologies used to compute DHA were spatially and temporally interpolated at the position and time of each in-situ Argo profile by a mapping method based on an optimal interpolation scheme. The analysis was conducted in the entire Mediterranean Sea and different sub-regions of the basin. The second part of this work is devoted to investigate which configuration in terms of spatial sampling of the Argo array in the Mediterranean will properly reproduce the mesoscale dynamics in this basin, which is comprehensively captured by new standards of specific altimeter products for this region. To do that, several Observing System Simulation Experiments (OSSEs) were conducted assuming that altimetry data computed from AVISO specific reanalysis gridded merged product for

About uncertainties in sea ice thickness retrieval from satellite radar altimetry: results from the ESA-CCI Sea Ice ECV Project Round Robin Exercise

Science.gov (United States)

Kern, S.; Khvorostovsky, K.; Skourup, H.; Rinne, E.; Parsakhoo, Z. S.; Djepa, V.; Wadhams, P.; Sandven, S.

2014-03-01

One goal of the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative sea ice Essential Climate Variable project is to provide a quality controlled 20 year long data set of Arctic Ocean winter-time sea ice thickness distribution. An important step to achieve this goal is to assess the accuracy of sea ice thickness retrieval based on satellite radar altimetry. For this purpose a data base is created comprising sea ice freeboard derived from satellite radar altimetry between 1993 and 2012 and collocated observations of snow and sea ice freeboard from Operation Ice Bridge (OIB) and CryoSat Validation Experiment (CryoVEx) air-borne campaigns, of sea ice draft from moored and submarine Upward Looking Sonar (ULS), and of snow depth from OIB campaigns, Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer aboard EOS (AMSR-E) and the Warren Climatology (Warren et al., 1999). An inter-comparison of the snow depth data sets stresses the limited usefulness of Warren climatology snow depth for freeboard-to-thickness conversion under current Arctic Ocean conditions reported in other studies. This is confirmed by a comparison of snow freeboard measured during OIB and CryoVEx and snow freeboard computed from radar altimetry. For first-year ice the agreement between OIB and AMSR-E snow depth within 0.02 m suggests AMSR-E snow depth as an appropriate alternative. Different freeboard-to-thickness and freeboard-to-draft conversion approaches are realized. The mean observed ULS sea ice draft agrees with the mean sea ice draft computed from radar altimetry within the uncertainty bounds of the data sets involved. However, none of the realized approaches is able to reproduce the seasonal cycle in sea ice draft observed by moored ULS satisfactorily. A sensitivity analysis of the freeboard-to-thickness conversion suggests: in order to obtain sea ice thickness as accurate as 0.5 m from radar altimetry, besides a freeboard estimate with centimetre accuracy, an ice-type dependent sea ice density is as mandatory

Monitoring of Water-Level Fluctuation of Lake Nasser Using Altimetry Satellite Data

Science.gov (United States)

El-Shirbeny, Mohammed A.; Abutaleb, Khaled A.

2018-05-01

Apart from the Renaissance Dam and other constructed dams on the River Nile tributaries, Egypt is classified globally as a state of scarce water. Egypt's water resources are very limited and do not contribute a significant amount to its water share except the River Nile (55.5 billion m3/year). While the number of population increases every year, putting more stress on these limited resources. This study aims to use remote-sensing data to assess the change in surface area and water-level variation in Lake Nasser using remote-sensing data from Landsat-8 and altimetry data. In addition, it investigates the use of thermal data from Landsat-8 to calculate water loss based on evaporation from Lake Nasser. The eight Landsat-8 satellite images were used to study the change in surface area of Lake Nasser representing winter (January) and summer (June/July) seasons in two consecutive years (2015 and 2016). Time series analyses for 10-day temporal resolution water-level data from Jason-2/OSTM and Jason-3 altimetry was carried out to investigate water-level trends over the long term (1993 and 2016) and short term (2015-2016) in correspondence with the change of the surface area. Results indicated a shrink in the lake surface area in 2016 of approximately 14% compared to the 2015 area. In addition, the evaporation rate in the lake is very high causing a loss of approximately 20% of the total water share from the river Nile.

Identifiability of altimetry-based rating curve parameters in function of river morphological parameters

Science.gov (United States)

Paris, Adrien; André Garambois, Pierre; Calmant, Stéphane; Paiva, Rodrigo; Walter, Collischonn; Santos da Silva, Joecila; Medeiros Moreira, Daniel; Bonnet, Marie-Paule; Seyler, Frédérique; Monnier, Jérôme

2016-04-01

Estimating river discharge for ungauged river reaches from satellite measurements is not straightforward given the nonlinearity of flow behavior with respect to measurable and non measurable hydraulic parameters. As a matter of facts, current satellite datasets do not give access to key parameters such as river bed topography and roughness. A unique set of almost one thousand altimetry-based rating curves was built by fit of ENVISAT and Jason-2 water stages with discharges obtained from the MGB-IPH rainfall-runoff model in the Amazon basin. These rated discharges were successfully validated towards simulated discharges (Ens = 0.70) and in-situ discharges (Ens = 0.71) and are not mission-dependent. The rating curve writes Q = a(Z-Z0)b*sqrt(S), with Z the water surface elevation and S its slope gained from satellite altimetry, a and b power law coefficient and exponent and Z0 the river bed elevation such as Q(Z0) = 0. For several river reaches in the Amazon basin where ADCP measurements are available, the Z0 values are fairly well validated with a relative error lower than 10%. The present contribution aims at relating the identifiability and the physical meaning of a, b and Z0given various hydraulic and geomorphologic conditions. Synthetic river bathymetries sampling a wide range of rivers and inflow discharges are used to perform twin experiments. A shallow water model is run for generating synthetic satellite observations, and then rating curve parameters are determined for each river section thanks to a MCMC algorithm. Thanks to twin experiments, it is shown that rating curve formulation with water surface slope, i.e. closer from Manning equation form, improves parameter identifiability. The compensation between parameters is limited, especially for reaches with little water surface variability. Rating curve parameters are analyzed for riffle and pools for small to large rivers, different river slopes and cross section shapes. It is shown that the river bed

Terrestrial Water Storage from GRACE and Satellite Altimetry in the Okavango Delta (Botswana)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Ole Baltazar; Krogh, Pernille Engelbredt; Bauer-Gottwein, Peter

2010-01-01

New technology can for the first time enable the accurate retrieval of the global and regional water budgets from space-borne and ground-based gravity surveys. Water is mankind’s most critical natural resource, but it is being heavily used throughout the globe. The aim of this paper is to outline...... the HYDROGRAV project dealing with improving large scale hydrological model with time variable gravity observations. Also preliminary HYDROGRAV investigationsa of terrestrial water storage variations in the Okavango delta in Botswana are presented. Data from 4 years of satellite altimetry, GRACE derived TWS...... and GLDAS hydrological model all show a clear annual variation corresponding to the well known seasonality of the delta. However, they also all show an increasing trend in the amount of water storage in the region over the last 4 years....

Assimilation of radar altimetry to a routing model of the Brahmaputra River

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Michailovsky, Claire Irene B.; Milzow, Christian; Bauer-Gottwein, Peter

2013-01-01

.78 to 0.84. The method uses very little in situ data and is easily implemented as an add-on to hydrological models, and it therefore has the potential for large-scale application to improve hydrological predictions in many river basins. ©2013. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.......While satellite-based remote sensing has provided hydrologists with valuable new data sets, integration of such data sets in operational modeling systems is usually not straightforward due to spatial or temporal resolution issues or because remote sensing does not directly measure the hydrological...... quantities of interest. This is the case for satellite-based radar altimetry. River-level variations can be tracked using radar altimetry at a temporal resolution between 10 and 35 days, depending on the satellite, but hydrologists are typically interested in river flows rather than levels and require...

AVISO+, the new reference web portal for altimetry

Science.gov (United States)

Rosmorduc, Vinca; Bronner, Emilie; Guinle, Thierry; Maheu, Caroline; Morrow, Rosemary; Nino, Fernando; Birol, Florence

2014-05-01

AVISO is the showcase of CNES activities in altimetry. Indeed, the altimetric products processed by the SALP service from CNES (Service d'Altimetrie et de Localisation Precise) are disseminated via AVISO portal since 1995. In recent years, AVISO became a reference in the international oceanographic and altimetry communities, with more than 5,000 registered users in 2013. In 2014 AVISO is enlarging its applications outside the purely ocean-oriented ones, thus becoming AVISO + (www.aviso.altimetry.fr). The portal opens to new applications such as hydrology / coastal / ice. Moreover, it merges with the CTOH (French Observation Service dedicated to satellite altimetry studies) website to provide users with operational as well as demonstration products and expertise in a unique website. We present here all the novelties - new look, new functionnalities, new products, new data access service… hoping to see you soon on our brand-new altimetry portal, www.aviso.altimetry.fr!

CAWRES: A Waveform Retracking Fuzzy Expert System for Optimizing Coastal Sea Levels from Jason-1 and Jason-2 Satellite Altimetry Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nurul Hazrina Idris

2017-06-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the Coastal Altimetry Waveform Retracking Expert System (CAWRES, a novel method to optimise the Jason satellite altimetric sea levels from multiple retracking solutions. CAWRES’ aim is to achieve the highest possible accuracy of coastal sea levels, thus bringing measurement of radar altimetry data closer to the coast. The principles of CAWRES are twofold. The first is to reprocess altimeter waveforms using the optimal retracker, which is sought based on the analysis from a fuzzy expert system. The second is to minimise the relative offset in the retrieved sea levels caused by switching from one retracker to another using a neural network. The innovative system is validated against geoid height and tide gauges in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia for Jason-1 and Jason-2 satellite missions. The regional investigations have demonstrated that the CAWRES can effectively enhance the quality of 20 Hz sea level data and recover up to 16% more data than the standard MLE4 retracker over the tested region. Comparison against tide gauge indicates that the CAWRES sea levels are more reliable than those of Sensor Geophysical Data Records (SGDR products, because the former has a higher (≥0.77 temporal correlation and smaller (≤19 cm root mean square errors. The results demonstrate that the CAWRES can be applied to coastal regions elsewhere as well as other satellite altimeter missions.

Assessment of long-range kinematic GPS positioning errors by comparison with airborne laser altimetry and satellite altimetry

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zhang, X.H.; Forsberg, René

2007-01-01

Long-range airborne laser altimetry and laser scanning (LIDAR) or airborne gravity surveys in, for example, polar or oceanic areas require airborne kinematic GPS baselines of many hundreds of kilometers in length. In such instances, with the complications of ionospheric biases, it can be a real...... challenge for traditional differential kinematic GPS software to obtain reasonable solutions. In this paper, we will describe attempts to validate an implementation of the precise point positioning (PPP) technique on an aircraft without the use of a local GPS reference station. We will compare PPP solutions...... of the Arctic Ocean north of Greenland, near-coincident in time and space with the ICESat satellite laser altimeter. Both of these flights were more than 800 km long. Comparisons between different GPS methods and four different software packages do not suggest a clear preference for any one, with the heights...

ICESat Full-Waveform Altimetry Compared to Airborne Laser Scanning Altimetry Over The Netherlands

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Duong, H.; Lindenbergh, R.; Pfeifer, N.; Vosselman, G.

2009-01-01

Since 2003, the full-waveform laser altimetry system onboard NASA's Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) has acquired a worldwide elevation database. ICESat data are widely applied for change detection of ice sheet mass balance, forest structure estimation, and digital terrain model

Vertical land motion along the coast of Louisiana: Integrating satellite altimetry, tide gauge and GPS

Science.gov (United States)

Dixon, T. H.; A Karegar, M.; Uebbing, B.; Kusche, J.; Fenoglio-Marc, L.

2017-12-01

Coastal Louisiana is experiencing the highest rate of relative sea-level rise in North America due to the combination of sea-level rise and subsidence of the deltaic plain. The land subsidence in this region is studied using various techniques, with continuous GPS site providing high temporal resolution. Here, we use high resolution tide-gauge data and advanced processing of satellite altimetry to derive vertical displacements time series at NOAA tide-gauge stations along the coast (Figure 1). We apply state-of-the-art retracking techniques to process raw altimetry data, allowing high accuracy on range measurements close to the coast. Data from Jason-1, -2 and -3, Envisat, Saral and Cryosat-2 are used, corrected for solid Earth tide, pole tide and tidal ocean loading, using background models consistent with the GPS processing technique. We reprocess the available GPS data using precise point positioning and estimate the rate uncertainty accounting for correlated noise. The displacement time series are derived by directly subtracting tide-gauge data from the altimetry sea-level anomaly data. The quality of the derived displacement rates is evaluated in Grand Isle, Amerada Pass and Shell Beach where GPS data are available adjacent to the tide gauges. We use this technique to infer vertical displacement at tide gauges in New Orleans (New Canal Station) and Port Fourchon and Southwest Pass along the coastline.

Global Surface Mass Variations from Continuous GPS Observations and Satellite Altimetry Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xinggang Zhang

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE mission is able to observe the global large-scale mass and water cycle for the first time with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. However, no other time-varying gravity fields validate GRACE. Furthermore, the C20 of GRACE is poor, and no GRACE data are available before 2002 and there will likely be a gap between the GRACE and GRACE-FOLLOW-ON mission. To compensate for GRACE’s shortcomings, in this paper, we provide an alternative way to invert Earth’s time-varying gravity field, using a priori degree variance as a constraint on amplitudes of Stoke’s coefficients up to degree and order 60, by combining continuous GPS coordinate time series and satellite altimetry (SA mean sea level anomaly data from January 2003 to December 2012. Analysis results show that our estimated zonal low-degree gravity coefficients agree well with those of GRACE, and large-scale mass distributions are also investigated and assessed. It was clear that our method effectively detected global large-scale mass changes, which is consistent with GRACE observations and the GLDAS model, revealing the minimums of annual water cycle in the Amazon in September and October. The global mean mass uncertainty of our solution is about two times larger than that of GRACE after applying a Gaussian spatial filter with a half wavelength at 500 km. The sensitivity analysis further shows that ground GPS observations dominate the lower-degree coefficients but fail to contribute to the higher-degree coefficients, while SA plays a complementary role at higher-degree coefficients. Consequently, a comparison in both the spherical harmonic and geographic domain confirms our global inversion for the time-varying gravity field from GPS and Satellite Altimetry.

Global determination of rating curves in the Amazon basin from satellite altimetry

Science.gov (United States)

Paris, Adrien; Paiva, Rodrigo C. D.; Santos da Silva, Joecila; Medeiros Moreira, Daniel; Calmant, Stéphane; Collischonn, Walter; Bonnet, Marie-Paule; Seyler, Frédérique

2014-05-01

The Amazonian basin is the largest hydrological basin all over the world. Over the past few years, it has experienced an unusual succession of extreme droughts and floods, which origin is still a matter of debate. One of the major issues in understanding such events is to get discharge series distributed over the entire basin. Satellite altimetry can be used to improve our knowledge of the hydrological stream flow conditions in the basin, through rating curves. Rating curves are mathematical relationships between stage and discharge at a given place. The common way to determine the parameters of the relationship is to compute the non-linear regression between the discharge and stage series. In this study, the discharge data was obtained by simulation through the entire basin using the MGB-IPH model with TRMM Merge input rainfall data and assimilation of gage data, run from 1998 to 2009. The stage dataset is made of ~900 altimetry series at ENVISAT and Jason-2 virtual stations, sampling the stages over more than a hundred of rivers in the basin. Altimetry series span between 2002 and 2011. In the present work we present the benefits of using stochastic methods instead of probabilistic ones to determine a dataset of rating curve parameters which are hydrologicaly meaningful throughout the entire Amazon basin. The rating curve parameters have been computed using an optimization technique based on Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampler and Bayesian inference scheme. This technique provides an estimate of the best value for the parameters together with their posterior probability distribution, allowing the determination of a credibility interval for calculated discharge. Also the error over discharges estimates from the MGB-IPH model is included in the rating curve determination. These MGB-IPH errors come from either errors in the discharge derived from the gage readings or errors in the satellite rainfall estimates. The present experiment shows that the stochastic approach

IInvestigations of space-time variability of the sea level in the Barents Sea and the White Sea by satellite altimetry data and results of hydrodynamic modelling

Science.gov (United States)

Lebedev, S. A.; Zilberstein, O. I.; Popov, S. K.; Tikhonova, O. V.

2003-04-01

The problem of retrieving of the sea level anomalies in the Barents and White Seas from satellite can be considered as two different problems. The first one is to calculate the anomalies of sea level along the trek taking into account all amendments including tidal heights. The second one is to obtain of fields of the sea level anomalies on the grid over one cycle of the exact repeat altimetry mission. Experience results show that there is preferable to use the regional tidal model for calculating tidal heights. To construct of the anomalies fields of the sea level during the exact repeat mission (cycle 35 days for ERS-1 and ERS-2), when a density of the coverage of the area of water of the Barents and White Seas by satellite measurements achieves maximum. It is necessary to solve the problem of the error minimum. This error is based by the temporal difference of the measurements over one cycle and by the specific of the hydrodynamic regime of the both seas (tidal, storm surge variations, tidal currents). To solve this problem it is assumed to use the results of the hydrodynamic modeling. The error minimum is preformed by the regression of the model results and satellite measurements. As a version it is considered the possibility of the utilizing of the neuronet obtained by the model results to construct maps of the sea level anomalies. The comparison of the model results and the calculation of the satellite altimetry variability of the sea level of Barents and White Seas shows a good coincidence between them. The satellite altimetry data of ERS-1/2 and TOPEX/POSEIDON of Ocean Altimeter Pathfinder Project (NASA/GSFC) has been used in this study. Results of the regional tidal model computations and three dimensional baroclinic model created in the Hydrometeocenter have been used as well. This study also exploited the atmosphere date of the Project REANALYSIS. The research was undertaken with partial support from the Russian Basic Research Foundation (Project No. 01-07-90106).

From satellite altimetry to Argo and operational oceanography: three revolutions in oceanography

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

P. Y. Le Traon

2013-10-01

Full Text Available The launch of the French/US mission Topex/Poseidon (T/P (CNES/NASA in August 1992 was the start of a revolution in oceanography. For the first time, a very precise altimeter system optimized for large-scale sea level and ocean circulation observations was flying. T/P alone could not observe the mesoscale circulation. In the 1990s, the ESA satellites ERS-1/2 were flying simultaneously with T/P. Together with my CLS colleagues, we demonstrated that we could use T/P as a reference mission for ERS-1/2 and bring the ERS-1/2 data to an accuracy level comparable to T/P. Near-real-time high-resolution global sea level anomaly maps were then derived. These maps have been operationally produced as part of the SSALTO/DUACS system for the last 15 yr. They are now widely used by the oceanographic community and have contributed to a much better understanding and recognition of the role and importance of mesoscale dynamics. Altimetry needs to be complemented with global in situ observations. At the end of the 90s, a major international initiative was launched to develop Argo, the global array of profiling floats. This has been an outstanding success. Argo floats now provide the most important in situ observations to monitor and understand the role of the ocean on the earth climate and for operational oceanography. This is a second revolution in oceanography. The unique capability of satellite altimetry to observe the global ocean in near-real-time at high resolution and the development of Argo were essential for the development of global operational oceanography, the third revolution in oceanography. The Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment (GODAE was instrumental in the development of the required capabilities. This paper provides an historical perspective on the development of these three revolutions in oceanography which are very much interlinked. This is not an exhaustive review and I will mainly focus on the contributions we made together with many

Mapping lake level changes using ICESat/GLAS satellite laser altimetry data: a case study in arid regions of central Asia

Science.gov (United States)

Li, JunLi; Fang, Hui; Yang, Liao

2011-12-01

Lakes in arid regions of Central Asia act as essential components of regional water cycles, providing sparse but valuable water resource for the fragile ecological environments and human lives. Lakes in Central Asia are sensitive to climate change and human activities, and great changes have been found since 1960s. Mapping and monitoring these inland lakes would improve our understanding of mechanism of lake dynamics and climatic impacts. ICESat/GLAS satellite laser altimetry provides an efficient tool of continuously measuring lake levels in these poorly surveyed remote areas. An automated mapping scheme of lake level changes is developed based on GLAS altimetry products, and the spatial and temporal characteristics of 9 typical lakes in Central Asia are analyzed to validate the level accuracies. The results show that ICESat/GLAS has a good performance of lake level monitoring, whose patterns of level changes are the same as those of field observation, and the max differences between GLAS and field data is 3cm. Based on the results, it is obvious that alpine lakes are increasing greatly in lake levels during 2003-2009 due to climate change, while open lakes with dams and plain endorheic lakes decrease dramatically in water levels due to human activities, which reveals the overexploitation of water resource in Central Asia.

Quantifying Freshwater Mass Balance in the Central Tibetan Plateau by Integrating Satellite Remote Sensing, Altimetry, and Gravimetry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kuo-Hsin Tseng

2016-05-01

Full Text Available The Tibetan Plateau (TP has been observed by satellite optical remote sensing, altimetry, and gravimetry for a variety of geophysical parameters, including water storage change. However, each of these sensors has its respective limitation in the parameters observed, accuracy and spatial-temporal resolution. Here, we utilized an integrated approach to combine remote sensing imagery, digital elevation model, and satellite radar and laser altimetry data, to quantify freshwater storage change in a twin lake system named Chibuzhang Co and Dorsoidong Co in the central TP, and compared that with independent observations including mass changes from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE data. Our results show that this twin lake, located within the Tanggula glacier system, remained almost steady during 1973–2000. However, Dorsoidong Co has experienced a significant lake level rise since 2000, especially during 2000–2005, that resulted in the plausible connection between the two lakes. The contemporary increasing lake level signal at a rate of 0.89 ± 0.05 cm·yr−1, in a 2° by 2° grid equivalent water height since 2002, is higher than the GRACE observed trend at 0.41 ± 0.17 cm·yr−1 during the same time span. Finally, a down-turning trend or inter-annual variability shown in the GRACE signal is observed after 2012, while the lake level is still rising at a consistent rate.

Assessment of NASA airborne laser altimetry data using ground-based GPS data near Summit Station, Greenland

Science.gov (United States)

Brunt, Kelly M.; Hawley, Robert L.; Lutz, Eric R.; Studinger, Michael; Sonntag, John G.; Hofton, Michelle A.; Andrews, Lauren C.; Neumann, Thomas A.

2017-03-01

A series of NASA airborne lidars have been used in support of satellite laser altimetry missions. These airborne laser altimeters have been deployed for satellite instrument development, for spaceborne data validation, and to bridge the data gap between satellite missions. We used data from ground-based Global Positioning System (GPS) surveys of an 11 km long track near Summit Station, Greenland, to assess the surface-elevation bias and measurement precision of three airborne laser altimeters including the Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM), the Land, Vegetation, and Ice Sensor (LVIS), and the Multiple Altimeter Beam Experimental Lidar (MABEL). Ground-based GPS data from the monthly ground-based traverses, which commenced in 2006, allowed for the assessment of nine airborne lidar surveys associated with ATM and LVIS between 2007 and 2016. Surface-elevation biases for these altimeters - over the flat, ice-sheet interior - are less than 0.12 m, while assessments of measurement precision are 0.09 m or better. Ground-based GPS positions determined both with and without differential post-processing techniques provided internally consistent solutions. Results from the analyses of ground-based and airborne data provide validation strategy guidance for the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite 2 (ICESat-2) elevation and elevation-change data products.

Improved inland water levels from SAR altimetry using novel empirical and physical retrackers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Villadsen, Heidi; Deng, Xiaoli; Andersen, Ole Baltazar

2016-01-01

with in situdata in Lake Vänern and Lake Okeechobee are in the order of 2–5 cm for well-behaved waveforms. Combining the physical and empirical retrackers did not offer significantly improved mean track standarddeviations or RMSEs. Based on these studies, it is suggested that future SAR derived water levels......Satellite altimetry has proven a valuable resource of information on river and lake levels where in situ data are sparse or non-existent. In this study several new methods for obtaining stable inland water levels from CryoSat-2 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) altimetry are presented and evaluated....... In addition, the possible benefits from combining physical and empirical retrackers are investigated.The retracking methods evaluated in this paper include the physical SAR Altimetry MOde Studies andApplications (SAMOSA3) model, a traditional subwaveform threshold retracker, the proposed Multiple...

Twenty Years of Progress on Global Ocean Tides: The Impact of Satellite Altimetry

Science.gov (United States)

Egbert, Gary; Ray, Richard

2012-01-01

At the dawn of the era of high-precision altimetry, before the launch of TOPEX/Poseidon, ocean tides were properly viewed as a source of noise--tidal variations in ocean height would represent a very substantial fraction of what the altimeter measures, and would have to be accurately predicted and subtracted if altimetry were to achieve its potential for ocean and climate studies. But to the extent that the altimetry could be severely contaminated by tides, it also represented an unprecedented global-scale tidal data set. These new data, together with research stimulated by the need for accurate tidal corrections, led to a renaissance in tidal studies in the oceanographic community. In this paper we review contributions of altimetry to tidal science over the past 20 years, emphasizing recent progress. Mapping of tides has now been extended from the early focus on major constituents in the open ocean to include minor constituents, (e.g., long-period tides; non-linear tides in shelf waters, and in the open ocean), and into shallow and coastal waters. Global and spatially local estimates of tidal energy balance have been refined, and the role of internal tide conversion in dissipating barotropic tidal energy is now well established through modeling, altimetry, and in situ observations. However, energy budgets for internal tides, and the role of tidal dissipation in vertical ocean mixing remain controversial topics. Altimetry may contribute to resolving some of these important questions through improved mapping of low-mode internal tides. This area has advanced significantly in recent years, with several global maps now available, and progress on constraining temporally incoherent components. For the future, new applications of altimetry (e.g., in the coastal ocean, where barotropic tidal models remain inadequate), and new mission concepts (studies of the submesoscale with SWOT, which will require correction for internal tides) may bring us full circle, again pushing

Water Storage Changes using Floodplain Bathymetry from InSAR and satellite altimetry in the Congo River Basin

Science.gov (United States)

Yuan, T.; Lee, H.; Jung, H. C.; Beighley, E.; Alsdorf, D. E.

2016-12-01

Extensive wetlands and swamps expand along the Congo River and its tributaries. These wetlands store water and attenuate flood wave during high water season. Substantial dissolved and solid substances are also transported with the water flux, influencing geochemical environment and biogeochemistry processes both in the wetlands and the river. To understand the role of the wetlands in partitioning the surface water and the accompanied material movement, water storage change is one of the most fundamental observations. The water flow through the wetlands is complex, affected by topography, vegetation resistance, and hydraulic variations. Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) has been successfully used to map relative water level changes in the vegetated wetlands with high spatial resolution. By examining interferograms generated from ALOS PALSAR along the middle reach of the Congo River floodplain, we found greater water level changes near the Congo mainstem. Integrated analysis of InSAR and Envisat altimetry data has shown that proximal floodplain with higher water level change has lower elevation during dry season. This indicates that the spatial variation of water level change in the Congo floodplain is mostly controlled by floodplain bathymetry. A method based on water level and bathymetry model is proposed to estimate water storage change. The bathymetry model is composed of (1) elevation at the intersection of the floodplain and the river and (2) floodplain bathymetry slope. We first constructed the floodplain bathymetry by selecting an Envisat altimetry profile during low water season to estimate elevation at the intersection of the floodplain and the river. Floodplain bathymetry slope was estimated using InSAR measurements. It is expected that our new method can estimate water storage change with higher temporal resolution corresponding to altimeter's repeat cycle. In addition, given the multi-decadal archive of satellite altimetry measurements

River Discharge Estimation by Using Altimetry Data and Simplified Flood Routing Modeling

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tommaso Moramarco

2013-08-01

Full Text Available A methodology to estimate the discharge along rivers, even poorly gauged ones, taking advantage of water level measurements derived from satellite altimetry is proposed. The procedure is based on the application of the Rating Curve Model (RCM, a simple method allowing for the estimation of the flow conditions in a river section using only water levels recorded at that site and the discharges observed at another upstream section. The European Remote-Sensing Satellite 2, ERS-2, and the Environmental Satellite, ENVISAT, altimetry data are used to provide time series of water levels needed for the application of RCM. In order to evaluate the usefulness of the approach, the results are compared with the ones obtained by applying an empirical formula that allows discharge estimation from remotely sensed hydraulic information. To test the proposed procedure, the 236 km-reach of the Po River is investigated, for which five in situ stations and four satellite tracks are available. Results show that RCM is able to appropriately represent the discharge, and its performance is better than the empirical formula, although this latter does not require upstream hydrometric data. Given its simple formal structure, the proposed approach can be conveniently utilized in ungauged sites where only the survey of the cross-section is needed.

Satellite altimetry in sea ice regions - detecting open water for estimating sea surface heights

Science.gov (United States)

Müller, Felix L.; Dettmering, Denise; Bosch, Wolfgang

2017-04-01

The Greenland Sea and the Farm Strait are transporting sea ice from the central Arctic ocean southwards. They are covered by a dynamic changing sea ice layer with significant influences on the Earth climate system. Between the sea ice there exist various sized open water areas known as leads, straight lined open water areas, and polynyas exhibiting a circular shape. Identifying these leads by satellite altimetry enables the extraction of sea surface height information. Analyzing the radar echoes, also called waveforms, provides information on the surface backscatter characteristics. For example waveforms reflected by calm water have a very narrow and single-peaked shape. Waveforms reflected by sea ice show more variability due to diffuse scattering. Here we analyze altimeter waveforms from different conventional pulse-limited satellite altimeters to separate open water and sea ice waveforms. An unsupervised classification approach employing partitional clustering algorithms such as K-medoids and memory-based classification methods such as K-nearest neighbor is used. The classification is based on six parameters derived from the waveform's shape, for example the maximum power or the peak's width. The open-water detection is quantitatively compared to SAR images processed while accounting for sea ice motion. The classification results are used to derive information about the temporal evolution of sea ice extent and sea surface heights. They allow to provide evidence on climate change relevant influences as for example Arctic sea level rise due to enhanced melting rates of Greenland's glaciers and an increasing fresh water influx into the Arctic ocean. Additionally, the sea ice cover extent analyzed over a long-time period provides an important indicator for a globally changing climate system.

Simultaneous retrieval of sea ice thickness and snow depth using concurrent active altimetry and passive L-band remote sensing data

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, L.; Xu, S.; Liu, J.

2017-12-01

The retrieval of sea ice thickness mainly relies on satellite altimetry, and the freeboard measurements are converted to sea ice thickness (hi) under certain assumptions over snow loading. The uncertain in snow depth (hs) is a major source of uncertainty in the retrieved sea ice thickness and total volume for both radar and laser altimetry. In this study, novel algorithms for the simultaneous retrieval of hi and hs are proposed for the data synergy of L-band (1.4 GHz) passive remote sensing and both types of active altimetry: (1) L-band (1.4GHz) brightness temperature (TB) from Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite and sea ice freeboard (FBice) from radar altimetry, (2) L-band TB data and snow freeboard (FBsnow) from laser altimetry. Two physical models serve as the forward models for the retrieval: L-band radiation model, and the hydrostatic equilibrium model. Verification with SMOS and Operational IceBridge (OIB) data is carried out, showing overall good retrieval accuracy for both sea ice parameters. Specifically, we show that the covariability between hs and FBsnow is crucial for the synergy between TB and FBsnow. Comparison with existing algorithms shows lower uncertainty in both sea ice parameters, and that the uncertainty in the retrieved sea ice thickness as caused by that of snow depth is spatially uncorrelated, with the potential reduction of the volume uncertainty through spatial sampling. The proposed algorithms can be applied to the retrieval of sea ice parameters at basin-scale, using concurrent active and passive remote sensing data based on satellites.

Sand dune tracking from satellite laser altimetry

Science.gov (United States)

Dabboor, Mohammed

Substantial problems arise from sand movement in arid and semi-arid countries. Sand poses a threat to infrastructure, agricultural and urban areas. These issues are caused by the encroachment of sand on roads and railway tracks, farmland, towns and villages, and airports, to name a few. Sand movement highly depends on geomorphology including vegetation cover, shape and height of the terrain, and grain size of the sand. However, wind direction and speed are the most important factors that affect efficient sand movement. The direction of the movement depends on the main direction of the wind, but it has been shown that a minimum wind speed is required, e.g. wind gusts, to initiate sand transport. This fact prevents a simple calculation of sand transport from conventional wind data as wind records rarely contain sub-minute intervals masking out any wind gusts. An alternative of predicting sand transport is the direct observation of sand advance by in situ measurements or via satellite. Until recently, satellite imagery was the only means to compare dune shape and position for predicting dune migration over several years. In 2003, the NASA laser altimetry mission ICESat became operational and monitors elevations over all surface types including sand dunes with an accuracy of about 10-20 cm. In this study, ICESat observations from repeat tracks (tracks overlapping eachother within 50 m) are used to derive sand dune advance and direction. The method employs a correlation of the elevation profiles over several dunes and was sucessfully validated with synthetic data. The accuracy of this method is 5 meters of dune advance. One of the most active areas exhibiting sand and dune movement is the area of the Arabian Peninsula. Approximately one-third of the Arabian Peninsula is covered by sand dunes. Different wind regimes (Shamal, Kaus) cause sand dune movement in the selected study area in the eastern part of the Arabian Peninsula between 20-25 degrees North and 45-55 degrees

Using radar altimetry to update a routing model of the Zambezi River Basin

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Michailovsky, Claire Irene B.; Bauer-Gottwein, Peter

2012-01-01

Satellite radar altimetry allows for the global monitoring of lakes and river levels. However, the widespread use of altimetry for hydrological studies is limited by the coarse temporal and spatial resolution provided by current altimetric missions and the fact that discharge rather than level...... is needed for hydrological applications. To overcome these limitations, altimetry river levels can be combined with hydrological modeling in a dataassimilation framework. This study focuses on the updating of a river routing model of the Zambezi using river levels from radar altimetry. A hydrological model...... of the basin was built to simulate the land phase of the water cycle and produce inflows to a Muskingum routing model. River altimetry from the ENVISAT mission was then used to update the storages in the reaches of the Muskingum model using the Extended Kalman Filter. The method showed improvements in modeled...

Evaluation of altimetry-derived surface current products using Lagrangian drifter trajectories in the eastern Gulf of Mexico

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Yonggang; Weisberg, Robert H.; Vignudelli, Stefano; Mitchum, Gary T.

2014-05-01

Lagrangian particle trajectory models based on several altimetry-derived surface current products are used to hindcast the drifter trajectories observed in the eastern Gulf of Mexico during May to August 2010 (the Deepwater Horizon oil spill incident). The performances of the trajectory models are gauged in terms of Lagrangian separation distances (d) and a nondimensional skill score (s), respectively. A series of numerical experiments show that these altimetry-based trajectory models have about the same performance, with a certain improvement by adding surface wind Ekman components, especially over the shelf region. However, their hindcast skills are slightly better than those of the data assimilative numerical model output. After 3 days' simulation the altimetry-based trajectory models have mean d values of 75-83 and 34-42 km (s values of 0.49-0.51 and 0.35-0.43) in the Gulf of Mexico deep water area and on the West Florida Continental Shelf, respectively. These satellite altimetry data products are useful for providing essential information on ocean surface currents of use in water property transports, offshore oil and gas operations, hazardous spill mitigation, search and rescue, etc.

Combining satellite radar altimetry, SAR surface soil moisture and GRACE total storage changes for hydrological model calibration in a large poorly gauged catchment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. Milzow

2011-06-01

Full Text Available The availability of data is a major challenge for hydrological modelling in large parts of the world. Remote sensing data can be exploited to improve models of ungauged or poorly gauged catchments. In this study we combine three datasets for calibration of a rainfall-runoff model of the poorly gauged Okavango catchment in Southern Africa: (i surface soil moisture (SSM estimates derived from radar measurements onboard the Envisat satellite; (ii radar altimetry measurements by Envisat providing river stages in the tributaries of the Okavango catchment, down to a minimum river width of about one hundred meters; and (iii temporal changes of the Earth's gravity field recorded by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE caused by total water storage changes in the catchment. The SSM data are shown to be helpful in identifying periods with over-respectively underestimation of the precipitation input. The accuracy of the radar altimetry data is validated on gauged subbasins of the catchment and altimetry data of an ungauged subbasin is used for model calibration. The radar altimetry data are important to condition model parameters related to channel morphology such as Manning's roughness. GRACE data are used to validate the model and to condition model parameters related to various storage compartments in the hydrological model (e.g. soil, groundwater, bank storage etc.. As precipitation input the FEWS-Net RFE, TRMM 3B42 and ECMWF ERA-Interim datasets are considered and compared.

Comparison of Ocean Dynamics with a Regional Circulation Model and Improved Altimetry in the North-Western Mediterranean

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jérôme Bouffard

2008-01-01

Full Text Available The spatial and temporal resolution of satellite altimetry is usually sufficient for monitoring the changes of sea surface topography in the open ocean. However, coastal ocean dynamics are much more complex, being characterized by smaller spatial and temporal scales of variability. The quality and availability of satellite-derived products along the coasts have to be improved, with a strategy optimized for coastal targets. Therefore a coastal multi-satellite altimetry dataset (TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1; Envisat; GFO at a 10 - 20 Hz sampling rate has been derived from routine geophysical data products using a new processing software dedicated to coastal zone applications. Improved along-track sea level variations with fine space scales are available in the North-western Mediterranean Sea from 2001 to 2003, and are compared with high-resolution numerical model elevations from the eddy-resolving model SYMPHONIE. This preparatory work emphasizes the potential of improved multi-satellite altimetry for validating coastal hydro-dynamical models and could contribute in the future to a better tuning of the boundary conditions of the simulations.

Barometric altimetry system as virtual constellation applied in CAPS

Science.gov (United States)

Ai, Guoxiang; Sheng, Peixuan; Du, Jinlin; Zheng, Yongguang; Cai, Xiande; Wu, Haitao; Hu, Yonghui; Hua, Yu; Li, Xiaohui

2009-03-01

This work describes the barometric altimetry as virtual constellation applied to the Chinese Area Positioning System (CAPS), which uses the transponders of communication satellites to transfer navigation messages to users. Barometric altimetry depends on the relationship of air pressure varying with altitude in the Earth’s atmosphere. Once the air pressure at a location is measured the site altitude can be found. This method is able to enhance and improve the availability of three-dimensional positioning. The difficulty is that the relation between barometric pressure and altitude is variable in different areas and under various weather conditions. Hence, in order to obtain higher accuracy, we need to acquire the real-time air pressure corresponding to an altimetric region’s reference height. On the other hand, the altimetry method will be applied to satellite navigation system, but the greatest difficulty lies in how to get the real-time air pressure value at the reference height in the broad areas overlaid by satellite navigation. We propose an innovational method to solve this problem. It is to collect the real-time air pressures and temperatures of the 1860 known-altitude weather observatories over China and around via satellite communication and to carry out time extrapolation forecast uniformly. To reduce data quantity, we first partition the data and encode them and then broadcast these information via navigation message to CAPS users’ receivers. Upon the interpolations being done in receivers, the reference air pressure and temperature at the receiver’s nearby place is derived. Lastly, combing with the receiver-observed real air pressure and temperature, the site’s altitude can be determined. The work is presented in the following aspects: the calculation principle, formulae, data collection, encoding, prediction, interpolation method, navigation message transmission together with errors causes and analyses. The advantages and shortcomings of the

Water level fluctuations in the Congo basin derived from ENVISAT satellite altimetry

OpenAIRE

Becker, M.; da Silva, J. S.; Calmant, Stéphane; Robinet, V.; Linguet, L.; Seyler, Frédérique

2014-01-01

In the Congo Basin, the elevated vulnerability of food security and the water supply implies that sustainable development strategies must incorporate the effects of climate change on hydrological regimes. However, the lack of observational hydro-climatic data over the past decades strongly limits the number of studies investigating the effects of climate change in the Congo Basin. We present the largest altimetry-based dataset of water levels ever constituted over the entire Congo Basin. This...

Improvement of global and regional mean sea level derived from satellite altimetry multi missions

Science.gov (United States)

Ablain, M.; Faugere, Y.; Larnicol, G.; Picot, N.; Cazenave, A.; Benveniste, J.

2012-04-01

With the satellite altimetry missions, the global mean sea level (GMSL) has been calculated on a continual basis since January 1993. 'Verification' phases, during which the satellites follow each other in close succession (Topex/Poseidon--Jason-1, then Jason-1--Jason-2), help to link up these different missions by precisely determining any bias between them. Envisat, ERS-1 and ERS-2 are also used, after being adjusted on these reference missions, in order to compute Mean Sea Level at high latitudes (higher than 66°N and S), and also to improve spatial resolution by combining all these missions together. The global mean sea level (MSL) deduced from TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1 and Jason-2 provide a global rate of 3.2 mm from 1993 to 2010 applying the post glacial rebound (MSL aviso website http://www.jason.oceanobs.com/msl). Besides, the regional sea level trends bring out an inhomogeneous repartition of the ocean elevation with local MSL slopes ranging from + 8 mm/yr to - 8 mm/year. A study published in 2009 [Ablain et al., 2009] has shown that the global MSL trend unceratainty was estimated at +/-0.6 mm/year with a confidence interval of 90%. The main sources of errors at global and regional scales are due to the orbit calculation and the wet troposphere correction. But others sea-level components have also a significant impact on the long-term stability of MSL as for instance the stability of instrumental parameters and the atmospheric corrections. Thanks to recent studies performed in the frame of the SALP project (supported by CNES) and Sea-level Climate Change Initiative project (supported by ESA), strong improvements have been provided for the estimation of the global and regional MSL trends. In this paper, we propose to describe them; they concern the orbit calculation thanks to new gravity fields, the atmospheric corrections thanks to ERA-interim reanalyses, the wet troposphere corrections thanks to the stability improvement, and also empirical corrections

CryoSat-2 altimetry derived Arctic bathymetry map: first results and validation

Science.gov (United States)

Andersen, O. B.; Abulaitijiang, A.; Cancet, M.; Knudsen, P.

2017-12-01

The Technical University of Denmark (DTU), DTU Space has been developing high quality high resolution gravity fields including the new highly accurate CryoSat-2 radar altimetry satellite data which extends the global coverage of altimetry data up to latitude 88°. With its exceptional Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) mode being operating throughout the Arctic Ocean, leads, i.e., the ocean surface heights, is used to retrieve the sea surface height with centimeter-level range precision. Combined with the long repeat cycle ( 369 days), i.e., dense cross-track coverage, the high-resolution Arctic marine gravity can be modelled using the CryoSat-2 altimetry. Further, the polar gap can be filled by the available ArcGP product, thus yielding the complete map of the Arctic bathymetry map. In this presentation, we will make use of the most recent DTU17 marine gravity, to derive the arctic bathymetry map using inversion based on best available hydrographic maps. Through the support of ESA a recent evaluation of existing hydrographic models of the Arctic Ocean Bathymetry models (RTOPO, GEBCO, IBCAO etc) and various inconsistencies have been identified and means to rectify these inconsistencies have been taken prior to perform the inversion using altimetry. Simultaneously DTU Space has been placing great effort on the Arctic data screening, filtering, and de-noising using various altimetry retracking solutions and classifications. All the pre-processing contributed to the fine modelling of Actic gravity map. Thereafter, the arctic marine gravity grids will eventually be translated (downward continuation operation) to a new altimetry enhanced Arctic bathymetry map using appropriate band-pass filtering.

Operational reservoir inflow forecasting with radar altimetry: The Zambezi case study

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Michailovsky, Claire Irene B.; Bauer-Gottwein, Peter

2014-01-01

uncertainty. Data assimilation is widely used in operational applications to update hydrological models with in situ discharge or level measurements. In areas where timely access to in situ data is not possible, remote sensing data products can be used in assimilation schemes. While river discharge itself...... cannot be measured from space, radar altimetry can track surface water level variations at crossing locations between the satellite ground track and the river system called virtual stations (VS). Use of radar altimetry versus traditional monitoring in operational settings is complicated by the low...

Northern South China Sea Surface Circulation and its Variability Derived by Combining Satellite Altimetry and Surface Drifter Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N. Peter Benny

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The present study analyses the mean and seasonal mesoscale surface circulation of the Northern South China Sea (NSCS and determines the influence of El Niño/SouthernNiño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO. High resolution Eulerian velocity field is derived by combining the available satellite tracked surface drifter data with satellite altimetry during 1993 - 2012. The wind driven current is computed employing the weekly ocean surface mean wind fields derived from the scatterometers on board ERS 1/2, QuikSCAT and ASCAT. The derived mean velocity field exhibits strong boundary currents and broad zonal flow across NSCS. The anomalous field is quite strong in the southern part and the Seasonal circulation clearly depicts the monsoonal forcing. Eddy Kinetic Energy (EKE distribution and its spatial and temporal structures are determined employing Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF analysis. The ENSO influence on NSCS surface circulation has been analyzed using monthly absolute geostrophic velocity fields during 1996 - 1999.

Monitoring Lakes in Africa with Altimetry and GRACE

Science.gov (United States)

Carabajal, C. C.; Boy, J. P.

2017-12-01

Thanks to more than two decades of radar altimetry measurements from TOPEX/POSEIDON, Jason 1, 2 and 3, ENVISAT and others, 18 Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) laser altimeter measurement campaigns over 6 years, and 15 years of Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) observations, water levels changes of major lakes and reservoirs can be remotely measured regularly with unprecedented precision, facilitating monitoring of continental water storage variations. Smaller footprint laser altimeters like ICESat are more suitable for the retrieval of water level variations of small inland water bodies, better discriminating water returns when water height measurements have the potential to be contaminated by land or vegetation. Using imagery from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) contemporaneous with the altimetry data collections, in combination with careful examination of the laser waveforms, one can better isolate returns form the water surface. Combining these altimetry observations, we derive and compare water height estimates for several lakes and reservoirs in Africa from radar and laser altimetry measurements, we estimate the surface extent of each individual water body from available MODIS imagery, and derive corresponding estimates of volume variations for each water body. Mass variations from time-variable gravity measurements from the GRACE mission, using the latest one-degree global iterated mascons solution from GSFC are then transformed into volume changes, assuming a constant density, and compared to altimetry plus imagery estimates. These methods demonstrate the power of combined observations to monitor water resources and facilitate their management. Upcoming laser altimetry missions like ICESat-2, with vastly improved coverage and temporal sampling, continuous observations, better measurements techniques, including inland water products specifically formulated for these applications, when combined with SWOT

On the retrieval of sea ice thickness and snow depth using concurrent laser altimetry and L-band remote sensing data

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Lu; Xu, Shiming; Liu, Jiping; Wang, Bin

2018-03-01

The accurate knowledge of sea ice parameters, including sea ice thickness and snow depth over the sea ice cover, is key to both climate studies and data assimilation in operational forecasts. Large-scale active and passive remote sensing is the basis for the estimation of these parameters. In traditional altimetry or the retrieval of snow depth with passive microwave remote sensing, although the sea ice thickness and the snow depth are closely related, the retrieval of one parameter is usually carried out under assumptions over the other. For example, climatological snow depth data or as derived from reanalyses contain large or unconstrained uncertainty, which result in large uncertainty in the derived sea ice thickness and volume. In this study, we explore the potential of combined retrieval of both sea ice thickness and snow depth using the concurrent active altimetry and passive microwave remote sensing of the sea ice cover. Specifically, laser altimetry and L-band passive remote sensing data are combined using two forward models: the L-band radiation model and the isostatic relationship based on buoyancy model. Since the laser altimetry usually features much higher spatial resolution than L-band data from the Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite, there is potentially covariability between the observed snow freeboard by altimetry and the retrieval target of snow depth on the spatial scale of altimetry samples. Statistically significant correlation is discovered based on high-resolution observations from Operation IceBridge (OIB), and with a nonlinear fitting the covariability is incorporated in the retrieval algorithm. By using fitting parameters derived from large-scale surveys, the retrievability is greatly improved compared with the retrieval that assumes flat snow cover (i.e., no covariability). Verifications with OIB data show good match between the observed and the retrieved parameters, including both sea ice thickness and snow depth. With

Coastal sea-level in Norway from CryoSat-2 SAR altimetry

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Idžanović, Martina; Ophaug, Vegard; Andersen, Ole Baltazar

Conventional spaceborne altimeters determine the sea surface height with an accuracy of a few centimeters. Although satellite altimetry may be regarded as a mature technology, altimeter observations collected over coastal regions suffer from numerous effects which degrade their quality. For examp...

Updating river basin models with radar altimetry

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Michailovsky, Claire Irene B.

suited for use in data assimilation frameworks which combine the information content from models and current observations to produce improved forecasts and reduce prediction uncertainty. The focus of the second and third papers of this thesis was therefore the use of radar altimetry as update data...... of political unwillingness to share data which is a common problem in particular in transboundary settings. In this context, remote sensing (RS) datasets provide an appealing alternative to traditional in-situ data and much research effort has gone into the use of these datasets for hydrological applications...... response of a catchment to meteorological forcing. While river discharge cannot be directly measured from space, radar altimetry (RA) can measure water level variations in rivers at the locations where the satellite ground track and river network intersect called virtual stations or VS. In this PhD study...

Basic Radar Altimetry Toolbox: Tools and Tutorial To Use Radar Altimetry For Cryosphere

Science.gov (United States)

Benveniste, J. J.; Bronner, E.; Dinardo, S.; Lucas, B. M.; Rosmorduc, V.; Earith, D.

2010-12-01

Radar altimetry is very much a technique expanding its applications. If quite a lot of efforts have been made for oceanography users (including easy-to-use data), the use of those data for cryosphere application, especially with the new ESA CryoSat-2 mission data is still somehow tedious, especially for new Altimetry data products users. ESA and CNES thus had the Basic Radar Altimetry Toolbox developed a few years ago, and are improving and upgrading it to fit new missions and the growing number of altimetry uses. The Basic Radar Altimetry Toolbox is an "all-altimeter" collection of tools, tutorials and documents designed to facilitate the use of radar altimetry data. The software is able: - to read most distributed radar altimetry data, from ERS-1 & 2, Topex/Poseidon, Geosat Follow-on, Jason-1, Envisat, Jason- 2, CryoSat and the future Saral missions, - to perform some processing, data editing and statistic, - and to visualize the results. It can be used at several levels/several ways: - as a data reading tool, with APIs for C, Fortran, Matlab and IDL - as processing/extraction routines, through the on-line command mode - as an educational and a quick-look tool, with the graphical user interface As part of the Toolbox, a Radar Altimetry Tutorial gives general information about altimetry, the technique involved and its applications, as well as an overview of past, present and future missions, including information on how to access data and additional software and documentation. It also presents a series of data use cases, covering all uses of altimetry over ocean, cryosphere and land, showing the basic methods for some of the most frequent manners of using altimetry data. It is an opportunity to teach remote sensing with practical training. It has been available from April 2007, and had been demonstrated during training courses and scientific meetings. About 1200 people downloaded it (Summer 2010), with many "newcomers" to altimetry among them, including teachers

Estimates of Ice Sheet Mass Balance from Satellite Altimetry: Past and Future

Science.gov (United States)

Zwally, H. Jay; Zukor, Dorothy J. (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

A major uncertainty in predicting sea level rise is the sensitivity of ice sheet mass balance to climate change, as well as the uncertainty in present mass balance. Since the annual water exchange is about 8 mm of global sea level equivalent, the 20% uncertainty in current mass balance corresponds to 1.6 mm/yr in sea level change. Furthermore, estimates of the sensitivity of the mass balance to temperature change range from perhaps as much as - 10% to + 10% per K. A principal purpose of obtaining ice sheet elevation changes from satellite altimetry has been estimation of the current ice sheet mass balance. Limited information on ice sheet elevation change and their implications about mass balance have been reported by several investigators from radar altimetry (Seasat, Geosat, ERS-1&2). Analysis of ERS-1&2 data over Greenland for 7 years from 1992 to 1999 shows mixed patterns of ice elevation increases and decreases that are significant in terms of regional-scale mass balances. Observed seasonal and interannual variations in ice surface elevation are larger than previously expected because of seasonal and interannUal variations in precipitation, melting, and firn compaction. In the accumulation zone, the variations in firn compaction are modeled as a function of temperature leaving variations in precipitation and the mass balance trend. Significant interannual variations in elevation in some locations, in particular the difference in trends from 1992 to 1995 compared to 1995 to 1999, can be explained by changes in precipitation over Greenland. Over the 7 years, trends in elevation are mostly positive at higher elevations and negative at lower elevations. In addition, trends for the winter seasons (from a trend analysis through the average winter elevations) are more positive than the corresponding trends for the summer. At lower elevations, the 7-year trends in some locations are strongly negative for summer and near zero or slightly positive for winter. These

Broadview Radar Altimetry Toolbox

Science.gov (United States)

Garcia-Mondejar, Albert; Escolà, Roger; Moyano, Gorka; Roca, Mònica; Terra-Homem, Miguel; Friaças, Ana; Martinho, Fernando; Schrama, Ernst; Naeije, Marc; Ambrózio, Américo; Restano, Marco; Benveniste, Jérôme

2017-04-01

The universal altimetry toolbox, BRAT (Broadview Radar Altimetry Toolbox) which can read all previous and current altimetry missions' data, incorporates now the capability to read the upcoming Sentinel3 L1 and L2 products. ESA endeavoured to develop and supply this capability to support the users of the future Sentinel3 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 frontend 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 dataformatting 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) and raster images (JPEG, PNG, etc.). Several kinds of computations can be done within BRAT involving combinations of data fields that the user can save for posterior reuse or using the already embedded formulas that include the standard oceanographic altimetry formulas. The Radar Altimeter Tutorial, that contains a strong introduction to altimetry, shows its applications in different fields such as Oceanography, Cryosphere, Geodesy, Hydrology among others. Included are also "use cases", with step-by-step examples, on how to use the toolbox in the different contexts. The Sentinel3 SAR Altimetry Toolbox shall benefit from the current BRAT version. While developing the toolbox we will revamp of the Graphical User Interface and provide, among other enhancements, support for reading the upcoming S3 datasets and specific

The Solar and Southern Oscillation Components in the Satellite Altimetry Data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Howard, Daniel; Shaviv, Nir J.; Svensmark, Henrik

2015-01-01

altimetry data can be explained as the combined effect of both the solar forcing and the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The phase of the solar component can be used to derive the different steric and eustatic contributions. We find that the peak to peak radiative forcing associated with the solar...

Forecasting Caspian Sea level changes using satellite altimetry data (June 1992-December 2013) based on evolutionary support vector regression algorithms and gene expression programming

Science.gov (United States)

Imani, Moslem; You, Rey-Jer; Kuo, Chung-Yen

2014-10-01

Sea level forecasting at various time intervals is of great importance in water supply management. Evolutionary artificial intelligence (AI) approaches have been accepted as an appropriate tool for modeling complex nonlinear phenomena in water bodies. In the study, we investigated the ability of two AI techniques: support vector machine (SVM), which is mathematically well-founded and provides new insights into function approximation, and gene expression programming (GEP), which is used to forecast Caspian Sea level anomalies using satellite altimetry observations from June 1992 to December 2013. SVM demonstrates the best performance in predicting Caspian Sea level anomalies, given the minimum root mean square error (RMSE = 0.035) and maximum coefficient of determination (R2 = 0.96) during the prediction periods. A comparison between the proposed AI approaches and the cascade correlation neural network (CCNN) model also shows the superiority of the GEP and SVM models over the CCNN.

Global sea level variations from altimetry, GRACE and Argo data over 2005–2014

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wei Feng

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Total sea level variations (SLVs are caused by two major components: steric variations due to thermal expansion of seawater, and mass-induced variations due to mass exchange between ocean and land. In this study, the global SLV and its steric and mass components were estimated by satellite altimetry, Argo float data and the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE data over 2005–2014. Space gravimetry observations from GRACE suggested that two-thirds of the global mean sea level rise rate observed by altimetry (i.e., 3.1 ± 0.3 mm/a from 2005 to 2014 could be explained by an increase in ocean mass. Furthermore, the global mean sea level was observed to drop significantly during the 2010/2011 La Niña event, which may be attributed to the decline of ocean mass and steric SLV. Since early 2011, the global mean sea level began to rise rapidly, which was attributed to an increase in ocean mass. The findings in this study suggested that the global mean sea-level budget was closed from 2005 to 2014 based on altimetry, GRACE, and Argo data.

The impact of using jason-1 and cryosat-2 geodetic mission altimetry for gravity field modeling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Ole Baltazar; Jain, Maulik; Knudsen, Per

2016-01-01

Since the release of the Danish Technical University DTU10 global marine gravity field in 2010, the amount of geodetic mission altimetry data has nearly tripled. The Cryosat-2 satellite have provided data along its 369 day near repeat since 2010 and as of May 2012 the Jason-1 satellite has been o...

Exploring New Challenges of High-Resolution SWOT Satellite Altimetry with a Regional Model of the Solomon Sea

Science.gov (United States)

Brasseur, P.; Verron, J. A.; Djath, B.; Duran, M.; Gaultier, L.; Gourdeau, L.; Melet, A.; Molines, J. M.; Ubelmann, C.

2014-12-01

The upcoming high-resolution SWOT altimetry satellite will provide an unprecedented description of the ocean dynamic topography for studying sub- and meso-scale processes in the ocean. But there is still much uncertainty on the signal that will be observed. There are many scientific questions that are unresolved about the observability of altimetry at vhigh resolution and on the dynamical role of the ocean meso- and submesoscales. In addition, SWOT data will raise specific problems due to the size of the data flows. These issues will probably impact the data assimilation approaches for future scientific or operational oceanography applications. In this work, we propose to use a high-resolution numerical model of the Western Pacific Solomon Sea as a regional laboratory to explore such observability and dynamical issues, as well as new data assimilation challenges raised by SWOT. The Solomon Sea connects subtropical water masses to the equatorial ones through the low latitude western boundary currents and could potentially modulate the tropical Pacific climate. In the South Western Pacific, the Solomon Sea exhibits very intense eddy kinetic energy levels, while relatively little is known about the mesoscale and submesoscale activities in this region. The complex bathymetry of the region, complicated by the presence of narrow straits and numerous islands, raises specific challenges. So far, a Solomon sea model configuration has been set up at 1/36° resolution. Numerical simulations have been performed to explore the meso- and submesoscales dynamics. The numerical solutions which have been validated against available in situ data, show the development of small scale features, eddies, fronts and filaments. Spectral analysis reveals a behavior that is consistent with the SQG theory. There is a clear evidence of energy cascade from the small scales including the submesoscales, although those submesoscales are only partially resolved by the model. In parallel

A new DEM of the Austfonna ice cap by combining differential SAR interferometry with ICESat laser altimetry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Geir Moholdt

2012-05-01

Full Text Available We present a new digital elevation model (DEM of the Austfonna ice cap in the Svalbard Archipelago, Norwegian Arctic. Previous DEMs derived from synthetic aperture radar (SAR and optical shape-from-shading have been tied to airborne radio echo-sounding surface profiles from 1983 which contain an elevation-dependent bias of up to several tens of metres compared with recent elevation data. The new and freely available DEM is constructed purely from spaceborne remote sensing data using differential SAR interferometry (DInSAR in combination with ICESat laser altimetry. Interferograms were generated from pairs of SAR scenes from the one-day repeat tandem phase of the European Remote Sensing Satellites 1/2 (ERS-1/2 in 1996. ICESat elevations from winter 2006–08 were used as ground control points to refine the interferometric baseline. The resulting DEM is validated against the same ground control points and independent surface elevation profiles from Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS and airborne laser altimetry, yielding root mean square (RMS errors of about 10 m in all cases. This quality is sufficient for most glaciological applications, and the new DEM will be a baseline data set for ongoing and future research at Austfonna. The technique of combining satellite DInSAR with high-resolution satellite altimetry for DEM generation might also be a good solution in other glacier regions with similar characteristics, especially when data from TanDEM-X and CryoSat-2 become available.

ALES+: Adapting a homogenous ocean retracker for satellite altimetry to sea ice leads, coastal and inland waters

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Passaro, Marcello; Kildegaard Rose, Stine; Andersen, Ole B.

2018-01-01

ice retracker used for fitting specular echoes. Compared to an existing open ocean altimetry dataset, the presented strategy increases the number of sea level retrievals in the sea ice-covered area and the correlation with a local tide gauge. Further tests against in-situ data show that also......Water level from sea ice-covered oceans is particularly challenging to retrieve with satellite radar altimeters due to the different shapes assumed by the returned signal compared with the standard open ocean waveforms. Valid measurements are scarce in large areas of the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans...... the fitting of the signal depending on the sea state and on the slope of its trailing edge. The algorithm modifies the existing Adaptive Leading Edge Subwaveform retracker originally designed for coastal waters, and is applied to Envisat and ERS-2 missions. The validation in a test area of the Arctic Ocean...

Long-term stability of geoidal geopotential from Topex/Poseidon satellite altimetry 1993-1999

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Burša, Milan; Kenyon, S.; Kouba, J.; Müller, A.; Raděj, K.; Vatrt, V.; Vojtíšková, M.; Vítek, V.

2001-01-01

Roč. 84, - (2001), s. 163-176 ISSN 0167-9295 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z1003909 Keywords : geoidal geopotential * Topex/Poseidon altimetry Subject RIV: BN - Astronomy, Celestial Mechanics, Astrophysics Impact factor: 1.457, year: 2001

Evaluation of multi-mode CryoSat-2 altimetry data over the Po River against in situ data and a hydrodynamic model

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schneider, Raphael; Tarpanelli, Angelica; Nielsen, Karina

2018-01-01

Coverage of in situ observations to monitor surface waters is insufficient on the global scale, and decreasing across the globe. Satellite altimetry has become an increasingly important monitoring technology for continental surface waters. The ESA CryoSat-2 altimetry mission, launched in 2010, has...... two novel features. (i) The radar altimeter instrument on board of CryoSat-2 is operated in three modes; two of them reduce the altimeter footprint by using Delay-Doppler processing. (ii) CryoSat-2 is placed on a distinct orbit with a repeat cycle of 369 days, leading to a drifting ground track...... pattern. The drifting ground track pattern challenges many common methods of processing satellite altimetry data over rivers. This study evaluates the observation error of CryoSat-2 water level observations over the Po River, Italy, against in situ observations. The average RMSE between CryoSat-2...

The relation between Arctic Ocean circulation and the Arctic Oscillation as revealed by satellite altimetry and gravimetry

Science.gov (United States)

Morison, J.; Kwok, R.; Peralta Ferriz, C.; Dickinson, S.; Morison, D.; Andersen, R.; Dewey, S.

2017-12-01

Arctic Ocean circulation is commonly characterized by the persistent anticyclonic Beaufort Gyre in the Canada Basin and the Transpolar Drift. While these are clearly important features, their role in changing Arctic Ocean circulation is at times distorted by sampling biases inherent in drifting buoy and standard shipboard measurements of western nations. Hydrographic measurements from SCICEX submarine cruises for science in the early 1990s revealed an increasingly cyclonic circulation along the Russian side of the Arctic Ocean related to the low sea level pressure pattern in the same region associated with a high Arctic Oscillation (AO) index. More recently satellite altimetry (ICESat and CryoSat2) and gravimetry (GRACE) have provided the basin-wide observational coverage needed to see shifts to increased cyclonic circulation in 2004 to 2008 and decreased cyclonic circulation in 2008 to 2015. These shifts are related to changes in the AO and are important for their effect on the trajectories of sea ice and freshwater through the Arctic Ocean.

Contribution de l'altimetrie satellitaire a l'etude de la variabilite du niveau d'eau du Delta interieur du fleuve Niger

Science.gov (United States)

Telly Diepkile, Adama

Title: Contribution of satellite altimetry to the study of the spatial and temporal variability of water level in the Inner Delta of Niger River Content: The radar altimeter was originally developed to contribute to the study of ocean waters dynamics. The large size of oceans and their relative homogeneity favor the use of satellite altimetry. The success on the oceans led many researchers to investigate the use of satellite altimetry for the characterization of inland waters and land surfaces. Encouraging results have been reported by some studies on the hydrology of inland seas, lakes and rivers and floodplains. In this thesis, we evaluate the contribution of satellite altimetry in the analysis of changes in water level in the Inner Delta of Niger River in Mali, in West Africa. Classified among the sites of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, the Inner Delta plays a leading role for Mali and the whole sub-region, both on the socio-economic and environmental scales. The Delta is characterized by a flooding period, during which an area of over 20,000 km2 of land is flooded. The water withdraws completely during the recession. These dynamic flooding-recession conditions practically control all the human activities in the region and significantly influence the ecological processes. On the other hand, the Delta is becoming more and more fragile due to desertification, climate change and agricultural activities. A better characterization of water level variations and understanding the hydrological regime are of critical importance in the Delta. Satellite altimetry data considered in the study come from Topex/Poseidon (1992-2005) and Envisat (2002-2009). The data were corrected for environmental effects. In order to develop time series including data from both satellites, we analyzed their overlapping period (2002-2005). This analysis revealed a good correlation between the two sets of measurements (R2 = 0,76), and a systematic bias of about 89 cm. The Envisat

Statistical Characteristics of Mesoscale Eddies in the North Pacific Derived from Satellite Altimetry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yu-Hsin Cheng

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The sea level anomaly data derived from satellite altimetry are analyzed to investigate statistical characteristics of mesoscale eddies in the North Pacific. Eddies are detected by a free-threshold eddy identification algorithm. The results show that the distributions of size, amplitude, propagation speed, and eddy kinetic energy of eddy follow the Rayleigh distribution. The most active regions of eddies are the Kuroshio Extension region, the Subtropical Counter Current zone, and the Northeastern Tropical Pacific region. By contrast, eddies are seldom observed around the center of the eastern part of the North Pacific Subarctic Gyre. The propagation speed and kinetic energy of cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies are almost the same, but anticyclonic eddies possess greater lifespans, sizes, and amplitudes than those of cyclonic eddies. Most eddies in the North Pacific propagate westward except in the Oyashio region. Around the northeastern tropical Pacific and the California currents, cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies propagate westward with slightly equatorward (197° average azimuth relative to east and poleward (165° deflection, respectively. This implies that the background current may play an important role in formation of the eddy pathway patterns.

Crisis in geosciences in epoch of altimetry measurments and ways of its overcoming

Science.gov (United States)

Barkin, Yu. V.

2009-04-01

Scientific results by determination of increase of a global sea level, basing on altimetry measurements, are erroneous. Unfortunately, modern researches of global behavior of ocean in present period have resulted in a lot of paradoxes, to the inexplicable phenomena for today and to contradictions with the classical data of ground (coastal) observations. The basic contradiction consists that values of rate of increase of mean sea level, obtained with the help of satellite methods - methods of altimetry, in 2 - 3 times and more surpass classical determinations of this velocity by coastal methods with the help of measurements at tidal stations. Some authors actually resort to a juggling of the facts in the attempts to explain the found out contradictions (for example, with the help of selection of stations and regions of ocean with the increased values of rates). Thus rather big series of works has lost the scientific importance. The purpose of the report - to show, that conclusions about global increase of a level of the ocean, obtained with application of a method of satellite altimetry are rough - erroneous. "The global sea level rise estimate in the 20th century has been reported at 1.8 mm/yr [Church et al., 2004; Douglas, 2001], which is consistent with the IPCC TAR estimate of 1.5+/-0.5 mm/yr for the 20th Century [Church et al., 2001]. In contrast to the 1.8 mm/yr sea level rise estimate derived from tide gauges, sea level trend estimate from satellite altimetry since 1993 has increased to 3.1+/-0.4 mm/yr [Cazenave and Nerem, 2004]. Although the sea level rise during the TOPEX/POSEIDON period or the last decade is observed to rise almost 50% faster than the average rate over the last Century, visual inspection and fitting a quadratic to the time series confirms there is no significant increase in the rate [Church et al., 2004]." [2], p.7. The statement is rather eloquent. We shall notice only, that the marked difference in rates of MSLR not 50 %, and 100 % and

New Techniques for Radar Altimetry of Sea Ice and the Polar Oceans

Science.gov (United States)

Armitage, T. W. K.; Kwok, R.; Egido, A.; Smith, W. H. F.; Cullen, R.

2017-12-01

Satellite radar altimetry has proven to be a valuable tool for remote sensing of the polar oceans, with techniques for estimating sea ice thickness and sea surface height in the ice-covered ocean advancing to the point of becoming routine, if not operational, products. Here, we explore new techniques in radar altimetry of the polar oceans and the sea ice cover. First, we present results from fully-focused SAR (FFSAR) altimetry; by accounting for the phase evolution of scatterers in the scene, the FFSAR technique applies an inter-burst coherent integration, potentially over the entire duration that a scatterer remains in the altimeter footprint, which can narrow the effective along track resolution to just 0.5m. We discuss the improvement of using interleaved operation over burst-more operation for applying FFSAR processing to data acquired by future missions, such as a potential CryoSat follow-on. Second, we present simulated sea ice retrievals from the Ka-band Radar Interferometer (KaRIn), the instrument that will be launched on the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission in 2021, that is capable of producing swath images of surface elevation. These techniques offer the opportunity to advance our understanding of the physics of the ice-covered oceans, plus new insight into how we interpret more conventional radar altimetry data in these regions.

Sea level reconstruction: Exploration of methods for combining altimetry with other data to beyond the 20-year altimetric record

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Svendsen, Peter Limkilde; Andersen, Ole Baltazar; Nielsen, Allan Aasbjerg

2012-01-01

Ocean satellite altimetry has provided global sets of sea level data for the last two decades, allowing determination of spatial patterns in global sea level. For reconstructions going back further than this period, tide gauge data can be used as a proxy for the model. We examine different methods...... to spatial distribution, and tide gauge data are available around the Arctic Ocean, which may be important for a later high-latitude reconstruction....... of combining satellite altimetry and tide gauge data using optimal weighting of tide gauge data, linear regression and EOFs, including automatic quality checks of the tide gauge time series. We attempt to augment the model using various proxies such as climate indices like the NAO and PDO, and investigate...

Determination of Interannual to Decadal Changes in Ice Sheet Mass Balance from Satellite Altimetry

Science.gov (United States)

Zwally, H. Jay; Busalacchi, Antonioa J. (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

A major uncertainty in predicting sea level rise is the sensitivity of ice sheet mass balance to climate change, as well as the uncertainty in present mass balance. Since the annual water exchange is about 8 mm of global sea level equivalent, the +/- 25% uncertainty in current mass balance corresponds to +/- 2 mm/yr in sea level change. Furthermore, estimates of the sensitivity of the mass balance to temperature change range from perhaps as much as - 10% to + 10% per K. Although the overall ice mass balance and seasonal and inter-annual variations can be derived from time-series of ice surface elevations from satellite altimetry, satellite radar altimeters have been limited in spatial coverage and elevation accuracy. Nevertheless, new data analysis shows mixed patterns of ice elevation increases and decreases that are significant in terms of regional-scale mass balances. In addition, observed seasonal and interannual variations in elevation demonstrate the potential for relating the variability in mass balance to changes in precipitation, temperature, and melting. From 2001, NASA's ICESat laser altimeter mission will provide significantly better elevation accuracy and spatial coverage to 86 deg latitude and to the margins of the ice sheets. During 3 to 5 years of ICESat-1 operation, an estimate of the overall ice sheet mass balance and sea level contribution will be obtained. The importance of continued ice monitoring after the first ICESat is illustrated by the variability in the area of Greenland surface melt observed over 17-years and its correlation with temperature. In addition, measurement of ice sheet changes, along with measurements of sea level change by a series of ocean altimeters, should enable direct detection of ice level and global sea level correlations.

Mass Evolution of Mediterranean, Black, Red, and Caspian Seas from GRACE and Altimetry: Accuracy Assessment and Solution Calibration

Science.gov (United States)

Loomis, B. D.; Luthcke, S. B.

2016-01-01

We present new measurements of mass evolution for the Mediterranean, Black, Red, and Caspian Seas as determined by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) GRACE time-variable global gravity mascon solutions. These new solutions are compared to sea surface altimetry measurements of sea level anomalies with steric corrections applied. To assess their accuracy, the GRACE and altimetry-derived solutions are applied to the set of forward models used by GSFC for processing the GRACE Level-1B datasets, with the resulting inter-satellite range acceleration residuals providing a useful metric for analyzing solution quality.

A new 25 years Arctic Sea level record from ESA satellites

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Ole Baltazar; Cheng, Yongcun; Knudsen, Per

The Arctic is an extremely challenging region for the use of remote sensing for ocean studies. One is the fact that despite 25 years of altimetry only very limited sea level observations exists in the interior of the Arctic Ocean. However, with Cryosat-2 SAR altimetry the situation is changing...... the ESA GOCE mission we are now able to derive a mean dynamic topography of the Arctic Ocean with unprecedented accuracy to constrain the ocean circulation. We present both a new estimation of the mean ocean circulation and new estimates of large scale sea level changes based on satellite data and perform...

SUIVI TEMPOREL DE LA VARIATION DU NIVEAU D’EAU DU LAC TSIMANAMPETSOTSA A PARTIR DES DONNEES D’ALTIMETRIE LIDAR DU SATELLITE ICESAT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dhoimiri ANWAR MAEVA

2017-12-01

Full Text Available During its operating period, the ICESat lidar satellite collected data on the surface of the earth between 80 ° and -80 ° latitude. It allowed us to have several points of altimetry measurements on Lake Tsimanampetsotsa on several measurement campaigns. For each campaign, we found that standard deviation of the altimetric measurements made by ICESat is low. Measurements on the lake are therefore homogeneous with averages ranging from 4.9 m to 6.8 m and standard deviations that are less than 1 m. Observing the variation over time of the mean level of Lake Tsimanampetsotsa, there is a slight downward trend in the water level. The level of the lake lost 0.60 m between 2004 to 2009.

A comparison and evaluation between ICESat/GLAS altimetry and mean sea level in Thailand

Science.gov (United States)

Naksen, Didsaphan; Yang, Dong Kai

2015-10-01

Surface elevation is one of the importance information for GIS. Usually surface elevation can acquired from many sources such as satellite imageries, aerial photograph, SAR data or LiDAR by photogrammetry, remote sensing methodology. However the most trust information describe the actual surface elevation is Leveling from terrestrial survey. Leveling is giving the highest accuracy but in the other hand is also long period process spending a lot of budget and resources, moreover the LiDAR technology is new era to measure surface elevation. ICESat/GLAS is spaceborne LiDAR platform, a scientific satellite lunched by NASA in 2003. The study area was located at the middle part of Thailand between 12. ° - 14° North and 98° -100° East Latitude and Longitude. The main idea is to compare and evaluate about elevation between ICESat/GLAS Altimetry and mean sea level of Thailand. Data are collected from various sources, including the ICESat/GLAS altimetry data product from NASA, mean sea level from Royal Thai Survey Department (RTSD). For methodology, is to transform ICESat GLA14 from TOPX/Poseidon-Jason ellipsoid to WGS84 ellipsoid. In addition, ICESat/GLAS altimetry that extracted form centroid of laser footprint and mean sea level were compared and evaluated by 1st Layer National Vertical Reference Network. The result is shown that generally the range of elevation between ICESat/GLAS and mean sea level is wildly from 0. 8 to 25 meters in study area.

Precise orbit determination of the Sentinel-3A altimetry satellite using ambiguity-fixed GPS carrier phase observations

Science.gov (United States)

Montenbruck, Oliver; Hackel, Stefan; Jäggi, Adrian

2017-11-01

The Sentinel-3 mission takes routine measurements of sea surface heights and depends crucially on accurate and precise knowledge of the spacecraft. Orbit determination with a targeted uncertainty of less than 2 cm in radial direction is supported through an onboard Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, a Doppler Orbitography and Radiopositioning Integrated by Satellite instrument, and a complementary laser retroreflector for satellite laser ranging. Within this study, the potential of ambiguity fixing for GPS-only precise orbit determination (POD) of the Sentinel-3 spacecraft is assessed. A refined strategy for carrier phase generation out of low-level measurements is employed to cope with half-cycle ambiguities in the tracking of the Sentinel-3 GPS receiver that have so far inhibited ambiguity-fixed POD solutions. Rather than explicitly fixing double-difference phase ambiguities with respect to a network of terrestrial reference stations, a single-receiver ambiguity resolution concept is employed that builds on dedicated GPS orbit, clock, and wide-lane bias products provided by the CNES/CLS (Centre National d'Études Spatiales/Collecte Localisation Satellites) analysis center of the International GNSS Service. Compared to float ambiguity solutions, a notably improved precision can be inferred from laser ranging residuals. These decrease from roughly 9 mm down to 5 mm standard deviation for high-grade stations on average over low and high elevations. Furthermore, the ambiguity-fixed orbits offer a substantially improved cross-track accuracy and help to identify lateral offsets in the GPS antenna or center-of-mass (CoM) location. With respect to altimetry, the improved orbit precision also benefits the global consistency of sea surface measurements. However, modeling of the absolute height continues to rely on proper dynamical models for the spacecraft motion as well as ground calibrations for the relative position of the altimeter reference point and the CoM.

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

Comparison of space borne radar altimetry and airborne laser altimetry over sea ice in the Fram Strait

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Giles, K.A.; Hvidegaard, Sine Munk

2006-01-01

This paper describes the first comparison of satellite radar and airborne laser altimetry over sea ice. In order to investigate the differences between measurements from the two different instruments we explore the statistical properties of the data and determine reasonable scales in space and time...... at which to examine them. The resulting differences between the data sets show that the laser and the radar are reflecting from different surfaces and that the magnitude of the difference decreases with increasing surface air temperature. This suggests that the penetration depth of the radar signal......, into the snow, varies with temperature. The results also show the potential for computing Arctic wide snow depth maps by combining measurements from laser and radar altimeters....

Satellite Altimetry and Current-Meter Velocities in the Malvinas Current at 41°S: Comparisons and Modes of Variations

Science.gov (United States)

Ferrari, Ramiro; Artana, Camila; Saraceno, Martin; Piola, Alberto R.; Provost, Christine

2017-12-01

Three year long current-meter arrays were deployed in the Malvinas Current at 41°S below a satellite altimeter track at about 10 years intervals. Surface geostrophic velocities (SGV) derived from satellite altimetric data are compared with the in situ velocities at the upper current meter (˜300 m). Multisatellite gridded SGV compare better with in situ observations than along-track SGV. In spite of the proximity of the moorings to the complex Brazil-Malvinas Confluence (BMC) region, satellite SGV are significantly correlated with the 20 day low-passed in situ velocities (0.85 for along-isobaths velocities, 0.8 for cross-isobaths velocities). The recent in situ measurement period (2014-2015) stands out in the altimetry record with a long-lasting (4 months) high level of eddy kinetic energy at the mooring site and a southernmost location of the Subantarctic Front (SAF). The first two modes of variations of sea level anomaly (SLA) over the BMC remarkably match the first two modes of the low-passed in situ velocities. The first mode is associated with a latitudinal migration of the SAF, and the second with a longitudinal displacement of the Brazil Current overshoot. The two modes dominate the 24 year long record of SLA in the BMC, with energy peaks at the annual and semiannual periods for the first mode and at 3-5 months for the second mode. The SLA over the Southwest Atlantic was regressed onto the two confluence modes of SLA variations and showed remarkable standing wave train like structures in the Argentine Basin.

Estimating Antarctica land topography from GRACE gravity and ICESat altimetry data

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, I.; Chao, B. F.; Chen, Y.

2009-12-01

We propose a new method combining GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) gravity and ICESat (Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite) altimetry data to estimate the land topography for Antarctica. Antarctica is the fifth-largest continent in the world and about 98% of Antarctica is covered by ice, where in-situ measurements are difficult. Some experimental airborne radar and ground-based radar data have revealed very limited land topography beneath heavy ice sheet. To estimate the land topography for the full coverage of Antarctica, we combine GRACE data that indicate the mass distribution, with data of ICESat laser altimetry that provide high-resolution mapping of ice topography. Our approach is actually based on some geological constraints: assuming uniform densities of the land and ice considering the Airy-type isostasy. In the beginning we construct an initial model for the ice thickness and land topography based on the BEDMAP ice thickness and ICESat data. Thereafter we forward compute the model’s gravity field and compare with the GRACE observed data. Our initial model undergoes the adjustments to improve the fit between modeled results and the observed data. Final examination is done by comparing our results with previous but sparse observations of ice thickness to reconfirm the reliability of our results. As the gravitational inversion problem is non-unique, our estimating result is just one of all possibilities constrained by available data in optimal way.

Mass-induced [|#8#|]Sea Level Variations in the Red Sea from Satellite Altimetry and GRACE

Science.gov (United States)

Feng, W.; Lemoine, J.; Zhong, M.; Hsu, H.

2011-12-01

We have analyzed mass-induced sea level variations (SLVs) in the Red Sea from steric-corrected altimetry and GRACE between January 2003 and December 2010. The steric component of SLVs in the Red Sea calculated from climatological temperature and salinity data is relatively small and anti-phase with the mass-induced SLV. The total SLV in the Red Sea is mainly driven by the mass-induced SLV, which increases in winter when the Red Sea gains the water mass from the Gulf of Aden and vice versa in summer. Spatial and temporal patterns of mass-induced SLVs in the Red Sea from steric-corrected altimetry agree very well with GRACE observations. Both of two independent observations show high annual amplitude in the central Red Sea (>20cm). Total mass-induced SLVs in the Red Sea from two independent observations have similar annual amplitude and phase. One main purpose of our work is to see whether GRGS's ten-day GRACE results can observe intra-seasonal mass change in the Red Sea. The wavelet coherence analysis indicates that GRGS's results show the high correlation with the steric-corrected SLVs on intra-seasonal time scale. The agreement is excellent for all the time-span until 1/3 year period and is patchy between 1/3 and 1/16 year period. Furthermore, water flux estimates from current-meter arrays and moorings show mass gain in winter and mass loss in summer, which is also consistent with altimetry and GRACE.

A new approach to estimate ice dynamic rates using satellite observations in East Antarctica

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

B. Kallenberg

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Mass balance changes of the Antarctic ice sheet are of significant interest due to its sensitivity to climatic changes and its contribution to changes in global sea level. While regional climate models successfully estimate mass input due to snowfall, it remains difficult to estimate the amount of mass loss due to ice dynamic processes. It has often been assumed that changes in ice dynamic rates only need to be considered when assessing long-term ice sheet mass balance; however, 2 decades of satellite altimetry observations reveal that the Antarctic ice sheet changes unexpectedly and much more dynamically than previously expected. Despite available estimates on ice dynamic rates obtained from radar altimetry, information about ice sheet changes due to changes in the ice dynamics are still limited, especially in East Antarctica. Without understanding ice dynamic rates, it is not possible to properly assess changes in ice sheet mass balance and surface elevation or to develop ice sheet models. In this study we investigate the possibility of estimating ice sheet changes due to ice dynamic rates by removing modelled rates of surface mass balance, firn compaction, and bedrock uplift from satellite altimetry and gravity observations. With similar rates of ice discharge acquired from two different satellite missions we show that it is possible to obtain an approximation of the rate of change due to ice dynamics by combining altimetry and gravity observations. Thus, surface elevation changes due to surface mass balance, firn compaction, and ice dynamic rates can be modelled and correlated with observed elevation changes from satellite altimetry.

Validation of Sentinel-3A altimetry data by using in-situ multi-platform observations near Mallorca Island (western Mediterranean)

Science.gov (United States)

Sánchez-Román, Antonio; Heslop, Emma; Reeve, Krissy; Rodriguez, Daniel; Pujol, Isabelle; Faugère, Yannice; Torner, Marc; Tintoré, Joaquín; Pascual, Ananda

2017-04-01

In the frame of the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS) Sea Level Thematic Assembly Center (SL-TAC), a glider mission was undertaken between May and June 2016 along the same track as the overpass of the Sentinel 3A satellite in the Southern Mallorca region. Moreover, a one-day ship mission on May 30, synchronous with the overpass of the satellite, captured two transects of moving vessel ADCP close to the coastal area. The aim was to compare the along track altimeter products and multi-platform in-situ observations in the southern coastal zone of the Mallorca Island and the Algerian Basin. In addition, we explored the potential of the Synthetic Aperture Radar Mode (SARM) instrumentation of Sentinel-3 mission, which enables the satellite to measure nearest the coasts with both higher spatial resolution and higher precision than previous missions. With the ultimate goal of contributing to a more complete understanding of both ocean and coastal physical processes and the biogeochemical impacts. The analyses presented here are conducted through the comparison of Absolute Dynamic Topography (ADT) obtained from the Sentinel-3A altimetry measurements along ground-track #713 and Dynamic Height (DH) derived from temperature and salinity profiles measured by the glider along the trajectory followed by the satellite. Moreover, currents derived from altimetry and in-situ glider data along the track followed by the satellite; and from ADCP data collected in the coastal region are analysed. Results show a good agreement between ADT from altimetry and DH from glider data with maximum differences of around 2 cm that promote a root mean square error (RMSE) of 1 cm, the correlation coefficient between both datasets is 0.89. The satellite data closely resemble the geostrophic velocity pattern observed by the glider measurements along the Algerian Current, and also the ADCP data in the coastal zone, exhibiting a RMSE lower than 10 cm/s and a correlation coefficient

Mass-induced sea level variations in the Red Sea from GRACE, steric-corrected altimetry, in situ bottom pressure records, and hydrographic observations

Science.gov (United States)

Feng, W.; Lemoine, J.-M.; Zhong, M.; Hsu, H. T.

2014-08-01

An annual amplitude of ∼18 cm mass-induced sea level variations (SLV) in the Red Sea is detected from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites and steric-corrected altimetry from 2003 to 2011. The annual mass variations in the region dominate the mean SLV, and generally reach maximum in late January/early February. The annual steric component of the mean SLV is relatively small (mass-induced SLV. In situ bottom pressure records at the eastern coast of the Red Sea validate the high mass variability observed by steric-corrected altimetry and GRACE. In addition, the horizontal water mass flux of the Red Sea estimated from GRACE and steric-corrected altimetry is validated by hydrographic observations.

Assessment of the Impact of Reservoirs in the Upper Mekong River Using Satellite Radar Altimetry and Remote Sensing Imageries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kuan-Ting Liu

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Water level (WL and water volume (WV of surface-water bodies are among the most crucial variables used in water-resources assessment and management. They fluctuate as a result of climatic forcing, and they are considered as indicators of climatic impacts on water resources. Quantifying riverine WL and WV, however, usually requires the availability of timely and continuous in situ data, which could be a challenge for rivers in remote regions, including the Mekong River basin. As one of the most developed rivers in the world, with more than 20 dams built or under construction, Mekong River is in need of a monitoring system that could facilitate basin-scale management of water resources facing future climate change. This study used spaceborne sensors to investigate two dams in the upper Mekong River, Xiaowan and Jinghong Dams within China, to examine river flow dynamics after these dams became operational. We integrated multi-mission satellite radar altimetry (RA, Envisat and Jason-2 and Landsat-5/-7/-8 Thematic Mapper (TM/Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+/Operational  Land Imager (OLI optical remote sensing (RS imageries to construct composite WL time series with enhanced spatial resolutions and substantially extended WL data records. An empirical relationship between WL variation and water extent was first established for each dam, and then the combined long-term WL time series from Landsat images are reconstructed for the dams. The R2 between altimetry WL and Landsat water area measurements is >0.95. Next, the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM data were used to diagnose and determine water variation caused by the precipitation anomaly within the basin. Finally, the impact of hydrologic dynamics caused by the impoundment of the dams is assessed. The discrepancy between satellite-derived WL and available in situ gauge data, in term of root-mean-square error (RMSE is at 2–5 m level. The estimated WV variations derived from combined RA

Recent Arctic sea level variations from satellites

OpenAIRE

Ole Baltazar Andersen; Gaia ePiccioni

2016-01-01

Sea level monitoring in the Arctic region has always been an extreme challenge for remote sensing, and in particular for satellite altimetry. Despite more than two decades of observations, altimetry is still limited in the inner Arctic Ocean. We have developed an updated version of the Danish Technical University's (DTU) Arctic Ocean altimetric sea level timeseries starting in 1993 and now extended up to 2015 with CryoSat-2 data. The time-series covers a total of 23 years, which allows higher...

Evaluation of the Sentinel-3 Hydrologic Altimetry Processor prototypE (SHAPE) methods.

Science.gov (United States)

Benveniste, J.; Garcia-Mondéjar, A.; Bercher, N.; Fabry, P. L.; Roca, M.; Varona, E.; Fernandes, J.; Lazaro, C.; Vieira, T.; David, G.; Restano, M.; Ambrózio, A.

2017-12-01

Inland water scenes are highly variable, both in space and time, which leads to a much broader range of radar signatures than ocean surfaces. This applies to both LRM and "SAR" mode (SARM) altimetry. Nevertheless the enhanced along-track resolution of SARM altimeters should help improve the accuracy and precision of inland water height measurements from satellite. The SHAPE project - Sentinel-3 Hydrologic Altimetry Processor prototypE - which is funded by ESA through the Scientific Exploitation of Operational Missions Programme Element (contract number 4000115205/15/I-BG) aims at preparing for the exploitation of Sentinel-3 data over the inland water domain. The SHAPE Processor implements all of the steps necessary to derive rivers and lakes water levels and discharge from Delay-Doppler Altimetry and perform their validation against in situ data. The processor uses FBR CryoSat-2 and L1A Sentinel-3A data as input and also various ancillary data (proc. param., water masks, L2 corrections, etc.), to produce surface water levels. At a later stage, water level data are assimilated into hydrological models to derive river discharge. This poster presents the improvements obtained with the new methods and algorithms over the regions of interest (Amazon and Danube rivers, Vanern and Titicaca lakes).

Exploring methods for combining altimetry with other data to extend the 20-year altimetric record onto a 50 year timescale

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Svendsen, Peter Limkilde; Andersen, Ole Baltazar; Nielsen, Allan Aasbjerg

Ocean satellite altimetry has provided global sets of sea level data for the last two decades, allowing determination of spatial patterns in global sea level. For reconstructions going back further than this period, tide gauge data can be used as a proxy for the model. We examine different methods......-around of spatial shifts. Parameters from physical oceanography will be incorporated using ocean models (i.e., DRAKKAR; SODA) for a preliminary reference. Our focus is on a timescale going back approximately 50 years, allowing reasonable global availability of model and tide gauge data. This allows for better...... of combining satellite altimetry and tide gauge data using optimal weighting of tide gauge data, linear regression and EOFs, including automatic quality checks of the tide gauge time series. We attempt to test the sensibility of reconstruction using known and existing datasets and to test the important...

Evaluation of multi-mode CryoSat-2 altimetry data over the Po River against in situ data and a hydrodynamic model

Science.gov (United States)

Schneider, Raphael; Tarpanelli, Angelica; Nielsen, Karina; Madsen, Henrik; Bauer-Gottwein, Peter

2018-02-01

Coverage of in situ observations to monitor surface waters is insufficient on the global scale, and decreasing across the globe. Satellite altimetry has become an increasingly important monitoring technology for continental surface waters. The ESA CryoSat-2 altimetry mission, launched in 2010, has two novel features. (i) The radar altimeter instrument on board of CryoSat-2 is operated in three modes; two of them reduce the altimeter footprint by using Delay-Doppler processing. (ii) CryoSat-2 is placed on a distinct orbit with a repeat cycle of 369 days, leading to a drifting ground track pattern. The drifting ground track pattern challenges many common methods of processing satellite altimetry data over rivers. This study evaluates the observation error of CryoSat-2 water level observations over the Po River, Italy, against in situ observations. The average RMSE between CryoSat-2 and in situ observations was found to be 0.38 meters. CryoSat-2 was also shown to be useful for channel roughness calibration in a hydrodynamic model of the Po River. The small across-track distance of CryoSat-2 means that observations are distributed almost continuously along the river. This allowed resolving channel roughness with higher spatial resolution than possible with in situ or virtual station altimetry data. Despite the Po River being extensively monitored, CryoSat-2 still provides added value thanks to its unique spatio-temporal sampling pattern.

COASTALT Project's contribution to the development and dissemination of coastal altimetry

Science.gov (United States)

Cipollini, P.; Benveniste, J.

2012-04-01

Satellite altimeters have been monitoring the global ocean for 20 years, with an excellent degree of accuracy; but in the coastal strip data are normally flagged as bad because of a number of technical problems, and therefore rejected. However this situation is rapidly changing: prompted by the tantalizing prospect of recovering 20 years of data over the coastal ocean, and encouraged by the improved suitability for coastal applications of new and future altimeters (like those on Cryosat-2, AltiKa and Sentinel-3), a lively community of researchers in coastal altimetry has coalesced in the last few years, and is developing techniques to recover useful measurements of sea level and significant wave height in the coastal strip, as well as implementing and promoting new applications. The major space agencies are strongly supporting R&D in this new field with initiatives like ESA's COASTALT (for Envisat) and CNES' PISTACH (for Jason-2). The coastal altimetry community holds regular workshops (see http://www.coastalt.eu/community) where the science and techniques of coastal altimetry are reviewed and various applications are showcased and discussed. The present contribution revisits briefly the many recent technical improvements that are contributing to the steady progress of this new field and in particular focuses on the results of the COASTALT project, which has recently concluded. COASTALT has been an excellent incubator of ideas and new techniques for the improvement of coastal altimetry: first of all it has contributed to establish user requirements for this new field, and it has defined detailed product specifications for the new coastal altimetry products and produced the relevant documentation. At the same time COASTALT has tackled the two main areas of improvement for coastal altimetry. These are: 1) retracking, i.e. fitting a waveform model to the waveforms to obtain an estimate of the geophysical parameters: and 2) designing and validating improved coastal

A Decade of High-Resolution Arctic Sea Ice Measurements from Airborne Altimetry

Science.gov (United States)

Duncan, K.; Farrell, S. L.; Connor, L. N.; Jackson, C.; Richter-Menge, J.

2017-12-01

Satellite altimeters carried on board ERS-1,-2, EnviSat, ICESat, CryoSat-2, AltiKa and Sentinel-3 have transformed our ability to map the thickness and volume of the polar sea ice cover, on seasonal and decadal time-scales. The era of polar satellite altimetry has coincided with a rapid decline of the Arctic ice cover, which has thinned, and transitioned from a predominantly multi-year to first-year ice cover. In conjunction with basin-scale satellite altimeter observations, airborne surveys of the Arctic Ocean at the end of winter are now routine. These surveys have been targeted to monitor regions of rapid change, and are designed to obtain the full snow and ice thickness distribution, across a range of ice types. Sensors routinely deployed as part of NASA's Operation IceBridge (OIB) campaigns include the Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM) laser altimeter, the frequency-modulated continuous-wave snow radar, and the Digital Mapping System (DMS). Airborne measurements yield high-resolution data products and thus present a unique opportunity to assess the quality and characteristics of the satellite observations. We present a suite of sea ice data products that describe the snow depth and thickness of the Arctic ice cover during the last decade. Fields were derived from OIB measurements collected between 2009-2017, and from reprocessed data collected during ad-hoc sea ice campaigns prior to OIB. Our bespoke algorithms are designed to accommodate the heterogeneous sea ice surface topography, that varies at short spatial scales. We assess regional and inter-annual variability in the sea ice thickness distribution. Results are compared to satellite-derived ice thickness fields to highlight the sensitivities of satellite footprints to the tails of the thickness distribution. We also show changes in the dynamic forcing shaping the ice pack over the last eight years through an analysis of pressure-ridge sail-height distributions and surface roughness conditions

Combining satellite radar altimetry, SAR surface soil moisture and GRACE total storage changes for hydrological model calibration in a large poorly gauged catchment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Milzow, Christian; Krogh, Pernille Engelbredt; Bauer-Gottwein, Peter

2011-01-01

The availability of data is a major challenge for hydrological modelling in large parts of the world. Remote sensing data can be exploited to improve models of ungauged or poorly gauged catchments. In this study we combine three datasets for calibration of a rainfall-runoff model of the poorly...... gauged Okavango catchment in Southern Africa: (i) surface soil moisture (SSM) estimates derived from radar measurements onboard the Envisat satellite; (ii) radar altimetry measurements by Envisat providing river stages in the tributaries of the Okavango catchment, down to a minimum river width of about...... one hundred meters; and (iii) temporal changes of the Earth's gravity field recorded by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) caused by total water storage changes in the catchment. The SSM data are shown to be helpful in identifying periods with over-respectively underestimation...

Mapping sub-surface geostrophic currents from altimetry and a fleet of gliders

Science.gov (United States)

Alvarez, A.; Chiggiato, J.; Schroeder, K.

2013-04-01

Integrating the observations gathered by different platforms into a unique physical picture of the environment is a fundamental aspect of networked ocean observing systems. These are constituted by a spatially distributed set of sensors and platforms that simultaneously monitor a given ocean region. Remote sensing from satellites is an integral part of present ocean observing systems. Due to their autonomy, mobility and controllability, underwater gliders are envisioned to play a significant role in the development of networked ocean observatories. Exploiting synergism between remote sensing and underwater gliders is expected to result on a better characterization of the marine environment than using these observational sources individually. This study investigates a methodology to estimate the three dimensional distribution of geostrophic currents resulting from merging satellite altimetry and in situ samples gathered by a fleet of Slocum gliders. Specifically, the approach computes the volumetric or three dimensional distribution of absolute dynamic height (ADH) that minimizes the total energy of the system while being close to in situ observations and matching the absolute dynamic topography (ADT) observed from satellite at the sea surface. A three dimensional finite element technique is employed to solve the minimization problem. The methodology is validated making use of the dataset collected during the field experiment called Rapid Environmental Picture-2010 (REP-10) carried out by the NATO Undersea Research Center-NURC during August 2010. A marine region off-shore La Spezia (northwest coast of Italy) was sampled by a fleet of three coastal Slocum gliders. Results indicate that the geostrophic current field estimated from gliders and altimetry significantly improves the estimates obtained using only the data gathered by the glider fleet.

Mapping Ross Ice Shelf with ROSETTA-Ice airborne laser altimetry

Science.gov (United States)

Becker, M. K.; Fricker, H. A.; Padman, L.; Bell, R. E.; Siegfried, M. R.; Dieck, C. C. M.

2017-12-01

The Ross Ocean and ice Shelf Environment and Tectonic setting Through Aerogeophysical surveys and modeling (ROSETTA-Ice) project combines airborne glaciological, geological, and oceanographic observations to enhance our understanding of the history and dynamics of the large ( 500,000 square km) Ross Ice Shelf (RIS). Here, we focus on the Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) data collected in 2015 and 2016. This data set represents a significant advance in resolution: Whereas the last attempt to systematically map RIS (the surface-based RIGGS program in the 1970s) was at 55 km grid spacing, the ROSETTA-Ice grid has 10-20 km line spacing and much higher along-track resolution. We discuss two different strategies for processing the raw LiDAR data: one that requires proprietary software (Riegl's RiPROCESS package), and one that employs open-source programs and libraries. With the processed elevation data, we are able to resolve fine-scale ice-shelf features such as the "rampart-moat" ice-front morphology, which has previously been observed on and modeled for icebergs. This feature is also visible in the ROSETTA-Ice shallow-ice radar data; comparing the laser data with radargrams provides insight into the processes leading to their formation. Near-surface firn state and total firn air content can also be investigated through combined analysis of laser altimetry and radar data. By performing similar analyses with data from the radar altimeter aboard CryoSat-2, we demonstrate the utility of the ROSETTA-Ice LiDAR data set in satellite validation efforts. The incorporation of the LiDAR data from the third and final field season (December 2017) will allow us to construct a DEM and an ice thickness map of RIS for the austral summers of 2015-2017. These products will be used to validate and extend observations of height changes from satellite radar and laser altimetry, as well as to update regional models of ocean circulation and ice dynamics.

Sub-basin-scale sea level budgets from satellite altimetry, Argo floats and satellite gravimetry: a case study in the North Atlantic Ocean

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kleinherenbrink, M.; Riva, R.E.M.; Sun, Y.

2016-01-01

. In this study, for the first time, an attempt is made to close the sea level budget on a sub-basin scale in terms of trend and amplitude of the annual cycle. We also compare the residual time series after removing the trend, the semiannual and the annual signals. To obtain errors for altimetry and

Normalized GNSS Interference Pattern Technique for Altimetry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Miguel Angel Ribot

2014-06-01

Full Text Available It is well known that reflected signals from Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS can be used for altimetry applications, such as monitoring of water levels and determining snow height. Due to the interference of these reflected signals and the motion of satellites in space, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR measured at the receiver slowly oscillates. The oscillation rate is proportional to the change in the propagation path difference between the direct and reflected signals, which depends on the satellite elevation angle. Assuming a known receiver position, it is possible to compute the distance between the antenna and the surface of reflection from the measured oscillation rate. This technique is usually known as the interference pattern technique (IPT. In this paper, we propose to normalize the measurements in order to derive an alternative model of the SNR variations. From this model, we define a maximum likelihood estimate of the antenna height that reduces the estimation time to a fraction of one period of the SNR variation. We also derive the Cramér–Rao lower bound for the IPT and use it to assess the sensitivity of different parameters to the estimation of the antenna height. Finally, we propose an experimental framework, and we use it to assess our approach with real GPS L1 C/A signals.

Sea level reconstructions from altimetry and tide gauges using independent component analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Brunnabend, Sandra-Esther; Kusche, Jürgen; Forootan, Ehsan

2017-04-01

Many reconstructions of global and regional sea level rise derived from tide gauges and satellite altimetry used the method of empirical orthogonal functions (EOF) to reduce noise, improving the spatial resolution of the reconstructed outputs and investigate the different signals in climate time series. However, the second order EOF method has some limitations, e.g. in the separation of individual physical signals into different modes of sea level variations and in the capability to physically interpret the different modes as they are assumed to be orthogonal. Therefore, we investigate the use of the more advanced statistical signal decomposition technique called independent component analysis (ICA) to reconstruct global and regional sea level change from satellite altimetry and tide gauge records. Our results indicate that the used method has almost no influence on the reconstruction of global mean sea level change (1.6 mm/yr from 1960-2010 and 2.9 mm/yr from 1993-2013). Only different numbers of modes are needed for the reconstruction. Using the ICA method is advantageous for separating independent climate variability signals from regional sea level variations as the mixing problem of the EOF method is strongly reduced. As an example, the modes most dominated by the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) signal are compared. Regional sea level changes near Tianjin, China, Los Angeles, USA, and Majuro, Marshall Islands are reconstructed and the contributions from ENSO are identified.

Combining satellite radar altimetry, SAR surface soil moisture and GRACE total storage changes for model calibration and validation in a large ungauged catchment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Milzow, Christian; Krogh, Pernille Engelbredt; Bauer-Gottwein, Peter

2010-01-01

The availability of data is a major challenge for hydrological modelling in large parts of the world. Remote sensing data can be exploited to improve models of ungauged or poorly gauged catchments. In this study we combine three datasets for calibration and validation of a rainfall-runoff model...... of the ungauged Okavango catchment in Southern Africa: (i) Surface soil moisture (SSM) estimates derived from SAR measurements onboard the Envisat satellite; (ii) Radar altimetry measurements by Envisat providing river stages in the tributaries of the Okavango catchment, down to a minimum width of about one...... hundred meters; and (iii) Temporal changes of the Earth’s gravity field recorded by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) caused by total water storage changes in the catchment. The SSM data are compared to simulated moisture conditions in the top soil layer. They cannot be used for model...

Basic Radar Altimetry Toolbox: Tools and Tutorial to Use Cryosat Data

Science.gov (United States)

Benveniste, J.; Bronner, E.; Dinardo, S.; Lucas, B. M.; Rosmorduc, V.; Earith, D.; Niemeijer, S.

2011-12-01

Radar altimetry is very much a technique expanding its applications. Even If quite a lot of effort has been invested for oceanography users, the use of Altimetry data for cryosphere application, especially with the new ESA CryoSat-2 mission data is still somehow tedious for new Altimetry data products users. ESA and CNES therfore developed the Basic Radar Altimetry Toolbox a few years ago, and are improving and upgrading it to fit new missions and the growing number of altimetry uses. The Basic Radar Altimetry Toolbox is an "all-altimeter" collection of tools, tutorials and documents designed to facilitate the use of radar altimetry data. The software is able: - to read most distributed radar altimetry data, from ERS-1 & 2, Topex/Poseidon, Geosat Follow-on, Jason-1, Envisat, Jason- 2, CryoSat, the future Saral missions and is ready for adaptation to Sentinel-3 products - to perform some processing, data editing and statistic, - and to visualize the results. It can be used at several levels/several ways: - as a data reading tool, with APIs for C, Fortran, Matlab and IDL - as processing/extraction routines, through the on-line command mode - as an educational and a quick-look tool, with the graphical user interface As part of the Toolbox, a Radar Altimetry Tutorial gives general information about altimetry, the technique involved and its applications, as well as an overview of past, present and future missions, including information on how to access data and additional software and documentation. It also presents a series of data use cases, covering all uses of altimetry over ocean, cryosphere and land, showing the basic methods for some of the most frequent manners of using altimetry data. It is an opportunity to teach remote sensing with practical training. It has been available since April 2007, and had been demonstrated during training courses and scientific meetings. About 2000 people downloaded it (Summer 2011), with many "newcomers" to altimetry among them

A Global Ocean Tide Model From TOPEX/POSEIDON Altimetry: GOT99.2

Science.gov (United States)

Ray, Richard D.

1999-01-01

Goddard Ocean Tide model GOT99.2 is a new solution for the amplitudes and phases of the global oceanic tides, based on over six years of sea-surface height measurements by the TOPEX/POSEIDON satellite altimeter. Comparison with deep-ocean tide-gauge measurements show that this new tidal solution is an improvement over previous global models, with accuracies for the main semidiurnal lunar constituent M2 now below 1.5 cm (deep water only). The new solution benefits from use of prior hydrodynamic models, several in shallow and inland seas as well as the global finite-element model FES94.1. This report describes some of the data processing details involved in handling the altimetry, and it provides a comprehensive set of global cotidal charts of the resulting solutions. Various derived tidal charts are also provided, including tidal loading deformation charts, tidal gravimetric charts, and tidal current velocity (or transport) charts. Finally, low-degree spherical harmonic coefficients are computed by numerical quadrature and are tabulated for the major short-period tides; these are useful for a variety of geodetic and geophysical purposes, especially in combination with similar estimates from satellite laser ranging.

The Surface Water and Ocean Topography Satellite Mission - An Assessment of Swath Altimetry Measurements of River Hydrodynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, Matthew D.; Durand, Michael; Alsdorf, Douglas; Chul-Jung, Hahn; Andreadis, Konstantinos M.; Lee, Hyongki

2012-01-01

The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite mission, scheduled for launch in 2020 with development commencing in 2015, will provide a step-change improvement in the measurement of terrestrial surface water storage and dynamics. In particular, it will provide the first, routine two-dimensional measurements of water surface elevations, which will allow for the estimation of river and floodplain flows via the water surface slope. In this paper, we characterize the measurements which may be obtained from SWOT and illustrate how they may be used to derive estimates of river discharge. In particular, we show (i) the spatia-temporal sampling scheme of SWOT, (ii) the errors which maybe expected in swath altimetry measurements of the terrestrial surface water, and (iii) the impacts such errors may have on estimates of water surface slope and river discharge, We illustrate this through a "virtual mission" study for a approximately 300 km reach of the central Amazon river, using a hydraulic model to provide water surface elevations according to the SWOT spatia-temporal sampling scheme (orbit with 78 degree inclination, 22 day repeat and 140 km swath width) to which errors were added based on a two-dimension height error spectrum derived from the SWOT design requirements. Water surface elevation measurements for the Amazon mainstem as may be observed by SWOT were thereby obtained. Using these measurements, estimates of river slope and discharge were derived and compared to those which may be obtained without error, and those obtained directly from the hydraulic model. It was found that discharge can be reproduced highly accurately from the water height, without knowledge of the detailed channel bathymetry using a modified Manning's equation, if friction, depth, width and slope are known. Increasing reach length was found to be an effective method to reduce systematic height error in SWOT measurements.

Monitoring the Algerian Basin through glider observations, satellite altimetry and numerical simulations along a SARAL/AltiKa track

Science.gov (United States)

Aulicino, G.; Cotroneo, Y.; Ruiz, S.; Sánchez Román, A.; Pascual, A.; Fusco, G.; Tintoré, J.; Budillon, G.

2018-03-01

The Algerian Basin is a key component of the general circulation in the Western Mediterranean Sea. The presence of both fresh Atlantic water and more saline Mediterranean water gives the basin an intense inflow/outflow regime and complex circulation patterns. Energetic mesoscale structures that evolve from meanders of the Algerian Current into isolated cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies dominate the area, with marked repercussions on biological activity. Despite its remarkable importance, this region and its variability are still poorly known and basin-wide knowledge of its meso- and submesoscale features is still incomplete. Studying such complex processes requires a synergistic approach that involves integrated observing systems. In recent years, several studies have demonstrated the advantages of combined use of autonomous underwater vehicles, such as gliders, with a new generation of satellite altimetry. In this context, we present results of an observational program conducted in the Algerian Basin during fall 2014 and 2015 that aimed to advance our knowledge of its main features. The study was carried out through analysis of high resolution glider observations, collected along the Algerian BAsin Circulation Unmanned Survey (ABACUS) chokepoint, in synergy with co-located SARAL/AltiKa altimetric products and CMEMS numerical simulations. Results show that glider-derived dynamic height and SARAL/AltiKa absolute dynamic topography have similar patterns, with RMS of the differences ranging between 1.11 and 2.90 cm. Even though larger discrepancies are observed near the Balearic and Algerian coasts, correlation coefficients between glider and satellite observations seem mostly to be affected by reduced synopticity between the measurements. Glider observations acquired during the four surveys reveal the presence of several water masses of Atlantic and Mediterranean origin (i.e., AW and LIW at different modification levels) with marked seasonal variability.

Recovery of the Three-Gorges Reservoir Impoundment Signal from ICESat altimetry and GRACE

Science.gov (United States)

Carabajal, C. C.; Boy, J.; Luthcke, S. B.; Harding, D. J.; Rowlands, D. D.; Lemoine, F. G.

2006-12-01

The Three Gorges Dam along the Yangtze River in China is one of the largest dams in the world. The water impoundment of the Three-Gorges Reservoir started in June 2003, and the volume of water will continuously increase up to about 40 km3 in 2009, over a length of about 600 km. Although water-level changes along the Yangtze River and the Three Gorges Reservoir are measured by in situ water gauges, access to these data can be quite difficult. Estimates of inland water height and extent can also be recovered from altimetry measurements performed from satellite platforms, such as those acquired by the Geoscience laser Altimetry System (GLAS) on board the Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat). ICESat has produced a comprehensive, highly precise, set of along-track elevation measurements, every three months since its launch in 2003, which intersect the Yangtze River along its East-West extent. In addition, the water impoundment of major artificial reservoirs induces variations of global geodetic quantities, such as the gravity field and Earth rotation (Chao, 1995, Boy & Chao, 2002). Water level changes within the reservoir are compared to GRACE (Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment) recovered water mass changes. In addition, we compare the GRACE observations of mass change in the Yangtze region to hydrological changes computed from different global soil-moisture and snow models, such as GLDAS (Global Land Data Assimilation System).

Evidences of Seasonal Variation in Altimetry Derived Ocean Tides in the Subarctic Ocean

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hok Sum Fok

2013-01-01

Full Text Available While the barotropic ocean tides in the deep ocean are well modeled to ~2 cm RMS, accurate tidal prediction in the ice-covered polar oceans and near coastal regions remain elusive. A notable reason is that the most accurate satellite altimeters (TOPEX/Jason-1/-2, whose orbits are optimized to minimize the tidal aliasing effect, have spatial coverage limited to largely outside of the polar ocean. Here, we update the assessment of tidal models using 7 contemporary global and regional models, and show that the altimetry sea surface height (SSH anomaly residual after tidal correction is 9 - 12 cm RMS in the Subarctic Ocean. We then address the hypothesis whether plausible evidence of variable tidal signals exist in the seasonally ice-covered Subarctic Ocean, where the sea ice cover is undergoing rapid thinning. We first found a difference in variance reduction for multi-mission altimeter SSH anomaly residuals during the summer and winter seasons, with the residual during winter season 15 - 30% larger than that during the summer season. Experimental seasonal ocean tide solutions derived from satellite altimetry reveals that the recovered winter and summer tidal constituents generally differ by a few cm in amplitude and tens of degrees in phase. Relatively larger seasonal tidal patterns, in particular for M2, S2 and K1 tides, have been identified in the Chukchi Sea study region near eastern Siberia, coincident with the seasonal presence and movement of sea ice.

Combining Envisat and CryoSat-2 altimetry to inform hydrodynamic models

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schneider, Raphael; Nygaard Godiksen, Peter; Ridler, Marc-Etienne

2016-01-01

fitted to the CryoSat-2 data: In a first step, the average simulated water levels along the river were calibrated to the CryoSat-2 data by adapting the hydrodynamic cross section datums. Subsequently the simulated water level amplitudes were fitted to those obtained from Envisat virtual station time......Remote sensing provides valuable data for parameterization and updating of hydrological models, for example water level measurements of inland water bodies from satellite radar altimeters. Many studies have used satellite altimetry data from repeat-orbit missions such as Envisat, ERS or Jason...... on Sentinel-3. CryoSat-2 SARIn level 2 data is used to improve a 1D hydrodynamic model of the Brahmaputra river basin in South Asia set up in the DHI MIKE 11 software. CryoSat-2 water levels were extracted over river masks derived from Landsat imagery. After discharge calibration, simulated water levels were...

Mass-induced sea level variations in the Red Sea from steric-corrected altimetry, GRACE, in-situ bottom pressure records, and hydrographic observations

Science.gov (United States)

Feng, Wei; Lemoine, Jean-Michel; Zhong, Min; Xu, Houze

2014-05-01

An annual amplitude of ~18 cm mass-induced sea level variations (SLV) in the Red Sea is detected from steric-corrected altimetry and the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites from 2003 to 2011, which dominates the mean sea level in the region. Seawater mass variations here generally reach maximum in late January/early February. The steric component of SLV calculated from oceanographic temperature and salinity data is relatively small and peaks about seven months later than mass variations. The phase difference between the steric SLV and the mass-induced SLV indicates that when the Red Sea gains the mass from inflow water in winter, the steric SLV fall, and vice versa in summer. In-situ bottom pressure records in the eastern coast of the Red Sea validate the high mass variability observed by steric-corrected altimetry and GRACE. Furthermore, we compare the horizontal water mass flux in the Red Sea from steric-corrected altimetry and GRACE with that estimated from hydrographic observations.

Helmand river hydrologic studies using ALOS PALSAR InSAR and ENVISAT altimetry

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Zhong; Kim, J.-W.; Lee, H.; Shum, C.K.; Duan, J.; Ibaraki, M.; Akyilmaz, O.; Read, C.-H.

2009-01-01

The Helmand River wetland represents the only fresh-water resource in southern Afghanistan and one of the least mapped water basins in the world. The relatively narrow wetland consists of mostly marshes surrounded by dry lands. In this study, we demonstrate the use of the Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR) Interferometric SAR (InSAR) to detect the changes of the Helmand River wetland water level. InSAR images are combined with the geocentric water level measurements from the retracked high-rate (18-Hz) Environmental Satellite (Envisat) radar altimetry to construct absolute water level changes over the marshes. It is demonstrated that the integration of the altimeter and InSAR can provide spatio-temporal measurements of water level variation over the Helmand River marshes where in situ measurements are absent. ?? Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Global gravity field from recent satellites (DTU15) - Arctic improvements

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, O. B.; Knudsen, P.; Kenyon, S.

2017-01-01

Global marine gravity field modelling using satellite altimetry is currently undergoing huge improvement with the completion of the Jason-1 end-of-life geodetic mission, but particularly with the continuing Cryosat-2 mission. These new satellites provide three times as many geodetic mission...... altimetric sea surface height observations as ever before. The impact of these new geodetic mission data is a dramatic improvement of particularly the shorter wavelength of the gravity field (10-20 km) which is now being mapped at significantly higher accuracy. The quality of the altimetric gravity field...... is in many places surpassing the quality of gravity fields derived using non-commercial marine gravity observations. Cryosat-2 provides for the first time altimetry throughout the Arctic Ocean up to 88°N. Here, the huge improvement in marine gravity mapping is shown through comparison with high quality...

A new digital elevation model of Antarctica derived from CryoSat-2 altimetry

Science.gov (United States)

Slater, Thomas; Shepherd, Andrew; McMillan, Malcolm; Muir, Alan; Gilbert, Lin; Hogg, Anna E.; Konrad, Hannes; Parrinello, Tommaso

2018-05-01

We present a new digital elevation model (DEM) of the Antarctic ice sheet and ice shelves based on 2.5 × 108 observations recorded by the CryoSat-2 satellite radar altimeter between July 2010 and July 2016. The DEM is formed from spatio-temporal fits to elevation measurements accumulated within 1, 2, and 5 km grid cells, and is posted at the modal resolution of 1 km. Altogether, 94 % of the grounded ice sheet and 98 % of the floating ice shelves are observed, and the remaining grid cells north of 88° S are interpolated using ordinary kriging. The median and root mean square difference between the DEM and 2.3 × 107 airborne laser altimeter measurements acquired during NASA Operation IceBridge campaigns are -0.30 and 13.50 m, respectively. The DEM uncertainty rises in regions of high slope, especially where elevation measurements were acquired in low-resolution mode; taking this into account, we estimate the average accuracy to be 9.5 m - a value that is comparable to or better than that of other models derived from satellite radar and laser altimetry.

Coastal Sea Level along the North Eastern Atlantic Shelf from Delay Doppler Altimetry

Science.gov (United States)

Fenoglio-Marc, L.; Benveniste, J.; Andersen, O. B.; Gravelle, M.; Dinardo, S.; Uebbing, B.; Scharroo, R.; Kusche, J.; Kern, M.; Buchhaupt, C.

2017-12-01

Satellite altimetry data of the CryoSat-2 and Sentinel-3 missions processed with Delay Doppler methodology (DDA) provide improved coastal sea level measurements up to 2-4 km from coast, thanks to an along-track resolution of about 300m and a higher signal to noise ratio. We investigate the 10 Kilometre stripe along the North-Eastern Atlantic shelf from Lisbon to Bergen to detect the possible impacts in sea level change studies of this enhanced dataset. We consider SAR CryoSat-2 and Sentinel-3 altimetry products from the ESA GPOD processor and in-house reduced SAR altimetry (RDSAR) products. Improved processing includes in RDSAR the application of enhanced retrackers for the RDSAR waveform. Improved processing in SAR includes modification both in the generation of SAR waveforms, (as Hamming weighting window on the burst data prior to the azimuth FFT, zero-padding prior to the range FFT, doubling of the extension for the radar range swath) and in the SAMOSA2 retracker. Data cover the full lifetime of CryoSat-2 (6 years) and Sentinel-3 (1 year). Conventional altimetry are from the sea level CCI database. First we analyse the impact of these SAR altimeter data on the sea level trend and on the estimation of vertical motion from the altimeter minus tide gauge differences. VLM along the North-Eastern Atlantic shelf is generally small compared to the North-Western Atlantic Coast VLM, with a smaller signal to noise ratio. Second we investigate impact on the coastal mean sea level surface and the mean dynamic topography. We evaluate a mean surface from the new altimeter data to be combined to state of the art geoid models to derive the mean dynamic topography. We compare the results to existing oceanographic and geodetic mean dynamic topography solutions, both on grid and pointwise at the tide gauge stations. This study is supported by ESA through the Sea Level CCI and the GOCE++DYCOT projects

Satellite Remote Sensing of Snow Depth on Antarctic Sea Ice: An Inter-Comparison of Two Empirical Approaches

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stefan Kern

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Snow on Antarctic sea ice plays a key role for sea ice physical processes and complicates retrieval of sea ice thickness using altimetry. Current methods of snow depth retrieval are based on satellite microwave radiometry, which perform best for dry, homogeneous snow packs on level sea ice. We introduce an alternative approach based on in-situ measurements of total (sea ice plus snow freeboard and snow depth, which we use to compute snow depth on sea ice from Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat total freeboard observations. We compare ICESat snow depth for early winter and spring of the years 2004 through 2006 with the Advanced Scanning Microwave Radiometer aboard EOS (AMSR-E snow depth product. We find ICESat snow depths agree more closely with ship-based visual and air-borne snow radar observations than AMSR-E snow depths. We obtain average modal and mean ICESat snow depths, which exceed AMSR-E snow depths by 5–10 cm in winter and 10–15 cm in spring. We observe an increase in ICESat snow depth from winter to spring for most Antarctic regions in accordance with ground-based observations, in contrast to AMSR-E snow depths, which we find to stay constant or to decrease. We suggest satellite laser altimetry as an alternative method to derive snow depth on Antarctic sea ice, which is independent of snow physical properties.

Combining Envisat type and CryoSat-2 altimetry to inform hydrodynamic models

Science.gov (United States)

Schneider, Raphael; Nygaard Godiksen, Peter; Villadsen, Heidi; Madsen, Henrik; Bauer-Gottwein, Peter

2015-04-01

Hydrological models are developed and used for flood forecasting and water resources management. Such models rely on a variety of input and calibration data. In general, and especially in data scarce areas, remote sensing provides valuable data for the parameterization and updating of such models. Satellite radar altimeters provide water level measurements of inland water bodies. So far, many studies making use of satellite altimeters have been based on data from repeat-orbit missions such as Envisat, ERS or Jason or on synthetic wide-swath altimetry data as expected from the SWOT mission. This work represents one of the first hydrologic applications of altimetry data from a drifting orbit satellite mission, using data from CryoSat-2. We present an application where CryoSat-2 data is used to improve a hydrodynamic model of the Ganges and Brahmaputra river basins in South Asia set up in the DHI MIKE 11 software. The model's parameterization and forcing is mainly based on remote sensing data, for example the TRMM 3B42 precipitation product and the SRTM DEM for river and subcatchment delineation. CryoSat-2 water levels were extracted over a river mask derived from Landsat 7 and 8 imagery. After calibrating the hydrological-hydrodynamic model against observed discharge, simulated water levels were fitted to the CryoSat-2 data, with a focus on the Brahmaputra river in the Assam valley: The average simulated water level in the hydrodynamic model was fitted to the average water level along the river's course as observed by CryoSat-2 over the years 2011-2013 by adjusting the river bed elevation. In a second step, the cross section shapes were adjusted so that the simulated water level dynamics matched those obtained from Envisat virtual station time series. The discharge calibration resulted in Nash-Sutcliffe coefficients of 0.86 and 0.94 for the Ganges and Brahmaputra. Using the Landsat river mask, the CryoSat-2 water levels show consistency along the river and are in

Validation of Mean Absolute Sea Level of the North Atlantic obtained from Drifter, Altimetry and Wind Data

Science.gov (United States)

Maximenko, Nikolai A.

2003-01-01

Mean absolute sea level reflects the deviation of the Ocean surface from geoid due to the ocean currents and is an important characteristic of the dynamical state of the ocean. Values of its spatial variations (order of 1 m) are generally much smaller than deviations of the geoid shape from ellipsoid (order of 100 m) that makes the derivation of the absolute mean sea level a difficult task for gravity and satellite altimetry observations. Technique used by Niiler et al. for computation of the absolute mean sea level in the Kuroshio Extension was then developed into more general method and applied by Niiler et al. (2003b) to the global Ocean. The method is based on the consideration of balance of horizontal momentum.

Global ocean tides through assimilation of oceanographic and altimeter satellite data in a hydrodynamic model

Science.gov (United States)

Leprovost, Christian; Mazzega, P.; Vincent, P.

1991-01-01

Ocean tides must be considered in many scientific disciplines: astronomy, oceanography, geodesy, geophysics, meteorology, and space technologies. Progress in each of these disciplines leads to the need for greater knowledge and more precise predictions of the ocean tide contribution. This is particularly true of satellite altimetry. On one side, the present and future satellite altimetry missions provide and will supply new data that will contribute to the improvement of the present ocean tide solutions. On the other side, tidal corrections included in the Geophysical Data Records must be determined with the maximum possible accuracy. The valuable results obtained with satellite altimeter data thus far have not been penalized by the insufficiencies of the present ocean tide predictions included in the geophysical data records (GDR's) because the oceanic processes investigated have shorter wavelengths than the error field of the tidal predictions, so that the residual errors of the tidal corrections are absorbed in the empirical tilt and bias corrections of the satellite orbit. For future applications to large-scale oceanic phenomena, however, it will no longer be possible to ignore these insufficiencies.

Inter-annual Variations in Snow/Firn Density over the Greenland Ice Sheet by Combining GRACE gravimetry and Envisat Altimetry

Science.gov (United States)

Su, X.; Shum, C. K.; Guo, J.; Howat, I.; Jezek, K. C.; Luo, Z.; Zhou, Z.

2017-12-01

Satellite altimetry has been used to monitor elevation and volume change of polar ice sheets since the 1990s. In order to derive mass change from the measured volume change, different density assumptions are commonly used in the research community, which may cause discrepancies on accurately estimating ice sheets mass balance. In this study, we investigate the inter-annual anomalies of mass change from GRACE gravimetry and elevation change from Envisat altimetry during years 2003-2009, with the objective of determining inter-annual variations of snow/firn density over the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS). High positive correlations (0.6 or higher) between these two inter-annual anomalies at are found over 93% of the GrIS, which suggests that both techniques detect the same geophysical process at the inter-annual timescale. Interpreting the two anomalies in terms of near surface density variations, over 80% of the GrIS, the inter-annual variation in average density is between the densities of snow and pure ice. In particular, at the Summit of Central Greenland, we validate the satellite data estimated density with the in situ data available from 75 snow pits and 9 ice cores. This study provides constraints on the currently applied density assumptions for the GrIS.

A new digital elevation model of Antarctica derived from CryoSat-2 altimetry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

T. Slater

2018-05-01

Full Text Available We present a new digital elevation model (DEM of the Antarctic ice sheet and ice shelves based on 2.5 × 108 observations recorded by the CryoSat-2 satellite radar altimeter between July 2010 and July 2016. The DEM is formed from spatio-temporal fits to elevation measurements accumulated within 1, 2, and 5 km grid cells, and is posted at the modal resolution of 1 km. Altogether, 94 % of the grounded ice sheet and 98 % of the floating ice shelves are observed, and the remaining grid cells north of 88° S are interpolated using ordinary kriging. The median and root mean square difference between the DEM and 2.3 × 107 airborne laser altimeter measurements acquired during NASA Operation IceBridge campaigns are −0.30 and 13.50 m, respectively. The DEM uncertainty rises in regions of high slope, especially where elevation measurements were acquired in low-resolution mode; taking this into account, we estimate the average accuracy to be 9.5 m – a value that is comparable to or better than that of other models derived from satellite radar and laser altimetry.

Sentinel-3 SAR Altimetry over Coastal and Open Ocean: performance assessment and improved retrieval methods in the ESA SCOOP Project.

Science.gov (United States)

Benveniste, J.; Cotton, D.; Moreau, T.; Raynal, M.; Varona, E.; Cipollini, P.; Cancet, M.; Martin, F.; Fenoglio-Marc, L.; Naeije, M.; Fernandes, J.; Lazaro, C.; Restano, M.; Ambrózio, A.

2017-12-01

The ESA Sentinel-3 satellite, launched in February 2016 as a part of the Copernicus programme, is the second satellite to operate a SAR mode altimeter. The Sentinel 3 Synthetic Aperture Radar Altimeter (SRAL) is based on the heritage from Cryosat-2, but this time complemented by a Microwave Radiometer (MWR) to provide a wet troposphere correction, and operating at Ku and C-Bands to provide an accurate along-track ionospheric correction. The SRAL is operated in SAR mode over the whole ocean and promises increased performance w.r.t. conventional altimetry. SCOOP (SAR Altimetry Coastal & Open Ocean Performance) is a project funded under the ESA SEOM (Scientific Exploitation of Operational Missions) Programme Element, started in September 2015, to characterise the expected performance of Sentinel-3 SRAL SAR mode altimeter products, in the coastal zone and open-ocean, and then to develop and evaluate enhancements to the baseline processing scheme in terms of improvements to ocean measurements. There is also a work package to develop and evaluate an improved Wet Troposphere correction for Sentinel-3, based on the measurements from the on-board MWR, further enhanced mostly in the coastal and polar regions using third party data, and provide recommendations for use. In this presentation we present results from the SCOOP project that demonstrate the excellent performance of SRAL in terms of measurement precision, and we illustrate the development and testing of new processing approaches designed specifically to improve performance close to the coast. The SCOOP test data sets and relevant documentation are available to external researchers on application to the project team. At the end of the project recommendations for further developments and implementations will be provided through a scientific roadmap.

Application of TOPEX Altimetry for Solid Earth Deformation Studies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hyongki Lee

2008-01-01

Full Text Available This study demonstrates the use of satellite radar altimetry to detect solid Earth deformation signals such as Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA. Our study region covers moderately flat land surfaces seasonally covered by snow/ice/vegetation. The maximum solid Earth uplift of ~10 mm yr-1 is primarily due to the incomplete glacial isostatic rebound that occurs around Hudson Bay, North America. We use decadal (1992 - 2002 surface height measurements from TOPEX/POSEIDON radar altimetry to generate height changes time series for 12 selected locations in the study region. Due to the seasonally varying surface characteristics, we first perform radar waveform shape classification and have found that most of the waveforms are quasi-diffuse during winter/spring and specular during summer/fall. As a result, we used the NASA £]-retracker for the quasi-diffuse waveforms and the Offset Center of Gravity or the threshold retracker for the specular waveforms, to generate the surface height time series. The TOPEX height change time series exhibit coherent seasonal signals (higher amplitude during the winter and lower amplitude during the summer, and the estimated deformation rates agree qualitatively well with GPS vertical velocities, and with altimeter/tide gauge combined vertical velocities around the Great Lakes. The TOPEX observations also agree well with various GIA model predictions, especially with the ICE-5G (VM2 model with differences at 0.2 ¡_ 1.4 mm yr-1, indicating that TOPEX has indeed observed solid Earth deformation signals manifested as crustal uplift over the former Laurentide Ice Sheet region.

Coastal Sea Level and Estuary Tide Modeling in Bangladesh Using SAR, Radar and GNSS-R Altimetry

Science.gov (United States)

Jia, Y.; Shum, C. K.; Sun, J.; Li, D.; Shang, K.; Yi, Y.; Calmant, S.; Ballu, V.; Chu, P.; Johnson, J.; Park, J.; Bao, L.; Kuo, C. Y.; Wickert, J.

2017-12-01

Bangladesh, located at the confluence of three large rivers - Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna, is a low-lying country. It is prone to monsoonal flooding, potentially aggravated by more frequent and intensified cyclones resulting from anthropogenic climate change. Its coastal estuaries, the Sundarbans wetlands, have the largest Mangrove forest in the world, and exhibits complex tidal dynamics. In order to study flood hazards, ecological or climate changes over floodplains, it is fundamentally important to know the water level and water storage capacity in wetlands. Inaccurate or inadequate information about wetland water storage will cause significant errors in hydrological simulation and modeling for understanding ecological and economic implications. However, in most areas, the exact knowledge of water level change and the flow patterns is lacking due to insufficient monitoring of water level gauging stations on private and public lands within wetlands or floodplains, due to the difficulty of physical access to the sites and logistics in data gathering. Usage of satellite all-weather remote sensing products provides an alternative approach for monitoring the water level variation over floodplains or wetlands. In this study, we used a combination of observations from satellite radar altimetry (Envisat/Jason-2/Altika/Sentinel-3), L-band synthetic aperture radar (ALOS-1/-2) backscattering coefficients inferred water level, GNSS-R altimetry from two coastal/river GNSS sites, for measuring coastal and estuary sea-level and conducting estuary ocean tide modeling in the Bangladesh delta including the Sundarbans wetlands.

Gravity Anomalies and Estimated Topography Derived from Satellite Altimetry

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — In many areas of the global ocean, the depth of the seafloor is not well known because survey lines by ships are hundreds of kilometers apart. Satellites carrying...

Assessment of Systematic Errors in the Computation of Gravity Gradients from Satellite Altimeter Data

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Bouman, J.; Bosch, W.; Sebera, Josef

2011-01-01

Roč. 34, č. 2 (2011), s. 85-107 ISSN 0149-0419 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10030501 Keywords : satellite altimetry * gravity gradients * GOCE Subject RIV: BN - Astronomy, Celestial Mechanics, Astrophysics Impact factor: 1.329, year: 2011

SWEAT: Snow Water Equivalent with AlTimetry

Science.gov (United States)

Agten, Dries; Benninga, Harm-Jan; Diaz Schümmer, Carlos; Donnerer, Julia; Fischer, Georg; Henriksen, Marie; Hippert Ferrer, Alexandre; Jamali, Maryam; Marinaci, Stefano; Mould, Toby JD; Phelan, Liam; Rosker, Stephanie; Schrenker, Caroline; Schulze, Kerstin; Emanuel Telo Bordalo Monteiro, Jorge

2017-04-01

To study how the water cycle changes over time, satellite and airborne remote sensing missions are typically employed. Over the last 40 years of satellite missions, the measurement of true water inventories stored in sea and land ice within the cryosphere have been significantly hindered by uncertainties introduced by snow cover. Being able to determine the thickness of this snow cover would act to reduce such error, improving current estimations of hydrological and climate models, Earth's energy balance (albedo) calculations and flood predictions. Therefore, the target of the SWEAT (Snow Water Equivalent with AlTimetry) mission is to directly measure the surface Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) on sea and land ice within the polar regions above 60°and below -60° latitude. There are no other satellite missions currently capable of directly measuring SWE. In order to achieve this, the proposed mission will implement a novel combination of Ka- and Ku-band radioaltimeters (active microwave sensors), capable of penetrating into the snow microstructure. The Ka-band altimeter (λ ≈ 0.8 cm) provides a low maximum snow pack penetration depth of up to 20 cm for dry snow at 37 GHz, since the volume scattering of snow dominates over the scattering caused by the underlying ice surface. In contrast, the Ku-band altimeter (λ ≈ 2 cm) provides a high maximum snowpack penetration depth of up to 15 m in high latitudes regions with dry snow, as volume scattering is decreased by a factor of 55. The combined difference in Ka- and Ku-band signal penetration results will provide more accurate and direct determination of SWE. Therefore, the SWEAT mission aims to improve estimations of global SWE interpreted from passive microwave products, and improve the reliability of numerical snow and climate models.

Altimetry, gravimetry, GPS and viscoelastic modeling data for the joint inversion for glacial isostatic adjustment in Antarctica (ESA STSE Project REGINA)

Science.gov (United States)

Sasgen, Ingo; Martín-Español, Alba; Horvath, Alexander; Klemann, Volker; Petrie, Elizabeth J.; Wouters, Bert; Horwath, Martin; Pail, Roland; Bamber, Jonathan L.; Clarke, Peter J.; Konrad, Hannes; Wilson, Terry; Drinkwater, Mark R.

2018-03-01

The poorly known correction for the ongoing deformation of the solid Earth caused by glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) is a major uncertainty in determining the mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet from measurements of satellite gravimetry and to a lesser extent satellite altimetry. In the past decade, much progress has been made in consistently modeling ice sheet and solid Earth interactions; however, forward-modeling solutions of GIA in Antarctica remain uncertain due to the sparsity of constraints on the ice sheet evolution, as well as the Earth's rheological properties. An alternative approach towards estimating GIA is the joint inversion of multiple satellite data - namely, satellite gravimetry, satellite altimetry and GPS, which reflect, with different sensitivities, trends in recent glacial changes and GIA. Crucial to the success of this approach is the accuracy of the space-geodetic data sets. Here, we present reprocessed rates of surface-ice elevation change (Envisat/Ice, Cloud,and land Elevation Satellite, ICESat; 2003-2009), gravity field change (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, GRACE; 2003-2009) and bedrock uplift (GPS; 1995-2013). The data analysis is complemented by the forward modeling of viscoelastic response functions to disc load forcing, allowing us to relate GIA-induced surface displacements with gravity changes for different rheological parameters of the solid Earth. The data and modeling results presented here are available in the PANGAEA database (https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.875745). The data sets are the input streams for the joint inversion estimate of present-day ice-mass change and GIA, focusing on Antarctica. However, the methods, code and data provided in this paper can be used to solve other problems, such as volume balances of the Antarctic ice sheet, or can be applied to other geographical regions in the case of the viscoelastic response functions. This paper presents the first of two contributions summarizing the

Altimetry, gravimetry, GPS and viscoelastic modeling data for the joint inversion for glacial isostatic adjustment in Antarctica (ESA STSE Project REGINA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I. Sasgen

2018-03-01

Full Text Available The poorly known correction for the ongoing deformation of the solid Earth caused by glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA is a major uncertainty in determining the mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet from measurements of satellite gravimetry and to a lesser extent satellite altimetry. In the past decade, much progress has been made in consistently modeling ice sheet and solid Earth interactions; however, forward-modeling solutions of GIA in Antarctica remain uncertain due to the sparsity of constraints on the ice sheet evolution, as well as the Earth's rheological properties. An alternative approach towards estimating GIA is the joint inversion of multiple satellite data – namely, satellite gravimetry, satellite altimetry and GPS, which reflect, with different sensitivities, trends in recent glacial changes and GIA. Crucial to the success of this approach is the accuracy of the space-geodetic data sets. Here, we present reprocessed rates of surface-ice elevation change (Envisat/Ice, Cloud,and land Elevation Satellite, ICESat; 2003–2009, gravity field change (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, GRACE; 2003–2009 and bedrock uplift (GPS; 1995–2013. The data analysis is complemented by the forward modeling of viscoelastic response functions to disc load forcing, allowing us to relate GIA-induced surface displacements with gravity changes for different rheological parameters of the solid Earth. The data and modeling results presented here are available in the PANGAEA database (https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.875745. The data sets are the input streams for the joint inversion estimate of present-day ice-mass change and GIA, focusing on Antarctica. However, the methods, code and data provided in this paper can be used to solve other problems, such as volume balances of the Antarctic ice sheet, or can be applied to other geographical regions in the case of the viscoelastic response functions. This paper presents the first of two

Real-time remote sensing driven river basin modeling using radar altimetry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. J. Pereira-Cardenal

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Many river basins have a weak in-situ hydrometeorological monitoring infrastructure. However, water resources practitioners depend on reliable hydrological models for management purposes. Remote sensing (RS data have been recognized as an alternative to in-situ hydrometeorological data in remote and poorly monitored areas and are increasingly used to force, calibrate, and update hydrological models.

In this study, we evaluate the potential of informing a river basin model with real-time radar altimetry measurements over reservoirs. We present a lumped, conceptual, river basin water balance modeling approach based entirely on RS and reanalysis data: precipitation was obtained from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM Multisatellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA, temperature from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast's (ECMWF Operational Surface Analysis dataset and reference evapotranspiration was derived from temperature data. The Ensemble Kalman Filter was used to assimilate radar altimetry (ERS2 and Envisat measurements of reservoir water levels. The modeling approach was applied to the Syr Darya River Basin, a snowmelt-dominated basin with large topographical variability, several large reservoirs and scarce hydrometeorological data that is located in Central Asia and shared between 4 countries with conflicting water management interests.

The modeling approach was tested over a historical period for which in-situ reservoir water levels were available. Assimilation of radar altimetry data significantly improved the performance of the hydrological model. Without assimilation of radar altimetry data, model performance was limited, probably because of the size and complexity of the model domain, simplifications inherent in model design, and the uncertainty of RS and reanalysis data. Altimetry data assimilation reduced the mean absolute error of the simulated reservoir water levels from 4.7 to 1.9 m, and

Evolution of Altimetry Calibration and Future Challenges

Science.gov (United States)

Fu, Lee-Lueng; Haines, Bruce J.

2012-01-01

Over the past 20 years, altimetry calibration has evolved from an engineering-oriented exercise to a multidisciplinary endeavor driving the state of the art. This evolution has been spurred by the developing promise of altimetry to capture the large-scale, but small-amplitude, changes of the ocean surface containing the expression of climate change. The scope of altimeter calibration/validation programs has expanded commensurately. Early efforts focused on determining a constant range bias and verifying basic compliance of the data products with mission requirements. Contemporary investigations capture, with increasing accuracies, the spatial and temporal characteristics of errors in all elements of the measurement system. Dedicated calibration sites still provide the fundamental service of estimating absolute bias, but also enable long-term monitoring of the sea-surface height and constituent measurements. The use of a network of island and coastal tide gauges has provided the best perspective on the measurement stability, and revealed temporal variations of altimeter measurement system drift. The cross-calibration between successive missions provided fundamentally new information on the performance of altimetry systems. Spatially and temporally correlated errors pose challenges for future missions, underscoring the importance of cross-calibration of new measurements against the established record.

Utilizing a suite of satellite missions to address poorly constrained hydrological fluxes

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, A.; Behrangi, A.; Fisher, J.; Reager, J. T., II; Gardner, A. S.

2017-12-01

The amount of water stored in a given region (total water storage) changes in response to changes in the hydrologic balance (inputs minus outputs). Closing this balance is exceedingly difficult due to the sparsity of field observation, large uncertainties in satellite derived estimates and model limitation. Different regions have distinct reliability on different hydrological parameters. For example, at a higher latitude precipitation is more uncertain than evapotranspiration (ET) while at lower/middle latitude the opposite is true. This study explores alternative estimates of regional hydrological fluxes by integrating the total water storage estimated by the GRACE gravity fields, and improved estimates lake storage variation by Landsat based land-water classification and satellite altimetry based water height measurements. In particular, an alternative ET estimate is generated for the Aral Sea region by integrating multi-sensor remote sensing data. In an endorheic lake like the Aral Sea, its volumetric variations are predominately governed by changes in inflow, evaporation from the water body and precipitation on the lake. The Aral Sea water volume is estimated at a monthly time step by the combination of Landsat land-water classification and ocean radar altimetry (Jason 1 and Jason 2) observations using truncated pyramid method. Considering gauge based river runoff as a true observation and given the fact that there is less variability between multiple precipitation datasets (TRMM, GPCP, GPCC, and ERA), ET can be considered as a most uncertain parameter in this region. The estimated lake volume acts as a controlling factor to estimate ET as the residual of the changes in TWS minus inflow plus precipitation. The estimated ET is compared with the MODIS-based evaporation observations.

Reconciling ocean mass content change based on direct and inverse approaches by utilizing data from GRACE, altimetry and Swarm

Science.gov (United States)

Rietbroek, R.; Uebbing, B.; Lück, C.; Kusche, J.

2017-12-01

Ocean mass content (OMC) change due to the melting of the ice-sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, melting of glaciers and changes in terrestrial hydrology is a major contributor to present-day sea level rise. Since 2002, the GRACE satellite mission serves as a valuable tool for directly measuring the variations in OMC. As GRACE has almost reached the end of its lifetime, efforts are being made to utilize the Swarm mission for the recovery of low degree time-variable gravity fields to bridge a possible gap until the GRACE-FO mission and to fill up periods where GRACE data was not existent. To this end we compute Swarm monthly normal equations and spherical harmonics that are found competitive to other solutions. In addition to directly measuring the OMC, combination of GRACE gravity data with altimetry data in a global inversion approach allows to separate the total sea level change into individual mass-driven and steric contributions. However, published estimates of OMC from the direct and inverse methods differ not only depending on the time window, but also are influenced by numerous post-processing choices. Here, we will look into sources of such differences between direct and inverse approaches and evaluate the capabilities of Swarm to derive OMC. Deriving time series of OMC requires several processing steps; choosing a GRACE (and altimetry) product, data coverage, masks and filters to be applied in either spatial or spectral domain, corrections related to spatial leakage, GIA and geocenter motion. In this study, we compare and quantify the effects of the different processing choices of the direct and inverse methods. Our preliminary results point to the GIA correction as the major source of difference between the two approaches.

A Step Towards the Characterization of SAR Mode Altimetry to Inform Hydrodynamic Models

Science.gov (United States)

Fabry, Pierre; Bercher, Nicolas; Ambrozio, Americo; Restano, Marco; Benveniste, Jerome

2016-08-01

Inland water scenes are highly variable, both in space and time, which leads to a much broader range of radar signatures than ocean surfaces. This applies to both LRM and "SAR" mode (SARM) altimetry. Nevertheless the enhanced along-track resolution of SARM altimeters should help improve the accuracy and precision of inland water height measurements from satellite. The SHAPE project - Sentinel-3 Hydrologic Altimetry Processor prototypE - which is funded by ESA through the Scientific Exploitation of Operational Missions Programme Element (contract number 4000115205/15/I-BG) aims at preparing for the exploitation of Sentinel-3 data over the inland water domain. In order to define refine the L1B processor and the retrackers for alti-hydrology applications, we need to characterise the SARM Individual Echoes, Multi- Look Stacks as well as 20Hz waveforms over the inland water domain.This paper deals with the continuation of works presented in 2015 [Fabry et Bercher, Venice 2015b] [Fabry et Bercher, Frascati 2015a/c] where we introduced an automated technique to assess the water fraction within the Beam-Doppler limited footprint through its intersection area with a water mask. We hereby refine the utilisation of these water classes and run the classification on a wider dataset so as to improve the readout of the Range Integrated Power1 (RIP) parameters and the waveforms versus the Water Fraction.

AltiKa: a Ka-band Altimetry Payload and System for Operational Altimetry during the GMES Period

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jacques Verron

2006-03-01

Full Text Available This paper describes the Ka-band altimetry payload and system that has beenstudied for several years by CNES, ALCATEL SPACE and some science laboratories.Altimetry is one of the major elements of the ocean observing system to be madesustainable through the GEOSS (Global Earth Observation System of Systems and GMES(Global Monitoring of the Environment and Security programs. A short review of somemission objectives to be fulfilled in terms of mesoscale oceanography in the frame of theGEOSS and GMES programs is performed. To answer the corresponding requirements, theapproach consisting in a constellation of nadir altimeter is discussed. A coupled Ka-bandaltimeter-radiometer payload is then described; technical items are detailed to explain howthis payload shall meet the science and operational requirements, and expectedperformances are displayed. The current status of the payload development and flightperspectives are given.

PRETTY: Grazing altimetry measurements based on the interferometric method

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Høeg, Per; Fragner, Heinrich; Dielacher, Andreas

2017-01-01

The exploitation of signals stemming from global navigation systems for passive bistatic radar applications has beenproposed and implemented within numerous studies. The fact that such missions do not rely on high power amplifiersand that the need of high gain antennas with large geometrical...... dimensions can be avoided, makes them suitable forsmall satellite missions. Applications where a continuous high coverage is needed, as for example disaster warning,have the demand for a large number of satellites in orbit, which in turn requires small and relatively low cost satellites.The proposed PRETTY...... (Passive Reflectometry and Dosimetry) mission includes a demonstrator payload for passivereflectometry and scatterometry focusing on very low incidence angles whereby the direct and reflected signal will bereceived via the same antenna. The correlation of both signals will be done by a specific FPGA based...

Energetics of global ocean tides from Geosat altimetry

Science.gov (United States)

Cartwright, David E.; Ray, Richard D.

1991-01-01

The present paper focuses on resonance and energetics of the daily tides, especially in the southern ocean, the distribution of gravitational power input of daily and half-daily tides, and comparison with other estimates of global dissipation rates. The present global tidal maps, derived from Geosat altimetry, compare favorably with ground truth data at about the same rms level as the models of Schwiderski (1983), and are slightly better in lunar than in solar tides. Diurnal admittances clearly show Kelvin wave structure in the southern ocean and confirm the resonant mode of Platzman (1984) at 28.5 + or - 0.1 hr with an apparent Q of about 4. Driving energy is found to enter dominantly in the North Pacific for the daily tides and is strongly peaked in the tropical oceans for the half-daily tides. Global rates of working on all major tide constituents except S2 agree well with independent results from analyses of gravity through satellite tracking. Comparison at S2 is improved by allowing for the air tide in gravitational results but suggests deficiencies in all solar tide models.

Recent Arctic Sea Level Variations from Satellites

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Ole Baltazar; Piccioni, Gaia

2016-01-01

Sea level monitoring in the Arctic region has always been an extreme challenge for remote sensing, and in particular for satellite altimetry. Despite more than two decades of observations, altimetry is still limited in the inner Arctic Ocean. We have developed an updated version of the Danish...... Technical University's (DTU) Arctic Ocean altimetric sea level timeseries starting in 1993 and now extended up to 2015 with CryoSat-2 data. The time-series covers a total of 23 years, which allows higher accuracy in sea level trend determination. The record shows a sea level trend of 2.2 ± 1.1 mm....../y for the region between 66°N and 82°N. In particular, a local increase of 15 mm/y is found in correspondence to the Beaufort Gyre. An early estimate of the mean sea level trend budget closure in the Arctic for the period 2005–2015 was derived by using the Equivalent Water Heights obtained from GRACE Tellus...

Satellite-Based Sunshine Duration for Europe

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bodo Ahrens

2013-06-01

Full Text Available In this study, two different methods were applied to derive daily and monthly sunshine duration based on high-resolution satellite products provided by the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring using data from Meteosat Second Generation (MSG SEVIRI (Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager. The satellite products were either hourly cloud type or hourly surface incoming direct radiation. The satellite sunshine duration estimates were not found to be significantly different using the native 15-minute temporal resolution of SEVIRI. The satellite-based sunshine duration products give additional spatial information over the European continent compared with equivalent in situ-based products. An evaluation of the satellite sunshine duration by product intercomparison and against station measurements was carried out to determine their accuracy. The satellite data were found to be within ±1 h/day compared to high-quality Baseline Surface Radiation Network or surface synoptic observations (SYNOP station measurements. The satellite-based products differ more over the oceans than over land, mainly because of the treatment of fractional clouds in the cloud type-based sunshine duration product. This paper presents the methods used to derive the satellite sunshine duration products and the performance of the different retrievals. The main benefits and disadvantages compared to station-based products are also discussed.

Quantification of surface water volume changes in the Mackenzie Delta using satellite multi-mission data

Science.gov (United States)

Normandin, Cassandra; Frappart, Frédéric; Lubac, Bertrand; Bélanger, Simon; Marieu, Vincent; Blarel, Fabien; Robinet, Arthur; Guiastrennec-Faugas, Léa

2018-02-01

Quantification of surface water storage in extensive floodplains and their dynamics are crucial for a better understanding of global hydrological and biogeochemical cycles. In this study, we present estimates of both surface water extent and storage combining multi-mission remotely sensed observations and their temporal evolution over more than 15 years in the Mackenzie Delta. The Mackenzie Delta is located in the northwest of Canada and is the second largest delta in the Arctic Ocean. The delta is frozen from October to May and the recurrent ice break-up provokes an increase in the river's flows. Thus, this phenomenon causes intensive floods along the delta every year, with dramatic environmental impacts. In this study, the dynamics of surface water extent and volume are analysed from 2000 to 2015 by combining multi-satellite information from MODIS multispectral images at 500 m spatial resolution and river stages derived from ERS-2 (1995-2003), ENVISAT (2002-2010) and SARAL (since 2013) altimetry data. The surface water extent (permanent water and flooded area) peaked in June with an area of 9600 km2 (±200 km2) on average, representing approximately 70 % of the delta's total surface. Altimetry-based water levels exhibit annual amplitudes ranging from 4 m in the downstream part to more than 10 m in the upstream part of the Mackenzie Delta. A high overall correlation between the satellite-derived and in situ water heights (R > 0.84) is found for the three altimetry missions. Finally, using altimetry-based water levels and MODIS-derived surface water extents, maps of interpolated water heights over the surface water extents are produced. Results indicate a high variability of the water height magnitude that can reach 10 m compared to the lowest water height in the upstream part of the delta during the flood peak in June. Furthermore, the total surface water volume is estimated and shows an annual variation of approximately 8.5 km3 during the whole study period, with

Modes of ocean variability in the tropical Pacific as derived from GEOSAT altimetry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zou Jiansheng

1993-01-01

Satellite-derived (GEOSAT) sea surface height anomalies for the period November 1986 to August 1989 were investigated in order to extract the dominant modes of climate variability in the tropical Pacific. Four modes are identified by applying the POP technique. The first mode has a time scale of about 3 months and can be identified with the first baroclinic equatorial Kelvin wave mode. The second mode has a time scale of about six months and describes the semi-annual cycle in tropical Pacific sea level. Equatorial wave propagation is also crucial for this mode. The third mode is the annual cycle which is dominated by Ekman dynamics. Wave propagation or reflection are found to be unimportant. The fourth mode is associated with the El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon. The ENSO mode is found to be consistent with the 'delayed action oscillator' scenario. The results are substantiated by a companion analysis of the sea surface height variability simulated with an oceanic general circulation model (OGCM) forced by observed wind stresses for the period 1961 to 1989. The modal decomposition of the sea level variability is found to be similar to that derived from the GEOSAT data. The high consistency between the satellite and the model data indicates the high potential value of satellite altimetry for climate modeling and forecasting. (orig.)

Sentinel-3 SAR Altimetry Toolbox - Scientific Exploitation of Operational Missions (SEOM) Program Element

Science.gov (United States)

Benveniste, Jérôme; Lucas, Bruno; Dinardo, Salvatore

2014-05-01

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 pioneered by ERS-1, ERS-2, 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 Sentinel-3 series is planned for launch 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, the French Space Agency), 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 net

Stable reconstruction of Arctic sea level for the 1950-2010 period

OpenAIRE

Svendsen, Peter Limkilde; Andersen, Ole Baltazar; Nielsen, Allan Aasbjerg

2016-01-01

Reconstruction of historical Arctic sea level is generally difficult due to the limited coverage and quality of both tide gauge and altimetry data in the area. Here a strategy to achieve a stable and plausible reconstruction of Arctic sea level from 1950 to today is presented. This work is based on the combination of tide gauge records and a new 20-year reprocessed satellite altimetry derived sea level pattern. Hence the study is limited to the area covered by satellite altimetry (68ºN and 82...

A fiducial reference site for satellite altimetry in Crete, Greece

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mertikas, Stelios; Donlon, Craig; Mavrokordatos, Constantin

With the advent of diverse satellite altimeters and variant measuring techniques, it has become mature in the scientific community, that an absolute reference Cal/Val site is regularly maintained to define, monitor, control the responses of any altimetric system. This work sets the ground for the...

Evaluation of JGM 2 geopotential errors from geosat, TOPEX/poseidon and ERS-1 crossover altimetry

Science.gov (United States)

Wagner, C. A.; Klokocník, J.; Tai, C. K.

1995-08-01

World-ocean distribution of the crossover altimetry data from Geosat, TOPEX/Poseidon (T/P) and the ERS 1 missions have provided strong independent evidence that NASA's/CSR's JGM 2 geopotential model (70 x 70 in spherical harmonics) yields accurate radial ephemerides for these satellites. In testing the sea height crossover differences found from altimetry and JGM 2 orbits for these satellites, we have used the sea height differences themselves (of ascending minus descending passes averaged at each location over many exact repeat cycles) and the Lumped Latitude Coefficients (LLC) derived from them. For Geosat we find the geopotential-induced LLC errors (exclusive of non-gravitational and initial state discrepancies) mostly below 6 cm, for TOPEX the corresponding errors are usually below 2 cm, and for ERS 1 (35-day cycle) they are generally belo2 5 cm. In addition, we have found that these observations agree well overall with predictions of accuracy derived from the JGM 2 variance-covariance matrix; the corresponding projected LLC errors for Geosat, T/P, and ERS 1 are usually between 1 and 4 cm, 1 - 2 cm, and 1 - 4 cm, respectively (they depend on the filtering of long-periodic perturbations and on the order of the LLC). This agreement is especially impressive for ERS 1 since no data of any kind from this mission was used in forming JGM 2. The observed crossover differences for Geosat, T/P and ERS 1 are 8, 3, and 11 cm (rms), respectively. These observations also agree well with prediction of accuracy derived from the JGM 2 variance-covariance matrix; the corresponding projected crossover errors for Geosat and T/P are 8 cm and 2.3 cm, respectively. The precision of our mean difference observations is about 3 cm for Geosat (approx. 24,000 observations), 1.5 cm for T/P (approx. 6,000 observations) and 5 cm for ERS 1 (approx. 44,000 observations). Thus, these ``global'' independent data should provide a valuable new source for improving geopotential models. Our results

HY-2A satellite altimetric data evaluation in the Arctic ocean

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cheng, Yongcun; Andersen, Ole Baltazar

2014-01-01

in the Arctic Ocean. The results demonstrates that the HY-2 data shows higher standard variation and mean sea level than AltiKa and CryoSat-2 data during HY-2 cycle 49 (20130803 and 20130817) with more available sea level measurements than CryoSat-2 satellite altimetry. Moreover, consistent sea level variation...... is observed from AltiKa and CryoSat-2 monthly sea level time series....

Absolute water storages in the Congo River floodplains from integration of InSAR and satellite radar altimetry

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, H.; Yuan, T.; Jung, H. C.; Aierken, A.; Beighley, E.; Alsdorf, D. E.; Tshimanga, R.; Kim, D.

2017-12-01

Floodplains delay the transport of water, dissolved matter and sediments by storing water during flood peak seasons. Estimation of water storage over the floodplains is essential to understand the water balances in the fluvial systems and the role of floodplains in nutrient and sediment transport. However, spatio-temporal variations of water storages over floodplains are not well known due to their remoteness, vastness, and high temporal variability. In this study, we propose a new method to estimate absolute water storages over the floodplains by establishing relations between water depths (d) and water volumes (V) using 2-D water depth maps from the integration of Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) and altimetry measurements. We applied this method over the Congo River floodplains and modeled the d-V relation using a power function (note that d-V indicates relation between d and V, not d minus V), which revealed the cross-section geometry of the floodplains as a convex curve. Then, we combined this relation and Envisat altimetry measurements to construct time series of floodplain's absolute water storages from 2002 to 2011. Its mean annual amplitude over the floodplains ( 7,777 km2) is 3.860.59 km3 with peaks in December, which lags behind total water storage (TWS) changes from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and precipitation changes from Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) by about one month. The results also exhibit inter-annual variability, with maximum water volume to be 5.9 +- 0.72 km3 in the wet year of 2002 and minimum volume to be 2.01 +- 0.63 km3 in the dry year of 2005. The inter-annual variation of water storages can be explained by the changes of precipitation from TRMM.

Non-Stationary Internal Tides Observed with Satellite Altimetry

Science.gov (United States)

Ray, Richard D.; Zaron, E. D.

2011-01-01

Temporal variability of the internal tide is inferred from a 17-year combined record of Topex/Poseidon and Jason satellite altimeters. A global sampling of along-track sea-surface height wavenumber spectra finds that non-stationary variance is generally 25% or less of the average variance at wavenumbers characteristic of mode-l tidal internal waves. With some exceptions the non-stationary variance does not exceed 0.25 sq cm. The mode-2 signal, where detectable, contains a larger fraction of non-stationary variance, typically 50% or more. Temporal subsetting of the data reveals interannual variability barely significant compared with tidal estimation error from 3-year records. Comparison of summer vs. winter conditions shows only one region of noteworthy seasonal changes, the northern South China Sea. Implications for the anticipated SWOT altimeter mission are briefly discussed.

14 CFR 141.91 - Satellite bases.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Satellite bases. 141.91 Section 141.91... OTHER CERTIFICATED AGENCIES PILOT SCHOOLS Operating Rules § 141.91 Satellite bases. The holder of a... assistant chief instructor is designated for each satellite base, and that assistant chief instructor is...

An Altimetry-Derived Index of the Offshore Forcing on the "Pressure Point" of the West Florida Shelf: Anomalous Upwelling and Its Influence on Harmful Algal Blooms

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Y.; Weisberg, R. H.; Lenes, J. M.; Zheng, L.; Hubbard, K.; Walsh, J. J.

2017-12-01

Gulf of Mexico Loop Current (LC) interactions with the West Florida Shelf (WFS) slope play an important role in shelf ecology through the upwelling of new inorganic nutrients across the shelf break. This is particularly the case when the LC impinges upon the shelf slope in the southwest portion of the WFS near the Dry Tortugas. By contacting shallow water isobaths at this "pressure point" the LC forcing sets the entire shelf into motion. Characteristic patterns of LC interactions with the WFS and their occurrences are identified from altimetry data using unsupervised neural network, self-organizing map. The duration of the occurrences of such LC patterns is used as an indicator of offshore forcing of anomalous upwelling. Consistency is found between the altimetry-derived offshore forcing and the occurrence and severity of WFS coastal blooms of the toxic dinoflagellate, Karenia brevis: years without major blooms tend to have prolonged LC contact at the "pressure point," whereas years with major blooms tend not to have prolonged offshore forcing. Resetting the nutrient state of the shelf by the coastal ocean circulation in response to deep-ocean forcing demonstrates the importance of physical oceanography in shelf ecology. A satellite altimetry-derived seasonal predictor for major K. brevis blooms is also proposed.

Gravity model development for precise orbit computations for satellite altimetry

Science.gov (United States)

Marsh, James G.; Lerch, Francis, J.; Smith, David E.; Klosko, Steven M.; Pavlis, Erricos

1986-01-01

Two preliminary gravity models developed as a first step in reaching the TOPEX/Poseidon modeling goals are discussed. They were obtained by NASA-Goddard from an analysis of exclusively satellite tracking observations. With the new Preliminary Gravity Solution-T2 model, an improved global estimate of the field is achieved with an improved description of the geoid.

Monitoring Water Levels and Discharges Using Radar Altimetry in an Ungauged River Basin: The Case of the Ogooué

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sakaros Bogning

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Radar altimetry is now commonly used for the monitoring of water levels in large river basins. In this study, an altimetry-based network of virtual stations was defined in the quasi ungauged Ogooué river basin, located in Gabon, Central Africa, using data from seven altimetry missions (Jason-2 and 3, ERS-2, ENVISAT, Cryosat-2, SARAL, Sentinel-3A from 1995 to 2017. The performance of the five latter altimetry missions to retrieve water stages and discharges was assessed through comparisons against gauge station records. All missions exhibited a good agreement with gauge records, but the most recent missions showed an increase of data availability (only 6 virtual stations (VS with ERS-2 compared to 16 VS for ENVISAT and SARAL and accuracy (RMSE lower than 1.05, 0.48 and 0.33 and R² higher than 0.55, 0.83 and 0.91 for ERS-2, ENVISAT and SARAL respectively. The concept of VS is extended to the case of drifting orbits using the data from Cryosat-2 in several close locations. Good agreement was also found with the gauge station in Lambaréné (RMSE = 0.25 m and R2 = 0.96. Very good results were obtained using only one year and a half of Sentinel-3 data (RMSE < 0.41 m and R2 > 0.89. The combination of data from all the radar altimetry missions near Lamabréné resulted in a long-term (May 1995 to August 2017 and significantly improved water-level time series (R² = 0.96 and RMSE = 0.38 m. The increase in data sampling in the river basin leads to a better water level peak to peak characterization and hence to a more accurate annual discharge over the common observation period with only a 1.4 m3·s−1 difference (i.e., 0.03% between the altimetry-based and the in situ mean annual discharge.

Global Drought Monitoring and Forecasting based on Satellite Data and Land Surface Modeling

Science.gov (United States)

Sheffield, J.; Lobell, D. B.; Wood, E. F.

2010-12-01

Monitoring drought globally is challenging because of the lack of dense in-situ hydrologic data in many regions. In particular, soil moisture measurements are absent in many regions and in real time. This is especially problematic for developing regions such as Africa where water information is arguably most needed, but virtually non-existent on the ground. With the emergence of remote sensing estimates of all components of the water cycle there is now the potential to monitor the full terrestrial water cycle from space to give global coverage and provide the basis for drought monitoring. These estimates include microwave-infrared merged precipitation retrievals, evapotranspiration based on satellite radiation, temperature and vegetation data, gravity recovery measurements of changes in water storage, microwave based retrievals of soil moisture and altimetry based estimates of lake levels and river flows. However, many challenges remain in using these data, especially due to biases in individual satellite retrieved components, their incomplete sampling in time and space, and their failure to provide budget closure in concert. A potential way forward is to use modeling to provide a framework to merge these disparate sources of information to give physically consistent and spatially and temporally continuous estimates of the water cycle and drought. Here we present results from our experimental global water cycle monitor and its African drought monitor counterpart (http://hydrology.princeton.edu/monitor). The system relies heavily on satellite data to drive the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) land surface model to provide near real-time estimates of precipitation, evapotranspiraiton, soil moisture, snow pack and streamflow. Drought is defined in terms of anomalies of soil moisture and other hydrologic variables relative to a long-term (1950-2000) climatology. We present some examples of recent droughts and how they are identified by the system, including

Interannual Variations of Surface Currents and Transports in the Sicily Channel Derived From Coastal Altimetry

Science.gov (United States)

Jebri, Fatma; Zakardjian, Bruno; Birol, Florence; Bouffard, Jérôme; Jullion, Loïc.; Sammari, Cherif

2017-11-01

A 20 year coastal altimetry data set (X-TRACK) is used, for the first time, to gain insight into the long-term interannual variations of the surface circulation in the Sicily Channel. First, a spectral along with a time/space diagram analysis are applied to the monthly means. They reveal a regionally coherent current patterns from track to track with a marked interannual variability that is unequally shared between the Atlantic Tunisian Current and Atlantic Ionian Stream inflows in the Sicily Channel and the Bifurcation Tyrrhenian Current outflow northeast of Sicily. Second, an empirical altimetry-based transport-like technique is proposed to quantify volume budgets inside the closed boxes formed by the crossing of the altimetry tracks and coastlines over the study area. A set of hydrographic measurements is used to validate the method. The inferred altimetry transports give a well-balanced mean eastward Atlantic Waters baroclinic flow of 0.4 Sv and standard deviations of 0.2 Sv on a yearly basis throughout the Sicily Channel and toward the Ionian Sea, which is fairly coherent with those found in the literature. Furthermore, the analysis allows to quantify the intrusions of Atlantic Waters over the Tunisian Shelf (0.12 ± 0.1 Sv) and highlights two main modes of variability of the main surface waters path over the Sicily Channel through the Bifurcation Atlantic Tunisian Current and Atlantic Ionian Stream systems. Some physical mechanisms are finally discussed with regards to changes in the observed currents and transports.

First Vertical Land Movement Estimates on South Georgia Island: An Impact Study on Sea Level Change from Tide Gauge and Satellite Altimetry Measurements

Science.gov (United States)

Abraha, K. E.; Teferle, F. N.; Hunegnaw, A.; Woodworth, P. L.; Williams, S. D. P.; Hibbert, A.; Smalley, R., Jr.; Dalziel, I.; Lawver, L.

2017-12-01

KEP tide gauge which is ideally situated in a mid-ocean location for satellite altimetry calibration over the Southern Atlantic and Southern Oceans.

Sea level differences between Topex/Poseidon altimetry and tide gauges: observed trends and vertical land motions

Science.gov (United States)

Lombard, A.; Dominh, K.; Cazenave, A.; Calmant, S.; Cretaux, J.

2002-12-01

Nine year-long (1993-2001) sea level difference time series have been constructed by comparing sea level recorded by tide gauges and Topex/Poseidon altimetry. Although the primary goal of such an analysis is to define a sub network of good quality tide gauges for calibration of satellite altimetry systems, in particular Jason-1. The difference time series displaying large positive or negative trends may give evidence of vertical land motion at the tide gauge site. We have analyzed 98 tide gauge records from the UHSLC. Among them, 42 sites mainly located on open ocean islands, give very good agreement (better than 2 mm/year) with Topex/Poseidon-derived sea level trends. 22 other sites, mainly located along the continental coastlines of the Pacific Ocean, present sea level trends differing by more than 5 mm/year with Topex/Poseidon. Many of these sites are located in active tectonic areas (either in the vicinity of subduction zones or in active volcanic areas), where vertical land motions (either transient or long-term) are expected. For example, this is the case at Kushimoto, Ofunato, Kushiro (Japan), Kodiak Island and Yakutat (Alaska), La Libertad, Callao, Caldera (western south America), and Rabaul (western Pacific). When possible, we compare these observed trends in sea level differences with GPS and/or DORIS observations.

Using radar altimetry to update a large-scale hydrological model of the Brahmaputra river basin

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Finsen, F.; Milzow, Christian; Smith, R.

2014-01-01

Measurements of river and lake water levels from space-borne radar altimeters (past missions include ERS, Envisat, Jason, Topex) are useful for calibration and validation of large-scale hydrological models in poorly gauged river basins. Altimetry data availability over the downstream reaches...... of the Brahmaputra is excellent (17 high-quality virtual stations from ERS-2, 6 from Topex and 10 from Envisat are available for the Brahmaputra). In this study, altimetry data are used to update a large-scale Budyko-type hydrological model of the Brahmaputra river basin in real time. Altimetry measurements...... improved model performance considerably. The Nash-Sutcliffe model efficiency increased from 0.77 to 0.83. Real-time river basin modelling using radar altimetry has the potential to improve the predictive capability of large-scale hydrological models elsewhere on the planet....

An Enhanced MWR-Based Wet Tropospheric Correction for Sentinel-3: Inheritance from Past ESA Altimetry Missions

Science.gov (United States)

Lazaro, Clara; Fernandes, Joanna M.

2015-12-01

The GNSS-derived Path Delay (GPD) and the Data Combination (DComb) algorithms were developed by University of Porto (U.Porto), in the scope of different projects funded by ESA, to compute a continuous and improved wet tropospheric correction (WTC) for use in satellite altimetry. Both algorithms are mission independent and are based on a linear space-time objective analysis procedure that combines various wet path delay data sources. A new algorithm that gets the best of each aforementioned algorithm (GNSS-derived Path Delay Plus, GPD+) has been developed at U.Porto in the scope of SL_cci project, where the use of consistent and stable in time datasets is of major importance. The algorithm has been applied to the main eight altimetric missions (TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1, Jason-2, ERS-1, ERS-2, Envisat and CryoSat-2 and SARAL). Upcoming Sentinel-3 possesses a two-channel on-board radiometer similar to those that were deployed in ERS-1/2 and Envisat. Consequently, the fine-tuning of the GPD+ algorithm to these missions datasets shall enrich it, by increasing its capability to quickly deal with Sentinel-3 data. Foreseeing that the computation of an improved MWR-based WTC for use with Sentinel-3 data will be required, this study focuses on the results obtained for ERS-1/2 and Envisat missions, which are expected to give insight into the computation of this correction for the upcoming ESA altimetric mission. The various WTC corrections available for each mission (in general, the original correction derived from the on-board MWR, the model correction and the one derived from GPD+) are inter-compared either directly or using various sea level anomaly variance statistical analyses. Results show that the GPD+ algorithm is efficient in generating global and continuous datasets, corrected for land and ice contamination and spurious measurements of instrumental origin, with significant impacts on all ESA missions.

Validation of ERS-1 and high-resolution satellite gravity with in-situ shipborne gravity over the Indian offshore regions: Accuracies and implications to subsurface modeling

Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

Chatterjee, S.; Bhattacharyya, R.; Michael, L.; Krishna, K.S.; Majumdar, T.J.

Geoid and gravity anomalies derived from satellite altimetry are gradually gaining importance in marine geoscientific investigations. Keeping this in mind, we have validated ERS-1 (168 day repeat) altimeter data and very high-resolution free...

The Basic Radar Altimetry Toolbox for Sentinel 3 Users

Science.gov (United States)

Lucas, Bruno; Rosmorduc, Vinca; Niemeijer, Sander; Bronner, Emilie; Dinardo, Salvatore; Benveniste, Jérôme

2013-04-01

The Basic Radar Altimetry Toolbox (BRAT) is a collection of tools and tutorial documents designed to facilitate the processing of radar altimetry data. This project started in 2006 from the joint efforts of ESA (European Space Agency) and CNES (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales). The latest version of the software, 3.1, was released on March 2012. The tools enable users to interact with the most common altimetry data formats, being the most used way, the Graphical User Interface (BratGui). This GUI is a 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. The BratDisplay (graphic visualizer) can be launched from BratGui, or used as a stand-alone tool to visualize netCDF files - it is distributed with another ESA toolbox (GUT) as the visualizer. The most frequent uses of BRAT are teaching remote sensing, altimetry data reading (all missions from ERS-1 to Saral and soon Sentinel-3), quick data visualization/export and simple computation on the data fields. BRAT can be used for importing data and having a quick look at his contents, with several different types of plotting available. One can also use it to translate the data into other formats such as netCDF, ASCII text files, KML (Google Earth) and raster images (JPEG, PNG, etc.). Several kinds of computations can be done within BratGui involving combinations of data fields that the user can save for posterior reuse or using the already embedded formulas that include the standard oceanographic altimetry formulas (MSS, -SSH, MSLA, editing of spurious data, etc.). The documentation collection includes the standard user manual explaining all the ways to interact with the set of software tools but the most important item is the Radar Altimeter Tutorial, that contains a strong introduction to

Orbit-related sea level errors for TOPEX altimetry at seasonal to decadal timescales

Science.gov (United States)

Esselborn, Saskia; Rudenko, Sergei; Schöne, Tilo

2018-03-01

Interannual to decadal sea level trends are indicators of climate variability and change. A major source of global and regional sea level data is satellite radar altimetry, which relies on precise knowledge of the satellite's orbit. Here, we assess the error budget of the radial orbit component for the TOPEX/Poseidon mission for the period 1993 to 2004 from a set of different orbit solutions. The errors for seasonal, interannual (5-year), and decadal periods are estimated on global and regional scales based on radial orbit differences from three state-of-the-art orbit solutions provided by different research teams: the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), the Groupe de Recherche de Géodésie Spatiale (GRGS), and the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). The global mean sea level error related to orbit uncertainties is of the order of 1 mm (8 % of the global mean sea level variability) with negligible contributions on the annual and decadal timescales. In contrast, the orbit-related error of the interannual trend is 0.1 mm yr-1 (27 % of the corresponding sea level variability) and might hamper the estimation of an acceleration of the global mean sea level rise. For regional scales, the gridded orbit-related error is up to 11 mm, and for about half the ocean the orbit error accounts for at least 10 % of the observed sea level variability. The seasonal orbit error amounts to 10 % of the observed seasonal sea level signal in the Southern Ocean. At interannual and decadal timescales, the orbit-related trend uncertainties reach regionally more than 1 mm yr-1. The interannual trend errors account for 10 % of the observed sea level signal in the tropical Atlantic and the south-eastern Pacific. For decadal scales, the orbit-related trend errors are prominent in a several regions including the South Atlantic, western North Atlantic, central Pacific, South Australian Basin, and the Mediterranean Sea. Based on a set of test orbits calculated at GFZ, the sources of the

Orbit-related sea level errors for TOPEX altimetry at seasonal to decadal timescales

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. Esselborn

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Interannual to decadal sea level trends are indicators of climate variability and change. A major source of global and regional sea level data is satellite radar altimetry, which relies on precise knowledge of the satellite's orbit. Here, we assess the error budget of the radial orbit component for the TOPEX/Poseidon mission for the period 1993 to 2004 from a set of different orbit solutions. The errors for seasonal, interannual (5-year, and decadal periods are estimated on global and regional scales based on radial orbit differences from three state-of-the-art orbit solutions provided by different research teams: the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ, the Groupe de Recherche de Géodésie Spatiale (GRGS, and the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC. The global mean sea level error related to orbit uncertainties is of the order of 1 mm (8 % of the global mean sea level variability with negligible contributions on the annual and decadal timescales. In contrast, the orbit-related error of the interannual trend is 0.1 mm yr−1 (27 % of the corresponding sea level variability and might hamper the estimation of an acceleration of the global mean sea level rise. For regional scales, the gridded orbit-related error is up to 11 mm, and for about half the ocean the orbit error accounts for at least 10 % of the observed sea level variability. The seasonal orbit error amounts to 10 % of the observed seasonal sea level signal in the Southern Ocean. At interannual and decadal timescales, the orbit-related trend uncertainties reach regionally more than 1 mm yr−1. The interannual trend errors account for 10 % of the observed sea level signal in the tropical Atlantic and the south-eastern Pacific. For decadal scales, the orbit-related trend errors are prominent in a several regions including the South Atlantic, western North Atlantic, central Pacific, South Australian Basin, and the Mediterranean Sea. Based on a set of test

Global ocean tide mapping using TOPEX/Poseidon altimetry

Science.gov (United States)

Sanchez, Braulio V.; Cartwright, D. E.; Estes, R. H.; Williamson, R. G.; Colombo, O. L.

1991-01-01

The investigation's main goals are to produce accurate tidal maps of the main diurnal, semidiurnal, and long-period tidal components in the world's deep oceans. This will be done by the application of statistical estimation techniques to long time series of altimeter data provided by the TOPEX/POSEIDON mission, with additional information provided by satellite tracking data. In the prelaunch phase, we will use in our simulations and preliminary work data supplied by previous oceanographic missions, such as Seasat and Geosat. These results will be of scientific interest in themselves. The investigation will also be concerned with the estimation of new values, and their uncertainties, for tidal currents and for the physical parameters appearing in the Laplace tidal equations, such as bottom friction coefficients and eddy viscosity coefficients. This will be done by incorporating the altimetry-derived charts of vertical tides as boundary conditions in the integration of those equations. The methodology of the tidal representation will include the use of appropriate series expansions such as ocean-basin normal modes and spherical harmonics. The results of the investigation will be space-determined tidal models of coverage and accuracy superior to that of the present numerical models of the ocean tides, with the concomitant benefits to oceanography and associated disciplinary fields.

Using GPS RO L1 data for calibration of the atmospheric path delay model for data reduction of the satellite altimetery observations.

Science.gov (United States)

Petrov, L.

2017-12-01

Processing satellite altimetry data requires the computation of path delayin the neutral atmosphere that is used for correcting ranges. The path delayis computed using numerical weather models and the accuracy of its computationdepends on the accuracy of numerical weather models. Accuracy of numerical modelsof numerical weather models over Antarctica and Greenland where there is a very sparse network of ground stations, is not well known. I used the dataset of GPS RO L1 data, computed predicted path delay for ROobservations using the numerical whether model GEOS-FPIT, formed the differences with observed path delay and used these differences for computationof the corrections to the a priori refractivity profile. These profiles wereused for computing corrections to the a priori zenith path delay. The systematic patter of these corrections are used for de-biasing of the the satellite altimetry results and for characterization of the systematic errorscaused by mismodeling atmosphere.

The BRAT and GUT Couple: Broadview Radar Altimetry and GOCE User Toolboxes

Science.gov (United States)

Benveniste, J.; Restano, M.; Ambrózio, A.

2017-12-01

The Broadview Radar Altimetry Toolbox (BRAT) is a collection of tools designed to facilitate the processing of radar altimetry data from previous and current altimetry missions, including Sentinel-3A L1 and L2 products. A tutorial is included providing plenty of use cases. BRAT's next release (4.2.0) is planned for October 2017. Based on the community feedback, the front-end has been further improved and simplified whereas the capability to use BRAT in conjunction with MATLAB/IDL or C/C++/Python/Fortran, allowing users to obtain desired data bypassing the data-formatting hassle, remains unchanged. Several kinds of computations can be done within BRAT involving the combination of data fields, that can be saved for future uses, either by using embedded formulas including those from oceanographic altimetry, or by implementing ad-hoc Python modules created by users to meet their needs. BRAT can also be used to quickly visualise data, or to translate data into other formats, e.g. from NetCDF to raster images. The GOCE User Toolbox (GUT) is a compilation of tools for the use and the analysis of GOCE gravity field models. It facilitates using, viewing and post-processing GOCE L2 data and allows gravity field data, in conjunction and consistently with any other auxiliary data set, to be pre-processed by beginners in gravity field processing, for oceanographic and hydrologic as well as for solid earth applications at both regional and global scales. Hence, GUT facilitates the extensive use of data acquired during GRACE and GOCE missions. In the current 3.1 version, GUT has been outfitted with a graphical user interface allowing users to visually program data processing workflows. Further enhancements aiming at facilitating the use of gradients, the anisotropic diffusive filtering, and the computation of Bouguer and isostatic gravity anomalies have been introduced. Packaged with GUT is also GUT's Variance-Covariance Matrix tool (VCM). BRAT and GUT toolboxes can be freely

Reconfigurable Computing As an Enabling Technology for Single-Photon-Counting Laser Altimetry

Science.gov (United States)

Powell, Wesley; Hicks, Edward; Pinchinat, Maxime; Dabney, Philip; McGarry, Jan; Murray, Paul

2003-01-01

Single-photon-counting laser altimetry is a new measurement technique offering significant advantages in vertical resolution, reducing instrument size, mass, and power, and reducing laser complexity as compared to analog or threshold detection laser altimetry techniques. However, these improvements come at the cost of a dramatically increased requirement for onboard real-time data processing. Reconfigurable computing has been shown to offer considerable performance advantages in performing this processing. These advantages have been demonstrated on the Multi-KiloHertz Micro-Laser Altimeter (MMLA), an aircraft based single-photon-counting laser altimeter developed by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center with several potential spaceflight applications. This paper describes how reconfigurable computing technology was employed to perform MMLA data processing in real-time under realistic operating constraints, along with the results observed. This paper also expands on these prior results to identify concepts for using reconfigurable computing to enable spaceflight single-photon-counting laser altimeter instruments.

Long-term and seasonal Caspian Sea level change from satellite gravity and altimeter measurements

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, J. L.; Wilson, C. R.; Tapley, B. D.; Save, H.; Cretaux, Jean-Francois

2017-03-01

We examine recent Caspian Sea level change by using both satellite radar altimetry and satellite gravity data. The altimetry record for 2002-2015 shows a declining level at a rate that is approximately 20 times greater than the rate of global sea level rise. Seasonal fluctuations are also much larger than in the world oceans. With a clearly defined geographic region and dominant signal magnitude, variations in the sea level and associated mass changes provide an excellent way to compare various approaches for processing satellite gravity data. An altimeter time series derived from several successive satellite missions is compared with mass measurements inferred from Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data in the form of both spherical harmonic (SH) and mass concentration (mascon) solutions. After correcting for spatial leakage in GRACE SH estimates by constrained forward modeling and accounting for steric and terrestrial water processes, GRACE and altimeter observations are in complete agreement at seasonal and longer time scales, including linear trends. This demonstrates that removal of spatial leakage error in GRACE SH estimates is both possible and critical to improving their accuracy and spatial resolution. Excellent agreement between GRACE and altimeter estimates also provides confirmation of steric Caspian Sea level change estimates. GRACE mascon estimates (both the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) coastline resolution improvement version 2 solution and the Center for Space Research (CSR) regularized) are also affected by leakage error. After leakage corrections, both JPL and CSR mascon solutions also agree well with altimeter observations. However, accurate quantification of leakage bias in GRACE mascon solutions is a more challenging problem.

Bathymetry and composition of Titan's Ontario Lacus derived from Monte Carlo-based waveform inversion of Cassini RADAR altimetry data

Science.gov (United States)

Mastrogiuseppe, M.; Hayes, A. G.; Poggiali, V.; Lunine, J. I.; Lorenz, R. D.; Seu, R.; Le Gall, A.; Notarnicola, C.; Mitchell, K. L.; Malaska, M.; Birch, S. P. D.

2018-01-01

Recently, the Cassini RADAR was used to sound hydrocarbon lakes and seas on Saturn's moon Titan. Since the initial discovery of echoes from the seabed of Ligeia Mare, the second largest liquid body on Titan, a dedicated radar processing chain has been developed to retrieve liquid depth and microwave absorptivity information from RADAR altimetry of Titan's lakes and seas. Herein, we apply this processing chain to altimetry data acquired over southern Ontario Lacus during Titan fly-by T49 in December 2008. The new signal processing chain adopts super resolution techniques and dedicated taper functions to reveal the presence of reflection from Ontario's lakebed. Unfortunately, the extracted waveforms from T49 are often distorted due to signal saturation, owing to the extraordinarily strong specular reflections from the smooth lake surface. This distortion is a function of the saturation level and can introduce artifacts, such as signal precursors, which complicate data interpretation. We use a radar altimetry simulator to retrieve information from the saturated bursts and determine the liquid depth and loss tangent of Ontario Lacus. Received waveforms are represented using a two-layer model, where Cassini raw radar data are simulated in order to reproduce the effects of receiver saturation. A Monte Carlo based approach along with a simulated waveform look-up table is used to retrieve parameters that are given as inputs to a parametric model which constrains radio absorption of Ontario Lacus and retrieves information about the dielectric properties of the liquid. We retrieve a maximum depth of 50 m along the radar transect and a best-fit specific attenuation of the liquid equal to 0.2 ± 0.09 dB m-1 that, when converted into loss tangent, gives tanδ = 7 ± 3 × 10-5. When combined with laboratory measured cryogenic liquid alkane dielectric properties and the variable solubility of nitrogen in ethane-methane mixtures, the best-fit loss tangent is consistent with a

Satellite altimetry and GRACE gravimetry for studies of annual water storage variations in Bangladesh

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Ole Baltazar; Berry, P.; Freeman, J.

2008-01-01

Four different data sources have been compared with respect to observations of the annual water storage variations in the region of Bangladesh. Data from satellite altimeters and river gauges estimates the variation in surface water storage in the major rivers of Bangladesh. The GRACE satellites ...

Evaluating Greenland glacial isostatic adjustment corrections using GRACE, altimetry and surface mass balance data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sutterley, Tyler C; Velicogna, Isabella; Csatho, Beata; Rezvan-Behbahani, Soroush; Babonis, Greg; Van den Broeke, Michiel

2014-01-01

Glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) represents a source of uncertainty for ice sheet mass balance estimates from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) time-variable gravity measurements. We evaluate Greenland GIA corrections from Simpson et al (2009 Quat. Sci. Rev. 28 1631–57), A et al (2013 Geophys. J. Int. 192 557–72) and Wu et al (2010 Nature Geosci. 3 642–6) by comparing the spatial patterns of GRACE-derived ice mass trends calculated using the three corrections with volume changes from ICESat (Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite) and OIB (Operation IceBridge) altimetry missions, and surface mass balance products from the Regional Atmospheric Climate Model (RACMO). During the period September 2003–August 2011, GRACE ice mass changes obtained using the Simpson et al (2009 Quat. Sci. Rev. 28 1631–57) and A et al (2013 Geophys. J. Int. 192 557–72) GIA corrections yield similar spatial patterns and amplitudes, and are consistent with altimetry observations and surface mass balance data. The two GRACE estimates agree within 2% on average over the entire ice sheet, and better than 15% in four subdivisions of Greenland. The third GRACE estimate corrected using the (Wu et al 2010 Nature Geosci. 3 642–6)) GIA shows similar spatial patterns, but produces an average ice mass loss for the entire ice sheet that is 64 − 67 Gt yr −1 smaller. In the Northeast the recovered ice mass change is 46–49 Gt yr −1 (245–270%) more positive than that deduced from the other two corrections. By comparing the spatial and temporal variability of the GRACE estimates with trends of volume changes from altimetry and surface mass balance from RACMO, we show that the Wu et al (2010 Nature Geosci. 3 642–6) correction leads to a large mass increase in the Northeast that is inconsistent with independent observations. (paper)

Improving the Coastal Marine Gravity from CryoSat-2 Altimetry

Science.gov (United States)

Abulaitijiang, A.; Andersen, O. B.; Knudsen, P.

2017-12-01

The 7 years of CryoSat-2 satellite altimetry data can be potentially used to extract the high frequency components of the Earth gravity field beyond the Global Geopotential Models (GGMs) which corresponds to a resolution of 9.2 Km at the degree 2160. The Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) mode of the CryoSat-2 produced high precision along track observations and pushed the limits (qualified observations) to even closer to the coast by several kilometers. The conventional FFT method in deriving the marine gravity anomalies requires the input height anomalies to be gridded, and gridding in the irregular coastal zones (land-ocean transition zone) could introduce high frequency noise to the inversion. Therefore, Least Square Collocation (LSC) is preferred for the inversion. As part of a phd project, in this work, we will make use of the covariance function of the height anomalies in the coastal zones to derive the marine gravity anomalies. Using the conventional remove-compute-restore (only considering the GGMs) technique, the theoretical assumption of homogeneity and isotropy in the LSC algorithm is not always satisfied in the coastal regions and mountainous regions. Hence, the Topographic Correction (TC) using high resolution topographic grids is a critical step in the reduction of the gravity functionals (e.g., height anomaly and gravity anomaly), to comply with the theoretical assumption of LSC. In this work, the TC computation (both w.r.t. the height anomalies and gravity) will be conducted to test the performance of the signal reduction in several regions (patches) around Mediterranean, Chile, islands of Indonesia and Australian coast where the true gravity data is available. The derived marine gravity will be cross-validated against the ship-borne gravity observations. Earlier studies show that due to the presence of additional altimetry observations, 4 mGal accuracy can be achieved in the Greenland fjords, and equally good accuracy is expected from this work.

Estimates of vertical land motion along the southwestern coasts of Turkey from coastal altimetry and tide gauge data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Yildiz, Hasan; Andersen, Ole Baltazar; Simav, Mehmet

2013-01-01

The differences between coastal altimetry and sea level time series of tide gauges in between March 1993 and December 2009 are used to estimate the rates of vertical land motion at three tide gauge locations along the southwestern coasts of Turkey. The CTOH/LEGOS along-track coastal altimetry...... retrieves altimetric sea level anomalies closer to the coast than the standard along-track altimetry products. However, the use of altimetry very close to the coast is not found to improve the results. On the contrary, the gridded and interpolated AVISO merged product exhibits the best agreement with tide...... the Aegean Sea) shows no significant vertical land motion. The results are compared and assessed with three independent geophysical vertical land motion estimates like from GPS. The GIA effect in the region is negligible. The VLM estimates from altimetry and tide gauge data are in good agreement both...

Description and assessment of regional sea-level trends and variability from altimetry and tide gauges at the northern Australian coast

Science.gov (United States)

Gharineiat, Zahra; Deng, Xiaoli

2018-05-01

This paper aims at providing a descriptive view of the low-frequency sea-level changes around the northern Australian coastline. Twenty years of sea-level observations from multi-mission satellite altimetry and tide gauges are used to characterize sea-level trends and inter-annual variability over the study region. The results show that the interannual sea-level fingerprint in the northern Australian coastline is closely related to El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) events, with the greatest influence on the Gulf Carpentaria, Arafura Sea, and the Timor Sea. The basin average of 14 tide-gauge time series is in strong agreement with the basin average of the altimeter data, with a root mean square difference of 18 mm and a correlation coefficient of 0.95. The rate of the sea-level trend over the altimetry period (6.3 ± 1.4 mm/yr) estimated from tide gauges is slightly higher than that (6.1 ± 1.3 mm/yr) from altimetry in the time interval 1993-2013, which can vary with the length of the time interval. Here we provide new insights into examining the significance of sea-level trends by applying the non-parametric Mann-Kendall test. This test is applied to assess if the trends are significant (upward or downward). Apart from a positive rate of sea-level trends are not statistically significant in this region due to the effects of natural variability. The findings suggest that altimetric trends are not significant along the coasts and some parts of the Gulf Carpentaria (14°S-8°S), where geophysical corrections (e.g., ocean tides) cannot be estimated accurately and altimeter measurements are contaminated by reflections from the land.

Global surveys of reservoirs and lakes from satellites and regional application to the Syrdarya river basin

Science.gov (United States)

Jean-François, Crétaux; Sylvain, Biancamaria; Adalbert, Arsen; Muriel, Bergé-Nguyen; Mélanie, Becker

2015-01-01

Large reservoirs along rivers regulate downstream flows to generate hydropower but may also store water for irrigation and urban sectors. Reservoir management therefore becomes critical, particularly for transboundary basins, where coordination between riparian countries is needed. Reservoir management is even more important in semiarid regions where downstream water users may be totally reliant on upstream reservoir releases. If the water resources are shared between upstream and downstream countries, potentially opposite interests arise as is the case in the Syrdarya river in Central Asia. In this case study, remote sensing data (radar altimetry and optical imagery) are used to highlight the potential of satellite data to monitor water resources: water height, areal extent and storage variations. New results from 20 years of monitoring using satellites over the Syrdarya basin are presented. The accuracy of satellite data is 0.6 km3 using a combination of MODIS data and satellite altimetry, and only 0.2 km3 with Landsat images representing 2-4% of average annual reservoir volume variations in the reservoirs in the Syrdarya basin. With future missions such as Sentinel-3A (S3A), Sentinel-3B (S3B) and surface water and ocean topography (SWOT), significant improvement is expected. The SWOT mission’s main payload (a radar interferometer in Ka band) will furthermore provide 2D maps of water height, reservoirs, lakes, rivers and floodplains, with a temporal resolution of 21 days. At the global scale, the SWOT mission will cover reservoirs with areal extents greater than 250 × 250 m with 20 cm accuracy.

Global surveys of reservoirs and lakes from satellites and regional application to the Syrdarya river basin

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jean-François, Crétaux; Adalbert, Arsen; Muriel, Bergé-Nguyen; Sylvain, Biancamaria; Mélanie, Becker

2015-01-01

Large reservoirs along rivers regulate downstream flows to generate hydropower but may also store water for irrigation and urban sectors. Reservoir management therefore becomes critical, particularly for transboundary basins, where coordination between riparian countries is needed. Reservoir management is even more important in semiarid regions where downstream water users may be totally reliant on upstream reservoir releases. If the water resources are shared between upstream and downstream countries, potentially opposite interests arise as is the case in the Syrdarya river in Central Asia. In this case study, remote sensing data (radar altimetry and optical imagery) are used to highlight the potential of satellite data to monitor water resources: water height, areal extent and storage variations. New results from 20 years of monitoring using satellites over the Syrdarya basin are presented. The accuracy of satellite data is 0.6 km 3 using a combination of MODIS data and satellite altimetry, and only 0.2 km 3 with Landsat images representing 2–4% of average annual reservoir volume variations in the reservoirs in the Syrdarya basin. With future missions such as Sentinel-3A (S3A), Sentinel-3B (S3B) and surface water and ocean topography (SWOT), significant improvement is expected. The SWOT mission’s main payload (a radar interferometer in Ka band) will furthermore provide 2D maps of water height, reservoirs, lakes, rivers and floodplains, with a temporal resolution of 21 days. At the global scale, the SWOT mission will cover reservoirs with areal extents greater than 250  ×  250 m with 20 cm accuracy. (letter)

Greenland Ice sheet mass balance from satellite and airborne altimetry

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Khan, Shfaqat Abbas; Bevis, M. G.; Wahr, J. M.

Ice loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) is dominated by loss in the marginal areas. Dynamic induced ice loss and its associated ice surface lowering is often largest close to the glacier calving front and may vary from rates of tens of meters per years to a few meters per year over relatively...... short distances. Hence, high spatial resolution data are required to accurately estimate volume changes. Here, we estimate ice volume change rate of the Greenland ice sheet using data from Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) laser altimeter during 2003-2009 and CryoSat-2 data during 2010...

Improvement of Global and Regional Mean Sea Level Trends Derived from all Altimetry Missions.

Science.gov (United States)

Ablain, Michael; Benveniste, Jérôme; Faugere, Yannice; Larnicol, Gilles; Cazenave, Anny; Johannessen, Johnny A.; Stammer, Detlef; Timms, Gary

2012-07-01

The global mean sea level (GMSL) has been calculated on a continual basis since January 1993 using data from satellite altimetry missions. The global mean sea level (MSL) deduced from TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1 and Jason-2 is increasing with a global trend of 3.2 mm from 1993 to 2010 applying the post glacial rebound (MSL Aviso website http://www.jason.oceanobs.com/msl). Besides, the regional sea level trends bring out an inhomogeneous repartition of the ocean elevation with local MSL slopes ranging from +/- 8 mm/year. A study published in 2009 [Ablain et al., 2009] has shown that the global MSL trend uncertainty was estimated at +/-0.6 mm/year with a confidence interval of 90%. The main sources of errors at global and regional scales are due to the orbit calculation and the wet troposphere correction. But others sea-level components have also a significant impact on the long-term stability of MSL as for instance the stability of instrumental parameters and the atmospheric corrections. Thanks to recent studies performed in Sea Level Essential Climate Variable Project in the frame of the Climate Change Initiative, an ESA Programme, in addition to activities performed within the SALP/CNES, strong improvements have been provided for the estimation of the global and regional MSL trends. In this paper, we propose to describe them; they concern the orbit calculation thanks to new gravity fields, the atmospheric corrections thanks to ERA-interim reanalyses, the wet troposphere corrections thanks to the stability improvement, and also empirical corrections allowing us to link regional time series together better. These improvements are described at global and regional scale for all the altimetry missions.

Airborne laser altimetry survey of Glaciar Tyndall, Patagonia

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Keller, K.; Casassa, G.; Rivera, A.

2007-01-01

The first airborne laser altimetry measurements of a glacier in South America are presented. Data were collected in November of 2001 over Glaciar Tyndall, Torres del Paine National Park, Chilean Patagonia, onboard a Twin Otter airplane of the Chilean Air Force. A laser scanner with a rotating...

ESA BRAT (Broadview Radar Altimetry Toolbox) and GUT (GOCE User Toolbox) toolboxes

Science.gov (United States)

Benveniste, J.; Ambrozio, A.; Restano, M.

2016-12-01

The Broadview Radar Altimetry Toolbox (BRAT) is a collection of tools designed to facilitate the processing of radar altimetry data from previous and current altimetry missions, including the upcoming Sentinel-3A L1 and L2 products. A tutorial is included providing plenty of use cases. BRAT's future release (4.0.0) is planned for September 2016. Based on the community feedback, the frontend has been further improved and simplified whereas the capability to use BRAT in conjunction with MATLAB/IDL or C/C++/Python/Fortran, allowing users to obtain desired data bypassing the data-formatting hassle, remains unchanged. Several kinds of computations can be done within BRAT involving the combination of data fields, that can be saved for future uses, either by using embedded formulas including those from oceanographic altimetry, or by implementing ad-hoc Python modules created by users to meet their needs. BRAT can also be used to quickly visualise data, or to translate data into other formats, e.g. from NetCDF to raster images. The GOCE User Toolbox (GUT) is a compilation of tools for the use and the analysis of GOCE gravity field models. It facilitates using, viewing and post-processing GOCE L2 data and allows gravity field data, in conjunction and consistently with any other auxiliary data set, to be pre-processed by beginners in gravity field processing, for oceanographic and hydrologic as well as for solid earth applications at both regional and global scales. Hence, GUT facilitates the extensive use of data acquired during GRACE and GOCE missions. In the current 3.0 version, GUT has been outfitted with a graphical user interface allowing users to visually program data processing workflows. Further enhancements aiming at facilitating the use of gradients, the anisotropic diffusive filtering, and the computation of Bouguer and isostatic gravity anomalies have been introduced. Packaged with GUT is also GUT's VCM (Variance-Covariance Matrix) tool for analysing GOCE

Data assimilation of surface altimetry on the North-Easter Ice Stream using the Ice Sheet System Model (ISSM)

Science.gov (United States)

Larour, Eric; Utke, Jean; Morlighem, Mathieu; Seroussi, Helene; Csatho, Beata; Schenk, Anton; Rignot, Eric; Khazendar, Ala

2014-05-01

Extensive surface altimetry data has been collected on polar ice sheets over the past decades, following missions such as Envisat and IceSat. This data record will further increase in size with the new CryoSat mission, the ongoing Operation IceBridge Mission and the soon to launch IceSat-2 mission. In order to make the best use of these dataset, ice flow models need to improve on the way they ingest surface altimetry to infer: 1) parameterizations of poorly known physical processes such as basal friction; 2) boundary conditions such as Surface Mass Balance (SMB). Ad-hoc sensitivity studies and adjoint-based inversions have so far been the way ice sheet models have attempted to resolve the impact of 1) on their results. As for boundary conditions or the lack thereof, most studies assume that they are a fixed quantity, which, though prone to large errors from the measurement itself, is not varied according to the simulated results. Here, we propose a method based on automatic differentiation to improve boundary conditions at the base and surface of the ice sheet during a short-term transient run for which surface altimetry observations are available. The method relies on minimizing a cost-function, the best fit between modeled surface evolution and surface altimetry observations, using gradients that are computed for each time step from automatic differentiation of the ISSM (Ice Sheet System Model) code. The approach relies on overloaded operators using the ADOLC (Automatic Differentiation by OverLoading in C++) package. It is applied to the 79 North Glacier, Greenland, for a short term transient spanning a couple of decades before the start of the retreat of the Zachariae Isstrom outlet glacier. Our results show adjustments required on the basal friction and the SMB of the whole basin to best fit surface altimetry observations, along with sensitivities each one of these parameters has on the overall cost function. Our approach presents a pathway towards assimilating

Satellite-Based Precipitation Datasets

Science.gov (United States)

Munchak, S. J.; Huffman, G. J.

2017-12-01

Of the possible sources of precipitation data, those based on satellites provide the greatest spatial coverage. There is a wide selection of datasets, algorithms, and versions from which to choose, which can be confusing to non-specialists wishing to use the data. The International Precipitation Working Group (IPWG) maintains tables of the major publicly available, long-term, quasi-global precipitation data sets (http://www.isac.cnr.it/ ipwg/data/datasets.html), and this talk briefly reviews the various categories. As examples, NASA provides two sets of quasi-global precipitation data sets: the older Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA) and current Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission (IMERG). Both provide near-real-time and post-real-time products that are uniformly gridded in space and time. The TMPA products are 3-hourly 0.25°x0.25° on the latitude band 50°N-S for about 16 years, while the IMERG products are half-hourly 0.1°x0.1° on 60°N-S for over 3 years (with plans to go to 16+ years in Spring 2018). In addition to the precipitation estimates, each data set provides fields of other variables, such as the satellite sensor providing estimates and estimated random error. The discussion concludes with advice about determining suitability for use, the necessity of being clear about product names and versions, and the need for continued support for satellite- and surface-based observation.

Satellite-based laser windsounder

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schultz, J.F.; Czuchlewski, S.J.; Quick, C.R.

1997-01-01

This is the final report of a one-year, Laboratory-Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The project''s primary objective is to determine the technical feasibility of using satellite-based laser wind sensing systems for detailed study of winds, aerosols, and particulates around and downstream of suspected proliferation facilities. Extensive interactions with the relevant operational organization resulted in enthusiastic support and useful guidance with respect to measurement requirements and priorities. Four candidate wind sensing techniques were evaluated, and the incoherent Doppler technique was selected. A small satellite concept design study was completed to identify the technical issues inherent in a proof-of-concept small satellite mission. Use of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer instead of a Fabry-Perot would significantly simplify the optical train and could reduce weight, and possibly power, requirements with no loss of performance. A breadboard Mach-Zehnder interferometer-based system has been built to verify these predictions. Detailed plans were made for resolving other issues through construction and testing of a ground-based lidar system in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin, and through numerical lidar wind data assimilation studies

Implications of changing scattering properties on Greenland ice sheet volume change from Cryosat-2 altimetry

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Simonsen, Sebastian Bjerregaard; Sørensen, Louise Sandberg

2017-01-01

) in the elevation change algorithm, to correct for temporal changes in the ratio between surface- and volume-scatter in Cryosat-2 observations. We present elevation and volume changes for the Greenland ice sheet in the period from 2010 until 2014. The waveform parameters considered here are the backscatter...... waveform parameters to be applicable for correcting for changes in volume scattering. The best results in the Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometric mode area of the GrIS are found when applying only the backscatter correction, whereas the best result in the Low Resolution Mode area is obtained by only......Long-term observations of surface elevation change of the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) is of utmost importance when assessing the state of the ice sheet. Satellite radar altimetry offers a long time series of data over the GrIS, starting with ERS-1 in 1991. ESA's Cryosat-2 mission, launched in 2010...

Decadal Variation in Surface Characteristics over Xinjiang, Western China, from T/P Altimetry Backscatter Coefficients: Evidence of Climate Change

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jinyun Guo

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The backscatter coefficient, known as sigma0, is an important measurement of satellite radar altimetry and a key parameter for land altimetry because of its close relationship with the physical properties and geometric features of land coverage under global/regional climate change effects. Using the TOPEX/Poseidon GDR-M dataset from January 1993 to December 2004, we study the spatial and temporal distribution of sigma0 at bands Ku and C over Xinjiang, western China. The results show that the sigma0 is influenced by the water distribution over land and the time evolution of sigma0 has clear seasonal changes. River basins or deserts are classified over the spatial distribution based on different sigma0 values. For example, high sigma0 values are found in the Tarim River Basin and low values are found in the Taklimakan Desert. The periodic components of sigma0 time series are determined using the fast Fourier transformation method. The annual variation is the dominating cycle and the semi-annual variation is the secondary signal. The amplitudes of sigma0 time series at bands Ku and C are also given and most areas have quite low amplitudes except for the Tarim River Basin. Several areas including the Tarim River Basin, Tianshan Mountain and Taklimakan Desert are selected for sigma0 time series spacial analysis to discuss the reasons for variations in sigma0. The main factors are precipitation and vegetation growth, which are affected by the global/regional climate change. The correlation between the brightness temperature, which is related to the water-vapor content in the atmosphere measured by TMR at the 21 GHz channel and sigma0 at two bands, is analyzed.

Global trends in satellite-based emergency mapping

Science.gov (United States)

Voigt, Stefan; Giulio-Tonolo, Fabio; Lyons, Josh; Kučera, Jan; Jones, Brenda; Schneiderhan, Tobias; Platzeck, Gabriel; Kaku, Kazuya; Hazarika, Manzul Kumar; Czaran, Lorant; Li, Suju; Pedersen, Wendi; James, Godstime Kadiri; Proy, Catherine; Muthike, Denis Macharia; Bequignon, Jerome; Guha-Sapir, Debarati

2016-01-01

Over the past 15 years, scientists and disaster responders have increasingly used satellite-based Earth observations for global rapid assessment of disaster situations. We review global trends in satellite rapid response and emergency mapping from 2000 to 2014, analyzing more than 1000 incidents in which satellite monitoring was used for assessing major disaster situations. We provide a synthesis of spatial patterns and temporal trends in global satellite emergency mapping efforts and show that satellite-based emergency mapping is most intensively deployed in Asia and Europe and follows well the geographic, physical, and temporal distributions of global natural disasters. We present an outlook on the future use of Earth observation technology for disaster response and mitigation by putting past and current developments into context and perspective.

Improved oceanographic measurements with cryosat sar altimetry: Application to the coastal zone and arctic

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cotton, P. D.; Garcia, P. N.; Cancet, M.

in the CryoSat Plus for Oceans project (CP4O), each investigating different aspects of the opportunities offered by this new technology. The first two studies address the coastal zone, a critical region for providing a link between open-ocean and shelf sea measurements with those from coastal in......, a thorough analysis was made of the performance of “SAR” altimeter data (delay-Doppler processed) in the coastal zone. This quantified the performance, confirming the significant improvement over “conventional” pulse-limited altimetry. In the second study a processing scheme was developed with CryoSat SARin......-situ measurements, in particular tide gauges. Although much has been achieved in recent years through the Coastal Altimetry community, (http://www.coastalt.eu/community) there is a limit to the capabilities of pulse-limited altimetry which often leaves an un-measured “white strip” right at the coastline. Firstly...

Sensitivity of Satellite Altimetry Data Assimilation on a Weapon Acoustic Preset Using MODAS

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Chu, Peter; Mancini, Steven; Gottshall, Eric; Cwalina, David; Barron, Charlie N

2007-01-01

...) is analyzed with SSP derived from the modular ocean data assimilation system (MODAS). The MODAS fields differ in that one uses altimeter data assimilated from three satellites while the other uses no altimeter data...

Measurements of sea ice by satellite and airborne altimetry

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kildegaard Rose, Stine

the modal freeboard heights of 55 cm retrieved from the laser scanner data with the 25 cm retrieved from CryoSat-2 indicates a snow layer of 30 cm, due to the theory that a laser is reflected at the air/snow interface, while the radar is reflected at the snow/ice interface. In the other area, the modal...... freeboard is found to be 35 cm for both the airborne and satellite data implying, that the radar signal is here reflected from the snow surface, probably due to weather conditions. CryoSat-2 is very sensitive to returns from specular surfaces, even if they appear o_-nadir. This contaminates the “true...... and in fjord systems. The Greenland fjords exhange freshwater between the glaciers and the ocean. Measuring a snapshot of the ice mélange in front of Kangiata Nunˆta Sermia in southwest Greenland with airborne LiDAR, gives an estimate of the ice disharge since last autuum. The total volume of 1:70 _ 1:26 GT...

SALIENCY BASED SEGMENTATION OF SATELLITE IMAGES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Sharma

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Saliency gives the way as humans see any image and saliency based segmentation can be eventually helpful in Psychovisual image interpretation. Keeping this in view few saliency models are used along with segmentation algorithm and only the salient segments from image have been extracted. The work is carried out for terrestrial images as well as for satellite images. The methodology used in this work extracts those segments from segmented image which are having higher or equal saliency value than a threshold value. Salient and non salient regions of image become foreground and background respectively and thus image gets separated. For carrying out this work a dataset of terrestrial images and Worldview 2 satellite images (sample data are used. Results show that those saliency models which works better for terrestrial images are not good enough for satellite image in terms of foreground and background separation. Foreground and background separation in terrestrial images is based on salient objects visible on the images whereas in satellite images this separation is based on salient area rather than salient objects.

The future of spaceborne altimetry. Oceans and climate change: A long-term strategy

Science.gov (United States)

Koblinsky, C. J. (Editor); Gaspar, P. (Editor); Lagerloef, G. (Editor)

1992-01-01

The ocean circulation and polar ice sheet volumes provide important memory and control functions in the global climate. Their long term variations are unknown and need to be understood before meaningful appraisals of climate change can be made. Satellite altimetry is the only method for providing global information on the ocean circulation and ice sheet volume. A robust altimeter measurement program is planned which will initiate global observations of the ocean circulation and polar ice sheets. In order to provide useful data about the climate, these measurements must be continued with unbroken coverage into the next century. Herein, past results of the role of the ocean in the climate system is summarized, near term goals are outlined, and requirements and options are presented for future altimeter missions. There are three basic scientific objectives for the program: ocean circulation; polar ice sheets; and mean sea level change. The greatest scientific benefit will be achieved with a series of dedicated high precision altimeter spacecraft, for which the choice of orbit parameters and system accuracy are unencumbered by requirements of companion instruments.

The future of spaceborne altimetry. Oceans and climate change: A long-term strategy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koblinsky, C.J.; Gaspar, P.; Lagerloef, G.

1992-03-01

The ocean circulation and polar ice sheet volumes provide important memory and control functions in the global climate. Their long term variations are unknown and need to be understood before meaningful appraisals of climate change can be made. Satellite altimetry is the only method for providing global information on the ocean circulation and ice sheet volume. A robust altimeter measurement program is planned which will initiate global observations of the ocean circulation and polar ice sheets. In order to provide useful data about the climate, these measurements must be continued with unbroken coverage into the next century. Herein, past results of the role of the ocean in the climate system is summarized, near term goals are outlined, and requirements and options are presented for future altimeter missions. There are three basic scientific objectives for the program: ocean circulation; polar ice sheets; and mean sea level change. The greatest scientific benefit will be achieved with a series of dedicated high precision altimeter spacecraft, for which the choice of orbit parameters and system accuracy are unencumbered by requirements of companion instruments

Integrating Non-Tidal Sea Level data from altimetry and tide gauges for coastal sea level prediction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cheng, Yongcun; Andersen, Ole Baltazar; Knudsen, Per

2012-01-01

The main objective of this paper is to integrate Non-Tidal Sea Level (NSL) from the joint TOPEX, Jason-1 and Jason-2 satellite altimetry with tide gauge data at the west and north coast of the United Kingdom for coastal sea level prediction. The temporal correlation coefficient between altimetric...... NSLs and tide gauge data reaches a maximum higher than 90% for each gauge. The results show that the multivariate regression approach can efficiently integrate the two types of data in the coastal waters of the area. The Multivariate Regression Model is established by integrating the along-track NSL...... from the joint TOPEX/Jason-1/Jason-2 altimeters with that from eleven tide gauges. The model results give a maximum hindcast skill of 0.95, which means maximum 95% of NSL variance can be explained by the model. The minimum Root Mean Square Error (RMSe) between altimetric observations and model...

First spaceborne phase altimetry over sea ice using TechDemoSat-1 GNSS-R signals

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Weiqiang; Cardellach, Estel; Fabra, Fran; Rius, Antonio; Ribó, Serni; Martín-Neira, Manuel

2017-08-01

A track of sea ice reflected Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signal collected by the TechDemoSat-1 mission is processed to perform phase altimetry over sea ice. High-precision carrier phase measurements are extracted from coherent GNSS reflections at a high angle of elevation (>57°). The altimetric results show good consistency with a mean sea surface (MSS) model, and the root-mean-square difference is 4.7 cm with an along-track sampling distance of ˜140 m and a spatial resolution of ˜400 m. The difference observed between the altimetric results and the MSS shows good correlation with the colocated sea ice thickness data from Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity. This is consistent with the reflecting surface aligned with the bottom of the ice-water interface, due to the penetration of the GNSS signal into the sea ice. Therefore, these high-precision altimetric results have potential to be used for determination of sea ice thickness.

Improved interpretation of satellite altimeter data using genetic algorithms

Science.gov (United States)

Messa, Kenneth; Lybanon, Matthew

1992-01-01

Genetic algorithms (GA) are optimization techniques that are based on the mechanics of evolution and natural selection. They take advantage of the power of cumulative selection, in which successive incremental improvements in a solution structure become the basis for continued development. A GA is an iterative procedure that maintains a 'population' of 'organisms' (candidate solutions). Through successive 'generations' (iterations) the population as a whole improves in simulation of Darwin's 'survival of the fittest'. GA's have been shown to be successful where noise significantly reduces the ability of other search techniques to work effectively. Satellite altimetry provides useful information about oceanographic phenomena. It provides rapid global coverage of the oceans and is not as severely hampered by cloud cover as infrared imagery. Despite these and other benefits, several factors lead to significant difficulty in interpretation. The GA approach to the improved interpretation of satellite data involves the representation of the ocean surface model as a string of parameters or coefficients from the model. The GA searches in parallel, a population of such representations (organisms) to obtain the individual that is best suited to 'survive', that is, the fittest as measured with respect to some 'fitness' function. The fittest organism is the one that best represents the ocean surface model with respect to the altimeter data.

Vertical and Horizontal Analysis of Crustal Structure of Southeastern Mediterranean and the Egyptian Coastal Zone, from Bouguer and Satellite Mission Data

Science.gov (United States)

Saleh, Salah

2016-07-01

The present Tectonic system of Southeastern Mediterranean is driven by the collision of the African and Eurasian plates, the Arabian Eurasian convergence and the displacement of the Anatolian Aegean microplate, which generally represents the characteristic of lithospheric structure of the region. In the scope of this study, Bouguer and the satellite gravity (satellite altimetry) anomalies of southeastern Mediterranean and North Eastern part of Egypt were used for investigating the lithospheric structures. Second order trend analyses were applied firstly to Bouguer and satellite altimetry data for examining the characteristic of the anomaly. Later, the vertical and horizontal derivatives applications were applied to the same data. Generally, the purpose of the applying derivative methods is determining the vertical and horizontal borders of the structure. According to the results of derivatives maps, the study area could mainly divided into important four tectonic subzones depending on basement and Moho depth maps. These subzones are distributed from south to the north as: Nile delta-northern Sinai zone, north Egyptian coastal zone, Levantine basin zone and northern thrusting (Cyprus and its surroundings) zone. These zones are separated from each other by horizontal tectonic boundaries and/or near-vertical faults that display the block-faulting tectonic style of this belt. Finally, the gravity studies were evaluated together with the seismic activity of the region. Consequently, the geodynamical structure of the region is examined with the previous studies done in the region. Thus, the current study indicates that satellite gravity mission data is a valuable source of data in understanding the tectonic boundary behavior of the studied region and that satellite gravity data is an important modern source of data in the geodynamical studies.

Arctic Sea Level Change over the altimetry era and reconstructed over the last 60 years

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Ole Baltazar; Svendsen, Peter Limkilde; Nielsen, Allan Aasbjerg

The Arctic Ocean process severe limitations on the use of altimetry and tide gauge data for sea level studies and prediction due to the presence of seasonal or permanent sea ice. In order to overcome this issue we reprocessed all altimetry data with editing tailored to Arctic conditions, hereby m...... by Church and White (2004). We also find significant higher trend in the Beaufort Gyre region showing an increase in sea level over the last decade up to 2011....

Comparison of retracked coastal altimetry sea levels against high frequency radar on the continental shelf of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia

Science.gov (United States)

Idris, Nurul Hazrina; Deng, Xiaoli; Idris, Nurul Hawani

2017-07-01

Comparison of Jason-1 altimetry retracked sea levels and high frequency (HF) radar velocity is examined within the region of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. The comparison between both datasets is not direct because the altimetry derives only the geostrophic component, while the HF radar velocity includes information on both geostrophic and ageostrophic components, such as tides and winds. The comparison of altimetry and HF radar data is performed based on the parameter of surface velocity inferred from both datasets. The results show that 48% (10 out of 21 cases) of data have high (≥0.5) spatial correlation. The mean of spatial correlation for all 21 cases is 0.43. This value is within the range (0.42 to 0.5) observed by other studies. Low correlation is observed due to disagreement in the trend of velocity signals in which sometimes they have contradictions in the signal direction and the position of the peak is shifted. In terms of standard deviation of difference and root mean square error, both datasets show reasonable agreement with ≤2.5 cm s-1.

High Artic Glaciers and Ice Caps Ice Mass Change from GRACE, Regional Climate Model Output and Altimetry.

Science.gov (United States)

Ciraci, E.; Velicogna, I.; Fettweis, X.; van den Broeke, M. R.

2016-12-01

The Arctic hosts more than the 75% of the ice covered regions outside from Greenland and Antarctica. Available observations show that increased atmospheric temperatures during the last century have contributed to a substantial glaciers retreat in all these regions. We use satellite gravimetry by the NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), and apply a least square fit mascon approach to calculate time series of ice mass change for the period 2002-2016. Our estimates show that arctic glaciers have constantly contributed to the sea level rise during the entire observation period with a mass change of -170+/-20 Gt/yr equivalent to the 80% of the total ice mass change from the world Glacier and Ice Caps (GIC) excluding the Ice sheet peripheral GIC, which we calculated to be -215+/-32 GT/yr, with an acceleration of 9+/-4 Gt/yr2. The Canadian Archipelago is the main contributor to the total mass depletion with an ice mass trend of -73+/-9 Gt/yr and a significant acceleration of -7+/-3 Gt/yr2. The increasing mass loss is mainly determined by melting glaciers located in the northern part of the archipelago.In order to investigate the physical processes driving the observed ice mass loss we employ satellite altimetry and surface mass balance (SMB) estimates from Regional climate model outputs available for the same time period covered by the gravimetry data. We use elevation data from the NASA ICESat (2003-2009) and ESA CryoSat-2 (2010-2016) missions to estimate ice elevation changes. We compare GRACE ice mass estimates with time series of surface mass balance from the Regional Climate Model (RACMO-2) and the Modèle Atmosphérique Régional (MAR) and determine the portion of the total mass change explained by the SMB signal. We find that in Iceland and in the and the Canadian Archipelago the SMB signal explains most of the observed mass changes, suggesting that ice discharge may play a secondary role here. In other region, e.g. in Svalbar, the SMB signal

Ground test of satellite constellation based quantum communication

OpenAIRE

Liao, Sheng-Kai; Yong, Hai-Lin; Liu, Chang; Shentu, Guo-Liang; Li, Dong-Dong; Lin, Jin; Dai, Hui; Zhao, Shuang-Qiang; Li, Bo; Guan, Jian-Yu; Chen, Wei; Gong, Yun-Hong; Li, Yang; Lin, Ze-Hong; Pan, Ge-Sheng

2016-01-01

Satellite based quantum communication has been proven as a feasible way to achieve global scale quantum communication network. Very recently, a low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite has been launched for this purpose. However, with a single satellite, it takes an inefficient 3-day period to provide the worldwide connectivity. On the other hand, similar to how the Iridium system functions in classic communication, satellite constellation (SC) composed of many quantum satellites, could provide global...

M2 Internal Tides and Their Observed Wavenumber Spectra from Satellite Altimetry*

Science.gov (United States)

Ray, R. D.; Zaron, E. D.

2015-01-01

A near-global chart of surface elevations associated with the stationary M2 internal tide is empirically constructed from multi-mission satellite altimeter data. An advantage of a strictly empirical mapping approach is that results are independent of assumptions about ocean wave dynamics and, in fact, can be used to test such assumptions. A disadvantage is that present-day altimeter coverage is only marginally adequate to support mapping such short-wavelength features. Moreover, predominantly north-south ground-track orientations and contamination from nontidal oceanographic variability can lead to deficiencies in mapped tides. Independent data from Cryosphere Satellite-2 (CryoSat-2) and other altimeters are used to test the solutions and show positive reduction in variance except in regions of large mesoscale variability. The tidal fields are subjected to two-dimensional wavenumber spectral analysis, which allows for the construction of an empirical map of modal wavelengths. Mode-1 wavelengths show good agreement with theoretical wavelengths calculated from the ocean's mean stratification, with a few localized exceptions (e.g., Tasman Sea). Mode-2 waves are detectable in much of the ocean, with wavelengths in reasonable agreement with theoretical expectations, but their spectral signatures grow too weak to map in some regions.

Combining GRACE and Altimetry to solve for present day mass changes and GIA

Science.gov (United States)

Rietbroek, R.; Lück, C.; Uebbing, B.; Kusche, J.; King, M. A.

2017-12-01

Past and present day sea level rise is closely linked to geoid and surface deformation changes from the ongoing glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA). Sea level, as detected by radar altimetry, senses the radial deformation of the ocean floor as mantle material slowly flows back to the locations of the former glacial domes. This manifests itself as a net subsidence when averaged over the entire ocean, but can regionally be seen as an uplift for locations close to the former ice sheets. Furthermore, mass driven sea level as derived from GRACE, is even more sensitive to GIA induced mass redistribution in the solid Earth. Consequently, errors in GIA corrections, most notably errors in mantle viscosity and ice histories, have a different leverage on regional sea level estimates from GRACE and altimetry. In this study, we discuss the abilities of a GRACE-altimetry combination to co-estimate GIA corrections together with present day contributors to sea level, rather than simply prescribing a GIA correction from a model. The data is combined in a joint inversion scheme which makes use of spatial patterns to parameterize present day loading effects and GIA. We show that the GRACE-altimetry combination requires constraints, but generally steers the Antarctic GIA signal towards a weaker present day signal in Antarctica compared to a ICE5-G(VM2) derived model. Furthermore, in light of the aging GRACE mission, we show sensitivity studies of how well one could estimate GIA corrections when using other low earth orbiters such as SWARM or CHAMP. Finally, we show whether the Antarctic GNSS station network may be useful in separating GIA from present day mass signals in this type of inversion schemes.

Generating precise and homogeneous orbits for Jason-1 and Jason-2

Science.gov (United States)

Flohrer, Claudia; Otten, Michiel; Springer, Tim; Dow, John M.

Driven by the GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) and GGOS (Global Geodetic Observing System) initiatives the user community has a strong demand for high-quality altimetry products. In order to derive such high-quality altimetry products, precise orbits for the altimetry satellites are needed. Satellite altimetry missions meanwhile span over three decades, in which our understanding of the Earth has increased significantly. As also the models used for precise orbit determination (POD) have improved, the satellite orbits of the altimetry satellites are not available in an uniform reference system. Homogeneously determined orbits referring to the same global reference system are, however, needed to improve our understanding of the Earth system. With the launch of the TOPEX/Poseidon (T/P) mission in 1992 a still ongoing time series of high-altimetry measurements of ocean topography started. In 2001 the altimetry mission Jason-1 took over and in 2009 the follow-on program Jason-2/OSTM started. All three satellites follow the same ground-track by flying in the same orbit, thus ensuring a continuous time-series of centimetre-level ocean topography observations. Therefore a reprocessing of the orbit determination for these altimetry satellites would be highly beneficial for altimetry applications. The Navigation Support Office at ESA/ESOC has enhanced the GNSS processing capabilities of its NAPEOS software. Thus it is now in the unique position to do orbit determination by combining different types of data, and by using one single software system for different satellite types, including the most recent improvements in orbit and observation modelling and IERS conventions. Our presentation focuses on the re-processing efforts carried out by ESA/ESOC for the gener-ation of precise and homogeneous orbits referring to the same reference frame for the altimetry satellites Jason-1 and Jason-2. At the same time ESOC carried out a re-processing of the com

Assessment of altimetry data in Amazonian forest based in INSAR, LIDAR; and GPS technologies.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Corina da Costa Freitas

2006-12-01

Full Text Available There is a great amount of altimetry data collected by several experiments taken in the Tapajós National Forest located in the Brazilian Amazon State of Pará. Some of these data were produced by current state of the art technology whose effectiveness is still being proven by scientific investigations. In 1999 LIDAR profiles associated to videography data were taken in the region. In 2000 it was collected P and X band interferometric multifrequency data over areas of different vegetation types. The backscatter response collected by P band radar antenna potentially produces a real digital terrain model (DTM due to its penetration capability across forest canopy toward the soil. When collected in X band radiation is reflected in the top forest canopy which produces a digital surface model (DSM. The availability of digital terrain model and digital surface model covering the same forested area is of great interest for many purposes, especially cartographic applications and carbon stock estimation. Also in 2000, the SRTM mission provided global interferometric cover in C and X bands that permitted the use of these data in the present work. In 2001, 2002, 2003 e 2005 several field control positions were surveyed using GPS dual frequency receivers and by topography surveying methods using total stations. The purpose of this work is to make an evaluation of the errors affecting the original multiple sensor data collected in the study area and apply an effective correction in order to eliminate those errors to permit using the models in other applications. An effective correction type was developed that reduced the original errors. The correction methodology consisted in altimetry offset determination and its application to the original data. Evaluations confirmed that the correction methodology produced good results and the corrected models presented global and local errors lesser than those in the original models.

Validation of an Innovative Satellite-Based UV Dosimeter

Science.gov (United States)

Morelli, Marco; Masini, Andrea; Simeone, Emilio; Khazova, Marina

2016-08-01

We present an innovative satellite-based UV (ultraviolet) radiation dosimeter with a mobile app interface that has been validated by exploiting both ground-based measurements and an in-vivo assessment of the erythemal effects on some volunteers having a controlled exposure to solar radiation.Both validations showed that the satellite-based UV dosimeter has a good accuracy and reliability needed for health-related applications.The app with this satellite-based UV dosimeter also includes other related functionalities such as the provision of safe sun exposure time updated in real-time and end exposure visual/sound alert. This app will be launched on the global market by siHealth Ltd in May 2016 under the name of "HappySun" and available both for Android and for iOS devices (more info on http://www.happysun.co.uk).Extensive R&D activities are on-going for further improvement of the satellite-based UV dosimeter's accuracy.

Using altimetry and seafloor pressure data to estimate vertical deformation offshore: Vanuatu case study

Science.gov (United States)

Ballu, V.; Bonnefond, P.; Calmant, S.; Bouin, M.-N.; Pelletier, B.; Laurain, O.; Crawford, W. C.; Baillard, C.; de Viron, O.

2013-04-01

Measuring ground deformation underwater is essential for understanding Earth processes at many scales. One important example is subduction zones, which can generate devastating earthquakes and tsunamis, and where the most important deformation signal related to plate locking is usually offshore. We present an improved method for making offshore vertical deformation measurements, that involve combining tide gauge and altimetry data. We present data from two offshore sites located on either side of the plate interface at the New Hebrides subduction zone, where the Australian plate subducts beneath the North Fiji basin. These two sites have been equipped with pressure gauges since 1999, to extend an on-land GPS network across the plate interface. The pressure series measured at both sites show that Wusi Bank, located on the over-riding plate, subsides by 11 ± 4 mm/yr with respect to Sabine Bank, which is located on the down-going plate. By combining water depths derived from the on-bottom pressure data with sea surface heights derived from altimetry data, we determine variations of seafloor heights in a global reference frame. Using altimetry data from TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1, Jason-2 and Envisat missions, we find that the vertical motion at Sabine Bank is close to zero and that Wusi Bank subsides by at least 3 mm/yr and probably at most 11 mm/yr.This paper represents the first combination of altimetry and pressure data to derive absolute vertical motions offshore. The deformation results are obtained in a global reference frame, allowing them to be integrated with on-land GNSS data.

A Space Based Solar Power Satellite System

Science.gov (United States)

Engel, J. M.; Polling, D.; Ustamujic, F.; Yaldiz, R.; et al.

2002-01-01

(SPoTS) supplying other satellites with energy. SPoTS is due to be commercially viable and operative in 2020. of Technology designed the SPoTS during a full-time design period of six weeks as a third year final project. The team, organized according to the principles of systems engineering, first conducted a literature study on space wireless energy transfer to select the most suitable candidates for use on the SPoTS. After that, several different system concepts have been generated and evaluated, the most promising concept being worked out in greater detail. km altitude. Each SPoTS satellite has a 50m diameter inflatable solar collector that focuses all received sunlight. Then, the received sunlight is further redirected by means of four pointing mirrors toward four individual customer satellites. A market-analysis study showed, that providing power to geo-stationary communication satellites during their eclipse would be most beneficial. At arrival at geo-stationary orbit, the focused beam has expended to such an extent that its density equals one solar flux. This means that customer satellites can continue to use their regular solar arrays during their eclipse for power generation, resulting in a satellite battery mass reduction. the customer satellites in geo-stationary orbit, the transmitted energy beams needs to be pointed with very high accuracy. Computations showed that for this degree of accuracy, sensors are needed, which are not mainstream nowadays. Therefore further research must be conducted in this area in order to make these high-accuracy-pointing systems commercially attractive for use on the SPoTS satellites around 2020. Total 20-year system lifetime cost for 18 SPoT satellites are estimated at approximately USD 6 billion [FY2001]. In order to compete with traditional battery-based satellite power systems or possible ground based wireless power transfer systems the price per kWh for the customer must be significantly lower than the present one

Satellite-based Flood Modeling Using TRMM-based Rainfall Products

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Greg Easson

2007-12-01

Full Text Available Increasingly available and a virtually uninterrupted supply of satellite-estimatedrainfall data is gradually becoming a cost-effective source of input for flood predictionunder a variety of circumstances. However, most real-time and quasi-global satelliterainfall products are currently available at spatial scales ranging from 0.25o to 0.50o andhence, are considered somewhat coarse for dynamic hydrologic modeling of basin-scaleflood events. This study assesses the question: what are the hydrologic implications ofuncertainty of satellite rainfall data at the coarse scale? We investigated this question onthe 970 km2 Upper Cumberland river basin of Kentucky. The satellite rainfall productassessed was NASA’s Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM Multi-satellitePrecipitation Analysis (TMPA product called 3B41RT that is available in pseudo real timewith a latency of 6-10 hours. We observed that bias adjustment of satellite rainfall data canimprove application in flood prediction to some extent with the trade-off of more falsealarms in peak flow. However, a more rational and regime-based adjustment procedureneeds to be identified before the use of satellite data can be institutionalized among floodmodelers.

Leo satellite-based telecommunication network concepts

Science.gov (United States)

Aiken, John G.; Swan, Peter A.; Leopold, Ray J.

1991-01-01

Design considerations are discussed for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite based telecommunications networks. The satellites are assumed to be connected to each other via intersatellite links. They are connected to the end user either directly or through gateways to other networks. Frequency reuse, circuit switching, packet switching, call handoff, and routing for these systems are discussed by analogy with terrestrial cellular (mobile radio) telecommunication systems.

Fine-tuning satellite-based rainfall estimates

Science.gov (United States)

Harsa, Hastuadi; Buono, Agus; Hidayat, Rahmat; Achyar, Jaumil; Noviati, Sri; Kurniawan, Roni; Praja, Alfan S.

2018-05-01

Rainfall datasets are available from various sources, including satellite estimates and ground observation. The locations of ground observation scatter sparsely. Therefore, the use of satellite estimates is advantageous, because satellite estimates can provide data on places where the ground observations do not present. However, in general, the satellite estimates data contain bias, since they are product of algorithms that transform the sensors response into rainfall values. Another cause may come from the number of ground observations used by the algorithms as the reference in determining the rainfall values. This paper describe the application of bias correction method to modify the satellite-based dataset by adding a number of ground observation locations that have not been used before by the algorithm. The bias correction was performed by utilizing Quantile Mapping procedure between ground observation data and satellite estimates data. Since Quantile Mapping required mean and standard deviation of both the reference and the being-corrected data, thus the Inverse Distance Weighting scheme was applied beforehand to the mean and standard deviation of the observation data in order to provide a spatial composition of them, which were originally scattered. Therefore, it was possible to provide a reference data point at the same location with that of the satellite estimates. The results show that the new dataset have statistically better representation of the rainfall values recorded by the ground observation than the previous dataset.

Experimental dem Extraction from Aster Stereo Pairs and 3d Registration Based on Icesat Laser Altimetry Data in Upstream Area of Lambert Glacier, Antarctica

Science.gov (United States)

Hai, G.; Xie, H.; Chen, J.; Chen, L.; Li, R.; Tong, X.

2017-09-01

DEM Extraction from ASTER stereo pairs and three-dimensional registration by reference to ICESat laser altimetry data are carried out in upstream area of Lambert Glacier, East Antarctica. Since the study area is located in inland of East Antarctica where few textures exist, registration between DEM and ICESat data is performed. Firstly, the ASTER DEM generation is based on rational function model (RFM) and the procedure includes: a) rational polynomial coefficient (RPC) computation from ASTER metadata, b) L1A image product de-noise and destriping, c) local histogram equalization and matching, d) artificial collection of tie points and bundle adjustment, and e) coarse-to-fine hierarchical matching of five levels and grid matching. The matching results are filtered semi-automatically. Hereafter, DEM is interpolated using spline method with ground points converted from matching points. Secondly, the generated ASTER DEM is registered to ICESat data in three-dimensional space after Least-squares rigid transformation using singular value decomposition (SVD). The process is stated as: a) correspondence selection of terrain feature points from ICESat and DEM profiles, b) rigid transformation of generated ASTER DEM using selected feature correspondences based on least squares technique. The registration shows a good result that the elevation difference between DEM and ICESat data is low with a mean value less than 2 meters and the standard deviation around 7 meters. This DEM is generated and specially registered in Antarctic typical region without obvious ground rock control points and serves as true terrain input for further radar altimetry simulation.

A study of Arctic sea ice freeboard heights, gravity anomalies and dynamic topography from ICESat measurementes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Skourup, Henriette

The Arctic sea ice cover has a great influence on the climate and is believed to respond rapidly to climate changes. Since 2003 the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) laser altimetry mission has provided satellite altimetry over the ice covered Arctic Ocean up to 86 N. In this thesis...

Using altimetry to help explain patchy changes in hydrographic carbon measurements

Science.gov (United States)

Rodgers, Keith B.; Key, Robert M.; Gnanadesikan, Anand; Sarmiento, Jorge L.; Aumont, Olivier; Bopp, Laurent; Doney, Scott C.; Dunne, John P.; Glover, David M.; Ishida, Akio; Ishii, Masao; Jacobson, Andrew R.; Lo Monaco, Claire; Maier-Reimer, Ernst; Mercier, Herlé; Metzl, Nicolas; PéRez, Fiz F.; Rios, Aida F.; Wanninkhof, Rik; Wetzel, Patrick; Winn, Christopher D.; Yamanaka, Yasuhiro

2009-09-01

Here we use observations and ocean models to identify mechanisms driving large seasonal to interannual variations in dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and dissolved oxygen (O2) in the upper ocean. We begin with observations linking variations in upper ocean DIC and O2 inventories with changes in the physical state of the ocean. Models are subsequently used to address the extent to which the relationships derived from short-timescale (6 months to 2 years) repeat measurements are representative of variations over larger spatial and temporal scales. The main new result is that convergence and divergence (column stretching) attributed to baroclinic Rossby waves can make a first-order contribution to DIC and O2 variability in the upper ocean. This results in a close correspondence between natural variations in DIC and O2 column inventory variations and sea surface height (SSH) variations over much of the ocean. Oceanic Rossby wave activity is an intrinsic part of the natural variability in the climate system and is elevated even in the absence of significant interannual variability in climate mode indices. The close correspondence between SSH and both DIC and O2 column inventories for many regions suggests that SSH changes (inferred from satellite altimetry) may prove useful in reducing uncertainty in separating natural and anthropogenic DIC signals (using measurements from Climate Variability and Predictability's CO2/Repeat Hydrography program).

A first map of tropical Africa's above-ground biomass derived from satellite imagery

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baccini, A; Laporte, N; Goetz, S J; Sun, M; Dong, H

2008-01-01

Observations from the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) were used in combination with a large data set of field measurements to map woody above-ground biomass (AGB) across tropical Africa. We generated a best-quality cloud-free mosaic of MODIS satellite reflectance observations for the period 2000-2003 and used a regression tree model to predict AGB at 1 km resolution. Results based on a cross-validation approach show that the model explained 82% of the variance in AGB, with a root mean square error of 50.5 Mg ha -1 for a range of biomass between 0 and 454 Mg ha -1 . Analysis of lidar metrics from the Geoscience Laser Altimetry System (GLAS), which are sensitive to vegetation structure, indicate that the model successfully captured the regional distribution of AGB. The results showed a strong positive correlation (R 2 = 0.90) between the GLAS height metrics and predicted AGB.

Using Satellite Altimetry to Calibrate the Simulation of Typhoon Seth Storm Surge off Southeast China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaohui Li

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Satellite altimeters can capture storm surges generated by typhoons and tropical storms, if the satellite flies over at the right time. In this study, we show TOPEX/Poseidon altimeter-observed storm surge features off Southeast China on 10 October 1994 during Typhoon Seth. We then use a three-dimensional, barotropic, finite-volume community ocean model (FVCOM to simulate storm surges. An innovative aspect is that satellite data are used to calibrate the storm surge model to improve model performance, by adjusting model wind forcing fields (the National Center for Environment Prediction (NCEP reanalysis product in reference to the typhoon best-track data. The calibration reduces the along-track root-mean-square (RMS difference between model and altimetric data from 0.15 to 0.10 m. It also reduces the RMS temporal difference from 0.21 to 0.18 m between the model results and independent tide-gauge data at Xiamen. In particular, the calibrated model produces a peak storm surge of 1.01 m at 6:00 10 October 1994 at Xiamen, agreeing with tide-gauge data; while the peak storm surge with the NCEP forcing is 0.71 m only. We further show that the interaction between storm surges and astronomical tides contributes to the peak storm surge by 34% and that the storm surge propagates southwestward as a coastally-trapped Kelvin wave.

Carrier phase altimetry using Zeppelin based GNSS-R observations and water gauge reference data

Science.gov (United States)

Semmling, Maximilian; Schön, Steffen; Beckheinrich, Jamila; Beyerle, Georg; Ge, Maorong; Wickert, Jens

2014-05-01

The increasing number of transmitters in global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), like GPS, Galileo, Glonass or Compass, provide observations with an increasing coverage for positioning but also for remote sensing. A space based GNSS remote sensing application is radio occultation, a limb sounding method. Globally distributed vertical profiles of temperature, water vapour and electron density are provided operationally for weather forecast and ionospheric monitoring. Another application is GNSS reflectometry (GNSS-R) that is currently developed especially for ocean remote sensing. The high reflection coefficient of water is crucial for GNSS-R. This study presents a method that uses GNSS phase observations for lake altimetry with the potential for ocean application. Phase observations are deduced from a GORS (GNSS Occultaction Reflectometry Scatterometry) receiver in Master-Slave-Configuration. The Master sampling dedicated for direct signal acquisition is connected to an up-looking antenna with right hand circular polarization (RHCP). Two Slave samplings dedicated for acquisition of the reflected signals are connected to down-looking antennas with right- and left-hand circular polarization (RHCP and LHCP). Based on in-phase and quad-phase (I, Q) sample components, an altimetric phase residual is retrieved. This residual can be related to the height of the reflecting surface. An altimetric challenge arises from the unknown ambiguity of phase residuals that introduces a height bias. The presented study uses ancillary data deduced from water gauges to mitigate the ambiguity bias. Reference tracks are formed by linear surface height interpolation between the water gauge stations. At crossover points of reflection tracks with reference tracks a phase ambiguity estimate is determined for bias mitigation. For this study airborne GNSS measurements were conducted aboard a Zeppelin NT (New Technology) airship with a geodetic receiver for navigation and a GORS receiver for

Evaluation of Ocean Tide Models Used for Jason-2 Altimetry Corrections

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fok, H.S.; Baki Iz, H.; Shum, C. K.

2010-01-01

It has been more than a decade since the last comprehensive accuracy assessment of global ocean tide models. Here, we conduct an evaluation of the barotropic ocean tide corrections, which were computed using FES2004 and GOT00.2, and other models on the Jason-2 altimetry Geophysical Data Record (G...

Stackfile Database

Science.gov (United States)

deVarvalho, Robert; Desai, Shailen D.; Haines, Bruce J.; Kruizinga, Gerhard L.; Gilmer, Christopher

2013-01-01

This software provides storage retrieval and analysis functionality for managing satellite altimetry data. It improves the efficiency and analysis capabilities of existing database software with improved flexibility and documentation. It offers flexibility in the type of data that can be stored. There is efficient retrieval either across the spatial domain or the time domain. Built-in analysis tools are provided for frequently performed altimetry tasks. This software package is used for storing and manipulating satellite measurement data. It was developed with a focus on handling the requirements of repeat-track altimetry missions such as Topex and Jason. It was, however, designed to work with a wide variety of satellite measurement data [e.g., Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment -- GRACE). The software consists of several command-line tools for importing, retrieving, and analyzing satellite measurement data.

GOCE++ Dynamical Coastal Topography and tide gauge unification using altimetry and GOCE

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Ole Baltazar; Knudsen, Per; Nielsen, Karina

Mean Dynamic Topography (MDT) of the ocean along a coastline which contributes/requires reconciling altimetry, tide gauge and vertical land motion. The fundamental use of the MDT computed using altimetry, ocean models or through the use of tide gauges has values of between -2 and +1 meters at different...... processes and physics responsible for sea level changes on various temporal/spatial scales. The study runs from October 2015 to march 2017 and involves elements like: Develop an approach to estimate a consistent DT at tide gauges, coastal areas, and open ocean; Validate the approach in well-surveyed areas......ESA has recently released a study on the potential of ocean levelling as a novel approach to the study of height system unification taking the recent development in geoid accuracy trough GOCE data into account. The suggested investigation involves the use of measurements and modelling to estimate...

Optical burst switching based satellite backbone network

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Tingting; Guo, Hongxiang; Wang, Cen; Wu, Jian

2018-02-01

We propose a novel time slot based optical burst switching (OBS) architecture for GEO/LEO based satellite backbone network. This architecture can provide high speed data transmission rate and high switching capacity . Furthermore, we design the control plane of this optical satellite backbone network. The software defined network (SDN) and network slice (NS) technologies are introduced. Under the properly designed control mechanism, this backbone network is flexible to support various services with diverse transmission requirements. Additionally, the LEO access and handoff management in this network is also discussed.

Hydrological storage variations in a lake water balance, observed from multi-sensor satellite data and hydrological models.

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, Alka; Seitz, Florian; Schwatke, Christian; Guentner, Andreas

2013-04-01

Freshwater lakes and reservoirs account for 74.5% of continental water storage in surface water bodies and only 1.8% resides in rivers. Lakes and reservoirs are a key component of the continental hydrological cycle but in-situ monitoring networks are very limited either because of sparse spatial distribution of gauges or national data policy. Monitoring and predicting extreme events is very challenging in that case. In this study we demonstrate the use of optical remote sensing, satellite altimetry and the GRACE gravity field mission to monitor the lake water storage variations in the Aral Sea. Aral Sea is one of the most unfortunate examples of a large anthropogenic catastrophe. The 4th largest lake of 1960s has been decertified for more than 75% of its area due to the diversion of its primary rivers for irrigation purposes. Our study is focused on the time frame of the GRACE mission; therefore we consider changes from 2002 onwards. Continuous monthly time series of water masks from Landsat satellite data and water level from altimetry missions were derived. Monthly volumetric variations of the lake water storage were computed by intersecting a digital elevation model of the lake with respective water mask and altimetry water level. With this approach we obtained volume from two independent remote sensing methods to reduce the error in the estimated volume through least square adjustment. The resultant variations were then compared with mass variability observed by GRACE. In addition, GARCE estimates of water storage variations were compared with simulation results of the Water Gap Hydrology Model (WGHM). The different observations from all missions agree that the lake reached an absolute minimum in autumn 2009. A marked reversal of the negative trend occured in 2010 but water storage in the lake decreased again afterwards. The results reveal that water storage variations in the Aral Sea are indeed the principal, but not the only contributor to the GRACE signal of

Consistent estimate of ocean warming, land ice melt and sea level rise from Observations

Science.gov (United States)

Blazquez, Alejandro; Meyssignac, Benoît; Lemoine, Jean Michel

2016-04-01

Based on the sea level budget closure approach, this study investigates the consistency of observed Global Mean Sea Level (GMSL) estimates from satellite altimetry, observed Ocean Thermal Expansion (OTE) estimates from in-situ hydrographic data (based on Argo for depth above 2000m and oceanic cruises below) and GRACE observations of land water storage and land ice melt for the period January 2004 to December 2014. The consistency between these datasets is a key issue if we want to constrain missing contributions to sea level rise such as the deep ocean contribution. Numerous previous studies have addressed this question by summing up the different contributions to sea level rise and comparing it to satellite altimetry observations (see for example Llovel et al. 2015, Dieng et al. 2015). Here we propose a novel approach which consists in correcting GRACE solutions over the ocean (essentially corrections of stripes and leakage from ice caps) with mass observations deduced from the difference between satellite altimetry GMSL and in-situ hydrographic data OTE estimates. We check that the resulting GRACE corrected solutions are consistent with original GRACE estimates of the geoid spherical harmonic coefficients within error bars and we compare the resulting GRACE estimates of land water storage and land ice melt with independent results from the literature. This method provides a new mass redistribution from GRACE consistent with observations from Altimetry and OTE. We test the sensibility of this method to the deep ocean contribution and the GIA models and propose best estimates.

Network design consideration of a satellite-based mobile communications system

Science.gov (United States)

Yan, T.-Y.

1986-01-01

Technical considerations for the Mobile Satellite Experiment (MSAT-X), the ground segment testbed for the low-cost spectral efficient satellite-based mobile communications technologies being developed for the 1990's, are discussed. The Network Management Center contains a flexible resource sharing algorithm, the Demand Assigned Multiple Access scheme, which partitions the satellite transponder bandwidth among voice, data, and request channels. Satellite use of multiple UHF beams permits frequency reuse. The backhaul communications and the Telemetry, Tracking and Control traffic are provided through a single full-coverage SHF beam. Mobile Terminals communicate with the satellite using UHF. All communications including SHF-SHF between Base Stations and/or Gateways, are routed through the satellite. Because MSAT-X is an experimental network, higher level network protocols (which are service-specific) will be developed only to test the operation of the lowest three levels, the physical, data link, and network layers.

Planning for a data base system to support satellite conceptual design

Science.gov (United States)

Claydon, C. R.

1976-01-01

The conceptual design of an automated satellite design data base system is presented. The satellite catalog in the system includes data for all earth orbital satellites funded to the hardware stage for launch between 1970 and 1980, and provides a concise compilation of satellite capabilities and design parameters. The cost of satellite subsystems and components will be added to the base. Data elements are listed and discussed. Sensor and science and applications opportunities catalogs will be included in the data system. Capabilities of the BASIS storage, retrieval, and analysis system are used in the system design.

Detection and characterization of ship targets using CryoSat-2 altimeter waveforms

OpenAIRE

G?mez-Enri, Jesus; Scozzari, Andrea; Soldovieri, Francesco; Coca, Josep; Vignudelli, Stefano

2016-01-01

This article describes an investigation of the new possibilities offered by SAR altimetry compared with conventional altimetry in the detection and characterization of non-ocean targets. We explore the capabilities of the first SAR altimeter installed on the European Space Agency satellite CryoSat-2 for the detection and characterization of ships. We propose a methodology for the detection of anomalous targets in the radar signals, based on the advantages of SAR/Doppler processing over conven...

Validation of CryoSat-2 SAR mode based lake levels

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Karina; Stenseng, Lars; Andersen, Ole Baltazar

2015-01-01

Lake level serve as an important indicator of the climate and continuous measurements are therefore essential. Satellite radar altimetry has now been used successfully for more than two decades to measure lake level as an addition to gauge measurements. The technique has, due to the large footprint...... with water levels obtained from Envisat. We find that the along-track precision of the mean based on CryoSat-2 is a few centimeter, even for the small lakes, which is a significant improvement compared to previous missions such as Envisat. When validating against gauge data we find RMS values of differences...

An SDR based AIS receiver for satellites

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, Jesper Abildgaard; Mortensen, Hans Peter; Nielsen, Jens Frederik Dalsgaard

2011-01-01

For a few years now, there has been a high interest in monitoring the global ship traffic from space. A few satellite, capable of listening for ship borne AIS transponders have already been launched, and soon the AAUSAT3, carrying two different types of AIS receivers will also be launched. One...... of the AIS receivers onboard AAUSAT3 is an SDR based AIS receiver. This paper serves to describe the background of the AIS system, and how the SDR based receiver has been integrated into the AAUSAT3 satellite. Amongst some of the benefits of using an SDR based receiver is, that due to its versatility, new...... detection algorithms are easily deployed, and it is easily adapted the new proposed AIS transmission channels....

GPS-based satellite tracking system for precise positioning

Science.gov (United States)

Yunck, T. P.; Melbourne, W. G.; Thornton, C. L.

1985-01-01

NASA is developing a Global Positioning System (GPS) based measurement system to provide precise determination of earth satellite orbits, geodetic baselines, ionospheric electron content, and clock offsets between worldwide tracking sites. The system will employ variations on the differential GPS observing technique and will use a network of nine fixed ground terminals. Satellite applications will require either a GPS flight receiver or an on-board GPS beacon. Operation of the system for all but satellite tracking will begin by 1988. The first major satellite application will be a demonstration of decimeter accuracy in determining the altitude of TOPEX in the early 1990's. By then the system is expected to yield long-baseline accuracies of a few centimeters and instantaneous time synchronization to 1 ns.

Assessment of satellite-based precipitation estimates over Paraguay

Science.gov (United States)

Oreggioni Weiberlen, Fiorella; Báez Benítez, Julián

2018-04-01

Satellite-based precipitation estimates represent a potential alternative source of input data in a plethora of meteorological and hydrological applications, especially in regions characterized by a low density of rain gauge stations. Paraguay provides a good example of a case where the use of satellite-based precipitation could be advantageous. This study aims to evaluate the version 7 of the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission Multi-Satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA V7; 3B42 V7) and the version 1.0 of the purely satellite-based product of the Climate Prediction Center Morphing Technique (CMORPH RAW) through their comparison with daily in situ precipitation measurements from 1998 to 2012 over Paraguay. The statistical assessment is conducted with several commonly used indexes. Specifically, to evaluate the accuracy of daily precipitation amounts, mean error (ME), root mean square error (RMSE), BIAS, and coefficient of determination (R 2) are used, and to analyze the capability to correctly detect different precipitation intensities, false alarm ratio (FAR), frequency bias index (FBI), and probability of detection (POD) are applied to various rainfall rates (0, 0.1, 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 40, 60, and 80 mm/day). Results indicate that TMPA V7 has a better performance than CMORPH RAW over Paraguay. TMPA V7 has higher accuracy in the estimation of daily rainfall volumes and greater precision in the detection of wet days (> 0 mm/day). However, both satellite products show a lower ability to appropriately detect high intensity precipitation events.

Sea level hazards: Altimetric monitoring of tsunamis and sea level rise

Science.gov (United States)

Hamlington, Benjamin Dillon

Whether on the short timescale of an impending tsunami or the much longer timescale of climate change-driven sea level rise, the threat stemming from rising and inundating ocean waters is a great concern to coastal populations. Timely and accurate observations of potentially dangerous changes in sea level are vital in determining the precautionary steps that need to be taken in order to protect coastal communities. While instruments from the past have provided in situ measurements of sea level at specific locations across the globe, satellites can be used to provide improved spatial and temporal sampling of the ocean in addition to producing more accurate measurements. Since 1993, satellite altimetry has provided accurate measurements of sea surface height (SSH) with near-global coverage. Not only have these measurements led to the first definitive estimates of global mean sea level rise, satellite altimetry observations have also been used to detect tsunami waves in the open ocean where wave amplitudes are relatively small, a vital step in providing early warning to those potentially affected by the impending tsunami. The use of satellite altimetry to monitor two specific sea level hazards is examined in this thesis. The first section will focus on the detection of tsunamis in the open ocean for the purpose of providing early warning to coastal inhabitants. The second section will focus on estimating secular trends using satellite altimetry data with the hope of improving our understanding of future sea level change. Results presented here will show the utility of satellite altimetry for sea level monitoring and will lay the foundation for further advancement in the detection of the two sea level hazards considered.

Cryosphere Monitoring from Satellites and Aircrafts

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nilsson, Johan

The cryosphere is collective term for all the components containing frozen water on the Earth’s surface. These components are highly sensitive to changes in the air temperature and precipitation, and hence to climate change. The major components of frozen water in the cryosphere are the ice sheet...... is of vital importance to gain insight into the behaviour of these systems and how they affect the global sea level. Satellite altimetry has for the last two decades been used to monitor the changes of the worlds ice sheets, allowing for the determination of their mass balance. In recent years this has been...... terrain in the Arctic region. The results from this validation study was then inter-compared with results derived from the ESA L2 baseline-B product to judge the quality of both products. From this inter-comparison it was shown that the new processing chains, developed in this thesis, performed better...

Assessing altimetry close to the coast

Science.gov (United States)

Quartly, G. D.; Nencioli, F.; Conley, D.; Abdalla, S.

2017-10-01

Radar altimetry provides measurements of sea surface elevation, wind speed and wave height, which are used operationally by many agencies and businesses, as well as for scientific research to understand the changes in the oceanatmosphere interface. For the data to be trustworthy they need to be assessed for consistency, and for bias relative to various validation datasets. Sentinel-3A, launched in Feb. 2016, promises, through new technology, to be better able to retrieve useful measurements in the coastal zone; the purpose of this paper is develop ideas on how the performance of this instrument can be assessed in that specific environment. We investigate the magnitude of short-term variability in wave height and range, and explain how two validation facilities in the southwest UK may be used.

Target Detection Based on EBPSK Satellite Passive Radar

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lu Zeyuan

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Passive radar is a topic anti stealth technology with simple structure, and low cost. Radiation source model, signal transmission model, and target detection are the key points of passive radar technology research. The paper analyzes the characteristics of EBPSK signal modulation and target detection method aspect of spaceborne radiant source. By comparison with other satellite navigation and positioning system, the characteristics of EBPSK satellite passive radar system are analyzed. It is proved that the maximum detection range of EBPSK satellite signal can satisfy the needs of the proposed model. In the passive radar model, sparse representation is used to achieve high resolution DOA detection. The comparison with the real target track by simulation demonstrates that effective detection of airborne target using EBPSK satellite passive radar system based on sparse representation is efficient.

Satellite Contamination and Materials Outgassing Knowledge base

Science.gov (United States)

Minor, Jody L.; Kauffman, William J. (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

Satellite contamination continues to be a design problem that engineers must take into account when developing new satellites. To help with this issue, NASA's Space Environments and Effects (SEE) Program funded the development of the Satellite Contamination and Materials Outgassing Knowledge base. This engineering tool brings together in one location information about the outgassing properties of aerospace materials based upon ground-testing data, the effects of outgassing that has been observed during flight and measurements of the contamination environment by on-orbit instruments. The knowledge base contains information using the ASTM Standard E- 1559 and also consolidates data from missions using quartz-crystal microbalances (QCM's). The data contained in the knowledge base was shared with NASA by government agencies and industry in the US and international space agencies as well. The term 'knowledgebase' was used because so much information and capability was brought together in one comprehensive engineering design tool. It is the SEE Program's intent to continually add additional material contamination data as it becomes available - creating a dynamic tool whose value to the user is ever increasing. The SEE Program firmly believes that NASA, and ultimately the entire contamination user community, will greatly benefit from this new engineering tool and highly encourages the community to not only use the tool but add data to it as well.

Impact of data assimilation on ocean current forecasts in the Angola Basin

Science.gov (United States)

Phillipson, Luke; Toumi, Ralf

2017-06-01

The ocean current predictability in the data limited Angola Basin was investigated using the Regional Ocean Modelling System (ROMS) with four-dimensional variational data assimilation. Six experiments were undertaken comprising a baseline case of the assimilation of salinity/temperature profiles and satellite sea surface temperature, with the subsequent addition of altimetry, OSCAR (satellite-derived sea surface currents), drifters, altimetry and drifters combined, and OSCAR and drifters combined. The addition of drifters significantly improves Lagrangian predictability in comparison to the baseline case as well as the addition of either altimetry or OSCAR. OSCAR assimilation only improves Lagrangian predictability as much as altimetry assimilation. On average the assimilation of either altimetry or OSCAR with drifter velocities does not significantly improve Lagrangian predictability compared to the drifter assimilation alone, even degrading predictability in some cases. When the forecast current speed is large, it is more likely that the combination improves trajectory forecasts. Conversely, when the currents are weaker, it is more likely that the combination degrades the trajectory forecast.

Mapping Water Level Dynamics over Central Congo River Using PALSAR Images, Envisat Altimetry, and Landsat NDVI Data

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, D.; Lee, H.; Jung, H. C.; Beighley, E.; Laraque, A.; Tshimanga, R.; Alsdorf, D. E.

2016-12-01

Rivers and wetlands are very important for ecological habitats, and it plays a key role in providing a source of greenhouse gases (CO2 and CH4). The floodplains ecosystems depend on the process between the vegetation and flood characteristics. The water level is a prerequisite to an understanding of terrestrial water storage and discharge. Despite the lack of in situ data over the Congo Basin, which is the world's third largest in size ( 3.7 million km2), and second only to the Amazon River in discharge ( 40,500 m3 s-1 annual average between 1902 and 2015 in the main Brazzaville-Kinshasa gauging station), the surface water level dynamics in the wetlands have been successfully estimated using satellite altimetry, backscattering coefficients (σ0) from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images and, interferometric SAR technique. However, the water level estimation of the Congo River remains poorly quantified due to the sparse orbital spacing of radar altimeters. Hence, we essentially have limited information only over the sparsely distributed the so-called "virtual stations". The backscattering coefficients from SAR images have been successfully used to distinguish different vegetation types, to monitor flood conditions, and to access soil moistures over the wetlands. However, σ0 has not been used to measure the water level changes over the open river because of very week return signal due to specular scattering. In this study, we have discovered that changes in σ0 over the Congo River occur mainly due to the water level changes in the river with the existence of the water plants (macrophytes, emergent plants, and submersed plant), depending on the rising and falling stage inside the depression of the "Cuvette Centrale". We expand the finding into generating the multi-temporal water level maps over the Congo River using PALSAR σ0, Envisat altimetry, and Landsat Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data. We also present preliminary estimates of the river

Preface to the Special Issue on Geodynamic and Climate-Change Processes over Tibet, Xinjiang and Siberia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cheinway Hwang

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Tibet, Xinjiang and Siberia (TibXS are regions with active plate tectonics. Evidence from satellite gravimetry and altimetry shows the hydrological evolutions over these regions are sensitive to global climate change. For example, inter-annual lake level changes over Tibet and Xinjiang from satellite altimetry are found to be connected to the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO. Lakes in central Asia, Xinjiang and Siberia show sharp changes in lake levels that can be explained by climate change. Recent terrestrial gravity, GRACE and GPS observations suggest that the crust over the Tibetan plateau is thickening, and the Himalayan glaciers appear to be thinning. Satellite altimetry is a potential tool to study vertical displacement and permafrost thawing and changes in the active layers in Siberia and Tibet.

Introducing Multisensor Satellite Radiance-Based Evaluation for Regional Earth System Modeling

Science.gov (United States)

Matsui, T.; Santanello, J.; Shi, J. J.; Tao, W.-K.; Wu, D.; Peters-Lidard, C.; Kemp, E.; Chin, M.; Starr, D.; Sekiguchi, M.;

Multi-spectral band selection for satellite-based systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Clodius, W.B.; Weber, P.G.; Borel, C.C.; Smith, B.W.

1998-01-01

The design of satellite based multispectral imaging systems requires the consideration of a number of tradeoffs between cost and performance. The authors have recently been involved in the design and evaluation of a satellite based multispectral sensor operating from the visible through the long wavelength IR. The criteria that led to some of the proposed designs and the modeling used to evaluate and fine tune the designs will both be discussed. These criteria emphasized the use of bands for surface temperature retrieval and the correction of atmospheric effects. The impact of cost estimate changes on the final design will also be discussed

MASS BALANCE CHANGES AND ICE DYNAMICS OF GREENLAND AND ANTARCTIC ICE SHEETS FROM LASER ALTIMETRY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. S. Babonis

2016-06-01

Full Text Available During the past few decades the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have lost ice at accelerating rates, caused by increasing surface temperature. The melting of the two big ice sheets has a big impact on global sea level rise. If the ice sheets would melt down entirely, the sea level would rise more than 60 m. Even a much smaller rise would cause dramatic damage along coastal regions. In this paper we report about a major upgrade of surface elevation changes derived from laser altimetry data, acquired by NASA’s Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite mission (ICESat and airborne laser campaigns, such as Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM and Land, Vegetation and Ice Sensor (LVIS. For detecting changes in ice sheet elevations we have developed the Surface Elevation Reconstruction And Change detection (SERAC method. It computes elevation changes of small surface patches by keeping the surface shape constant and considering the absolute values as surface elevations. We report about important upgrades of earlier results, for example the inclusion of local ice caps and the temporal extension from 1993 to 2014 for the Greenland Ice Sheet and for a comprehensive reconstruction of ice thickness and mass changes for the Antarctic Ice Sheets.

Deep-sea ecosystems of the Indian Ocean

Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

Ingole, B.S.; Koslow, J.A.

are potential sites for hydrothermal mineralization and contain active vent fields. There are no available estimates for the numbers of seamounts in the Indian Ocean based on echo sounder recordings. Satellite altimetry data indicate that the Indian Ocean has...

An estimation of tropospheric corrections using GPS and synoptic data: Improving Urmia Lake water level time series from Jason-2 and SARAL/AltiKa satellite altimetry

Science.gov (United States)

Arabsahebi, Reza; Voosoghi, Behzad; Tourian, Mohammad J.

2018-05-01

Tropospheric correction is one of the most important corrections in satellite altimetry measurements. Tropospheric wet and dry path delays have strong dependence on temperature, pressure and humidity. Tropospheric layer has particularly high variability over coastal regions due to humidity, wind and temperature gradients. Depending on the extent of water body and wind conditions over an inland water, Wet Tropospheric Correction (WTC) is within the ranges from a few centimeters to tens of centimeters. Therefore, an extra care is needed to estimate tropospheric corrections on the altimetric measurements over inland waters. This study assesses the role of tropospheric correction on the altimetric measurements over the Urmia Lake in Iran. For this purpose, four types of tropospheric corrections have been used: (i) microwave radiometer (MWR) observations, (ii) tropospheric corrections computed from meteorological models, (iii) GPS observations and (iv) synoptic station data. They have been applied to Jason-2 track no. 133 and SARAL/AltiKa track no. 741 and 356 corresponding to 117-153 and the 23-34 cycles, respectively. In addition, the corresponding measurements of PISTACH and PEACHI, include new retracking method and an innovative wet tropospheric correction, have also been used. Our results show that GPS observation leads to the most accurate tropospheric correction. The results obtained from the PISTACH and PEACHI projects confirm those obtained with the standard SGDR, i.e., the role of GPS in improving the tropospheric corrections. It is inferred that the MWR data from Jason-2 mission is appropriate for the tropospheric corrections, however the SARAL/AltiKa one is not proper because Jason-2 possesses an enhanced WTC near the coast. Furthermore, virtual stations are defined for assessment of the results in terms of time series of Water Level Height (WLH). The results show that GPS tropospheric corrections lead to the most accurate WLH estimation for the selected

Understanding satellite-based monthly-to-seasonal reservoir outflow estimation as a function of hydrologic controls

Science.gov (United States)

Bonnema, Matthew; Sikder, Safat; Miao, Yabin; Chen, Xiaodong; Hossain, Faisal; Ara Pervin, Ismat; Mahbubur Rahman, S. M.; Lee, Hyongki

2016-05-01

Growing population and increased demand for water is causing an increase in dam and reservoir construction in developing nations. When rivers cross international boundaries, the downstream stakeholders often have little knowledge of upstream reservoir operation practices. Satellite remote sensing in the form of radar altimetry and multisensor precipitation products can be used as a practical way to provide downstream stakeholders with the fundamentally elusive upstream information on reservoir outflow needed to make important and proactive water management decisions. This study uses a mass balance approach of three hydrologic controls to estimate reservoir outflow from satellite data at monthly and annual time scales: precipitation-induced inflow, evaporation, and reservoir storage change. Furthermore, this study explores the importance of each of these hydrologic controls to the accuracy of outflow estimation. The hydrologic controls found to be unimportant could potentially be neglected from similar future studies. Two reservoirs were examined in contrasting regions of the world, the Hungry Horse Reservoir in a mountainous region in northwest U.S. and the Kaptai Reservoir in a low-lying, forested region of Bangladesh. It was found that this mass balance method estimated the annual outflow of both reservoirs with reasonable skill. The estimation of monthly outflow from both reservoirs was however less accurate. The Kaptai basin exhibited a shift in basin behavior resulting in variable accuracy across the 9 year study period. Monthly outflow estimation from Hungry Horse Reservoir was compounded by snow accumulation and melt processes, reflected by relatively low accuracy in summer and fall, when snow processes control runoff. Furthermore, it was found that the important hydrologic controls for reservoir outflow estimation at the monthly time scale differs between the two reservoirs, with precipitation-induced inflow being the most important control for the Kaptai

Satellite based wind resource assessment over the South China Sea

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Badger, Merete; Astrup, Poul; Hasager, Charlotte Bay

2014-01-01

variations are clearly visible across the domain; for instance sheltering effects caused by the land masses. The satellite based wind resource maps have two shortcomings. One is the lack of information at the higher vertical levels where wind turbines operate. The other is the limited number of overlapping...... years of WRF data – specifically the parameters heat flux, air temperature, and friction velocity – are used to calculate a long-term correction for atmospheric stability effects. The stability correction is applied to the satellite based wind resource maps together with a vertical wind profile...... from satellite synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data are particularly suitable for offshore wind energy applications because they offer a spatial resolution up to 500 m and include coastal seas. In this presentation, satellite wind maps are used in combination with mast observations and numerical...

Reconciled freshwater flux into the Godthåbsfjord system from satellite and airborne remote sensing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Simonsen, Sebastian Bjerregaard; Barletta, Valentina Roberta; Forsberg, René

2015-01-01

IS hamper in situ observations. Here, we evaluate available data from remote sensing and find a drainage basin in rapid change. An analysis of data from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites shows a mean seasonal freshwater flux into Godthåbsfjord of 18.2 ± 1.2 Gt, in addition......, from various remote-sensing data sets, estimate the freshwater flux from the GrIS into a specific fjord system, the Godthåbsfjord, in southwest Greenland. The area of the GrIS draining into Godthåbsfjord covers approximately 36,700 km2. The large areal extent and the multiple outlets from the Gr...... to an imbalance in the mass balance of the drainage basin from 2003 to 2013 of 14.4 ± 0.2 Gt year−1. Altimetry data from air and spaceborne missions also suggest rapid changes in the outlet glacier dynamics. We find that only applying data from the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) mission...

Satellites

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Burns, J.A.; Matthews, M.S.

1986-01-01

The present work is based on a conference: Natural Satellites, Colloquium 77 of the IAU, held at Cornell University from July 5 to 9, 1983. Attention is given to the background and origins of satellites, protosatellite swarms, the tectonics of icy satellites, the physical characteristics of satellite surfaces, and the interactions of planetary magnetospheres with icy satellite surfaces. Other topics include the surface composition of natural satellites, the cratering of planetary satellites, the moon, Io, and Europa. Consideration is also given to Ganymede and Callisto, the satellites of Saturn, small satellites, satellites of Uranus and Neptune, and the Pluto-Charon system

Satellite observations of an annual cycle in the Agulhas Current

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Krug, Marjolaine, J

2012-08-01

Full Text Available years of along-track altimetry and merged altimetry and close to 7 years of high frequency Sea Surface Temperature (SST) observations. While the position and width of the Agulhas Current’s dynamical core do not display an annual cycle, the geostrophic...

Antarctic 1 km Digital Elevation Model (DEM) from Combined ERS-1 Radar and ICESat Laser Satellite Altimetry

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — This data set provides a 1 km resolution Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of Antarctica. The DEM combines measurements from the European Remote Sensing Satellite-1...

Geographical representation of radial orbit perturbations due to ocean tides: Implications for satellite altimetry

Science.gov (United States)

Bettadpur, Srinivas V.; Eanes, Richard J.

1994-01-01

In analogy to the geographical representation of the zeroth-order radial orbit perturbations due to the static geopotential, similar relationships have been derived for radial orbit perturbations due to the ocean tides. At each location these perturbations are seen to be coherent with the tide height variations. The study of this singularity is of obvious importance to the estimation of ocean tides from satellite altimeter data. We derive analytical expressions for the sensitivity of altimeter derived ocean tide models to the ocean tide force model induced errors in the orbits of the altimeter satellite. In particular, we focus on characterizing and quantifying the nonresonant tidal orbit perturbations, which cannot be adjusted into the empirical accelerations or radial perturbation adjustments commonly used during orbit determination and in altimeter data processing. As an illustration of the utility of this technique, we study the differences between a TOPEX/POSEIDON-derived ocean tide model and the Cartwright and Ray 1991 Geosat model. This analysis shows that nearly 60% of the variance of this difference for M(sub 2) can be explained by the Geosat radial orbit eror due to the omission of coefficients from the GEM-T2 background ocean tide model. For O(sub 1), K(sub 1), S(sub 2), and K(sub 2) the orbital effects account for approximately 10 to 40% of the variances of these differences. The utility of this technique to assessment of the ocean tide induced errors in the TOPEX/POSEIDON-derived tide models is also discussed.

Using GPS, tide gauge and altimetry data to constrain subduction parameters at the Vanuatu plate boundary.

Science.gov (United States)

Ballu, V.; Bouin, M.; Baillard, C.; Calmant, S.; Pelletier, B.; Crawford, W. C.; Kanas, T.; Garaebiti, E.

2012-12-01

two offshore sites using absolute pressure gauges. The sites - Wusi and Sabine Banks - are installed beneath altimetry satellite tracks, Wusi Bank on the over-riding plate and Sabine Bank on the subducting plate. The difference in the pressure records between the sites shows that Wusi Bank subsides by 11 +/- 3 mm/yr with respect to Sabine Bank. We combined the water depths derived from the pressure measurements with altimetry-derived sea-surface heights to tie these heights to a global reference frame: Wusi Bank subsides and Sabine Bank's vertical motion is near zero. Using a 2D elastic model and a finite-element code, we used the gradient of vertical deformation between the coast and the Wusi Bank site to discriminate between possible locked zone geometries. The best simple approximation is a 25° dipping, 30 km long fully locked zone, indicating that stress is currently accumulating west of Santo, Central Vanuatu. The movement of Wusi Bank is a key factor in constraining the dip and length of the locked zone, demonstrating the importance of offshore geodesy measurements.

Building a satellite climate diagnostics data base for real-time climate monitoring

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ropelewski, C.F.

1991-01-01

The paper discusses the development of a data base, the Satellite Climate Diagnostic Data Base (SCDDB), for real time operational climate monitoring utilizing current satellite data. Special attention is given to the satellite-derived quantities useful for monitoring global climate changes, the requirements of SCDDB, and the use of conventional meteorological data and model assimilated data in developing the SCDDB. Examples of prototype SCDDB products are presented. 10 refs

Validation of Sea levels from coastal altimetry waveform retracking expert system: a case study around the Prince William Sound in Alaska

Science.gov (United States)

Idris, N. H.; Deng, X.; Idris, N. H.

2017-05-01

This paper presents the validation of Coastal Altimetry Waveform Retracking Expert System (CAWRES), a novel method to optimize the Jason satellite altimetric sea levels from multiple retracking solutions. The validation is conducted over the region of Prince William Sound in Alaska, USA, where altimetric waveforms are perturbed by emerged land and sea states. Validation is performed in twofold. First, comparison with existing retrackers (i.e. MLE4 and Ice) from the Sensor Geophysical Data Records (SGDR), and second, comparison with in-situ tide gauge data. From the first validation assessment, in general, CAWRES outperforms the MLE4 and Ice retrackers. In 4 out of 6 cases, the value of improvement percentage (standard deviation of difference) is higher (lower) than those of the SGDR retrackers. CAWRES also presents the best performance in producing valid observations, and has the lowest noise when compared to the SGDR retrackers. From the second assessment with tide gauge, CAWRES retracked sea level anomalies (SLAs) are consistent with those of the tide gauge. The accuracy of CAWRES retracked SLAs is slightly better than those of the MLE4. However, the performance of Ice retracker is better than those of CAWRES and MLE4, suggesting the empirical-based retracker is more effective. The results demonstrate that the CAWRES would have potential to be applied to coastal regions elsewhere.

A near real-time satellite-based global drought climate data record

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

AghaKouchak, Amir; Nakhjiri, Navid

2012-01-01

Reliable drought monitoring requires long-term and continuous precipitation data. High resolution satellite measurements provide valuable precipitation information on a quasi-global scale. However, their short lengths of records limit their applications in drought monitoring. In addition to this limitation, long-term low resolution satellite-based gauge-adjusted data sets such as the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) one are not available in near real-time form for timely drought monitoring. This study bridges the gap between low resolution long-term satellite gauge-adjusted data and the emerging high resolution satellite precipitation data sets to create a long-term climate data record of droughts. To accomplish this, a Bayesian correction algorithm is used to combine GPCP data with real-time satellite precipitation data sets for drought monitoring and analysis. The results showed that the combined data sets after the Bayesian correction were a significant improvement compared to the uncorrected data. Furthermore, several recent major droughts such as the 2011 Texas, 2010 Amazon and 2010 Horn of Africa droughts were detected in the combined real-time and long-term satellite observations. This highlights the potential application of satellite precipitation data for regional to global drought monitoring. The final product is a real-time data-driven satellite-based standardized precipitation index that can be used for drought monitoring especially over remote and/or ungauged regions. (letter)

Observations of the Mf ocean tide from Geosat altimetry

Science.gov (United States)

Cartwright, David E.; Ray, Richard D.

1990-01-01

Zonal averages of the 13.66-day Mf tide are derived from one year of Geosat altimetry records. The orbit errors are reduced by 1/revolution corrections taken over long (several day) arcs. The short-period tides are removed using a model previously derived from the same data. The Mf zonal averages indicate definite nonequilibrium character at nearly all latitudes. The imaginary admittances indicate a Q of at least 8; such a value is consistent with a simplified theory of coupled gravitational and vorticity modes and suggests a value for Proudman's 'friction period' about 123 days.

Assessing satellite-based start-of-season trends in the US High Plains

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lin, X; Sassenrath, G F; Hubbard, K G; Mahmood, R

2014-01-01

To adequately assess the effects of global warming it is necessary to address trends and impacts at the local level. This study examines phenological changes in the start-of-season (SOS) derived from satellite observations from 1982–2008 in the US High Plains region. The surface climate-based SOS was also evaluated. The averaged profiles of SOS from 37° to 49°N latitude by satellite- and climate-based methods were in reasonable agreement, especially for areas where croplands were masked out and an additional frost date threshold was adopted. The statistically significant trends of satellite-based SOS show a later spring arrival ranging from 0.1 to 4.9 days decade −1 over nine Level III ecoregions. We found the croplands generally exhibited larger trends (later arrival) than the non-croplands. The area-averaged satellite-based SOS for non-croplands (i.e. mostly grasslands) showed no significant trends. We examined the trends of temperatures, precipitation, and standardized precipitation index (SPI), as well as the strength of correlation between the satellite-based SOS and these climatic drivers. Our results indicate that satellite-based SOS trends are spatially and primarily related to annual maximum normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI, mostly in summertime) and/or annual minimum NDVI (mostly in wintertime) and these trends showed the best correlation with six-month SPI over the period 1982–2008 in the US High Plains region. (letter)

Research on orbit prediction for solar-based calibration proper satellite

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Xuan; Qi, Wenwen; Xu, Peng

2018-03-01

Utilizing the mathematical model of the orbit mechanics, the orbit prediction is to forecast the space target's orbit information of a certain time based on the orbit of the initial moment. The proper satellite radiometric calibration and calibration orbit prediction process are introduced briefly. On the basis of the research of the calibration space position design method and the radiative transfer model, an orbit prediction method for proper satellite radiometric calibration is proposed to select the appropriate calibration arc for the remote sensor and to predict the orbit information of the proper satellite and the remote sensor. By analyzing the orbit constraint of the proper satellite calibration, the GF-1solar synchronous orbit is chose as the proper satellite orbit in order to simulate the calibration visible durance for different satellites to be calibrated. The results of simulation and analysis provide the basis for the improvement of the radiometric calibration accuracy of the satellite remote sensor, which lays the foundation for the high precision and high frequency radiometric calibration.

Mean dynamic topography over Peninsular Malaysian seas using multimission satellite altimetry

Science.gov (United States)

Abazu, Isaac Chidi; Din, Ami Hassan Md; Omar, Kamaludin Mohd

2017-04-01

The development of satellite altimeters (SALTs) has brought huge benefits, among which is the ability to more adequately sense ocean-surface topography. The radar altimeter database system was used to capture and process ENVISAT, CRYOSAT-2, SARAL, JASON-1, and JASON-2 SALT data of 5 years between 2011 and 2015. The time series of monthly multimission SALT data showed an estimated sea level trend of 1.0, 2.4, 2.4, 3.6, and 12.0 mm/year at Gelang, Port Kelang, Kukup, Cendering, and Keling. The correlation analysis for the selected tide gauge stations produced satisfying results of R-squared with 0.86, 0.89, 0.91, and 0.97 for Cendering, Sedili, Gelang, and Geting, respectively. The ITG-Grace2010s geoid model was used to compute the mean dynamic topography (MDT) and plot to a grid of 0.25 deg for the Malacca Strait and South China Sea of Peninsular Malaysia, with Keling, Port Kelang, Geting, Sedili, and Johor Bahru tide gauge stations having values determined by interpolation to be 1.14, 1.19, 1.26, 1.88, and 2.91 m, respectively. MDT is computed from the SALT with respect to Port Kelang, the north-south sea slope ranges between -0.64 and 0.29 m/50 km and -0.01 and 0.52 m/50 km along the east and west coasts of Peninsular Malaysia, respectively.

Separation of atmospheric, oceanic and hydrological polar motion excitation mechanisms based on a combination of geometric and gravimetric space observations

Science.gov (United States)

Göttl, F.; Schmidt, M.; Seitz, F.; Bloßfeld, M.

2015-04-01

The goal of our study is to determine accurate time series of geophysical Earth rotation excitations to learn more about global dynamic processes in the Earth system. For this purpose, we developed an adjustment model which allows to combine precise observations from space geodetic observation systems, such as Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR), Global Navigation Satellite Systems, Very Long Baseline Interferometry, Doppler Orbit determination and Radiopositioning Integrated on Satellite, satellite altimetry and satellite gravimetry in order to separate geophysical excitation mechanisms of Earth rotation. Three polar motion time series are applied to derive the polar motion excitation functions (integral effect). Furthermore we use five time variable gravity field solutions from Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment to determine not only the integral mass effect but also the oceanic and hydrological mass effects by applying suitable filter techniques and a land-ocean mask. For comparison the integral mass effect is also derived from degree 2 potential coefficients that are estimated from SLR observations. The oceanic mass effect is also determined from sea level anomalies observed by satellite altimetry by reducing the steric sea level anomalies derived from temperature and salinity fields of the oceans. Due to the combination of all geodetic estimated excitations the weaknesses of the individual processing strategies can be reduced and the technique-specific strengths can be accounted for. The formal errors of the adjusted geodetic solutions are smaller than the RMS differences of the geophysical model solutions. The improved excitation time series can be used to improve the geophysical modeling.

Airborne laser altimetry and multispectral imagery for modeling Golden-cheeked Warbler (Setophaga chrysoparia) density

Science.gov (United States)

Steven E. Sesnie; James M. Mueller; Sarah E. Lehnen; Scott M. Rowin; Jennifer L. Reidy; Frank R. Thompson

2016-01-01

Robust models of wildlife population size, spatial distribution, and habitat relationships are needed to more effectively monitor endangered species and prioritize habitat conservation efforts. Remotely sensed data such as airborne laser altimetry (LiDAR) and digital color infrared (CIR) aerial photography combined with well-designed field studies can help fill these...

Tracking target objects orbiting earth using satellite-based telescopes

Science.gov (United States)

De Vries, Willem H; Olivier, Scot S; Pertica, Alexander J

2014-10-14

A system for tracking objects that are in earth orbit via a constellation or network of satellites having imaging devices is provided. An object tracking system includes a ground controller and, for each satellite in the constellation, an onboard controller. The ground controller receives ephemeris information for a target object and directs that ephemeris information be transmitted to the satellites. Each onboard controller receives ephemeris information for a target object, collects images of the target object based on the expected location of the target object at an expected time, identifies actual locations of the target object from the collected images, and identifies a next expected location at a next expected time based on the identified actual locations of the target object. The onboard controller processes the collected image to identify the actual location of the target object and transmits the actual location information to the ground controller.

Preface to the Special Issue on Geodynamic and Climate-Change Processes over Tibet, Xinjiang and Siberia

OpenAIRE

Cheinway Hwang; Benjamin Fong Chao; Jeffrey T. Freymueller; Wenbin Shen; C. K. Shum

2011-01-01

Tibet, Xinjiang and Siberia (TibXS) are regions with active plate tectonics. Evidence from satellite gravimetry and altimetry shows the hydrological evolutions over these regions are sensitive to global climate change. For example, inter-annual lake level changes over Tibet and Xinjiang from satellite altimetry are found to be connected to the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Lakes in central Asia, Xinjiang and Siberia show sharp changes in lake levels that can be explained by climate cha...

Scheduling algorithm for data relay satellite optical communication based on artificial intelligent optimization

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Wei-hu; Zhao, Jing; Zhao, Shang-hong; Li, Yong-jun; Wang, Xiang; Dong, Yi; Dong, Chen

2013-08-01

Optical satellite communication with the advantages of broadband, large capacity and low power consuming broke the bottleneck of the traditional microwave satellite communication. The formation of the Space-based Information System with the technology of high performance optical inter-satellite communication and the realization of global seamless coverage and mobile terminal accessing are the necessary trend of the development of optical satellite communication. Considering the resources, missions and restraints of Data Relay Satellite Optical Communication System, a model of optical communication resources scheduling is established and a scheduling algorithm based on artificial intelligent optimization is put forwarded. According to the multi-relay-satellite, multi-user-satellite, multi-optical-antenna and multi-mission with several priority weights, the resources are scheduled reasonable by the operation: "Ascertain Current Mission Scheduling Time" and "Refresh Latter Mission Time-Window". The priority weight is considered as the parameter of the fitness function and the scheduling project is optimized by the Genetic Algorithm. The simulation scenarios including 3 relay satellites with 6 optical antennas, 12 user satellites and 30 missions, the simulation result reveals that the algorithm obtain satisfactory results in both efficiency and performance and resources scheduling model and the optimization algorithm are suitable in multi-relay-satellite, multi-user-satellite, and multi-optical-antenna recourses scheduling problem.

Evaluating the hydrological consistency of satellite based water cycle components

KAUST Repository

Lopez Valencia, Oliver Miguel

2016-06-15

Advances in multi-satellite based observations of the earth system have provided the capacity to retrieve information across a wide-range of land surface hydrological components and provided an opportunity to characterize terrestrial processes from a completely new perspective. Given the spatial advantage that space-based observations offer, several regional-to-global scale products have been developed, offering insights into the multi-scale behaviour and variability of hydrological states and fluxes. However, one of the key challenges in the use of satellite-based products is characterizing the degree to which they provide realistic and representative estimates of the underlying retrieval: that is, how accurate are the hydrological components derived from satellite observations? The challenge is intrinsically linked to issues of scale, since the availability of high-quality in-situ data is limited, and even where it does exist, is generally not commensurate to the resolution of the satellite observation. Basin-scale studies have shown considerable variability in achieving water budget closure with any degree of accuracy using satellite estimates of the water cycle. In order to assess the suitability of this type of approach for evaluating hydrological observations, it makes sense to first test it over environments with restricted hydrological inputs, before applying it to more hydrological complex basins. Here we explore the concept of hydrological consistency, i.e. the physical considerations that the water budget impose on the hydrologic fluxes and states to be temporally and spatially linked, to evaluate the reproduction of a set of large-scale evaporation (E) products by using a combination of satellite rainfall (P) and Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) observations of storage change, focusing on arid and semi-arid environments, where the hydrological flows can be more realistically described. Our results indicate no persistent hydrological

Journal of Earth System Science | Indian Academy of Sciences

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Ocean modellers use bathymetric datasets like ETOPO5 and ETOPO2 to represent the ocean bottom topography. The former dataset is based on digitization of depth contours greater than 200m, and the latter is based on satellite altimetry. Hence, they are not always reliable in shallow regions. An improved shelf bathymetry ...

SOFT project: a new forecasting system based on satellite data

Science.gov (United States)

Pascual, Ananda; Orfila, A.; Alvarez, Alberto; Hernandez, E.; Gomis, D.; Barth, Alexander; Tintore, Joaquim

2002-01-01

The aim of the SOFT project is to develop a new ocean forecasting system by using a combination of satellite dat, evolutionary programming and numerical ocean models. To achieve this objective two steps are proved: (1) to obtain an accurate ocean forecasting system using genetic algorithms based on satellite data; and (2) to integrate the above new system into existing deterministic numerical models. Evolutionary programming will be employed to build 'intelligent' systems that, learning form the past ocean variability and considering the present ocean state, will be able to infer near future ocean conditions. Validation of the forecast skill will be carried out by comparing the forecasts fields with satellite and in situ observations. Validation with satellite observations will provide the expected errors in the forecasting system. Validation with in situ data will indicate the capabilities of the satellite based forecast information to improve the performance of the numerical ocean models. This later validation will be accomplished considering in situ measurements in a specific oceanographic area at two different periods of time. The first set of observations will be employed to feed the hybrid systems while the second set will be used to validate the hybrid and traditional numerical model results.

Sequential optimization of a terrestrial biosphere model constrained by multiple satellite based products

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Ichii, K.; Kondo, M.; Wang, W.; Hashimoto, H.; Nemani, R. R.

2012-12-01

Various satellite-based spatial products such as evapotranspiration (ET) and gross primary productivity (GPP) are now produced by integration of ground and satellite observations. Effective use of these multiple satellite-based products in terrestrial biosphere models is an important step toward better understanding of terrestrial carbon and water cycles. However, due to the complexity of terrestrial biosphere models with large number of model parameters, the application of these spatial data sets in terrestrial biosphere models is difficult. In this study, we established an effective but simple framework to refine a terrestrial biosphere model, Biome-BGC, using multiple satellite-based products as constraints. We tested the framework in the monsoon Asia region covered by AsiaFlux observations. The framework is based on the hierarchical analysis (Wang et al. 2009) with model parameter optimization constrained by satellite-based spatial data. The Biome-BGC model is separated into several tiers to minimize the freedom of model parameter selections and maximize the independency from the whole model. For example, the snow sub-model is first optimized using MODIS snow cover product, followed by soil water sub-model optimized by satellite-based ET (estimated by an empirical upscaling method; Support Vector Regression (SVR) method; Yang et al. 2007), photosynthesis model optimized by satellite-based GPP (based on SVR method), and respiration and residual carbon cycle models optimized by biomass data. As a result of initial assessment, we found that most of default sub-models (e.g. snow, water cycle and carbon cycle) showed large deviations from remote sensing observations. However, these biases were removed by applying the proposed framework. For example, gross primary productivities were initially underestimated in boreal and temperate forest and overestimated in tropical forests. However, the parameter optimization scheme successfully reduced these biases. Our analysis

Proposed systems configurations for a satellite based ISDN

Science.gov (United States)

Capece, M.; Pavesi, B.; Tozzi, P.; Galligan, K. P.

This paper summarizes concepts developed during a study for the ESA in which the evolution of ISDN capability and the impact in the satellite land mobile area are examined. Following the progressive steps of the expected ISDN implementation and the potential market penetration, a space based system capable of satisfying particular user services classes has been investigated. The approach used is to establish a comparison between the requirements of potential mobile users and the services already envisaged by ISDN, identifying the service subclasses that might be adopted in a mobile environment through a satellite system. Two system alternatives, with different ISDN compatibility, have been identified. The first option allows a partial compatibility, by providing the central stations of the earth segment with suitable interface units. The second option permits a full integration, operating on the satellite on-board capabilities.

A MEMS-based Adaptive AHRS for Marine Satellite Tracking Antenna

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wang, Yunlong; Hussain, Dil Muhammed Akbar; Soltani, Mohsen

2015-01-01

Satellite tracking is a challenging task for marine applications. An attitude determination system should estimate the wave disturbances on the ship body accurately. To achieve this, an Attitude Heading Reference System (AHRS) based on Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) sensors, composed...... of three-axis gyroscope, accelerometer and magnetometer, is developed for Marine Satellite Tracking Antenna (MSTA). In this paper, the attitude determination algorithm is improved using an adaptive mechanism that tunes the attitude estimator parameters based on an estimation of ship motion frequency...

Satellite-based technique for nowcasting of thunderstorms over ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Suman Goyal

2017-08-31

Aug 31, 2017 ... Due to inadequate radar network, satellite plays the dominant role for nowcast of these thunderstorms. In this study, a nowcast based algorithm ForTracc developed by Vila ... of actual development of cumulonimbus clouds, ... MCS over Indian region using Infrared Channel ... (2016) based on case study of.

Time series for water levels in virtual gauge stations in the Amazon basin using satellite radar altimetry

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Juan Gabriel León Hernández

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Using satellite altimeter radar technology for monitoring changes in water levels at continental scale is a relatively recent ad- vance. Several studies have demonstrated the interest being shown in applying this technology to monitoring the hydrographic patterns of large-scale basins worldwide. The current study presents the inference of time series representing changes in water le- vel for bodies of water by defining virtual gauge stations deduced for two very different rivers in terms of their biophysical and to- pographic characteristics; the two rivers were the Rio Negro in the Brazilian Amazon Basin and the Caqueta River on the Colombian side. The differences between the two rivers revealed the limits of satellite radar altimeter when applied to continental waters (±20cm and ±40 cm precision for Río Negro and Río Caquetá, respectively. However, applying this technology seems very promising, since new missions have been scheduled to be put into orbit by the end of 2008.

Characterization of Terrestrial Water Dynamics in the Congo Basin Using GRACE and Satellite Radar Altimetry

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Lee, Lyongki; Beighley, R. Edward; Alsdorf, Douglas; Jung, Hahn Chul; Shum, C. K.; Duan, Jianbin; Guo, Junyi; Yamazaki, Dai; Andreadis, Konstantinos

2011-01-01

The Congo Basin is the world's third largest in size (approximately 3.7 million km^2), and second only to the Amazon River in discharge (approximately 40,200 cms annual average). However, the hydrological dynamics of seasonally flooded wetlands and floodplains remains poorly quantified. Here, we separate the Congo wetland into four 3 degree x 3 degree regions, and use remote sensing measurements (i.e., GRACE, satellite radar altimeter, GPCP, JERS-1, SRTM, and MODIS) to estimate the amounts of water filling and draining from the Congo wetland, and to determine the source of the water. We find that the amount of water annually filling and draining the Congo wetlands is 111 km^3, which is about one-third the size of the water volumes found on the mainstem Amazon floodplain. Based on amplitude comparisons among the water volume changes and timing comparisons among their fluxes, we conclude that the local upland runoff is the main source of the Congo wetland water, not the fluvial process of river-floodplain water exchange as in the Amazon. Our hydraulic analysis using altimeter measurements also supports our conclusion by demonstrating that water surface elevations in the wetlands are consistently higher than the adjacent river water levels. Our research also highlights differences in the hydrology and hydrodynamics between the Congo wetland and the mainstem Amazon floodplain.

Surface Freshwater Storage Variations in the Orinoco Floodplains Using Multi-Satellite Observations

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Frédéric Frappart

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Variations in surface water extent and storage are poorly characterized from regional to global scales. In this study, a multi-satellite approach is proposed to estimate the water stored in the floodplains of the Orinoco Basin at a monthly time-scale using remotely-sensed observations of surface water from the Global Inundation Extent Multi-Satellite (GIEMS and stages from Envisat radar altimetry. Surface water storage variations over 2003–2007 exhibit large interannual variability and a strong seasonal signal, peaking during summer, and associated with the flood pulse. The volume of surface water storage in the Orinoco Basin was highly correlated with the river discharge at Ciudad Bolivar (R = 0.95, the closest station to the mouth where discharge was estimated, although discharge lagged one month behind storage. The correlation remained high (R = 0.73 after removing seasonal effects. Mean annual variations in surface water volume represented ~170 km3, contributing to ~45% of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE-derived total water storage variations and representing ~13% of the total volume of water that flowed out of the Orinoco Basin to the Atlantic Ocean.

Impact of Surface Soil Moisture Variations on Radar Altimetry Echoes at Ku and Ka Bands in Semi-Arid Areas

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christophe Fatras

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Radar altimetry provides information on the topography of the Earth surface. It is commonly used for the monitoring not only sea surface height but also ice sheets topography and inland water levels. The radar altimetry backscattering coefficient, which depends on surface roughness and water content, can be related to surface properties such as surface soil moisture content. In this study, the influence of surface soil moisture on the radar altimetry echo and backscattering coefficient is analyzed over semi-arid areas. A semi-empirical model of the soil’s complex dielectric permittivity that takes into account that small-scale roughness and large-scale topography was developed to simulate the radar echoes. It was validated using waveforms acquired at Ku and Ka-bands by ENVISAT RA-2 and SARAL AltiKa respectively over several sites in Mali. Correlation coefficients ranging from 0.66 to 0.94 at Ku-band and from 0.27 to 0.96 at Ka-band were found. The increase in surface soil moisture from 0.02 to 0.4 (i.e., the typical range of variations in semi-arid areas increase the backscattering from 10 to 15 dB between the core of the dry and the maximum of the rainy seasons.

Water level monitoring using radar remote sensing data: Application to Lake Kivu, central Africa

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Munyaneza, Omar; Wali, Umaru G.; Uhlenbrook, Stefan; Maskey, Shreedhar; Mlotha, McArd J.

Satellite radar altimetry measures the time required for a pulse to travel from the satellite antenna to the earth’s surface and back to the satellite receiver. Altimetry on inland lakes generally shows some deviation from in situ level measurements. The deviation is attributed to the geographically varying corrections applied to account for atmospheric effects on radar waves. This study was focused on verification of altimetry data for Lake Kivu (2400 km 2), a large inland lake between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and estimating the lake water levels using bathymetric data combined with satellite images. Altimetry data obtained from ENVISAT and ERS-2 satellite missions were compared with water level data from gauging stations for Lake Kivu. Gauge data for Lake Kivu were collected from the stations ELECTROGAZ and Rusizi. ENVISAT and ERS-2 data sets for Lake Kivu are in good agreement with gauge data having R2 of 0.86 and 0.77, respectively. A combination of the two data sets improved the coefficient of determination to 95% due to the improved temporal resolution of the data sets. The calculated standard deviation for Lake Kivu water levels was 0.642 m and 0.701 m, for ENVISAT and ERS-2 measurements, respectively. The elevation-surface area characteristics derived from bathymetric data in combination with satellite images were used to estimate the lake level gauge. Consequently, the water level of Lake Kivu could be estimated with an RMSE of 0.294 m and an accuracy of ±0.58 m. In situations where gauges become malfunctioning or inaccessible due to damage or extreme meteorological events, the method can be used to ensure data continuity.

Photon Pressure Force on Space Debris TOPEX/Poseidon Measured by Satellite Laser Ranging

Science.gov (United States)

Kucharski, D.; Kirchner, G.; Bennett, J. C.; Lachut, M.; Sośnica, K.; Koshkin, N.; Shakun, L.; Koidl, F.; Steindorfer, M.; Wang, P.; Fan, C.; Han, X.; Grunwaldt, L.; Wilkinson, M.; Rodríguez, J.; Bianco, G.; Vespe, F.; Catalán, M.; Salmins, K.; del Pino, J. R.; Lim, H.-C.; Park, E.; Moore, C.; Lejba, P.; Suchodolski, T.

2017-10-01

The (TOPography EXperiment) TOPEX/Poseidon (T/P) altimetry mission operated for 13 years before the satellite was decommissioned in January 2006, becoming a large space debris object at an altitude of 1,340 km. Since the end of the mission, the interaction of T/P with the space environment has driven the satellite's spin dynamics. Satellite laser ranging (SLR) measurements collected from June 2014 to October 2016 allow for the satellite spin axis orientation to be determined with an accuracy of 1.7°. The spin axis coincides with the platform yaw axis (formerly pointing in the nadir direction) about which the body rotates in a counterclockwise direction. The combined photometric and SLR data collected over the 11 year time span indicates that T/P has continuously gained rotational energy at an average rate of 2.87 J/d and spins with a period of 10.73 s as of 19 October 2016. The satellite attitude model shows a variation of the cross-sectional area in the Sun direction between 8.2 m2 and 34 m2. The direct solar radiation pressure is the main factor responsible for the spin-up of the body, and the exerted photon force varies from 65 μN to 228 μN around the mean value of 138.6 μN. Including realistic surface force modeling in orbit propagation algorithms will improve the prediction accuracy, giving better conjunction warnings for scenarios like the recent close approach reported by the ILRS Space Debris Study Group—an approximate 400 m flyby between T/P and Jason-2 on 20 June 2017.

Overview of Boundary Layer Clouds Using Satellite and Ground-Based Measurements

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Xi, B.; Dong, X.; Wu, P.; Qiu, S.

2017-12-01

A comprehensive summary of boundary layer clouds properties based on our few recently studies will be presented. The analyses include the global cloud fractions and cloud macro/micro- physical properties based on satellite measurements using both CERES-MODIS and CloudSat/Caliposo data products,; the annual/seasonal/diurnal variations of stratocumulus clouds over different climate regions (mid-latitude land, mid-latitude ocean, and Arctic region) using DOE ARM ground-based measurements over Southern great plain (SGP), Azores (GRW), and North slope of Alaska (NSA) sites; the impact of environmental conditions to the formation and dissipation process of marine boundary layer clouds over Azores site; characterizing Arctice mixed-phase cloud structure and favorable environmental conditions for the formation/maintainess of mixed-phase clouds over NSA site. Though the presentation has widely spread topics, we will focus on the representation of the ground-based measurements over different climate regions; evaluation of satellite retrieved cloud properties using these ground-based measurements, and understanding the uncertainties of both satellite and ground-based retrievals and measurements.

Confidence and sensitivity of sea-level reconstructions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Svendsen, Peter Limkilde

For the last two decades, satellite altimetry has provided a near-global view of spatial and temporal patterns in sea surface height (SSH). When combined with records from tide gauges, a historical reconstruction of sea level can be obtained; while tide gauge records span up to 200 years back...... nature of the data fields. We examine the sensitivity of a reconstruction with respect to the length of calibration time series, and the spatial distribution of tide gauges or other proxy data. In addition, we consider the eect of isolating certain physical phenomena (e.g. ENSO) and annual signals...... and modelling these outside the reconstruction. The implementation is currently based on data from compound satellite datasets (i.e., two decades of altimetry), and the Simple Ocean Data Assimilation (SODA) model, an existing reconstruction, where a calibration period can be easily extracted and our model...

Satellite-based Tropical Cyclone Monitoring Capabilities

Science.gov (United States)

Hawkins, J.; Richardson, K.; Surratt, M.; Yang, S.; Lee, T. F.; Sampson, C. R.; Solbrig, J.; Kuciauskas, A. P.; Miller, S. D.; Kent, J.

2012-12-01

Satellite remote sensing capabilities to monitor tropical cyclone (TC) location, structure, and intensity have evolved by utilizing a combination of operational and research and development (R&D) sensors. The microwave imagers from the operational Defense Meteorological Satellite Program [Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) and the Special Sensor Microwave Imager Sounder (SSMIS)] form the "base" for structure observations due to their ability to view through upper-level clouds, modest size swaths and ability to capture most storm structure features. The NASA TRMM microwave imager and precipitation radar continue their 15+ yearlong missions in serving the TC warning and research communities. The cessation of NASA's QuikSCAT satellite after more than a decade of service is sorely missed, but India's OceanSat-2 scatterometer is now providing crucial ocean surface wind vectors in addition to the Navy's WindSat ocean surface wind vector retrievals. Another Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) onboard EUMETSAT's MetOp-2 satellite is slated for launch soon. Passive microwave imagery has received a much needed boost with the launch of the French/Indian Megha Tropiques imager in September 2011, basically greatly supplementing the very successful NASA TRMM pathfinder with a larger swath and more frequent temporal sampling. While initial data issues have delayed data utilization, current news indicates this data will be available in 2013. Future NASA Global Precipitation Mission (GPM) sensors starting in 2014 will provide enhanced capabilities. Also, the inclusion of the new microwave sounder data from the NPP ATMS (Oct 2011) will assist in mapping TC convective structures. The National Polar orbiting Partnership (NPP) program's VIIRS sensor includes a day night band (DNB) with the capability to view TC cloud structure at night when sufficient lunar illumination exits. Examples highlighting this new capability will be discussed in concert with additional data fusion efforts.

Satellite Altimeters and Gravimeters as Proxy of the Indonesian Throughflow

Science.gov (United States)

Susanto, R. D.; Song, Y. T.

2014-12-01

The Indonesian Throughflow (ITF), the only pathway for interocean exchange between the Pacific to the Indian Ocean, plays an important role in global ocean circulation and climate. Yet, continuous ITF measurement is difficult and expensive. We demonstrate a plausible approach to derive the ITF transport proxy using satellite altimetry sea surface height (SSH), gravimetry ocean bottom pressure (OBP) data, in situ measurements from the Makassar Strait from 1996-1998 and 2004-2009, and a theoretical formulation. We first identified the optimal locations in the Pacific and Indian Ocean based on the optimal correlation between the ITF transport through the Makassar Strait and the pressure gradients, represented by the SSH and OBP differences between the Pacific and Indian Oceans at a 1° x 1° horizontal resolution. These geographical locations (centred at off-equatorial in the western Pacific Ocean and centred at along the equator in the eastern Indian Ocean) that control the strength and variability of the ITF transport in the Makassar Strait differ from early studies. The proxy time series follow the observation time series quite well, resolving the intraseasonal, monsoonal, and interannual signals with the 1993-2011 annual mean proxy transport of 11.6 ± 3.2 Sv. Our formulation provides a continuous approach to derive the ITF proxy as long as the satellite data are available. Such a continuous record would be difficult to achieve by in situ measurements alone due to logistical and financial challenges. Ideally, the proxy can be used to complement or fill in the gaps of the observations for a continuous ITF proxy for better understanding the ocean climate and validating ocean circulation models.

Operational Satellite-based Surface Oil Analyses (Invited)

Science.gov (United States)

Streett, D.; Warren, C.

2010-12-01

During the Deepwater Horizon spill, NOAA imagery analysts in the Satellite Analysis Branch (SAB) issued more than 300 near-real-time satellite-based oil spill analyses. These analyses were used by the oil spill response community for planning, issuing surface oil trajectories and tasking assets (e.g., oil containment booms, skimmers, overflights). SAB analysts used both Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and high resolution visible/near IR multispectral satellite imagery as well as a variety of ancillary datasets. Satellite imagery used included ENVISAT ASAR (ESA), TerraSAR-X (DLR), Cosmo-Skymed (ASI), ALOS (JAXA), Radarsat (MDA), ENVISAT MERIS (ESA), SPOT (SPOT Image Corp.), Aster (NASA), MODIS (NASA), and AVHRR (NOAA). Ancillary datasets included ocean current information, wind information, location of natural oil seeps and a variety of in situ oil observations. The analyses were available as jpegs, pdfs, shapefiles and through Google, KML files and also available on a variety of websites including Geoplatform and ERMA. From the very first analysis issued just 5 hours after the rig sank through the final analysis issued in August, the complete archive is still publicly available on the NOAA/NESDIS website http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/MPS/deepwater.html SAB personnel also served as the Deepwater Horizon International Disaster Charter Project Manager (at the official request of the USGS). The Project Manager’s primary responsibility was to acquire and oversee the processing and dissemination of satellite data generously donated by numerous private companies and nations in support of the oil spill response including some of the imagery described above. SAB has begun to address a number of goals that will improve our routine oil spill response as well as help assure that we are ready for the next spill of national significance. We hope to (1) secure a steady, abundant and timely stream of suitable satellite imagery even in the absence of large-scale emergencies such as

Programmable Ultra-Lightweight System Adaptable Radio Satellite Base Station

Science.gov (United States)

Varnavas, Kosta; Sims, Herb

2015-01-01

With the explosion of the CubeSat, small sat, and nanosat markets, the need for a robust, highly capable, yet affordable satellite base station, capable of telemetry capture and relay, is significant. The Programmable Ultra-Lightweight System Adaptable Radio (PULSAR) is NASA Marshall Space Flight Center's (MSFC's) software-defined digital radio, developed with previous Technology Investment Programs and Technology Transfer Office resources. The current PULSAR will have achieved a Technology Readiness Level-6 by the end of FY 2014. The extensibility of the PULSAR will allow it to be adapted to perform the tasks of a mobile base station capable of commanding, receiving, and processing satellite, rover, or planetary probe data streams with an appropriate antenna.

Trellis-coded CPM for satellite-based mobile communications

Science.gov (United States)

Abrishamkar, Farrokh; Biglieri, Ezio

1988-01-01

Digital transmission for satellite-based land mobile communications is discussed. To satisfy the power and bandwidth limitations imposed on such systems, a combination of trellis coding and continuous-phase modulated signals are considered. Some schemes based on this idea are presented, and their performance is analyzed by computer simulation. The results obtained show that a scheme based on directional detection and Viterbi decoding appears promising for practical applications.

Smoothing of Fused Spectral Consistent Satellite Images with TV-based Edge Detection

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sveinsson, Johannes; Aanæs, Henrik; Benediktsson, Jon Atli

2007-01-01

based on satellite data. Additionally, most conventional methods are loosely connected to the image forming physics of the satellite image, giving these methods an ad hoc feel. Vesteinsson et al. [1] proposed a method of fusion of satellite images that is based on the properties of imaging physics...... in a statistically meaningful way and was called spectral consistent panshapening (SCP). In this paper we improve this framework for satellite image fusion by introducing a better image prior, via data-dependent image smoothing. The dependency is obtained via total variation edge detection method.......Several widely used methods have been proposed for fusing high resolution panchromatic data and lower resolution multi-channel data. However, many of these methods fail to maintain the spectral consistency of the fused high resolution image, which is of high importance to many of the applications...

Engineering satellite-based navigation and timing global navigation satellite systems, signals, and receivers

CERN Document Server

Betz, J

2016-01-01

This book describes the design and performance analysis of satnav systems, signals, and receivers. It also provides succinct descriptions and comparisons of all the world’s satnav systems. Its comprehensive and logical structure addresses all satnav signals and systems in operation and being developed. Engineering Satellite-Based Navigation and Timing: Global Navigation Satellite Systems, Signals, and Receivers provides the technical foundation for designing and analyzing satnav signals, systems, and receivers. Its contents and structure address all satnav systems and signals: legacy, modernized, and new. It combines qualitative information with detailed techniques and analyses, providing a comprehensive set of insights and engineering tools for this complex multidisciplinary field. Part I describes system and signal engineering including orbital mechanics and constellation design, signal design principles and underlying considerations, link budgets, qua tifying receiver performance in interference, and e...

Cascading water underneath Wilkes Land, East Antarctic ice sheet, observed using altimetry and digital elevation models

Science.gov (United States)

Flament, T.; Berthier, E.; Rémy, F.

2014-04-01

We describe a major subglacial lake drainage close to the ice divide in Wilkes Land, East Antarctica, and the subsequent cascading of water underneath the ice sheet toward the coast. To analyse the event, we combined altimetry data from several sources and subglacial topography. We estimated the total volume of water that drained from Lake CookE2 by differencing digital elevation models (DEM) derived from ASTER and SPOT5 stereo imagery acquired in January 2006 and February 2012. At 5.2 ± 1.5 km3, this is the largest single subglacial drainage event reported so far in Antarctica. Elevation differences between ICESat laser altimetry spanning 2003-2009 and the SPOT5 DEM indicate that the discharge started in November 2006 and lasted approximately 2 years. A 13 m uplift of the surface, corresponding to a refilling of about 0.6 ± 0.3 km3, was observed between the end of the discharge in October 2008 and February 2012. Using the 35-day temporal resolution of Envisat radar altimetry, we monitored the subsequent filling and drainage of connected subglacial lakes located downstream of CookE2. The total volume of water traveling within the theoretical 500-km-long flow paths computed with the BEDMAP2 data set is similar to the volume that drained from Lake CookE2, and our observations suggest that most of the water released from Lake CookE2 did not reach the coast but remained trapped underneath the ice sheet. Our study illustrates how combining multiple remote sensing techniques allows monitoring of the timing and magnitude of subglacial water flow beneath the East Antarctic ice sheet.

On the nature of the Madagascar dipoles: An analysis from Argo profiling floats and altimetry measurements

Science.gov (United States)

Aguiar-González, Borja; Ponsoni, Leandro; Ridderinkhof, Herman; de Ruijter, Will P. M.; Maas, Leo R. M.

2016-04-01

The South East Madagascar Current (SEMC) flows poleward along the eastern coast of Madagascar as a western boundary current which further south provides some of the source waters of the Agulhas Current, either directly or in the form of eddies. We investigate the region of dipole formation south of Madagascar combining vertical T/S profiles from Argo floats, altimetry measurements and an existing eddy detection algorithm. Results from our analysis show that the dipole consists of an anticyclonic intrathermocline eddy (ITE) formed on its southern flank and a cyclonic ITE formed on its northern flank. Both lobes of the dipole exhibit similar T/S properties throughout the water column, although vertically shifted within the thermocline depending on its nature: upward in a cyclonic ITE and downward in an anticyclonic ITE. A subsurface salinity maximum of about 35.5 psu characterizes the upper layers with Subtropical Surface Water (STSW). At intermediate levels, a well defined path of South Indian Central Water (SICW) extends throughout the water column up to reach a minimum in salinity of 34.5 psu, corresponding to Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW). Below, at deep layers, the North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) is found. The intrathermocline nature of the Madagascar dipoles has not been previously reported and represents an important feature to be considered when assessing the heat and salt fluxes driven by eddy movement and contributing to the Agulhas Current. Unlike surface eddies, intrathermocline eddies strongly influence the intermediate/deeper layers in the oceans and, hence, may have a larger contribution in the spreading rates and pathways of water masses. Because the intrathermocline nature of eddies is invisible to altimetry measurements, these results stress the importance of combining altimetry with historical records of Argo profiles which uncover eddy dynamics below the sea surface. Lastly, we further investigate from altimetry the area of dipole formation

Stable reconstruction of Arctic sea level for the 1950-2010 period

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Svendsen, Peter Limkilde; Andersen, Ole Baltazar; Nielsen, Allan Aasbjerg

2016-01-01

on the combination of tide gauge records and a new 20-year reprocessed satellite altimetry derived sea level pattern. Hence the study is limited to the area covered by satellite altimetry (68ºN and 82ºN). It is found that timestep cumulative reconstruction as suggested by Church and White (2000) may yield widely...... 1950 to 2010, between 68ºN and 82ºN. This value is in good agreement with the global mean trend of 1.8 +/- 0.3 mm/y over the same period as found by Church and White (2004)....

The determination of the orbit of the Japanese satellite Ajisai and the GEM-T1 and GEM-T2 gravity field models

Science.gov (United States)

Sanchez, Braulio V.

1990-01-01

The Japanese Experimental Geodetic Satellite Ajisai was launched on August 12, 1986. In response to the TOPEX-POSEIDON mission requirements, the GSFC Space Geodesy Branch and its associates are producing improved models of the Earth's gravitational field. With the launch of Ajisai, precise laser data is now available which can be used to test many current gravity models. The testing of the various gravity field models show improvements of more than 70 percent in the orbital fits when using GEM-T1 and GEM-T2 relative to results obtained with the earlier GEM-10B model. The GEM-T2 orbital fits are at the 13-cm level (RMS). The results of the tests with the various versions of the GEM-T1 model indicate that the addition of satellite altimetry and surface gravity anomalies as additional data types should improve future gravity field models.

Satellite based Ocean Forecasting, the SOFT project

Science.gov (United States)

Stemmann, L.; Tintoré, J.; Moneris, S.

2003-04-01

The knowledge of future oceanic conditions would have enormous impact on human marine related areas. For such reasons, a number of international efforts are being carried out to obtain reliable and manageable ocean forecasting systems. Among the possible techniques that can be used to estimate the near future states of the ocean, an ocean forecasting system based on satellite imagery is developped through the Satelitte based Ocean ForecasTing project (SOFT). SOFT, established by the European Commission, considers the development of a forecasting system of the ocean space-time variability based on satellite data by using Artificial Intelligence techniques. This system will be merged with numerical simulation approaches, via assimilation techniques, to get a hybrid SOFT-numerical forecasting system of improved performance. The results of the project will provide efficient forecasting of sea-surface temperature structures, currents, dynamic height, and biological activity associated to chlorophyll fields. All these quantities could give valuable information on the planning and management of human activities in marine environments such as navigation, fisheries, pollution control, or coastal management. A detailed identification of present or new needs and potential end-users concerned by such an operational tool is being performed. The project would study solutions adapted to these specific needs.

[Surveying a zoological facility through satellite-based geodesy].

Science.gov (United States)

Böer, M; Thien, W; Tölke, D

2000-06-01

In the course of a thesis submitted for a diploma degree within the Fachhochschule Oldenburg the Serengeti Safaripark was surveyed in autumn and winter 1996/97 laying in the planning foundations for the application for licences from the controlling authorities. Taking into consideration the special way of keeping animals in the Serengeti Safaripark (game ranching, spacious walk-through-facilities) the intention was to employ the outstanding satellite based geodesy. This technology relies on special aerials receiving signals from 24 satellites which circle around the globe. These data are being gathered and examined. This examination produces the exact position of this aerial in a system of coordinates which allows depicting this point on a map. This procedure was used stationary (from a strictly defined point) as well as in the movement (in a moving car). Additionally conventional procedures were used when the satellite based geodesy came to its limits. Finally a detailed map of the Serengeti Safaripark was created which shows the position and size of stables and enclosures as well as wood and water areas and the sectors of the leisure park. Furthermore the established areas of the enclosures together with an already existing animal databank have flown into an information system with the help of which the stock of animals can be managed enclosure-orientated.

Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM) /Jason-2: Near Real-Time Altimetry Validation System (NRTAVS) QA Reports (NODC Accession 0044984)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This accession contains the descriptions for the OSTM/Jason-2 Near Real-Time Altimetry Validation System Quality Reports, which are served through the NOAA/NESDIS...

A Study on Satellite Diagnostic Expert Systems Using Case-Based Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Young-Tack Park

1997-06-01

Full Text Available Many research works are on going to monitor and diagnose diverse malfunctions of satellite systems as the complexity and number of satellites increase. Currently, many works on monitoring and diagnosis are carried out by human experts but there are needs to automate much of the routine works of them. Hence, it is necessary to study on using expert systems which can assist human experts routine work by doing automatically, thereby allow human experts devote their expertise more critical and important areas of monitoring and diagnosis. In this paper, we are employing artificial intelligence techniques to model human experts' knowledge and inference the constructed knowledge. Especially, case-based approaches are used to construct a knowledge base to model human expert capabilities which use previous typical exemplars. We have designed and implemented a prototype case-based system for diagnosing satellite malfunctions using cases. Our system remembers typical failure cases and diagnoses a current malfunction by indexing the case base. Diverse methods are used to build a more user friendly interface which allows human experts can build a knowledge base in as easy way.

Developing a sustainable satellite-based environmental monitoring system In Nigeria

Science.gov (United States)

Akinyede, J. O.; Adepoju, K. A.; Akinluyi, F. O.; Anifowose, A. Y. B.

2015-10-01

Increased anthropogenic activities over the year have remained a major factor of the Earth changing environment. This phenomenon has given rise to a number of environmental degraded sites that characterize the Nigeria's landscape. The human-induced elements include gully erosion, mangrove ecosystems degradation, desertification and deforestation, particularly in the south east, Niger Delta, north east and south west of Nigeria respectively, as well as river flooding/flood plain inundation and land degradation around Kainji lake area. Because of little or no effective management measures, the attendant environmental hazards have been extremely damaging to the infrastructures and socio-economic development of the affected area. Hence, a concerted effort, through integrated and space-based research, is being intensified to manage and monitor the environment in order to restore the stability, goods and services of the environment. This has justified Nigeria's investment in its space programme, especially the launch of NigeriaSat-1, an Earth observation micro-satellite in constellation with five (5) other similar satellites, Alsat-1, China DMC, Bilsat-1, DEMOS and UK DMC belonging to Algeria, China, Turkey, Spain and United Kingdom respectively. The use of data from these satellites, particularly NigeriaSat-1, in conjunction with associated technologies has proved to be very useful in understanding the influence of both natural and human activities on the Nigeria's ecosystems and environment. The results of some researches on specific applications of Nigerian satellites are presented in this paper. Appropriate sustainable land and water resources management in the affected areas, based on Nigeria's satellite data capture and integration, are also discussed.

Entropy-Based Block Processing for Satellite Image Registration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ikhyun Lee

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Image registration is an important task in many computer vision applications such as fusion systems, 3D shape recovery and earth observation. Particularly, registering satellite images is challenging and time-consuming due to limited resources and large image size. In such scenario, state-of-the-art image registration methods such as scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT may not be suitable due to high processing time. In this paper, we propose an algorithm based on block processing via entropy to register satellite images. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated using different real images. The comparative analysis shows that it not only reduces the processing time but also enhances the accuracy.

Comparison of gridded multi-mission and along-track mono-mission satellite altimetry wave heights with in situ near-shore buoy data.

Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

Shanas, P.R.; SanilKumar, V.; Hithin, N.K.

and studied the validity of these observations against ship-reported and buoy data. Many studies have been undertaken on how best to use the data available from satellite observation systems in wave models (Mastenbroek, 1994; Young and Glowacki, 1996... Sea wave model. Journal of Geophysical Research 10, 5829–5849. Young, I.R., 1994. Global ocean wave statistics obtained from satellite observations. Applied Ocean Research 16, 235-248. Young, I.R., Glowacki, T.J., 1996. Assimilation of altimeter...

Interference and deception detection technology of satellite navigation based on deep learning

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Weiyi; Deng, Pingke; Qu, Yi; Zhang, Xiaoguang; Li, Yaping

2017-10-01

Satellite navigation system plays an important role in people's daily life and war. The strategic position of satellite navigation system is prominent, so it is very important to ensure that the satellite navigation system is not disturbed or destroyed. It is a critical means to detect the jamming signal to avoid the accident in a navigation system. At present, the detection technology of jamming signal in satellite navigation system is not intelligent , mainly relying on artificial decision and experience. For this issue, the paper proposes a method based on deep learning to monitor the interference source in a satellite navigation. By training the interference signal data, and extracting the features of the interference signal, the detection sys tem model is constructed. The simulation results show that, the detection accuracy of our detection system can reach nearly 70%. The method in our paper provides a new idea for the research on intelligent detection of interference and deception signal in a satellite navigation system.

Parameters Comparsion of Leads Detection in Arctic Sea Ice Using CRYOSAT-2 Waveform Data

Science.gov (United States)

Li, J.; Zhang, S.; Xiao, F.; Zhu, C.; Zhang, Y.; Zhu, T.; Yuan, L.

2018-04-01

Leads are only a small part of the polar sea ice structure, but they play a dominant role on the turbulence exchange between the ocean and the atmosphere, they are also important factors about sea ice thickness inversion. Since the early 2000s, Satellite altimetry has been applied to monitor the Arctic sea ice thickness, Satellite altimetry data can be used to distinguish leads and sea ice. In this paper, four parameters including Pulse peakiness (PP), stack standard deviation (SSD), stack kurtosis (SKU) and stack skewness (SSK) are extracted from CryoSat-2 satellite altimetry waveform data. The four parameters are combined into five combinations (PP, PP&SSD, PP&SSD&SKU, PP&SSD&SSK, PP&SSD&SSK&SKU) with constrain conditions to detect the leads. The results of the five methods are compared with MODIS (moderate-resolution imagining spectroradiometer) images and show that, the combination of PP&SSD is better than the single PP, the rest of combinations are the same as the combination of PP&SSD. It turns out, there is no promotion when we add SSK and SKU, successively or simultaneously.

Assessing Lake Level Variability and Water Availability in Lake Tana, Ethiopia using a Groundwater Flow Model and GRACE Satellite Data

Science.gov (United States)

Hasan, E.; Dokou, Z.; Kirstetter, P. E.; Tarhule, A.; Anagnostou, E. N.; Bagtzoglou, A. C.; Hong, Y.

2017-12-01

Lake Tana is the source of the Blue Nile and Ethiopia's largest natural buffer against seasonal variations of rainfall. Assessing the interactions between the lake level fluctuation, hydroclimatic variabilities and anthropogenic factors is essential to detect drought conditions and identify the role of human management in controlling the Lake water balance. Via an extended record of Total Water Storage (TWS) anomalies for the period 1960-2016, a water budget model for the lake water inflow/outflow was developed. Estimates of Lake Level Altimetry (LLA) based on in-situ and satellite altimetry were composited from 1960-2016 and compared to the extended TWS anomalies, the self-calibrated Palmer Drought Severity Index (scPDSI), the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the historical lake water levels and releases. In addition, the simulated lake levels and water budget from a coupled groundwater and lake model of the Lake Tana basin were compared to the above results. Combining the different approaches, the water budget of the lake can be monitored, the drought conditions can be identified and the role of human management in the lake can be determined. For instance, three major drought periods are identified, 1970 to 1977, 1979 to 1987 and 1990 to 1998, each succeeded with an interposed flooding related recovery year, i.e. 1978, 1988 and 1999. The drought/flooding events were attributed mainly to the ENSO interactions that resulted in lake level fluctuations. The period from 2002-2006 was associated with a remarkable decline of the lake level that was attributed partly in drought conditions and the full flow regulation of the Chara Chara weir at the lake outlet, initiated in 2001.

Improved oceanographic measurements fom SAR altimetry: Results and scientific roadmap from ESA cryosat plus for oceans project

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cotton, P. D.; Andersen, Ole Baltazar; Stenseng, Lars

The ESA CryoSat mission is the first space mission to carry a radar altimeter that can operate in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) mode. It thus provides the first opportunity to test and evaluate, using real data, the significant potential benefits of SAR altimetry for ocean applications. The obje...

Gigabit Satellite Network for NASA's Advanced Communication Technology Satellite (ACTS)

Science.gov (United States)

Hoder, Douglas; Bergamo, Marcos

1996-01-01

The advanced communication technology satellite (ACTS) gigabit satellite network provides long-haul point-to-point and point-to-multipoint full-duplex SONET services over NASA's ACTS. at rates up to 622 Mbit/s (SONET OC-12), with signal quality comparable to that obtained with terrestrial fiber networks. Data multiplexing over the satellite is accomplished using time-division multiple access (TDMA) techniques coordinated with the switching and beam hopping facilities provided by ACTS. Transmissions through the satellite are protected with Reed-Solomon encoding. providing virtually error-free transmission under most weather conditions. Unique to the system are a TDMA frame structure and satellite synchronization mechanism that allow: (a) very efficient utilization of the satellite capacity: (b) over-the-satellite dosed-loop synchronization of the network in configurations with up to 64 ground stations: and (c) ground station initial acquisition without collisions with existing signalling or data traffic. The user interfaces are compatible with SONET standards, performing the function of conventional SONET multiplexers and. as such. can be: readily integrated with standard SONET fiber-based terrestrial networks. Management of the network is based upon the simple network management protocol (SNMP). and includes an over-the-satellite signalling network and backup terrestrial internet (IP-based) connectivity. A description of the ground stations is also included.

Satellite Imagery Assisted Road-Based Visual Navigation System

Science.gov (United States)

Volkova, A.; Gibbens, P. W.

2016-06-01

There is a growing demand for unmanned aerial systems as autonomous surveillance, exploration and remote sensing solutions. Among the key concerns for robust operation of these systems is the need to reliably navigate the environment without reliance on global navigation satellite system (GNSS). This is of particular concern in Defence circles, but is also a major safety issue for commercial operations. In these circumstances, the aircraft needs to navigate relying only on information from on-board passive sensors such as digital cameras. An autonomous feature-based visual system presented in this work offers a novel integral approach to the modelling and registration of visual features that responds to the specific needs of the navigation system. It detects visual features from Google Earth* build a feature database. The same algorithm then detects features in an on-board cameras video stream. On one level this serves to localise the vehicle relative to the environment using Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM). On a second level it correlates them with the database to localise the vehicle with respect to the inertial frame. The performance of the presented visual navigation system was compared using the satellite imagery from different years. Based on comparison results, an analysis of the effects of seasonal, structural and qualitative changes of the imagery source on the performance of the navigation algorithm is presented. * The algorithm is independent of the source of satellite imagery and another provider can be used

Moving object detection in video satellite image based on deep learning

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Xueyang; Xiang, Junhua

2017-11-01

Moving object detection in video satellite image is studied. A detection algorithm based on deep learning is proposed. The small scale characteristics of remote sensing video objects are analyzed. Firstly, background subtraction algorithm of adaptive Gauss mixture model is used to generate region proposals. Then the objects in region proposals are classified via the deep convolutional neural network. Thus moving objects of interest are detected combined with prior information of sub-satellite point. The deep convolution neural network employs a 21-layer residual convolutional neural network, and trains the network parameters by transfer learning. Experimental results about video from Tiantuo-2 satellite demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithm.

Object-Based Assessment of Satellite Precipitation Products

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jingjing Li

2016-06-01

Full Text Available An object-based verification approach is employed to assess the performance of the commonly used high-resolution satellite precipitation products: Precipitation Estimation from Remotely Sensed Information using Artificial Neural Networks (PERSIANN, Climate Prediction center MORPHing technique (CMORPH, and Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM Multi-Satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA 3B42RT. The evaluation of the satellite precipitation products focuses on the skill of depicting the geometric features of the localized precipitation areas. Seasonal variability of the performances of these products against the ground observations is investigated through the examples of warm and cold seasons. It is found that PERSIANN is capable of depicting the orientation of the localized precipitation areas in both seasons. CMORPH has the ability to capture the sizes of the localized precipitation areas and performs the best in the overall assessment for both seasons. 3B42RT is capable of depicting the location of the precipitation areas for both seasons. In addition, all of the products perform better on capturing the sizes and centroids of precipitation areas in the warm season than in the cold season, while they perform better on depicting the intersection area and orientation in the cold season than in the warm season. These products are more skillful on correctly detecting the localized precipitation areas against the observations in the warm season than in the cold season.

The multifractal structure of satellite sea surface temperature maps can be used to obtain global maps of streamlines

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Turiel

2009-10-01

Full Text Available Nowadays Earth observation satellites provide information about many relevant variables of the ocean-climate system, such as temperature, moisture, aerosols, etc. However, to retrieve the velocity field, which is the most relevant dynamical variable, is still a technological challenge, specially in the case of oceans. New processing techniques, emerged from the theory of turbulent flows, have come to assist us in this task. In this paper, we show that multifractal techniques applied to new Sea Surface Temperature satellite products opens the way to build maps of ocean currents with unprecedented accuracy. With the application of singularity analysis, we show that global ocean circulation patterns can be retrieved in a daily basis. We compare these results with high-quality altimetry-derived geostrophic velocities, finding a quite good correspondence of the observed patterns both qualitatively and quantitatively; and this is done for the first time on a global basis, even for less active areas. The implications of this findings from the perspective both of theory and of operational applications are discussed.

Sea-level trend in the South China Sea observed from 20 years of along-track satellite altimetric data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cheng, Yongcun; Xu, Qing; Andersen, Ole Baltazar

2014-01-01

The sea-level trend in the South China Sea (SCS) is investigated based on 20 years of along-track data from TOPEX and Jason-1/2 satellite altimetry. The average sea-level rise over all the regions in the study area is observed to have a rate of 5.1 ± 0.8 mm year-1 for the period from 1993 to 2012....... The steric sea level contributes 45% to the observed sea-level trend. These results are consistent with previous studies. In addition, the results demonstrate that the maximum sea-level rise rate of 8.4 mm year-1 is occurring off the east coast of Vietnam and eastern part of SCS. During 2010-2011, the La...... Niña event was highly correlated with the dramatic sea-level rise in the SCS; La Niña events were also associated with the maximum rate of sea rise off the east coast of Vietnam, which occurred during 1993 and 2012. We also evaluated the trends in the geophysical (e.g. dynamical atmospheric correction...

Development of methods for inferring cloud thickness and cloud-base height from satellite radiance data

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, William L., Jr.; Minnis, Patrick; Alvarez, Joseph M.; Uttal, Taneil; Intrieri, Janet M.; Ackerman, Thomas P.; Clothiaux, Eugene

1993-01-01

Cloud-top height is a major factor determining the outgoing longwave flux at the top of the atmosphere. The downwelling radiation from the cloud strongly affects the cooling rate within the atmosphere and the longwave radiation incident at the surface. Thus, determination of cloud-base temperature is important for proper calculation of fluxes below the cloud. Cloud-base altitude is also an important factor in aircraft operations. Cloud-top height or temperature can be derived in a straightforward manner using satellite-based infrared data. Cloud-base temperature, however, is not observable from the satellite, but is related to the height, phase, and optical depth of the cloud in addition to other variables. This study uses surface and satellite data taken during the First ISCCP Regional Experiment (FIRE) Phase-2 Intensive Field Observation (IFO) period (13 Nov. - 7 Dec. 1991, to improve techniques for deriving cloud-base height from conventional satellite data.

DebriSat - A Planned Laboratory-Based Satellite Impact Experiment for Breakup Fragment Characterizations

Science.gov (United States)

Liou, Jer-Chyi; Clark, S.; Fitz-Coy, N.; Huynh, T.; Opiela, J.; Polk, M.; Roebuck, B.; Rushing, R.; Sorge, M.; Werremeyer, M.

2013-01-01

The goal of the DebriSat project is to characterize fragments generated by a hypervelocity collision involving a modern satellite in low Earth orbit (LEO). The DebriSat project will update and expand upon the information obtained in the 1992 Satellite Orbital Debris Characterization Impact Test (SOCIT), which characterized the breakup of a 1960 s US Navy Transit satellite. There are three phases to this project: the design and fabrication of DebriSat - an engineering model representing a modern, 60-cm/50-kg class LEO satellite; conduction of a laboratory-based hypervelocity impact to catastrophically break up the satellite; and characterization of the properties of breakup fragments down to 2 mm in size. The data obtained, including fragment size, area-to-mass ratio, density, shape, material composition, optical properties, and radar cross-section distributions, will be used to supplement the DoD s and NASA s satellite breakup models to better describe the breakup outcome of a modern satellite.

Mapping nonlinear shallow-water tides: a look at the past and future

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Ole Baltazar; Egbert, G.D.; Erofeeva, S.Y.

2006-01-01

advanced by the pioneering researches of Christian Le Provost who employed analytical theory, physical modeling, and numerical modeling in many extensive studies, especially of the tides of the English Channel. Le Provost's complementary work with satellite altimetry motivates our attempts to merge...... these two interests. After a brief review, we describe initial steps toward the assimilation of altimetry into models of nonlinear tides via generalized inverse methods. A series of barotropic inverse solutions is computed for the M-4 tide over the northwest European Shelf. Future applications of altimetry...

Sea-ice thickness from airborne laser altimetry over the Arctic Ocean north of Greenland

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hvidegaard, Sine Munk; Forsberg, René

2002-01-01

We present a new method to measure ice thickness of polar sea-ice freeboard heights, using airborne laser altimetry combined with a precise geoid model, giving estimates of thickness of ice through isostatic equilibrium assumptions. In the paper we analyze a number of flights from the Polar Sea off...... Northern Greenland, and estimate accuracies of the estimated freeboard values to be at a 13 cm level, corresponding to about 1 m in absolute thickness....

Development of a PC-based ground support system for a small satellite instrument

Science.gov (United States)

Deschambault, Robert L.; Gregory, Philip R.; Spenler, Stephen; Whalen, Brian A.

1993-11-01

The importance of effective ground support for the remote control and data retrieval of a satellite instrument cannot be understated. Problems with ground support may include the need to base personnel at a ground tracking station for extended periods, and the delay between the instrument observation and the processing of the data by the science team. Flexible solutions to such problems in the case of small satellite systems are provided by using low-cost, powerful personal computers and off-the-shelf software for data acquisition and processing, and by using Internet as a communication pathway to enable scientists to view and manipulate satellite data in real time at any ground location. The personal computer based ground support system is illustrated for the case of the cold plasma analyzer flown on the Freja satellite. Commercial software was used as building blocks for writing the ground support equipment software. Several levels of hardware support, including unit tests and development, functional tests, and integration were provided by portable and desktop personal computers. Satellite stations in Saskatchewan and Sweden were linked to the science team via phone lines and Internet, which provided remote control through a central point. These successful strategies will be used on future small satellite space programs.

A proposed architecture for a satellite-based mobile communications network - The lowest three layers

Science.gov (United States)

Yan, T. Y.; Naderi, F. M.

1986-01-01

Architecture for a commercial mobile satellite network is proposed. The mobile satellite system (MSS) is composed of a network management center, mobile terminals, base stations, and gateways; the functions of each component are described. The satellite is a 'bent pipe' that performs frequency translations, and it has multiple UHF beams. The development of the MSS design based on the seven-layer open system interconnection model is examined. Consideration is given to the functions of the physical, data link, and network layers and the integrated adaptive mobile access protocol.

Satellite single-axis attitude determination based on Automatic Dependent Surveillance - Broadcast signals

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Kaixing; Sun, Xiucong; Huang, Hai; Wang, Xinsheng; Ren, Guangwei

2017-10-01

The space-based Automatic Dependent Surveillance - Broadcast (ADS-B) is a new technology for air traffic management. The satellite equipped with spaceborne ADS-B system receives the broadcast signals from aircraft and transfers the message to ground stations, so as to extend the coverage area of terrestrial-based ADS-B. In this work, a novel satellite single-axis attitude determination solution based on the ADS-B receiving system is proposed. This solution utilizes the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) measurement of the broadcast signals from aircraft to determine the boresight orientation of the ADS-B receiving antenna fixed on the satellite. The basic principle of this solution is described. The feasibility study of this new attitude determination solution is implemented, including the link budget and the access analysis. On this basis, the nonlinear least squares estimation based on the Levenberg-Marquardt method is applied to estimate the single-axis orientation. A full digital simulation has been carried out to verify the effectiveness and performance of this solution. Finally, the corresponding results are processed and presented minutely.

Satellite-based emission constraint for nitrogen oxides: Capability and uncertainty

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, J.; McElroy, M. B.; Boersma, F.; Nielsen, C.; Zhao, Y.; Lei, Y.; Liu, Y.; Zhang, Q.; Liu, Z.; Liu, H.; Mao, J.; Zhuang, G.; Roozendael, M.; Martin, R.; Wang, P.; Spurr, R. J.; Sneep, M.; Stammes, P.; Clemer, K.; Irie, H.

2013-12-01

Vertical column densities (VCDs) of tropospheric nitrogen dioxide (NO2) retrieved from satellite remote sensing have been employed widely to constrain emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx). A major strength of satellite-based emission constraint is analysis of emission trends and variability, while a crucial limitation is errors both in satellite NO2 data and in model simulations relating NOx emissions to NO2 columns. Through a series of studies, we have explored these aspects over China. We separate anthropogenic from natural sources of NOx by exploiting their different seasonality. We infer trends of NOx emissions in recent years and effects of a variety of socioeconomic events at different spatiotemporal scales including the general economic growth, global financial crisis, Chinese New Year, and Beijing Olympics. We further investigate the impact of growing NOx emissions on particulate matter (PM) pollution in China. As part of recent developments, we identify and correct errors in both satellite NO2 retrieval and model simulation that ultimately affect NOx emission constraint. We improve the treatments of aerosol optical effects, clouds and surface reflectance in the NO2 retrieval process, using as reference ground-based MAX-DOAS measurements to evaluate the improved retrieval results. We analyze the sensitivity of simulated NO2 to errors in the model representation of major meteorological and chemical processes with a subsequent correction of model bias. Future studies will implement these improvements to re-constrain NOx emissions.

SAMIRA - SAtellite based Monitoring Initiative for Regional Air quality

Science.gov (United States)

Schneider, Philipp; Stebel, Kerstin; Ajtai, Nicolae; Diamandi, Andrei; Horalek, Jan; Nicolae, Doina; Stachlewska, Iwona; Zehner, Claus

2016-04-01

Here, we present a new ESA-funded project entitled Satellite based Monitoring Initiative for Regional Air quality (SAMIRA), which aims at improving regional and local air quality monitoring through synergetic use of data from present and upcoming satellites, traditionally used in situ air quality monitoring networks and output from chemical transport models. Through collaborative efforts in four countries, namely Romania, Poland, the Czech Republic and Norway, all with existing air quality problems, SAMIRA intends to support the involved institutions and associated users in their national monitoring and reporting mandates as well as to generate novel research in this area. Despite considerable improvements in the past decades, Europe is still far from achieving levels of air quality that do not pose unacceptable hazards to humans and the environment. Main concerns in Europe are exceedances of particulate matter (PM), ground-level ozone, benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). While overall sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions have decreased in recent years, regional concentrations can still be high in some areas. The objectives of SAMIRA are to improve algorithms for the retrieval of hourly aerosol optical depth (AOD) maps from SEVIRI, and to develop robust methods for deriving column- and near-surface PM maps for the study area by combining satellite AOD with information from regional models. The benefit to existing monitoring networks (in situ, models, satellite) by combining these datasets using data fusion methods will be tested for satellite-based NO2, SO2, and PM/AOD. Furthermore, SAMIRA will test and apply techniques for downscaling air quality-related EO products to a spatial resolution that is more in line with what is generally required for studying urban and regional scale air quality. This will be demonstrated for a set of study sites that include the capitals of the four countries and the highly polluted areas along the border of Poland and the

Identification of High-Variation Fields based on Open Satellite Imagery

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jeppesen, Jacob Høxbroe; Jacobsen, Rune Hylsberg; Nyholm Jørgensen, Rasmus

2017-01-01

. The categorization is based on vegetation indices derived from Sentinel-2 satellite imagery. A case study on 7678 winter wheat fields is presented, which employs open data and open source software to analyze the satellite imagery. Furthermore, the method can be automated to deliver categorizations at every update......This paper proposes a simple method for categorizing fields on a regional level, with respect to intra-field variations. It aims to identify fields where the potential benefits of applying precision agricultural practices are highest from an economic and environmental perspective...

Assessment of radar altimetry correction slopes for marine gravity recovery: A case study of Jason-1 GM data

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Shengjun; Li, Jiancheng; Jin, Taoyong; Che, Defu

2018-04-01

Marine gravity anomaly derived from satellite altimetry can be computed using either sea surface height or sea surface slope measurements. Here we consider the slope method and evaluate the errors in the slope of the corrections supplied with the Jason-1 geodetic mission data. The slope corrections are divided into three groups based on whether they are small, comparable, or large with respect to the 1 microradian error in the current sea surface slope models. (1) The small and thus negligible corrections include dry tropospheric correction, inverted barometer correction, solid earth tide and geocentric pole tide. (2) The moderately important corrections include wet tropospheric correction, dual-frequency ionospheric correction and sea state bias. The radiometer measurements are more preferred than model values in the geophysical data records for constraining wet tropospheric effect owing to the highly variable water-vapor structure in atmosphere. The items of dual-frequency ionospheric correction and sea state bias should better not be directly added to range observations for obtaining sea surface slopes since their inherent errors may cause abnormal sea surface slopes and along-track smoothing with uniform distribution weight in certain width is an effective strategy for avoiding introducing extra noises. The slopes calculated from radiometer wet tropospheric corrections, and along-track smoothed dual-frequency ionospheric corrections, sea state bias are generally within ±0.5 microradians and no larger than 1 microradians. (3) Ocean tide has the largest influence on obtaining sea surface slopes while most of ocean tide slopes distribute within ±3 microradians. Larger ocean tide slopes mostly occur over marginal and island-surrounding seas, and extra tidal models with better precision or with extending process (e.g. Got-e) are strongly recommended for updating corrections in geophysical data records.

DebriSat - A Planned Laboratory-Based Satellite Impact Experiment for Breakup Fragment Characterization

Science.gov (United States)

Liou, J.-C.; Fitz-Coy, N.; Werremeyer, M.; Huynh, T.; Voelker, M.; Opiela, J.

2012-01-01

DebriSat is a planned laboratory ]based satellite hypervelocity impact experiment. The goal of the project is to characterize the orbital debris that would be generated by a hypervelocity collision involving a modern satellite in low Earth orbit (LEO). The DebriSat project will update and expand upon the information obtained in the 1992 Satellite Orbital Debris Characterization Impact Test (SOCIT), which characterized the breakup of a 1960 's US Navy Transit satellite. There are three phases to this project: the design and fabrication of an engineering model representing a modern, 50-cm/50-kg class LEO satellite known as DebriSat; conduction of a laboratory-based hypervelocity impact to catastrophically break up the satellite; and characterization of the properties of breakup fragments down to 2 mm in size. The data obtained, including fragment size, area ]to ]mass ratio, density, shape, material composition, optical properties, and radar cross ]section distributions, will be used to supplement the DoD fs and NASA fs satellite breakup models to better describe the breakup outcome of a modern satellite. Updated breakup models will improve mission planning, environmental models, and event response. The DebriSat project is sponsored by the Air Force fs Space and Missile Systems Center and the NASA Orbital Debris Program Office. The design and fabrication of DebriSat is led by University of Florida with subject matter experts f support from The Aerospace Corporation. The major milestones of the project include the complete fabrication of DebriSat by September 2013, the hypervelocity impact of DebriSat at the Air Force fs Arnold Engineering Development Complex in early 2014, and fragment characterization and data analyses in late 2014.

Dissemination of satellite-based river discharge and flood data

Science.gov (United States)

Kettner, A. J.; Brakenridge, G. R.; van Praag, E.; de Groeve, T.; Slayback, D. A.; Cohen, S.

2014-12-01

In collaboration with NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center and the European Commission Joint Research Centre, the Dartmouth Flood Observatory (DFO) daily measures and distributes: 1) river discharges, and 2) near real-time flood extents with a global coverage. Satellite-based passive microwave sensors and hydrological modeling are utilized to establish 'remote-sensing based discharge stations', and observed time series cover 1998 to the present. The advantages over in-situ gauged discharges are: a) easy access to remote or due to political reasons isolated locations, b) relatively low maintenance costs to maintain a continuous observational record, and c) the capability to obtain measurements during floods, hazardous conditions that often impair or destroy in-situ stations. Two MODIS instruments aboard the NASA Terra and Aqua satellites provide global flood extent coverage at a spatial resolution of 250m. Cloud cover hampers flood extent detection; therefore we ingest 6 images (the Terra and Aqua images of each day, for three days), in combination with a cloud shadow filter, to provide daily global flood extent updates. The Flood Observatory has always made it a high priority to visualize and share its data and products through its website. Recent collaborative efforts with e.g. GeoSUR have enhanced accessibility of DFO data. A web map service has been implemented to automatically disseminate geo-referenced flood extent products into client-side GIS software. For example, for Latin America and the Caribbean region, the GeoSUR portal now displays current flood extent maps, which can be integrated and visualized with other relevant geographical data. Furthermore, the flood state of satellite-observed river discharge sites are displayed through the portal as well. Additional efforts include implementing Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards to incorporate Water Markup Language (WaterML) data exchange mechanisms to further facilitate the distribution of the satellite

Laser Guidestar Satellite for Ground-based Adaptive Optics Imaging of Geosynchronous Satellites and Astronomical Targets

Science.gov (United States)

Marlow, W. A.; Cahoy, K.; Males, J.; Carlton, A.; Yoon, H.

2015-12-01

Real-time observation and monitoring of geostationary (GEO) satellites with ground-based imaging systems would be an attractive alternative to fielding high cost, long lead, space-based imagers, but ground-based observations are inherently limited by atmospheric turbulence. Adaptive optics (AO) systems are used to help ground telescopes achieve diffraction-limited seeing. AO systems have historically relied on the use of bright natural guide stars or laser guide stars projected on a layer of the upper atmosphere by ground laser systems. There are several challenges with this approach such as the sidereal motion of GEO objects relative to natural guide stars and limitations of ground-based laser guide stars; they cannot be used to correct tip-tilt, they are not point sources, and have finite angular sizes when detected at the receiver. There is a difference between the wavefront error measured using the guide star compared with the target due to cone effect, which also makes it difficult to use a distributed aperture system with a larger baseline to improve resolution. Inspired by previous concepts proposed by A.H. Greenaway, we present using a space-based laser guide starprojected from a satellite orbiting the Earth. We show that a nanosatellite-based guide star system meets the needs for imaging GEO objects using a low power laser even from 36,000 km altitude. Satellite guide star (SGS) systemswould be well above atmospheric turbulence and could provide a small angular size reference source. CubeSatsoffer inexpensive, frequent access to space at a fraction of the cost of traditional systems, and are now being deployed to geostationary orbits and on interplanetary trajectories. The fundamental CubeSat bus unit of 10 cm cubed can be combined in multiple units and offers a common form factor allowing for easy integration as secondary payloads on traditional launches and rapid testing of new technologies on-orbit. We describe a 6U CubeSat SGS measuring 10 cm x 20 cm x

PARAMETERS COMPARSION OF LEADS DETECTION IN ARCTIC SEA ICE USING CRYOSAT-2 WAVEFORM DATA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. Li

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Leads are only a small part of the polar sea ice structure, but they play a dominant role on the turbulence exchange between the ocean and the atmosphere, they are also important factors about sea ice thickness inversion. Since the early 2000s, Satellite altimetry has been applied to monitor the Arctic sea ice thickness, Satellite altimetry data can be used to distinguish leads and sea ice. In this paper, four parameters including Pulse peakiness (PP, stack standard deviation (SSD, stack kurtosis (SKU and stack skewness (SSK are extracted from CryoSat-2 satellite altimetry waveform data. The four parameters are combined into five combinations (PP, PP&SSD, PP&SSD&SKU, PP&SSD&SSK, PP&SSD&SSK&SKU with constrain conditions to detect the leads. The results of the five methods are compared with MODIS (moderate-resolution imagining spectroradiometer images and show that, the combination of PP&SSD is better than the single PP, the rest of combinations are the same as the combination of PP&SSD. It turns out, there is no promotion when we add SSK and SKU, successively or simultaneously.

A Prototype Knowledge-Based System for Satellite Mission Planning.

Science.gov (United States)

1986-12-01

used by different groups in an operational environment. 6 II. Literature Review As management science has recognized, it is not practical to separate...schedule only one satellite per set of requirements. A -4 .............. er.- Appendix B O9perational Conce~t Usin a Knowlede -Based System There are many

Using satellite-based measurements to explore ...

Science.gov (United States)

New particle formation (NPF) can potentially alter regional climate by increasing aerosol particle (hereafter particle) number concentrations and ultimately cloud condensation nuclei. The large scales on which NPF is manifest indicate potential to use satellite-based (inherently spatially averaged) measurements of atmospheric conditions to diagnose the occurrence of NPF and NPF characteristics. We demonstrate the potential for using satellite-measurements of insolation (UV), trace gas concentrations (sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ammonia (NH3), formaldehyde (HCHO), ozone (O3)), aerosol optical properties (aerosol optical depth (AOD), Ångström exponent (AE)), and a proxy of biogenic volatile organic compound emissions (leaf area index (LAI), temperature (T)) as predictors for NPF characteristics: formation rates, growth rates, survival probabilities, and ultrafine particle (UFP) concentrations at five locations across North America. NPF at all sites is most frequent in spring, exhibits a one-day autocorrelation, and is associated with low condensational sink (AOD×AE) and HCHO concentrations, and high UV. However, there are important site-to-site variations in NPF frequency and characteristics, and in which of the predictor variables (particularly gas concentrations) significantly contribute to the explanatory power of regression models built to predict those characteristics. This finding may provide a partial explanation for the reported spatia

Simulation and Analysis of Autonomous Time Synchronization Based on Asynchronism Two-way Inter-satellite Link

Science.gov (United States)

Fang, L.; Yang, X. H.; Sun, B. Q.; Qin, W. J.; Kong, Y.

2013-09-01

The measurement of the inter-satellite link is one of the key techniques in the autonomous operation of satellite navigation system. Based on the asynchronism inter-satellite two-way measurement mode in GPS constellation, the reduction formula of the inter-satellite time synchronization is built in this paper. Moreover, the corrective method of main systematic errors is proposed. Inter-satellite two-way time synchronization is simulated on the basis of IGS (International GNSS Service) precise ephemeris. The impacts of the epoch domestication of asynchronism inter-satellite link pseudo-range, the initial orbit, and the main systematic errors on satellite time synchronization are analyzed. Furthermore, the broadcast clock error of each satellite is calculated by the ``centralized'' inter-satellite autonomous time synchronization. Simulation results show that the epoch domestication of asynchronism inter-satellite link pseudo-range and the initial orbit have little impact on the satellite clock errors, and thus they needn't be taken into account. The errors caused by the relativistic effect and the asymmetry of path travel have large impact on the satellite clock errors. These should be corrected with theoretical formula. Compared with the IGS precise clock error, the root mean square of the broadcast clock error of each satellite is about 0.4 ns.

Determining Coastal Mean Dynamic Topography by Geodetic Methods

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Jianliang

2017-11-01

In geodesy, coastal mean dynamic topography (MDT) was traditionally determined by spirit leveling technique. Advances in navigation satellite positioning (e.g., GPS) and geoid determination enable space-based leveling with an accuracy of about 3 cm at tide gauges. Recent CryoSat-2, a satellite altimetry mission with synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and SAR interferometric measurements, extends the space-based leveling to the coastal ocean with the same accuracy. However, barriers remain in applying the two space-based geodetic methods for MDT determination over the coastal ocean because current geoid modeling focuses primarily on land as a substitute to spirit leveling to realize the vertical datum.

Stabilized determination of geopotential coefficients by the mixed hom-BLUP approach

Science.gov (United States)

Middel, B.; Schaffrin, B.

1989-01-01

For the determination of geopotential coefficients, data can be used from rather different sources, e.g., satellite tracking, gravimetry, or altimetry. As each data type is particularly sensitive to certain wavelengths of the spherical harmonic coefficients it is of essential importance how they are treated in a combination solution. For example the longer wavelengths are well described by the coefficients of a model derived by satellite tracking, while other observation types such as gravity anomalies, delta g, and geoid heights, N, from altimetry contain only poor information for these long wavelengths. Therefore, the lower coefficients of the satellite model should be treated as being superior in the combination. In the combination a new method is presented which turns out to be highly suitable for this purpose due to its great flexibility combined with robustness.

Large-scale hydrological model river storage and discharge correction using a satellite altimetry-based discharge product

Science.gov (United States)

Emery, Charlotte Marie; Paris, Adrien; Biancamaria, Sylvain; Boone, Aaron; Calmant, Stéphane; Garambois, Pierre-André; Santos da Silva, Joecila

2018-04-01

Land surface models (LSMs) are widely used to study the continental part of the water cycle. However, even though their accuracy is increasing, inherent model uncertainties can not be avoided. In the meantime, remotely sensed observations of the continental water cycle variables such as soil moisture, lakes and river elevations are more frequent and accurate. Therefore, those two different types of information can be combined, using data assimilation techniques to reduce a model's uncertainties in its state variables or/and in its input parameters. The objective of this study is to present a data assimilation platform that assimilates into the large-scale ISBA-CTRIP LSM a punctual river discharge product, derived from ENVISAT nadir altimeter water elevation measurements and rating curves, over the whole Amazon basin. To deal with the scale difference between the model and the observation, the study also presents an initial development for a localization treatment that allows one to limit the impact of observations to areas close to the observation and in the same hydrological network. This assimilation platform is based on the ensemble Kalman filter and can correct either the CTRIP river water storage or the discharge. Root mean square error (RMSE) compared to gauge discharges is globally reduced until 21 % and at Óbidos, near the outlet, RMSE is reduced by up to 52 % compared to ENVISAT-based discharge. Finally, it is shown that localization improves results along the main tributaries.

Development and validation of satellite-based estimates of surface visibility

Science.gov (United States)

Brunner, J.; Pierce, R. B.; Lenzen, A.

2016-02-01

A satellite-based surface visibility retrieval has been developed using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) measurements as a proxy for Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) data from the next generation of Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES-R). The retrieval uses a multiple linear regression approach to relate satellite aerosol optical depth, fog/low cloud probability and thickness retrievals, and meteorological variables from numerical weather prediction forecasts to National Weather Service Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS) surface visibility measurements. Validation using independent ASOS measurements shows that the GOES-R ABI surface visibility retrieval (V) has an overall success rate of 64.5 % for classifying clear (V ≥ 30 km), moderate (10 km ≤ V United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Park Service (NPS) Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) network and provide useful information to the regional planning offices responsible for developing mitigation strategies required under the EPA's Regional Haze Rule, particularly during regional haze events associated with smoke from wildfires.

Development and validation of satellite based estimates of surface visibility

Science.gov (United States)

Brunner, J.; Pierce, R. B.; Lenzen, A.

2015-10-01

A satellite based surface visibility retrieval has been developed using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) measurements as a proxy for Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) data from the next generation of Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES-R). The retrieval uses a multiple linear regression approach to relate satellite aerosol optical depth, fog/low cloud probability and thickness retrievals, and meteorological variables from numerical weather prediction forecasts to National Weather Service Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS) surface visibility measurements. Validation using independent ASOS measurements shows that the GOES-R ABI surface visibility retrieval (V) has an overall success rate of 64.5% for classifying Clear (V ≥ 30 km), Moderate (10 km ≤ V United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Park Service (NPS) Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) network, and provide useful information to the regional planning offices responsible for developing mitigation strategies required under the EPA's Regional Haze Rule, particularly during regional haze events associated with smoke from wildfires.

In-Space Internet-Based Communications for Space Science Platforms Using Commercial Satellite Networks

Science.gov (United States)

Kerczewski, Robert J.; Bhasin, Kul B.; Fabian, Theodore P.; Griner, James H.; Kachmar, Brian A.; Richard, Alan M.

1999-01-01

The continuing technological advances in satellite communications and global networking have resulted in commercial systems that now can potentially provide capabilities for communications with space-based science platforms. This reduces the need for expensive government owned communications infrastructures to support space science missions while simultaneously making available better service to the end users. An interactive, high data rate Internet type connection through commercial space communications networks would enable authorized researchers anywhere to control space-based experiments in near real time and obtain experimental results immediately. A space based communications network architecture consisting of satellite constellations connecting orbiting space science platforms to ground users can be developed to provide this service. The unresolved technical issues presented by this scenario are the subject of research at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Assessment of network architectures, identification of required new or improved technologies, and investigation of data communications protocols are being performed through testbed and satellite experiments and laboratory simulations.

Ground-Based Global Navigation Satellite System GLONASS (GLObal NAvigation Satellite System) Combined Broadcast Ephemeris Data (daily files) from NASA CDDIS

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — This dataset consists of ground-based Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) GLONASS Combined Broadcast Ephemeris Data (daily files of all distinct navigation...

A Satellite-Based Sunshine Duration Climate Data Record for Europe and Africa

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Steffen Kothe

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Besides 2 m - temperature and precipitation, sunshine duration is one of the most important and commonly used parameter in climatology, with measured time series of partly more than 100 years in length. EUMETSAT’s Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring (CM SAF presents a climate data record for daily and monthly sunshine duration (SDU for Europe and Africa. Basis for the advanced retrieval is a highly resolved satellite product of the direct solar radiation from measurements by Meteosat satellites 2 to 10. The data record covers the time period 1983 to 2015 with a spatial resolution of 0.05° × 0.05°. The comparison against ground-based data shows high agreement but also some regional differences. Sunshine duration is overestimated by the satellite-based data in many regions, compared to surface data. In West and Central Africa, low clouds seem to be the reason for a stronger overestimation of sunshine duration in this region (up to 20% for monthly sums. For most stations, the overestimation is low, with a bias below 7.5 h for monthly sums and below 0.4 h for daily sums. A high correlation of 0.91 for daily SDU and 0.96 for monthly SDU also proved the high agreement with station data. As SDU is based on a stable and homogeneous climate data record of more than 30 years length, it is highly suitable for climate applications, such as trend estimates.

Geopotential coefficient determination and the gravimetric boundary value problem: A new approach

Science.gov (United States)

Sjoeberg, Lars E.

1989-01-01

New integral formulas to determine geopotential coefficients from terrestrial gravity and satellite altimetry data are given. The formulas are based on the integration of data over the non-spherical surface of the Earth. The effect of the topography to low degrees and orders of coefficients is estimated numerically. Formulas for the solution of the gravimetric boundary value problem are derived.

Accuracy and impact of spatial aids based upon satellite enumeration to improve indoor residual spraying spatial coverage.

Science.gov (United States)

Bridges, Daniel J; Pollard, Derek; Winters, Anna M; Winters, Benjamin; Sikaala, Chadwick; Renn, Silvia; Larsen, David A

2018-02-23

Indoor residual spraying (IRS) is a key tool in the fight to control, eliminate and ultimately eradicate malaria. IRS protection is based on a communal effect such that an individual's protection primarily relies on the community-level coverage of IRS with limited protection being provided by household-level coverage. To ensure a communal effect is achieved through IRS, achieving high and uniform community-level coverage should be the ultimate priority of an IRS campaign. Ensuring high community-level coverage of IRS in malaria-endemic areas is challenging given the lack of information available about both the location and number of households needing IRS in any given area. A process termed 'mSpray' has been developed and implemented and involves use of satellite imagery for enumeration for planning IRS and a mobile application to guide IRS implementation. This study assessed (1) the accuracy of the satellite enumeration and (2) how various degrees of spatial aid provided through the mSpray process affected community-level IRS coverage during the 2015 spray campaign in Zambia. A 2-stage sampling process was applied to assess accuracy of satellite enumeration to determine number and location of sprayable structures. Results indicated an overall sensitivity of 94% for satellite enumeration compared to finding structures on the ground. After adjusting for structure size, roof, and wall type, households in Nchelenge District where all types of satellite-based spatial aids (paper-based maps plus use of the mobile mSpray application) were used were more likely to have received IRS than Kasama district where maps used were not based on satellite enumeration. The probability of a household being sprayed in Nchelenge district where tablet-based maps were used, did not differ statistically from that of a household in Samfya District, where detailed paper-based spatial aids based on satellite enumeration were provided. IRS coverage from the 2015 spray season benefited from

Evaluation of Clear Sky Models for Satellite-Based Irradiance Estimates

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sengupta, Manajit [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Gotseff, Peter [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

2013-12-01

This report describes an intercomparison of three popular broadband clear sky solar irradiance model results with measured data, as well as satellite-based model clear sky results compared to measured clear sky data. The authors conclude that one of the popular clear sky models (the Bird clear sky model developed by Richard Bird and Roland Hulstrom) could serve as a more accurate replacement for current satellite-model clear sky estimations. Additionally, the analysis of the model results with respect to model input parameters indicates that rather than climatological, annual, or monthly mean input data, higher-time-resolution input parameters improve the general clear sky model performance.

Comparison of the characteristic energy of precipitating electrons derived from ground-based and DMSP satellite data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Ashrafi

2005-01-01

Full Text Available Energy maps are important for ionosphere-magnetosphere coupling studies, because quantitative determination of field-aligned currents requires knowledge of the conductances and their spatial gradients. By combining imaging riometer absorption and all-sky auroral optical data it is possible to produce high temporal and spatial resolution maps of the Maxwellian characteristic energy of precipitating electrons within a 240240 common field of view. These data have been calibrated by inverting EISCAT electron density profiles into equivalent energy spectra. In this paper energy maps produced by ground-based instruments (optical and riometer are compared with DMSP satellite data during geomagnetic conjunctions. For the period 1995-2002, twelve satellite passes over the ground-based instruments' field of view for the cloud-free conditions have been considered. Four of the satellite conjunctions occurred during moderate geomagnetic, steady-state conditions and without any ion precipitation. In these cases with Maxwellian satellite spectra, there is 71% agreement between the characteristic energies derived from the satellite and the ground-based energy map method.

Comparison of the characteristic energy of precipitating electrons derived from ground-based and DMSP satellite data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Ashrafi

2005-01-01

Full Text Available Energy maps are important for ionosphere-magnetosphere coupling studies, because quantitative determination of field-aligned currents requires knowledge of the conductances and their spatial gradients. By combining imaging riometer absorption and all-sky auroral optical data it is possible to produce high temporal and spatial resolution maps of the Maxwellian characteristic energy of precipitating electrons within a 240240 common field of view. These data have been calibrated by inverting EISCAT electron density profiles into equivalent energy spectra. In this paper energy maps produced by ground-based instruments (optical and riometer are compared with DMSP satellite data during geomagnetic conjunctions. For the period 1995-2002, twelve satellite passes over the ground-based instruments' field of view for the cloud-free conditions have been considered. Four of the satellite conjunctions occurred during moderate geomagnetic, steady-state conditions and without any ion precipitation. In these cases with Maxwellian satellite spectra, there is 71% agreement between the characteristic energies derived from the satellite and the ground-based energy map method.

Revealing climate modes in steric sea levels: lessons learned from satellite geodesy, objective analyses and ocean reanalyses

Science.gov (United States)

Pfeffer, J.; Tregoning, P.; Purcell, A. P.

2017-12-01

Due to increased greenhouse gases emissions, the oceans are accumulating heat. In response to the ocean circulation and atmospheric forcing, the heat is irregularly redistributed within the oceans, causing sea level to rise at variable rates in space and time. These rates of steric expansion are extremely difficult to assess because of the sparsity of in-situ hydrographic observations available within the course of the 20th century. We compare here three methods to reconstruct the steric sea levels over the past 13, 25 and 58 years based on satellite geodesy, objective analyses and ocean reanalyses. The interannual to decadal variability of each dataset is explored with a model merging six climate indices representative of the natural variability of the ocean and climate system. Consistent regional patterns are identified for the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in all datasets at all timescales. Despite the short time coverage (13 years), the combination of satellite geodetic data (altimetry and GRACE) also reveals significant steric responses to the North Pacific Gyre Oscillation (NPGO), Indian Dipole (IOD) and Indian ocean basinwide (IOBM) mode. The richer information content in the ocean reanalyses allows us to recover the regional fingerprints of the PDO, ENSO, NPGO, IOD and IOBM, but also of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) acting over longer time scales (40 to 60 years). Therefore, ocean reanalyses, coupled with climate mode analyses, constitute innovative and promising tools to investigate the mechanisms triggering the variability of sea level rise over the past decades.

Estimation of PV energy production based on satellite data

Science.gov (United States)

Mazurek, G.

2015-09-01

Photovoltaic (PV) technology is an attractive source of power for systems without connection to power grid. Because of seasonal variations of solar radiation, design of such a power system requires careful analysis in order to provide required reliability. In this paper we present results of three-year measurements of experimental PV system located in Poland and based on polycrystalline silicon module. Irradiation values calculated from results of ground measurements have been compared with data from solar radiation databases employ calculations from of satellite observations. Good convergence level of both data sources has been shown, especially during summer. When satellite data from the same time period is available, yearly and monthly production of PV energy can be calculated with 2% and 5% accuracy, respectively. However, monthly production during winter seems to be overestimated, especially in January. Results of this work may be helpful in forecasting performance of similar PV systems in Central Europe and allow to make more precise forecasts of PV system performance than based only on tables with long time averaged values.

Ground-Based Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) GLONASS Broadcast Ephemeris Data (hourly files) from NASA CDDIS

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — This dataset consists of ground-based Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) GLObal NAvigation Satellite System (GLONASS) Broadcast Ephemeris Data (hourly files)...

Ground-based observations coordinated with Viking satellite measurements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Opgenoorth, H.J.; Kirkwood, S.

1989-01-01

The instrumentation and the orbit of the Viking satellite made this first Swedish satellite mission ideally suited for coordinated observations with the dense network of ground-based stations in northern Scandinavia. Several arrays of complementing instruments such as magnetometers, all-sky cameras, riometers and doppler radars monitored on a routine basis the ionosphere under the magnetospheric region passed by Viking. For a large number of orbits the Viking passages close to Scandinavia were covered by the operation of specially designed programmes at the European incoherent-scatter facility (EISCAT). First results of coordinated observations on the ground and aboard Viking have shed new light on the most spectacular feature of substorm expansion, the westward-travelling surge. The end of a substorm and the associated decay of a westward-travelling surge have been analysed. EISCAT measurements of high spatial and temporal resolution indicate that the conductivities and electric fields associated with westward-travelling surges are not represented correctly by the existing models. (author)

Satellite Fault Diagnosis Using Support Vector Machines Based on a Hybrid Voting Mechanism

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Shuqiang; Zhu, Xiaoqian; Jin, Songchang; Wang, Xiang

2014-01-01

The satellite fault diagnosis has an important role in enhancing the safety, reliability, and availability of the satellite system. However, the problem of enormous parameters and multiple faults makes a challenge to the satellite fault diagnosis. The interactions between parameters and misclassifications from multiple faults will increase the false alarm rate and the false negative rate. On the other hand, for each satellite fault, there is not enough fault data for training. To most of the classification algorithms, it will degrade the performance of model. In this paper, we proposed an improving SVM based on a hybrid voting mechanism (HVM-SVM) to deal with the problem of enormous parameters, multiple faults, and small samples. Many experimental results show that the accuracy of fault diagnosis using HVM-SVM is improved. PMID:25215324

Satellite Fault Diagnosis Using Support Vector Machines Based on a Hybrid Voting Mechanism

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hong Yin

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The satellite fault diagnosis has an important role in enhancing the safety, reliability, and availability of the satellite system. However, the problem of enormous parameters and multiple faults makes a challenge to the satellite fault diagnosis. The interactions between parameters and misclassifications from multiple faults will increase the false alarm rate and the false negative rate. On the other hand, for each satellite fault, there is not enough fault data for training. To most of the classification algorithms, it will degrade the performance of model. In this paper, we proposed an improving SVM based on a hybrid voting mechanism (HVM-SVM to deal with the problem of enormous parameters, multiple faults, and small samples. Many experimental results show that the accuracy of fault diagnosis using HVM-SVM is improved.

Attractive manifold-based adaptive solar attitude control of satellites in elliptic orbits

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Keum W.; Singh, Sahjendra N.

2011-01-01

The paper presents a novel noncertainty-equivalent adaptive (NCEA) control system for the pitch attitude control of satellites in elliptic orbits using solar radiation pressure (SRP). The satellite is equipped with two identical solar flaps to produce control moments. The adaptive law is based on the attractive manifold design using filtered signals for synthesis, which is a modification of the immersion and invariance (I&I) method. The control system has a modular controller-estimator structure and has separate tunable gains. A special feature of this NCEA law is that the trajectories of the satellite converge to a manifold in an extended state space, and the adaptive law recovers the performance of a deterministic controller. This recovery of performance cannot be obtained with certainty-equivalent adaptive (CEA) laws. Simulation results are presented which show that the NCEA law accomplishes precise attitude control of the satellite in an elliptic orbit, despite large parameter uncertainties.

STAR: FPGA-based software defined satellite transponder

Science.gov (United States)

Davalle, Daniele; Cassettari, Riccardo; Saponara, Sergio; Fanucci, Luca; Cucchi, Luca; Bigongiari, Franco; Errico, Walter

2013-05-01

This paper presents STAR, a flexible Telemetry, Tracking & Command (TT&C) transponder for Earth Observation (EO) small satellites, developed in collaboration with INTECS and SITAEL companies. With respect to state-of-the-art EO transponders, STAR includes the possibility of scientific data transfer thanks to the 40 Mbps downlink data-rate. This feature represents an important optimization in terms of hardware mass, which is important for EO small satellites. Furthermore, in-flight re-configurability of communication parameters via telecommand is important for in-orbit link optimization, which is especially useful for low orbit satellites where visibility can be as short as few hundreds of seconds. STAR exploits the principles of digital radio to minimize the analog section of the transceiver. 70MHz intermediate frequency (IF) is the interface with an external S/X band radio-frequency front-end. The system is composed of a dedicated configurable high-speed digital signal processing part, the Signal Processor (SP), described in technology-independent VHDL working with a clock frequency of 184.32MHz and a low speed control part, the Control Processor (CP), based on the 32-bit Gaisler LEON3 processor clocked at 32 MHz, with SpaceWire and CAN interfaces. The quantization parameters were fine-tailored to reach a trade-off between hardware complexity and implementation loss which is less than 0.5 dB at BER = 10-5 for the RX chain. The IF ports require 8-bit precision. The system prototype is fitted on the Xilinx Virtex 6 VLX75T-FF484 FPGA of which a space-qualified version has been announced. The total device occupation is 82 %.

Inter-comparison of ice sheet mass balance products from GRACE: ESA CCI Round Robin results

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Groth, A.; Horwath, M.; Horvath, A.

-term satellite-based data products are generated for selected ECVs. Since ice sheet mass balance is an ECV parameter of highest interest, both the AIS_cci and the GIS_cci project will provide mass balance products based on satellite gravimetry data: (a) time series of monthly mass changes for individual drainage...... basins, and (b) gridded mass changes covering the entire ice sheet.Gravimetry Mass Balance (GMB) products are derived from data acquired by the GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) mission. Although GRACE data have the advantage of being directly sensitive to mass changes, their limited...... drainage basins the GMB time series are compared to independent mass balance products based on satellite altimetry and firn densification information from a regional climate model. This inter-comparison has aided the algorithm definition for the operational ECV production....

Goddard Satellite-Based Surface Turbulent Fluxes Climatology, Yearly Grid V3

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — These data are the Goddard Satellite-based Surface Turbulent Fluxes Version-3 Dataset recently produced through a MEaSUREs funded project led by Dr. Chung-Lin Shie...

Goddard Satellite-Based Surface Turbulent Fluxes Climatology, Seasonal Grid V3

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — These data are the Goddard Satellite-based Surface Turbulent Fluxes Version-3 Dataset recently produced through a MEaSUREs funded project led by Dr. Chung-Lin Shie...

Developing Information Services and Tools to Access and Evaluate Data Quality in Global Satellite-based Precipitation Products

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Z.; Shie, C. L.; Meyer, D. J.

2017-12-01

Global satellite-based precipitation products have been widely used in research and applications around the world. Compared to ground-based observations, satellite-based measurements provide precipitation data on a global scale, especially in remote continents and over oceans. Over the years, satellite-based precipitation products have evolved from single sensor and single algorithm to multi-sensors and multi-algorithms. As a result, many satellite-based precipitation products have been enhanced such as spatial and temporal coverages. With inclusion of ground-based measurements, biases of satellite-based precipitation products have been significantly reduced. However, data quality issues still exist and can be caused by many factors such as observations, satellite platform anomaly, algorithms, production, calibration, validation, data services, etc. The NASA Goddard Earth Sciences (GES) Data and Information Services Center (DISC) is home to NASA global precipitation product archives including the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM), as well as other global and regional precipitation products. Precipitation is one of the top downloaded and accessed parameters in the GES DISC data archive. Meanwhile, users want to easily locate and obtain data quality information at regional and global scales to better understand how precipitation products perform and how reliable they are. As data service providers, it is necessary to provide an easy access to data quality information, however, such information normally is not available, and when it is available, it is not in one place and difficult to locate. In this presentation, we will present challenges and activities at the GES DISC to address precipitation data quality issues.

Population-based geographic access to parent and satellite National Cancer Institute Cancer Center Facilities.

Science.gov (United States)

Onega, Tracy; Alford-Teaster, Jennifer; Wang, Fahui

2017-09-01

Satellite facilities of National Cancer Institute (NCI) cancer centers have expanded their regional footprints. This study characterized geographic access to parent and satellite NCI cancer center facilities nationally overall and by sociodemographics. Parent and satellite NCI cancer center facilities, which were geocoded in ArcGIS, were ascertained. Travel times from every census tract in the continental United States and Hawaii to the nearest parent and satellite facilities were calculated. Census-based population attributes were used to characterize measures of geographic access for sociodemographic groups. From the 62 NCI cancer centers providing clinical care in 2014, 76 unique parent locations and 211 satellite locations were mapped. The overall proportion of the population within 60 minutes of a facility was 22% for parent facilities and 32.7% for satellite facilities. When satellites were included for potential access, the proportion of some racial groups for which a satellite was the closest NCI cancer center facility increased notably (Native Americans, 22.6% with parent facilities and 39.7% with satellite facilities; whites, 34.8% with parent facilities and 50.3% with satellite facilities; and Asians, 40.0% with parent facilities and 54.0% with satellite facilities), with less marked increases for Hispanic and black populations. Rural populations of all categories had dramatically low proportions living within 60 minutes of an NCI cancer center facility of any type (1.0%-6.6%). Approximately 14% of the population (n = 43,033,310) lived more than 180 minutes from a parent or satellite facility, and most of these individuals were Native Americans and/or rural residents (37% of Native Americans and 41.7% of isolated rural residents). Racial/ethnic and rural populations showed markedly improved geographic access to NCI cancer center care when satellite facilities were included. Cancer 2017;123:3305-11. © 2017 American Cancer Society. © 2017 American

Satellite Based Cropland Carbon Monitoring System

Science.gov (United States)

Bandaru, V.; Jones, C. D.; Sedano, F.; Sahajpal, R.; Jin, H.; Skakun, S.; Pnvr, K.; Kommareddy, A.; Reddy, A.; Hurtt, G. C.; Izaurralde, R. C.

2017-12-01

Agricultural croplands act as both sources and sinks of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2); absorbing CO2 through photosynthesis, releasing CO2 through autotrophic and heterotrophic respiration, and sequestering CO2 in vegetation and soils. Part of the carbon captured in vegetation can be transported and utilized elsewhere through the activities of food, fiber, and energy production. As well, a portion of carbon in soils can be exported somewhere else by wind, water, and tillage erosion. Thus, it is important to quantify how land use and land management practices affect the net carbon balance of croplands. To monitor the impacts of various agricultural activities on carbon balance and to develop management strategies to make croplands to behave as net carbon sinks, it is of paramount importance to develop consistent and high resolution cropland carbon flux estimates. Croplands are typically characterized by fine scale heterogeneity; therefore, for accurate carbon flux estimates, it is necessary to account for the contribution of each crop type and their spatial distribution. As part of NASA CMS funded project, a satellite based Cropland Carbon Monitoring System (CCMS) was developed to estimate spatially resolved crop specific carbon fluxes over large regions. This modeling framework uses remote sensing version of Environmental Policy Integrated Climate Model and satellite derived crop parameters (e.g. leaf area index (LAI)) to determine vertical and lateral carbon fluxes. The crop type LAI product was developed based on the inversion of PRO-SAIL radiative transfer model and downscaled MODIS reflectance. The crop emergence and harvesting dates were estimated based on MODIS NDVI and crop growing degree days. To evaluate the performance of CCMS framework, it was implemented over croplands of Nebraska, and estimated carbon fluxes for major crops (i.e. corn, soybean, winter wheat, grain sorghum, alfalfa) grown in 2015. Key findings of the CCMS framework will be presented

Simulation of space-borne tsunami detection using GNSS-Reflectometry applied to tsunamis in the Indian Ocean

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R. Stosius

2010-06-01

Full Text Available Within the German-Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System project GITEWS (Rudloff et al., 2009, a feasibility study on a future tsunami detection system from space has been carried out. The Global Navigation Satellite System Reflectometry (GNSS-R is an innovative way of using reflected GNSS signals for remote sensing, e.g. sea surface altimetry. In contrast to conventional satellite radar altimetry, multiple height measurements within a wide field of view can be made simultaneously. With a dedicated Low Earth Orbit (LEO constellation of satellites equipped with GNSS-R, densely spaced sea surface height measurements could be established to detect tsunamis. This simulation study compares the Walker and the meshed comb constellation with respect to their global reflection point distribution. The detection performance of various LEO constellation scenarios with GPS, GLONASS and Galileo as signal sources is investigated. The study concentrates on the detection performance for six historic tsunami events in the Indian Ocean generated by earthquakes of different magnitudes, as well as on different constellation types and orbit parameters. The GNSS-R carrier phase is compared with the PARIS or code altimetry approach. The study shows that Walker constellations have a much better reflection point distribution compared to the meshed comb constellation. Considering simulation assumptions and assuming technical feasibility it can be demonstrated that strong tsunamis with magnitudes (M ≥8.5 can be detected with certainty from any orbit altitude within 15–25 min by a 48/8 or 81/9 Walker constellation if tsunami waves of 20 cm or higher can be detected by space-borne GNSS-R. The carrier phase approach outperforms the PARIS altimetry approach especially at low orbit altitudes and for a low number of LEO satellites.

A comparison of methods to estimate vertical land motion trends from GNSS and altimetry at tide gauge stations

Science.gov (United States)

Kleinherenbrink, Marcel; Riva, Riccardo; Frederikse, Thomas

2018-03-01

Tide gauge (TG) records are affected by vertical land motion (VLM), causing them to observe relative instead of geocentric sea level. VLM can be estimated from global navigation satellite system (GNSS) time series, but only a few TGs are equipped with a GNSS receiver. Hence, (multiple) neighboring GNSS stations can be used to estimate VLM at the TG. This study compares eight approaches to estimate VLM trends at 570 TG stations using GNSS by taking into account all GNSS trends with an uncertainty smaller than 1 mm yr-1 within 50 km. The range between the methods is comparable with the formal uncertainties of the GNSS trends. Taking the median of the surrounding GNSS trends shows the best agreement with differenced altimetry-tide gauge (ALT-TG) trends. An attempt is also made to improve VLM trends from ALT-TG time series. Only using highly correlated along-track altimetry and TG time series reduces the SD of ALT-TG time series by up to 10 %. As a result, there are spatially coherent changes in the trends, but the reduction in the root mean square (RMS) of differences between ALT-TG and GNSS trends is insignificant. However, setting correlation thresholds also acts like a filter to remove problematic TG time series. This results in sets of ALT-TG VLM trends at 344-663 TG locations, depending on the correlation threshold. Compared to other studies, we decrease the RMS of differences between GNSS and ALT-TG trends (from 1.47 to 1.22 mm yr-1), while we increase the number of locations (from 109 to 155), Depending on the methods the mean of differences between ALT-TG and GNSS trends vary between 0.1 and 0.2 mm yr-1. We reduce the mean of the differences by taking into account the effect of elastic deformation due to present-day mass redistribution. At varying ALT-TG correlation thresholds, we provide new sets of trends for 759 to 939 different TG stations. If both GNSS and ALT-TG trend estimates are available, we recommend using the GNSS trend estimates because residual

A full coverage, high-resolution, topographic model of Greenland computed from a variety of digital elevation data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ekholm, Simon

1996-01-01

is modeled from a wide selection of data sources, including satellite radar altimetry from Geosat and ERS 1, airborne radar altimetry and airborne laser altimetry over the ice sheet, and photogrammetric and manual map scannings in the ice free region. The ice sheet model accuracy is evaluated by omitting...... airborne laser data from the analysis and treating them as ground truth observations. The mean accuracy of the ice sheet elevations is estimated to be 12-13 m, and it is found that on surfaces of a slope between 0.2 degrees and 0.8 degrees, corresponding to approximately 50% of the ice sheet, the model...

Integration between terrestrial-based and satellite-based land mobile communications systems

Science.gov (United States)

Arcidiancono, Antonio

1990-01-01

A survey is given of several approaches to improving the performance and marketability of mobile satellite systems (MSS). The provision of voice/data services in the future regional European Land Mobile Satellite System (LMSS), network integration between the Digital Cellular Mobile System (GSM) and LMSS, the identification of critical areas for the implementation of integrated GSM/LMSS areas, space segment scenarios, LMSS for digital trunked private mobile radio (PMR) services, and code division multiple access (CDMA) techniques for a terrestrial/satellite system are covered.

Satellite-Based actual evapotranspiration over drying semiarid terrain in West-Africa

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schuttemeyer, D.; Schillings, Ch.; Moene, A.F.; Bruin, de H.A.R.

2007-01-01

A simple satellite-based algorithm for estimating actual evaporation based on Makkink¿s equation is applied to a seasonal cycle in 2002 at three test sites in Ghana, West Africa: at a location in the humid tropical southern region and two in the drier northern region. The required input for the

Introducing the VISAGE project - Visualization for Integrated Satellite, Airborne, and Ground-based data Exploration

Science.gov (United States)

Gatlin, P. N.; Conover, H.; Berendes, T.; Maskey, M.; Naeger, A. R.; Wingo, S. M.

2017-12-01

A key component of NASA's Earth observation system is its field experiments, for intensive observation of particular weather phenomena, or for ground validation of satellite observations. These experiments collect data from a wide variety of airborne and ground-based instruments, on different spatial and temporal scales, often in unique formats. The field data are often used with high volume satellite observations that have very different spatial and temporal coverage. The challenges inherent in working with such diverse datasets make it difficult for scientists to rapidly collect and analyze the data for physical process studies and validation of satellite algorithms. The newly-funded VISAGE project will address these issues by combining and extending nascent efforts to provide on-line data fusion, exploration, analysis and delivery capabilities. A key building block is the Field Campaign Explorer (FCX), which allows users to examine data collected during field campaigns and simplifies data acquisition for event-based research. VISAGE will extend FCX's capabilities beyond interactive visualization and exploration of coincident datasets, to provide interrogation of data values and basic analyses such as ratios and differences between data fields. The project will also incorporate new, higher level fused and aggregated analysis products from the System for Integrating Multi-platform data to Build the Atmospheric column (SIMBA), which combines satellite and ground-based observations into a common gridded atmospheric column data product; and the Validation Network (VN), which compiles a nationwide database of coincident ground- and satellite-based radar measurements of precipitation for larger scale scientific analysis. The VISAGE proof-of-concept will target "golden cases" from Global Precipitation Measurement Ground Validation campaigns. This presentation will introduce the VISAGE project, initial accomplishments and near term plans.

Analysis of orbit determination from Earth-based tracking for relay satellites in a perturbed areostationary orbit

Science.gov (United States)

Romero, P.; Pablos, B.; Barderas, G.

2017-07-01

Areostationary satellites are considered a high interest group of satellites to satisfy the telecommunications needs of the foreseen missions to Mars. An areostationary satellite, in an areoequatorial circular orbit with a period of 1 Martian sidereal day, would orbit Mars remaining at a fixed location over the Martian surface, analogous to a geostationary satellite around the Earth. This work addresses an analysis of the perturbed orbital motion of an areostationary satellite as well as a preliminary analysis of the aerostationary orbit estimation accuracy based on Earth tracking observations. First, the models for the perturbations due to the Mars gravitational field, the gravitational attraction of the Sun and the Martian moons, Phobos and Deimos, and solar radiation pressure are described. Then, the observability from Earth including possible occultations by Mars of an areostationary satellite in a perturbed areosynchronous motion is analyzed. The results show that continuous Earth-based tracking is achievable using observations from the three NASA Deep Space Network Complexes in Madrid, Goldstone and Canberra in an occultation-free scenario. Finally, an analysis of the orbit determination accuracy is addressed considering several scenarios including discontinuous tracking schedules for different epochs and different areoestationary satellites. Simulations also allow to quantify the aerostationary orbit estimation accuracy for various tracking series durations and observed orbit arc-lengths.

ASSESSMENT OF COASTAL VULNERABILITY TO SEA LEVEL RISE OF BOLINAO, PANGASINAN USING REMOTE SENSING AND GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. R. C. Reyes

2012-07-01

Full Text Available A number of studies assessing the vulnerability of Southeast Asia to climate change have classified the Philippines as one of the vulnerable countries in the region. Bolinao, Pangasinan is a municipality located in northwestern Luzon, situated in the western part of the Lingayen Gulf and is bounded on the north and west by the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea. Recent studies have verified the varying trends in sea level across the South China Sea, which is considered as one of the largest, semi-enclosed marginal seas in the northwest Pacific Ocean. Three barangays (villages were included in the study: (1 Luciente 1.0, (2 Concordia and (3 Germinal. The Socioeconomic Vulnerability Index (SVI was computed based on population, age, gender, employment, source of income and household size, which were gathered through a qualitative survey in the selected barangays. The Coastal Vulnerability Index (CVI described the physical vulnerability of these coastal communities based on recorded sea level anomalies and significant wave heights of multiple satellite altimetry missions, coastal topography derived from the 25-m SRTM digital elevation model (DEM, bathymetry from WorldView-2 and additional elevation data from terrestrial laser scanning surveys. The research utilized merged satellite altimetry data downloaded from the Radar Altimetry Database System (RADS, which covered the period from 1991–2010. The SVI and CVI were calculated and evaluated in ArcGIS. The SVI and CVI were integrated to determine the Total Vulnerability Index (TVI, which characterized the vulnerability of the three barangays in five classes, from very low to very high vulnerability.

Assessment of Coastal Vulnerability to Sea Level Rise of Bolinao, Pangasinan Using Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Reyes, S. R. C.; Blanco, A. C.

2012-07-01

A number of studies assessing the vulnerability of Southeast Asia to climate change have classified the Philippines as one of the vulnerable countries in the region. Bolinao, Pangasinan is a municipality located in northwestern Luzon, situated in the western part of the Lingayen Gulf and is bounded on the north and west by the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea). Recent studies have verified the varying trends in sea level across the South China Sea, which is considered as one of the largest, semi-enclosed marginal seas in the northwest Pacific Ocean. Three barangays (villages) were included in the study: (1) Luciente 1.0, (2) Concordia and (3) Germinal. The Socioeconomic Vulnerability Index (SVI) was computed based on population, age, gender, employment, source of income and household size, which were gathered through a qualitative survey in the selected barangays. The Coastal Vulnerability Index (CVI) described the physical vulnerability of these coastal communities based on recorded sea level anomalies and significant wave heights of multiple satellite altimetry missions, coastal topography derived from the 25-m SRTM digital elevation model (DEM), bathymetry from WorldView-2 and additional elevation data from terrestrial laser scanning surveys. The research utilized merged satellite altimetry data downloaded from the Radar Altimetry Database System (RADS), which covered the period from 1991-2010. The SVI and CVI were calculated and evaluated in ArcGIS. The SVI and CVI were integrated to determine the Total Vulnerability Index (TVI), which characterized the vulnerability of the three barangays in five classes, from very low to very high vulnerability.

Fusion of Pixel-based and Object-based Features for Road Centerline Extraction from High-resolution Satellite Imagery

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

CAO Yungang

2016-10-01

Full Text Available A novel approach for road centerline extraction from high spatial resolution satellite imagery is proposed by fusing both pixel-based and object-based features. Firstly, texture and shape features are extracted at the pixel level, and spectral features are extracted at the object level based on multi-scale image segmentation maps. Then, extracted multiple features are utilized in the fusion framework of Dempster-Shafer evidence theory to roughly identify the road network regions. Finally, an automatic noise removing algorithm combined with the tensor voting strategy is presented to accurately extract the road centerline. Experimental results using high-resolution satellite imageries with different scenes and spatial resolutions showed that the proposed approach compared favorably with the traditional methods, particularly in the aspect of eliminating the salt noise and conglutination phenomenon.

Japanese Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission status and application of satellite-based global rainfall map

Science.gov (United States)

Kachi, Misako; Shimizu, Shuji; Kubota, Takuji; Yoshida, Naofumi; Oki, Riko; Kojima, Masahiro; Iguchi, Toshio; Nakamura, Kenji

2010-05-01

As accuracy of satellite precipitation estimates improves and observation frequency increases, application of those data to societal benefit areas, such as weather forecasts and flood predictions, is expected, in addition to research of precipitation climatology to analyze precipitation systems. There is, however, limitation on single satellite observation in coverage and frequency. Currently, the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission is scheduled under international collaboration to fulfill various user requirements that cannot be achieved by the single satellite, like the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM). The GPM mission is an international mission to achieve high-accurate and high-frequent rainfall observation over a global area. GPM is composed of a TRMM-like non-sun-synchronous orbit satellite (GPM core satellite) and constellation of satellites carrying microwave radiometer instruments. The GPM core satellite carries the Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR), which is being developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), and microwave radiometer provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Development of DPR instrument is in good progress for scheduled launch in 2013, and DPR Critical Design Review has completed in July - September 2009. Constellation satellites, which carry a microwave imager and/or sounder, are planned to be launched around 2013 by each partner agency for its own purpose, and will contribute to extending coverage and increasing frequency. JAXA's future mission, the Global Change Observation Mission (GCOM) - Water (GCOM-W) satellite will be one of constellation satellites. The first generation of GCOM-W satellite is scheduled to be launched in 2011, and it carries the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2), which is being developed based on the experience of the AMSR-E on EOS Aqua satellite

Current trends in satellite based emergency mapping - the need for harmonisation

Science.gov (United States)

Voigt, Stefan

2013-04-01

During the past years, the availability and use of satellite image data to support disaster management and humanitarian relief organisations has largely increased. The automation and data processing techniques are greatly improving as well as the capacity in accessing and processing satellite imagery in getting better globally. More and more global activities via the internet and through global organisations like the United Nations or the International Charter Space and Major Disaster engage in the topic, while at the same time, more and more national or local centres engage rapid mapping operations and activities. In order to make even more effective use of this very positive increase of capacity, for the sake of operational provision of analysis results, for fast validation of satellite derived damage assessments, for better cooperation in the joint inter agency generation of rapid mapping products and for general scientific use, rapid mapping results in general need to be better harmonized, if not even standardized. In this presentation, experiences from various years of rapid mapping gained by the DLR Center for satellite based Crisis Information (ZKI) within the context of the national activities, the International Charter Space and Major Disasters, GMES/Copernicus etc. are reported. Furthermore, an overview on how automation, quality assurance and optimization can be achieved through standard operation procedures within a rapid mapping workflow is given. Building on this long term rapid mapping experience, and building on the DLR initiative to set in pace an "International Working Group on Satellite Based Emergency Mapping" current trends in rapid mapping are discussed and thoughts on how the sharing of rapid mapping information can be optimized by harmonizing analysis results and data structures are presented. Such an harmonization of analysis procedures, nomenclatures and representations of data as well as meta data are the basis to better cooperate within

A MODIS-Based Robust Satellite Technique (RST for Timely Detection of Oil Spilled Areas

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Teodosio Lacava

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Natural crude-oil seepages, together with the oil released into seawater as a consequence of oil exploration/production/transportation activities, and operational discharges from tankers (i.e., oil dumped during cleaning actions represent the main sources of sea oil pollution. Satellite remote sensing can be a useful tool for the management of such types of marine hazards, namely oil spills, mainly owing to the synoptic view and the good trade-off between spatial and temporal resolution, depending on the specific platform/sensor system used. In this paper, an innovative satellite-based technique for oil spill detection, based on the general robust satellite technique (RST approach, is presented. It exploits the multi-temporal analysis of data acquired in the visible channels of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS on board the Aqua satellite in order to automatically and quickly detect the presence of oil spills on the sea surface, with an attempt to minimize “false detections” caused by spurious effects associated with, for instance, cloud edges, sun/satellite geometries, sea currents, etc. The oil spill event that occurred in June 2007 off the south coast of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea has been considered as a test case. The resulting data, the reliability of which has been evaluated by both carrying out a confutation analysis and comparing them with those provided by the application of another independent MODIS-based method, showcase the potential of RST in identifying the presence of oil with a high level of accuracy.

The first estimates of global nucleation mode aerosol concentrations based on satellite measurements

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Kulmala

2011-11-01

Full Text Available Atmospheric aerosols play a key role in the Earth's climate system by scattering and absorbing solar radiation and by acting as cloud condensation nuclei. Satellites are increasingly used to obtain information on properties of aerosol particles with a diameter larger than about 100 nm. However, new aerosol particles formed by nucleation are initially much smaller and grow into the optically active size range on time scales of many hours. In this paper we derive proxies, based on process understanding and ground-based observations, to determine the concentrations of these new particles and their spatial distribution using satellite data. The results are applied to provide seasonal variation of nucleation mode concentration. The proxies describe the concentration of nucleation mode particles over continents. The source rates are related to both regional nucleation and nucleation associated with more restricted sources. The global pattern of nucleation mode particle number concentration predicted by satellite data using our proxies is compared qualitatively against both observations and global model simulations.

Detailed ice loss pattern in the northern Antarctic Peninsula : Widespread decline driven by ice front retreats

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Scambos, T. A.; Berthier, E.; Haran, T.; Shuman, C. A.; Cook, A. J.; Ligtenberg, S. R M; Bohlander, J.

2014-01-01

The northern Antarctic Peninsula (nAP, < 66° S) is one of the most rapidly changing glaciated regions on earth, yet the spatial patterns of its ice mass loss at the glacier basin scale have to date been poorly documented. We use satellite laser altimetry and satellite stereo-image topography

Satellite data transferring subsystem based on system 'Materik'

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Belogub, V.P.; Kal'schikov, I.B.; Kirillov, Yu.K.; Kulikov, V.N.; Shumov, A.N.

1998-01-01

One of the most important indicators of successful function of the International Monitoring System is existence of highly reliable communication channels providing transfer data from observation points in a real time scales. Up to present, the most communication channels were provided with existing VF-channels (Voice Frequency) that are relatively low-speedy in transfer process (4.8-9.6 kbit/sec.). In addition, reliability of the channels is insufficient because of many retransmission points. In connection with it, the special control service of MD RF decided to improve the information transfer system (ITS) installed between the observation point and National Data Center (Dubna-city). The improvement of the ITS comprises replacement of wire lines of VF-channels with satellite ones within the framework of the computer-aided satellite communication system (CASCS) M aterik . Besides it was considered to be expedient that the satellite system of data transfer from NPP to the Crisis Center of 'ROSENERGOATOM' Concern would be combined with CASCS M aterik , using the facilities of the Central Earth Station of Satellite Communication (CESSC) in Dubna. Such approach to the creation of Satellite communication has advantages in solution of radiation safety and global monitoring issues

From extended integrity monitoring to the safety evaluation of satellite-based localisation system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Legrand, Cyril; Beugin, Julie; Marais, Juliette; Conrard, Blaise; El-Koursi, El-Miloudi; Berbineau, Marion

2016-01-01

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) such as GPS, already used in aeronautics for safety-related applications, can play a major role in railway safety by allowing a train to locate itself safely. However, in order to implement this positioning solution in any embedded system, its performances must be evaluated according to railway standards. The evaluation of GNSS performances is not based on the same attributes class than RAMS evaluation. Face to these diffculties, we propose to express the integrity attribute, performance of satellite-based localisation. This attribute comes from aeronautical standards and for a hybridised GNSS with inertial system. To achieve this objective, the integrity attribute must be extended to this kind of system and algorithms initially devoted to GNSS integrity monitoring only must be adapted. Thereafter, the formalisation of this integrity attribute permits us to analyse the safety quantitatively through the probabilities of integrity risk and wrong-side failure. In this paper, after an introductory discussion about the use of localisation systems in railway safety context together with integrity issues, a particular integrity monitoring is proposed and described. The detection events of this algorithm permit us to conclude about safety level of satellite-based localisation system.

Implementing earth observation and advanced satellite based atmospheric sounders for water resource and climate modelling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Boegh, E.; Dellwik, Ebba; Hahmann, Andrea N.

2010-01-01

This paper discusses preliminary remote sensing (MODIS) based hydrological modelling results for the Danish island Sjælland (7330 km2) in relation to project objectives and methodologies of a new research project “Implementing Earth observation and advanced satellite based atmospheric sounders....... For this purpose, a) internal catchment processes will be studied using a Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) system, b) Earth observations will be used to upscale from field to regional scales, and c) at the largest scale, satellite based atmospheric sounders and meso-scale climate modelling will be used...

Long-term variations in the second sectorial Stokes harmonics on the basis of TOPEX/POSEIDON altimetry between 1993 and 2000

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Burša, Milan; Kenyon, S.; Kouba, J.; Šíma, Zdislav; Vatrt, V.; Vítek, V.; Vojtíšková, M.

2006-01-01

Roč. 50, č. 4 (2006), s. 509-524 ISSN 0039-3169 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA205/05/2381 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10030501 Keywords : Earth’s inertia tensor * equatorial flattening variations * T/P altimetry Subject RIV: BN - Astronomy, Celestial Mechanics, Astrophysics Impact factor: 0.603, year: 2006

Solar Power Satellites: Reconsideration as Renewable Energy Source Based on Novel Approaches

Science.gov (United States)

Ellery, Alex

2017-04-01

Solar power satellites (SPS) are a solar energy generation mechanism that captures solar energy in space and converts this energy into microwave for transmission to Earth-based rectenna arrays. They offer a constant, high integrated energy density of 200 W/m2 compared to <10 W/m2 for other renewable energy sources. Despite this promise as a clean energy source, SPS have been relegated out of consideration due to their enormous cost and technological challenge. It has been suggested that for solar power satellites to become economically feasible, launch costs must decrease from their current 20,000/kg to <200/kg. Even with the advent of single-stage-to-orbit launchers which propose launch costs dropping to 2,000/kg, this will not be realized. Yet, the advantages of solar power satellites are many including the provision of stable baseload power. Here, I present a novel approach to reduce the specific cost of solar power satellites to 1/kg by leveraging two enabling technologies - in-situ resource utilization of lunar material and 3D printing of this material. Specifically, we demonstrate that electric motors may be constructed from lunar material through 3D printing representing a major step towards the development of self-replicating machines. Such machines have the capacity to build solar power satellites on the Moon, thereby bypassing the launch cost problem. The productive capacity of self-replicating machines favours the adoption of large constellations of small solar power satellites. This opens up additional clean energy options for combating climate change by meeting the demands for future global energy.

Handbook of satellite applications

CERN Document Server

Madry, Scott; Camacho-Lara, Sergio

2017-01-01

The first edition of this ground breaking reference work was the most comprehensive reference source available about the key aspects of the satellite applications field. This updated second edition covers the technology, the markets, applications and regulations related to satellite telecommunications, broadcasting and networking—including civilian and military systems; precise satellite navigation and timing networks (i.e. GPS and others); remote sensing and meteorological satellite systems. Created under the auspices of the International Space University based in France, this brand new edition is now expanded to cover new innovative small satellite constellations, new commercial launching systems, innovation in military application satellites and their acquisition, updated appendices, a useful glossary and more.

A Large Scale Problem Based Learning inter-European Student Satellite Construction Project

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Jens Frederik Dalsgaard; Alminde, Lars; Bisgaard, Morten

2006-01-01

that electronic communication technology was vital within the project. Additionally the SSETI EXPRESS project implied the following problems it didn’t fit to a standard semester - 18 months for the satellite project compared to 5/6 months for a “normal” semester project. difficulties in integrating the tasks......A LARGE SCALE PROBLEM BASED LEARNING INTER-EUROPEAN STUDENT SATELLITE CONSTRUCTION PROJECT This paper describes the pedagogical outcome of a large scale PBL experiment. ESA (European Space Agency) Education Office launched January 2004 an ambitious project: Let students from all over Europe build....... The satellite was successfully launched on October 27th 2005 (http://www.express.space.aau.dk). The project was a student driven project with student project responsibility adding at lot of international experiences and project management skills to the outcome of more traditional one semester, single group...

Volcview: A Web-Based Platform for Satellite Monitoring of Volcanic Activity and Eruption Response

Science.gov (United States)

Schneider, D. J.; Randall, M.; Parker, T.

2014-12-01

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with University and State partners, operates five volcano observatories that employ specialized software packages and computer systems to process and display real-time data coming from in-situ geophysical sensors and from near-real-time satellite sources. However, access to these systems both inside and from outside the observatory offices are limited in some cases by factors such as software cost, network security, and bandwidth. Thus, a variety of Internet-based tools have been developed by the USGS Volcano Science Center to: 1) Improve accessibility to data sources for staff scientists across volcano monitoring disciplines; 2) Allow access for observatory partners and for after-hours, on-call duty scientists; 3) Provide situational awareness for emergency managers and the general public. Herein we describe VolcView (volcview.wr.usgs.gov), a freely available, web-based platform for display and analysis of near-real-time satellite data. Initial geographic coverage is of the volcanoes in Alaska, the Russian Far East, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Coverage of other volcanoes in the United States will be added in the future. Near-real-time satellite data from NOAA, NASA and JMA satellite systems are processed to create image products for detection of elevated surface temperatures and volcanic ash and SO2 clouds. VolcView uses HTML5 and the canvas element to provide image overlays (volcano location and alert status, annotation, and location information) and image products that can be queried to provide data values, location and measurement capabilities. Use over the past year during the eruptions of Pavlof, Veniaminof, and Cleveland volcanoes in Alaska by the Alaska Volcano Observatory, the National Weather Service, and the U.S. Air Force has reinforced the utility of shared situational awareness and has guided further development. These include overlay of volcanic cloud trajectory and

Wind Statistics Offshore based on Satellite Images

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hasager, Charlotte Bay; Mouche, Alexis; Badger, Merete

2009-01-01

-based observations become available. At present preliminary results are obtained using the routine methods. The first step in the process is to retrieve raw SAR data, calibrate the images and use a priori wind direction as input to the geophysical model function. From this process the wind speed maps are produced....... The wind maps are geo-referenced. The second process is the analysis of a series of geo-referenced SAR-based wind maps. Previous research has shown that a relatively large number of images are needed for achieving certain accuracies on mean wind speed, Weibull A and k (scale and shape parameters......Ocean wind maps from satellites are routinely processed both at Risø DTU and CLS based on the European Space Agency Envisat ASAR data. At Risø the a priori wind direction is taken from the atmospheric model NOGAPS (Navel Operational Global Atmospheric Prediction System) provided by the U.S. Navy...

Topography of the Northern Hemisphere of Mercury from MESSENGER Laser Altimetry

Science.gov (United States)

Zuber,Maria T.; Smith, David E.; Phillips, Roger J.; Solomon, Sean C.; Neumann, Gregory A.; Hauck, Steven A., Jr.; Peale, Stanton J.; Barnouin, Oliver S.; Head, James W.; Johnson, Catherine L.;

Improved Satellite-based Photosysnthetically Active Radiation (PAR) for Air Quality Studies

Science.gov (United States)

Pour Biazar, A.; McNider, R. T.; Cohan, D. S.; White, A.; Zhang, R.; Dornblaser, B.; Doty, K.; Wu, Y.; Estes, M. J.

2015-12-01

One of the challenges in understanding the air quality over forested regions has been the uncertainties in estimating the biogenic hydrocarbon emissions. Biogenic volatile organic compounds, BVOCs, play a critical role in atmospheric chemistry, particularly in ozone and particulate matter (PM) formation. In southeastern United States, BVOCs (mostly as isoprene) are the dominant summertime source of reactive hydrocarbon. Despite significant efforts in improving BVOC estimates, the errors in emission inventories remain a concern. Since BVOC emissions are particularly sensitive to the available photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), model errors in PAR result in large errors in emission estimates. Thus, utilization of satellite observations to estimate PAR can help in reducing emission uncertainties. Satellite-based PAR estimates rely on the technique used to derive insolation from satellite visible brightness measurements. In this study we evaluate several insolation products against surface pyranometer observations and offer a bias correction to generate a more accurate PAR product. The improved PAR product is then used in biogenic emission estimates. The improved biogenic emission estimates are compared to the emission inventories over Texas and used in air quality simulation over the period of August-September 2013 (NASA's Discover-AQ field campaign). A series of sensitivity simulations will be performed and evaluated against Discover-AQ observations to test the impact of satellite-derived PAR on air quality simulations.

Improving satellite-based post-fire evapotranspiration estimates in semi-arid regions

Science.gov (United States)

Poon, P.; Kinoshita, A. M.

2017-12-01

Climate change and anthropogenic factors contribute to the increased frequency, duration, and size of wildfires, which can alter ecosystem and hydrological processes. The loss of vegetation canopy and ground cover reduces interception and alters evapotranspiration (ET) dynamics in riparian areas, which can impact rainfall-runoff partitioning. Previous research evaluated the spatial and temporal trends of ET based on burn severity and observed an annual decrease of 120 mm on average for three years after fire. Building upon these results, this research focuses on the Coyote Fire in San Diego, California (USA), which burned a total of 76 km2 in 2003 to calibrate and improve satellite-based ET estimates in semi-arid regions affected by wildfire. The current work utilizes satellite-based products and techniques such as the Google Earth Engine Application programming interface (API). Various ET models (ie. Operational Simplified Surface Energy Balance Model (SSEBop)) are compared to the latent heat flux from two AmeriFlux eddy covariance towers, Sky Oaks Young (US-SO3), and Old Stand (US-SO2), from 2000 - 2015. The Old Stand tower has a low burn severity and the Young Stand tower has a moderate to high burn severity. Both towers are used to validate spatial ET estimates. Furthermore, variables and indices, such as Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Normalized Difference Moisture Index (NDMI), and the Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR) are utilized to evaluate satellite-based ET through a multivariate statistical analysis at both sites. This point-scale study will able to improve ET estimates in spatially diverse regions. Results from this research will contribute to the development of a post-wildfire ET model for semi-arid regions. Accurate estimates of post-fire ET will provide a better representation of vegetation and hydrologic recovery, which can be used to improve hydrologic models and predictions.

The attitude inversion method of geostationary satellites based on unscented particle filter

Science.gov (United States)

Du, Xiaoping; Wang, Yang; Hu, Heng; Gou, Ruixin; Liu, Hao

2018-04-01

The attitude information of geostationary satellites is difficult to be obtained since they are presented in non-resolved images on the ground observation equipment in space object surveillance. In this paper, an attitude inversion method for geostationary satellite based on Unscented Particle Filter (UPF) and ground photometric data is presented. The inversion algorithm based on UPF is proposed aiming at the strong non-linear feature in the photometric data inversion for satellite attitude, which combines the advantage of Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) and Particle Filter (PF). This update method improves the particle selection based on the idea of UKF to redesign the importance density function. Moreover, it uses the RMS-UKF to partially correct the prediction covariance matrix, which improves the applicability of the attitude inversion method in view of UKF and the particle degradation and dilution of the attitude inversion method based on PF. This paper describes the main principles and steps of algorithm in detail, correctness, accuracy, stability and applicability of the method are verified by simulation experiment and scaling experiment in the end. The results show that the proposed method can effectively solve the problem of particle degradation and depletion in the attitude inversion method on account of PF, and the problem that UKF is not suitable for the strong non-linear attitude inversion. However, the inversion accuracy is obviously superior to UKF and PF, in addition, in the case of the inversion with large attitude error that can inverse the attitude with small particles and high precision.

A Satellite-Based Multi-Pollutant Index of Global Air Quality

Science.gov (United States)

Cooper, Mathew J.; Martin, Randall V.; vanDonkelaar, Aaron; Lamsal, Lok; Brauer, Michael; Brook, Jeffrey R.

2012-01-01

Air pollution is a major health hazard that is responsible formillions of annual excess deaths worldwide. Simpleindicators are useful for comparative studies and to asses strends over time. The development of global indicators hasbeen impeded by the lack of ground-based observations in vast regions of the world. Recognition is growing of the need for amultipollutant approach to air quality to better represent human exposure. Here we introduce the prospect of amultipollutant air quality indicator based on observations from satellite remote sensing.

Measurement-based perturbation theory and differential equation parameter estimation with applications to satellite gravimetry

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Peiliang

2018-06-01

The numerical integration method has been routinely used by major institutions worldwide, for example, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ), to produce global gravitational models from satellite tracking measurements of CHAMP and/or GRACE types. Such Earth's gravitational products have found widest possible multidisciplinary applications in Earth Sciences. The method is essentially implemented by solving the differential equations of the partial derivatives of the orbit of a satellite with respect to the unknown harmonic coefficients under the conditions of zero initial values. From the mathematical and statistical point of view, satellite gravimetry from satellite tracking is essentially the problem of estimating unknown parameters in the Newton's nonlinear differential equations from satellite tracking measurements. We prove that zero initial values for the partial derivatives are incorrect mathematically and not permitted physically. The numerical integration method, as currently implemented and used in mathematics and statistics, chemistry and physics, and satellite gravimetry, is groundless, mathematically and physically. Given the Newton's nonlinear governing differential equations of satellite motion with unknown equation parameters and unknown initial conditions, we develop three methods to derive new local solutions around a nominal reference orbit, which are linked to measurements to estimate the unknown corrections to approximate values of the unknown parameters and the unknown initial conditions. Bearing in mind that satellite orbits can now be tracked almost continuously at unprecedented accuracy, we propose the measurement-based perturbation theory and derive global uniformly convergent solutions to the Newton's nonlinear governing differential equations of satellite motion for the next generation of global gravitational models. Since the solutions are global uniformly convergent, theoretically speaking

Satellite and ground-based sensors for the Urban Heat Island analysis in the city of Rome

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fabrizi, Roberto; Bonafoni, Stefania; Biondi, Riccardo

2010-01-01

In this work, the trend of the Urban Heat Island (UHI) of Rome is analyzed by both ground-based weather stations and a satellite-based infrared sensor. First, we have developed a suitable algorithm employing satellite brightness temperatures for the estimation of the air temperature belonging...... and nighttime scenes taken between 2003 and 2006 have been processed. Analysis of the Canopy Layer Heat Island (CLHI) during summer months reveals a mean growth in magnitude of 3-4 K during nighttime and a negative or almost zero CLHI intensity during daytime, confirmed by the weather stations. © 2010...... by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Keyword: Thermal pollution,Summer months,Advanced-along track scanning radiometers,Urban heat island,Remote sensing,Canopy layer,Atmospheric temperature,Ground based sensors,Weather information services,Satellite remote sensing,Infra-red sensor,Weather stations...

Convolutional neural network features based change detection in satellite images

Science.gov (United States)

Mohammed El Amin, Arabi; Liu, Qingjie; Wang, Yunhong

2016-07-01

With the popular use of high resolution remote sensing (HRRS) satellite images, a huge research efforts have been placed on change detection (CD) problem. An effective feature selection method can significantly boost the final result. While hand-designed features have proven difficulties to design features that effectively capture high and mid-level representations, the recent developments in machine learning (Deep Learning) omit this problem by learning hierarchical representation in an unsupervised manner directly from data without human intervention. In this letter, we propose approaching the change detection problem from a feature learning perspective. A novel deep Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) features based HR satellite images change detection method is proposed. The main guideline is to produce a change detection map directly from two images using a pretrained CNN. This method can omit the limited performance of hand-crafted features. Firstly, CNN features are extracted through different convolutional layers. Then, a concatenation step is evaluated after an normalization step, resulting in a unique higher dimensional feature map. Finally, a change map was computed using pixel-wise Euclidean distance. Our method has been validated on real bitemporal HRRS satellite images according to qualitative and quantitative analyses. The results obtained confirm the interest of the proposed method.

Satellite-based detection of global urban heat-island temperature influence

Science.gov (United States)

Gallo, K.P.; Adegoke, Jimmy O.; Owen, T.W.; Elvidge, C.D.

2002-01-01

This study utilizes a satellite-based methodology to assess the urban heat-island influence during warm season months for over 4400 stations included in the Global Historical Climatology Network of climate stations. The methodology includes local and regional satellite retrievals of an indicator of the presence green photosynthetically active vegetation at and around the stations. The difference in local and regional samples of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is used to estimate differences in mean air temperature. Stations classified as urban averaged 0.90??C (N. Hemisphere) and 0.92??C (S. Hemisphere) warmer than the surrounding environment on the basis of the NDVI-derived temperature estimates. Additionally, stations classified as rural averaged 0.19??C (N. Hemisphere) and 0.16??C (S. Hemisphere) warmer than the surrounding environment. The NDVI-derived temperature estimates were found to be in reasonable agreement with temperature differences observed between climate stations. The results suggest that satellite-derived data sets can be used to estimate the urban heat-island temperature influence on a global basis and that a more detailed analysis of rural stations and their surrounding environment may be necessary to assure that temperature trends derived from assumed rural environments are not influenced by changes in land use/land cover. Copyright 2002 by the American Geophysical Union.

Evaluation of NWP-based Satellite Precipitation Error Correction with Near-Real-Time Model Products and Flood-inducing Storms

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, X.; Anagnostou, E. N.; Schwartz, C. S.

2017-12-01

Satellite precipitation products tend to have significant biases over complex terrain. Our research investigates a statistical approach for satellite precipitation adjustment based solely on numerical weather simulations. This approach has been evaluated in two mid-latitude (Zhang et al. 2013*1, Zhang et al. 2016*2) and three topical mountainous regions by using the WRF model to adjust two high-resolution satellite products i) National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center morphing technique (CMORPH) and ii) Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation (GSMaP). Results show the adjustment effectively reduces the satellite underestimation of high rain rates, which provides a solid proof-of-concept for continuing research of NWP-based satellite correction. In this study we investigate the feasibility of using NCAR Real-time Ensemble Forecasts*3 for adjusting near-real-time satellite precipitation datasets over complex terrain areas in the Continental United States (CONUS) such as Olympic Peninsula, California coastal mountain ranges, Rocky Mountains and South Appalachians. The research will focus on flood-inducing storms occurred from May 2015 to December 2016 and four satellite precipitation products (CMORPH, GSMaP, PERSIANN-CCS and IMERG). The error correction performance evaluation will be based on comparisons against the gauge-adjusted Stage IV precipitation data. *1 Zhang, Xinxuan, et al. "Using NWP simulations in satellite rainfall estimation of heavy precipitation events over mountainous areas." Journal of Hydrometeorology 14.6 (2013): 1844-1858. *2 Zhang, Xinxuan, et al. "Hydrologic Evaluation of NWP-Adjusted CMORPH Estimates of Hurricane-Induced Precipitation in the Southern Appalachians." Journal of Hydrometeorology 17.4 (2016): 1087-1099. *3 Schwartz, Craig S., et al. "NCAR's experimental real-time convection-allowing ensemble prediction system." Weather and Forecasting 30.6 (2015): 1645-1654.

Passivity Based Nonlinear Attitude Control of the Rømer Satellite

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Quottrup, Michael Melholt; Krogh-Sørensen, J.; Wisniewski, Rafal

2001-01-01

This paper suggests nonlinear attitude control of the Danish satellite Rømer. This satellite will be designed to fulfil two scientific objectives: The observation of stellar oscillations and the detection and localisation of gamma-ray bursts. The satellite will be equipped with a tetrahedron...

Digital, Satellite-Based Aeronautical Communication

Science.gov (United States)

Davarian, F.

1989-01-01

Satellite system relays communication between aircraft and stations on ground. System offers better coverage with direct communication between air and ground, costs less and makes possible new communication services. Carries both voice and data. Because many data exchanged between aircraft and ground contain safety-related information, probability of bit errors essential.

A Framework for Building an Interactive Satellite TV Based M-Learning Environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ghassan Issa

2010-07-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a description of an interactive satellite TV based mobile learning (STV-ML framework, in which a satellite TV station is used as an integral part of a comprehensive interactive mobile learning (M-Learning environment. The proposed framework assists in building a reliable, efficient, and cost-effective environment to meet the growing demands of M-Learning all over the world, especially in developing countries. It utilizes recent advances in satellite reception, broadcasting technologies, and interactive TV to facilitate the delivery of gigantic learning materials. This paper also proposed a simple and flexible three-phase implementation methodology which includes construction of earth station, expansion of broadcasting channels, and developing true user interactivity. The proposed framework and implementation methodology ensure the construction of a true, reliable, and cost effective M-Learning system that can be used efficiently and effectively by a wide range of users and educational institutions to deliver ubiquitous learning.

Advancing land surface model development with satellite-based Earth observations

Science.gov (United States)

Orth, Rene; Dutra, Emanuel; Trigo, Isabel F.; Balsamo, Gianpaolo

2017-04-01

The land surface forms an essential part of the climate system. It interacts with the atmosphere through the exchange of water and energy and hence influences weather and climate, as well as their predictability. Correspondingly, the land surface model (LSM) is an essential part of any weather forecasting system. LSMs rely on partly poorly constrained parameters, due to sparse land surface observations. With the use of newly available land surface temperature observations, we show in this study that novel satellite-derived datasets help to improve LSM configuration, and hence can contribute to improved weather predictability. We use the Hydrology Tiled ECMWF Scheme of Surface Exchanges over Land (HTESSEL) and validate it comprehensively against an array of Earth observation reference datasets, including the new land surface temperature product. This reveals satisfactory model performance in terms of hydrology, but poor performance in terms of land surface temperature. This is due to inconsistencies of process representations in the model as identified from an analysis of perturbed parameter simulations. We show that HTESSEL can be more robustly calibrated with multiple instead of single reference datasets as this mitigates the impact of the structural inconsistencies. Finally, performing coupled global weather forecasts we find that a more robust calibration of HTESSEL also contributes to improved weather forecast skills. In summary, new satellite-based Earth observations are shown to enhance the multi-dataset calibration of LSMs, thereby improving the representation of insufficiently captured processes, advancing weather predictability and understanding of climate system feedbacks. Orth, R., E. Dutra, I. F. Trigo, and G. Balsamo (2016): Advancing land surface model development with satellite-based Earth observations. Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., doi:10.5194/hess-2016-628

Categorizing natural disaster damage assessment using satellite-based geospatial techniques

Science.gov (United States)

Myint, S.W.; Yuan, M.; Cerveny, R.S.; Giri, C.

2008-01-01

Remote sensing of a natural disaster's damage offers an exciting backup and/or alternative to traditional means of on-site damage assessment. Although necessary for complete assessment of damage areas, ground-based damage surveys conducted in the aftermath of natural hazard passage can sometimes be potentially complicated due to on-site difficulties (e.g., interaction with various authorities and emergency services) and hazards (e.g., downed power lines, gas lines, etc.), the need for rapid mobilization (particularly for remote locations), and the increasing cost of rapid physical transportation of manpower and equipment. Satellite image analysis, because of its global ubiquity, its ability for repeated independent analysis, and, as we demonstrate here, its ability to verify on-site damage assessment provides an interesting new perspective and investigative aide to researchers. Using one of the strongest tornado events in US history, the 3 May 1999 Oklahoma City Tornado, as a case example, we digitized the tornado damage path and co-registered the damage path using pre- and post-Landsat Thematic Mapper image data to perform a damage assessment. We employed several geospatial approaches, specifically the Getis index, Geary's C, and two lacunarity approaches to categorize damage characteristics according to the original Fujita tornado damage scale (F-scale). Our results indicate strong relationships between spatial indices computed within a local window and tornado F-scale damage categories identified through the ground survey. Consequently, linear regression models, even incorporating just a single band, appear effective in identifying F-scale damage categories using satellite imagery. This study demonstrates that satellite-based geospatial techniques can effectively add spatial perspectives to natural disaster damages, and in particular for this case study, tornado damages.

Groundwater storage changes in the Tibetan Plateau and adjacent areas revealed from GRACE satellite gravity data

Science.gov (United States)

Xiang, Longwei; Wang, Hansheng; Steffen, Holger; Wu, Patrick; Jia, Lulu; Jiang, Liming; Shen, Qiang

2016-09-01

Understanding groundwater storage (GWS) changes is vital to the utilization and control of water resources in the Tibetan Plateau. However, well level observations are rare in this big area, and reliable hydrology models including GWS are not available. We use hydro-geodesy to quantitate GWS changes in the Tibetan Plateau and surroundings from 2003 to 2009 using a combined analysis of satellite gravity and satellite altimetry data, hydrology models as well as a model of glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA). Release-5 GRACE gravity data are jointly used in a mascon fitting method to estimate the terrestrial water storage (TWS) changes during the period, from which the hydrology contributions and the GIA effects are effectively deducted to give the estimates of GWS changes for 12 selected regions of interest. The hydrology contributions are carefully calculated from glaciers and lakes by ICESat-1 satellite altimetry data, permafrost degradation by an Active-Layer Depth (ALD) model, soil moisture and snow water equivalent by multiple hydrology models, and the GIA effects are calculated with the new ICE-6G_C (VM5a) model. Taking into account the measurement errors and the variability of the models, the uncertainties are rigorously estimated for the TWS changes, the hydrology contributions (including GWS changes) and the GIA effect. For the first time, we show explicitly separated GWS changes in the Tibetan Plateau and adjacent areas except for those to the south of the Himalayas. We find increasing trend rates for eight basins: + 2.46 ± 2.24 Gt/yr for the Jinsha River basin, + 1.77 ± 2.09 Gt/yr for the Nujiang-Lancangjiang Rivers Source Region, + 1.86 ± 1.69 Gt/yr for the Yangtze River Source Region, + 1.14 ± 1.39 Gt/yr for the Yellow River Source Region, + 1.52 ± 0.95 Gt/yr for the Qaidam basin, + 1.66 ± 1.52 Gt/yr for the central Qiangtang Nature Reserve, + 5.37 ± 2.17 Gt/yr for the Upper Indus basin and + 2.77 ± 0.99 Gt/yr for the Aksu River basin. All these

A satellite-based global landslide model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Farahmand

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Landslides are devastating phenomena that cause huge damage around the world. This paper presents a quasi-global landslide model derived using satellite precipitation data, land-use land cover maps, and 250 m topography information. This suggested landslide model is based on the Support Vector Machines (SVM, a machine learning algorithm. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC landslide inventory data is used as observations and reference data. In all, 70% of the data are used for model development and training, whereas 30% are used for validation and verification. The results of 100 random subsamples of available landslide observations revealed that the suggested landslide model can predict historical landslides reliably. The average error of 100 iterations of landslide prediction is estimated to be approximately 7%, while approximately 2% false landslide events are observed.

The accuracy of satellite radar altimeter data over the Greenland ice sheet determined from airborne laser data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bamber, J.L.; Ekholm, Simon; Krabill, W.

1998-01-01

with airborne laser altimeter data an absolute accuracy typically in the range 2-10 cm +/- 10 cm. Comparison of differences between the radar and laser derived elevations, showed a correlation with surface slope. The difference between the two data sets ranged from 84 cm +/- 79 cm for slopes below 0.1 degrees......The 336 days of the geodetic phase of ERS-1 provides dense coverage, by satellite radar altimetry, of the whole of the Greenland ice sheet. These data have been used to produce a digital elevation model of the ice sheet. The errors present in the altimeter data were investigated via a comparison......, to 10.3 m +/- 8.4 m for a slope of 0.7 degrees ( the half power beam-width of the ERS-1 radar altimeter). An explanation for the behaviour of the difference as a function of surface slope is given in terms of the pattern of surface roughness on the ice sheet....

Waveform identification and retracking analyses of Jason-2 altimeter satellite data for improving sea surface height estimation in Southern Java Island Waters and Java Sea, Indonesia

Science.gov (United States)

Nababan, Bisman; Hakim, Muhammad R.; Panjaitan, James P.

2018-05-01

Indonesian waters containing many small islands and shallow waters leads to a less accurate of sea surface height (SSH) estimation from satellite altimetry. Little efforts are also given for the validation of SSH estimation from the satellite in Indonesian waters. The purpose of this research was to identify and retrack waveforms of Jason-2 altimeter satellite data in southern Java island waters and Java Sea using several retrackers and performed improvement percentage analyses for new SSH estimation. The study used data of the Sensor Geophysical Data Record type D (SGDR-D) of Jason-2 satellite altimeter of the year 2010 in the southern Java island waters and 2012-2014 in Java Sea. Waveform retracking analyses were conducted using several retrackers (Offset Center of Gravity, Ice, Threshold, and Improved Threshold) and examined using a world reference undulation geoid of EGM08 and Oceanic retracker. Result showed that shape and pattern of waveforms were varied in all passes, seasons, and locations specifically along the coastal regions. In general, non-Brownish and complex waveforms were identified along coastal region specifically within the distance of 0-10 km from the shoreline. In contrary, generally Brownish waveforms were found in offshore. However, Brownish waveform can also be found within coastal region and non-Brownish waveforms within offshore region. The results were also showed that the four retrackers produced a better SSH estimation in coastal region. However, there was no dominant retracker to improve the accuracy of the SSH estimate.

Satellite-based empirical models linking river plume dynamics with hypoxic area andvolume

Science.gov (United States)

Satellite-based empirical models explaining hypoxic area and volume variation were developed for the seasonally hypoxic (O2 < 2 mg L−1) northern Gulf of Mexico adjacent to the Mississippi River. Annual variations in midsummer hypoxic area and ...

A space weather forecasting system with multiple satellites based on a self-recognizing network.

Science.gov (United States)

Tokumitsu, Masahiro; Ishida, Yoshiteru

2014-05-05

This paper proposes a space weather forecasting system at geostationary orbit for high-energy electron flux (>2 MeV). The forecasting model involves multiple sensors on multiple satellites. The sensors interconnect and evaluate each other to predict future conditions at geostationary orbit. The proposed forecasting model is constructed using a dynamic relational network for sensor diagnosis and event monitoring. The sensors of the proposed model are located at different positions in space. The satellites for solar monitoring equip with monitoring devices for the interplanetary magnetic field and solar wind speed. The satellites orbit near the Earth monitoring high-energy electron flux. We investigate forecasting for typical two examples by comparing the performance of two models with different numbers of sensors. We demonstrate the prediction by the proposed model against coronal mass ejections and a coronal hole. This paper aims to investigate a possibility of space weather forecasting based on the satellite network with in-situ sensing.

A Space Weather Forecasting System with Multiple Satellites Based on a Self-Recognizing Network

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Masahiro Tokumitsu

2014-05-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes a space weather forecasting system at geostationary orbit for high-energy electron flux (>2 MeV. The forecasting model involves multiple sensors on multiple satellites. The sensors interconnect and evaluate each other to predict future conditions at geostationary orbit. The proposed forecasting model is constructed using a dynamic relational network for sensor diagnosis and event monitoring. The sensors of the proposed model are located at different positions in space. The satellites for solar monitoring equip with monitoring devices for the interplanetary magnetic field and solar wind speed. The satellites orbit near the Earth monitoring high-energy electron flux. We investigate forecasting for typical two examples by comparing the performance of two models with different numbers of sensors. We demonstrate the prediction by the proposed model against coronal mass ejections and a coronal hole. This paper aims to investigate a possibility of space weather forecasting based on the satellite network with in-situ sensing.

Improvement of Ka-band satellite link availability for real-time IP-based video contribution

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. Berretta

2017-09-01

Full Text Available New High Throughput Satellite (HTS systems allow high throughput IP uplinks/contribution at Ka-band frequencies for relatively lower costs when compared to broadcasting satellite uplinks at Ku band. This technology offers an advantage for live video contribution from remote areas, where the terrestrial infrastructure may not be adequate. On the other hand, the Ka-band is more subject to impairments due to rain or bad weather. This paper addresses the target system specification and provides an optimized approach for the transmission of IP-based video flows through HTS commercial services operating at Ka-band frequencies. In particular, the focus of this study is on the service requirements and the propagation analysis that provide a reference architecture to improve the overall link availability. The approach proposed herein leads to the introduction of a new concept of live service contribution using pairs of small satellite antennas and cheap satellite terminals.

Performance and quality assessment of the global ocean eddy-permitting physical reanalysis GLORYS2V4.

Science.gov (United States)

Garric, Gilles; Parent, Laurent; Greiner, Eric; Drévillon, Marie; Hamon, Mathieu; Lellouche, Jean-Michel; Régnier, Charly; Desportes, Charles; Le Galloudec, Olivier; Bricaud, Clement; Drillet, Yann; Hernandez, Fabrice; Le Traon, Pierre-Yves

2017-04-01

The purpose of this presentation is to give an overview of the recent upgrade of GLORYS2 (version 4 and GLORYS2V4 hereafter), the latest ocean reanalysis produced at Mercator Ocean that covers the altimetry era (1993-2015) in the framework of Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS; http://marine.copernicus.eu/). The reanalysis is run at eddy-permitting resolution (¼° horizontal resolution and 75 vertical levels) with the NEMO model and driven at the surface by ERA-Interim reanalysis from ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts). The reanalysis system uses a multi-data and multivariate reduced order Kalman filter based on the singular extended evolutive Kalman (SEEK) filter formulation together with a 3D-VAR large scale bias correction. The assimilated observations are along-track satellite altimetry, sea surface temperature, sea ice concentration and in-situ profiles of temperature and salinity. With respect to the previous version (GLORYS2V3), GLORYS2V4 contains a number of improvements. In particular: a) new initial temperature and salinity conditions derived from EN4 data base with a better mass equilibrium with altimetry, b) the use of the updated delayed mode CORA in situ observations from CMEMS, c) a new hybrid Mean Dynamical Topography (MDT) for the assimilation scheme referenced over the 1993-2013 period, d) a better observation operator for altimetry observations for the data assimilation scheme: e) A correction of large scale ERA-Interim atmospheric surface (precipitations and radiative) fluxes as in GLORYS2V3 but towards new satellite data set f) an update of the climatological runoff data base by using the latest version of Dai's 2009 data set for the global ocean together with better account of freshwater fluxes from polar ice sheet's glaciers. The presentation will show that the new reanalysis outperforms the previous version in many aspects such as biases and root mean squared error and, especially in representing

The Skeletal Muscle Satellite Cell

Science.gov (United States)

2011-01-01

The skeletal muscle satellite cell was first described and named based on its anatomic location between the myofiber plasma and basement membranes. In 1961, two independent studies by Alexander Mauro and Bernard Katz provided the first electron microscopic descriptions of satellite cells in frog and rat muscles. These cells were soon detected in other vertebrates and acquired candidacy as the source of myogenic cells needed for myofiber growth and repair throughout life. Cultures of isolated myofibers and, subsequently, transplantation of single myofibers demonstrated that satellite cells were myogenic progenitors. More recently, satellite cells were redefined as myogenic stem cells given their ability to self-renew in addition to producing differentiated progeny. Identification of distinctively expressed molecular markers, in particular Pax7, has facilitated detection of satellite cells using light microscopy. Notwithstanding the remarkable progress made since the discovery of satellite cells, researchers have looked for alternative cells with myogenic capacity that can potentially be used for whole body cell-based therapy of skeletal muscle. Yet, new studies show that inducible ablation of satellite cells in adult muscle impairs myofiber regeneration. Thus, on the 50th anniversary since its discovery, the satellite cell’s indispensable role in muscle repair has been reaffirmed. PMID:22147605

A Web-based Google-Earth Coincident Imaging Tool for Satellite Calibration and Validation

Science.gov (United States)

Killough, B. D.; Chander, G.; Gowda, S.

2009-12-01

The Group on Earth Observations (GEO) is coordinating international efforts to build a Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) to meet the needs of its nine “Societal Benefit Areas”, of which the most demanding, in terms of accuracy, is climate. To accomplish this vision, satellite on-orbit and ground-based data calibration and validation (Cal/Val) of Earth observation measurements are critical to our scientific understanding of the Earth system. Existing tools supporting space mission Cal/Val are often developed for specific campaigns or events with little desire for broad application. This paper describes a web-based Google-Earth based tool for the calculation of coincident satellite observations with the intention to support a diverse international group of satellite missions to improve data continuity, interoperability and data fusion. The Committee on Earth Observing Satellites (CEOS), which includes 28 space agencies and 20 other national and international organizations, are currently operating and planning over 240 Earth observation satellites in the next 15 years. The technology described here will better enable the use of multiple sensors to promote increased coordination toward a GEOSS. The CEOS Systems Engineering Office (SEO) and the Working Group on Calibration and Validation (WGCV) support the development of the CEOS Visualization Environment (COVE) tool to enhance international coordination of data exchange, mission planning and Cal/Val events. The objective is to develop a simple and intuitive application tool that leverages the capabilities of Google-Earth web to display satellite sensor coverage areas and for the identification of coincident scene locations along with dynamic menus for flexibility and content display. Key features and capabilities include user-defined evaluation periods (start and end dates) and regions of interest (rectangular areas) and multi-user collaboration. Users can select two or more CEOS missions from a

Manifestation of two meddies in altimetry and sea-surface temperature

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I. Bashmachnikov

2013-03-01

Full Text Available Two meddies were identified in the Iberian Basin using shipboard ADCP (Meddy 1 and Argo float (Meddy 2 in contrasting background conditions. Meddy 1 was observed while interacting with the Azores Current (AzC, while Meddy 2 was observed in a much calmer dynamical background, north from the AzC jet. In both cases the meddies formed a clear anticyclonic surface signal, detectable in altimetry as well as in sea-surface temperature (SST. Analysis of the in situ observations of the dynamic signal over Meddy 1 showed that the signal, generated by the moving meddy, dominated the AzC dynamics at least up to the base of the seasonal thermocline even at the late stages of its interaction with the jet. The centre of rotation of the surface signal was shifted south-westward from the axis of the meddy by about 18 km, and its dynamic radius was 2 times bigger than that of the meddy. In the centre of the anticyclonic surface signals of both meddies, SST was colder than that of the surrounding water, in contrast to warm SST anomalies in the cores of surface anticyclones generated by meandering surface currents. The latter difference gives ground for identification of meddies (as well as other sub-surface anticyclones in comparatively dynamically calm regions using coupled altimetry–SST remote sensing data. An identification of Meddy 1 prior to the shipboard ADCP measurements was the first successful experience. At the same time, SST anomalies over the meddies were rather weak, often unstable and statistically significant only over periods of months.

An orbit determination algorithm for small satellites based on the magnitude of the earth magnetic field

Science.gov (United States)

Zagorski, P.; Gallina, A.; Rachucki, J.; Moczala, B.; Zietek, S.; Uhl, T.

2018-06-01

Autonomous attitude determination systems based on simple measurements of vector quantities such as magnetic field and the Sun direction are commonly used in very small satellites. However, those systems always require knowledge of the satellite position. This information can be either propagated from orbital elements periodically uplinked from the ground station or measured onboard by dedicated global positioning system (GPS) receiver. The former solution sacrifices satellite autonomy while the latter requires additional sensors which may represent a significant part of mass, volume, and power budget in case of pico- or nanosatellites. Hence, it is thought that a system for onboard satellite position determination without resorting to GPS receivers would be useful. In this paper, a novel algorithm for determining the satellite orbit semimajor-axis is presented. The methods exploit only the magnitude of the Earth magnetic field recorded onboard by magnetometers. This represents the first step toward an extended algorithm that can determine all orbital elements of the satellite. The method is validated by numerical analysis and real magnetic field measurements.

Examining the utility of satellite-based wind sheltering estimates for lake hydrodynamic modeling

Science.gov (United States)

Van Den Hoek, Jamon; Read, Jordan S.; Winslow, Luke A.; Montesano, Paul; Markfort, Corey D.

2015-01-01

Satellite-based measurements of vegetation canopy structure have been in common use for the last decade but have never been used to estimate canopy's impact on wind sheltering of individual lakes. Wind sheltering is caused by slower winds in the wake of topography and shoreline obstacles (e.g. forest canopy) and influences heat loss and the flux of wind-driven mixing energy into lakes, which control lake temperatures and indirectly structure lake ecosystem processes, including carbon cycling and thermal habitat partitioning. Lakeshore wind sheltering has often been parameterized by lake surface area but such empirical relationships are only based on forested lakeshores and overlook the contributions of local land cover and terrain to wind sheltering. This study is the first to examine the utility of satellite imagery-derived broad-scale estimates of wind sheltering across a diversity of land covers. Using 30 m spatial resolution ASTER GDEM2 elevation data, the mean sheltering height, hs, being the combination of local topographic rise and canopy height above the lake surface, is calculated within 100 m-wide buffers surrounding 76,000 lakes in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Uncertainty of GDEM2-derived hs was compared to SRTM-, high-resolution G-LiHT lidar-, and ICESat-derived estimates of hs, respective influences of land cover type and buffer width on hsare examined; and the effect of including satellite-based hs on the accuracy of a statewide lake hydrodynamic model was discussed. Though GDEM2 hs uncertainty was comparable to or better than other satellite-based measures of hs, its higher spatial resolution and broader spatial coverage allowed more lakes to be included in modeling efforts. GDEM2 was shown to offer superior utility for estimating hs compared to other satellite-derived data, but was limited by its consistent underestimation of hs, inability to detect within-buffer hs variability, and differing accuracy across land cover types. Nonetheless

Evaluation of Bias Correction Method for Satellite-Based Rainfall Data

Science.gov (United States)

Bhatti, Haris Akram; Rientjes, Tom; Haile, Alemseged Tamiru; Habib, Emad; Verhoef, Wouter

2016-01-01

With the advances in remote sensing technology, satellite-based rainfall estimates are gaining attraction in the field of hydrology, particularly in rainfall-runoff modeling. Since estimates are affected by errors correction is required. In this study, we tested the high resolution National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Climate Prediction Centre (CPC) morphing technique (CMORPH) satellite rainfall product (CMORPH) in the Gilgel Abbey catchment, Ethiopia. CMORPH data at 8 km-30 min resolution is aggregated to daily to match in-situ observations for the period 2003–2010. Study objectives are to assess bias of the satellite estimates, to identify optimum window size for application of bias correction and to test effectiveness of bias correction. Bias correction factors are calculated for moving window (MW) sizes and for sequential windows (SW’s) of 3, 5, 7, 9, …, 31 days with the aim to assess error distribution between the in-situ observations and CMORPH estimates. We tested forward, central and backward window (FW, CW and BW) schemes to assess the effect of time integration on accumulated rainfall. Accuracy of cumulative rainfall depth is assessed by Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE). To systematically correct all CMORPH estimates, station based bias factors are spatially interpolated to yield a bias factor map. Reliability of interpolation is assessed by cross validation. The uncorrected CMORPH rainfall images are multiplied by the interpolated bias map to result in bias corrected CMORPH estimates. Findings are evaluated by RMSE, correlation coefficient (r) and standard deviation (SD). Results showed existence of bias in the CMORPH rainfall. It is found that the 7 days SW approach performs best for bias correction of CMORPH rainfall. The outcome of this study showed the efficiency of our bias correction approach. PMID:27314363

Evaluation of Bias Correction Method for Satellite-Based Rainfall Data.

Science.gov (United States)

Bhatti, Haris Akram; Rientjes, Tom; Haile, Alemseged Tamiru; Habib, Emad; Verhoef, Wouter

2016-06-15

With the advances in remote sensing technology, satellite-based rainfall estimates are gaining attraction in the field of hydrology, particularly in rainfall-runoff modeling. Since estimates are affected by errors correction is required. In this study, we tested the high resolution National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Climate Prediction Centre (CPC) morphing technique (CMORPH) satellite rainfall product (CMORPH) in the Gilgel Abbey catchment, Ethiopia. CMORPH data at 8 km-30 min resolution is aggregated to daily to match in-situ observations for the period 2003-2010. Study objectives are to assess bias of the satellite estimates, to identify optimum window size for application of bias correction and to test effectiveness of bias correction. Bias correction factors are calculated for moving window (MW) sizes and for sequential windows (SW's) of 3, 5, 7, 9, …, 31 days with the aim to assess error distribution between the in-situ observations and CMORPH estimates. We tested forward, central and backward window (FW, CW and BW) schemes to assess the effect of time integration on accumulated rainfall. Accuracy of cumulative rainfall depth is assessed by Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE). To systematically correct all CMORPH estimates, station based bias factors are spatially interpolated to yield a bias factor map. Reliability of interpolation is assessed by cross validation. The uncorrected CMORPH rainfall images are multiplied by the interpolated bias map to result in bias corrected CMORPH estimates. Findings are evaluated by RMSE, correlation coefficient (r) and standard deviation (SD). Results showed existence of bias in the CMORPH rainfall. It is found that the 7 days SW approach performs best for bias correction of CMORPH rainfall. The outcome of this study showed the efficiency of our bias correction approach.

Evaluation of Bias Correction Method for Satellite-Based Rainfall Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Haris Akram Bhatti

2016-06-01

Full Text Available With the advances in remote sensing technology, satellite-based rainfall estimates are gaining attraction in the field of hydrology, particularly in rainfall-runoff modeling. Since estimates are affected by errors correction is required. In this study, we tested the high resolution National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA Climate Prediction Centre (CPC morphing technique (CMORPH satellite rainfall product (CMORPH in the Gilgel Abbey catchment, Ethiopia. CMORPH data at 8 km-30 min resolution is aggregated to daily to match in-situ observations for the period 2003–2010. Study objectives are to assess bias of the satellite estimates, to identify optimum window size for application of bias correction and to test effectiveness of bias correction. Bias correction factors are calculated for moving window (MW sizes and for sequential windows (SW’s of 3, 5, 7, 9, …, 31 days with the aim to assess error distribution between the in-situ observations and CMORPH estimates. We tested forward, central and backward window (FW, CW and BW schemes to assess the effect of time integration on accumulated rainfall. Accuracy of cumulative rainfall depth is assessed by Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE. To systematically correct all CMORPH estimates, station based bias factors are spatially interpolated to yield a bias factor map. Reliability of interpolation is assessed by cross validation. The uncorrected CMORPH rainfall images are multiplied by the interpolated bias map to result in bias corrected CMORPH estimates. Findings are evaluated by RMSE, correlation coefficient (r and standard deviation (SD. Results showed existence of bias in the CMORPH rainfall. It is found that the 7 days SW approach performs best for bias correction of CMORPH rainfall. The outcome of this study showed the efficiency of our bias correction approach.

Altimetric observations and model simulations of coastal Kelvin waves in the Bay of Bengal

Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

Nienhaus, M.J.; Subrahmanyam, B; Murty, V.S.N.

Wavelet analyses of sea surface height (SSH) obtained from Simple Ocean Data Assimilation (SODA) reanalysis, satellite altimetry derived SSH anomalies during 1993–2006, and HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) simulations of SSH during 2003...

Sensitivity of Distributed Hydrologic Simulations to Ground and Satellite Based Rainfall Products

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Singaiah Chintalapudi

2014-05-01

Full Text Available In this study, seven precipitation products (rain gauges, NEXRAD MPE, PERSIANN 0.25 degree, PERSIANN CCS-3hr, PERSIANN CCS-1hr, TRMM 3B42V7, and CMORPH were used to force a physically-based distributed hydrologic model. The model was driven by these products to simulate the hydrologic response of a 1232 km2 watershed in the Guadalupe River basin, Texas. Storm events in 2007 were used to analyze the precipitation products. Comparison with rain gauge observations reveals that there were significant biases in the satellite rainfall products and large variations in the estimated amounts. The radar basin average precipitation compared very well with the rain gauge product while the gauge-adjusted TRMM 3B42V7 precipitation compared best with observed rainfall among all satellite precipitation products. The NEXRAD MPE simulated streamflows matched the observed ones the best yielding the highest Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency correlation coefficient values for both the July and August 2007 events. Simulations driven by TRMM 3B42V7 matched the observed streamflow better than other satellite products for both events. The PERSIANN coarse resolution product yielded better runoff results than the higher resolution product. The study reveals that satellite rainfall products are viable alternatives when rain gauge or ground radar observations are sparse or non-existent.

Development of Deep Learning Based Data Fusion Approach for Accurate Rainfall Estimation Using Ground Radar and Satellite Precipitation Products

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, H.; Chandra, C. V.; Tan, H.; Cifelli, R.; Xie, P.

2016-12-01

Rainfall estimation based on onboard satellite measurements has been an important topic in satellite meteorology for decades. A number of precipitation products at multiple time and space scales have been developed based upon satellite observations. For example, NOAA Climate Prediction Center has developed a morphing technique (i.e., CMORPH) to produce global precipitation products by combining existing space based rainfall estimates. The CMORPH products are essentially derived based on geostationary satellite IR brightness temperature information and retrievals from passive microwave measurements (Joyce et al. 2004). Although the space-based precipitation products provide an excellent tool for regional and global hydrologic and climate studies as well as improved situational awareness for operational forecasts, its accuracy is limited due to the sampling limitations, particularly for extreme events such as very light and/or heavy rain. On the other hand, ground-based radar is more mature science for quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE), especially after the implementation of dual-polarization technique and further enhanced by urban scale radar networks. Therefore, ground radars are often critical for providing local scale rainfall estimation and a "heads-up" for operational forecasters to issue watches and warnings as well as validation of various space measurements and products. The CASA DFW QPE system, which is based on dual-polarization X-band CASA radars and a local S-band WSR-88DP radar, has demonstrated its excellent performance during several years of operation in a variety of precipitation regimes. The real-time CASA DFW QPE products are used extensively for localized hydrometeorological applications such as urban flash flood forecasting. In this paper, a neural network based data fusion mechanism is introduced to improve the satellite-based CMORPH precipitation product by taking into account the ground radar measurements. A deep learning system is

Coastal Sea Level from CryoSat-2 SARIn Altimetry in Norway

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Idžanović, Martina; Ophaug, Vegard; Andersen, Ole Baltazar

2017-01-01

Conventional (pulse-limited) altimeters determine the sea surface height with an accuracy of a few centimeters over the open ocean. Sea surface heights and tide-gauge sea level serve as each other’s buddy check. However, in coastal areas, altimetry suffers from numerous effects, which degrade its...... conventional altimeters. In this study, we explore the potential of CryoSat-2 to provide valid observations in the Norwegian coastal zone. We do this by comparing time series of CryoSat-2 sea level anomalies with time series of in situ sea level at 22 tide gauges, where the CryoSat-2 sea level anomalies...... are averaged in a 45-km area around each tide gauge. For all tide gauges, CryoSat-2 shows standard deviations of differences and correlations of 16 cm and 61%, respectively. We further identify the ocean tide and inverted barometer geophysical corrections as the most crucial, and note that a large amount...

LEOPACK The integrated services communications system based on LEO satellites

Science.gov (United States)

Negoda, A.; Bunin, S.; Bushuev, E.; Dranovsky, V.

LEOPACK is yet another LEO satellite project which provides global integrated services for 'business' communications. It utilizes packet rather then circuit switching in both terrestrial and satellite chains as well as cellular approach for frequencies use. Original multiple access protocols and decentralized network control make it possible to organize regionally or logically independent and world-wide networks. Relatively small number of satellites (28) provides virtually global network coverage.

Satellite Communications for ATM

Science.gov (United States)

Shamma, Mohammed A.

2003-01-01

This presentation is an overview on Satellite Communication for the Aeronautical Telecommunication Management (ATM) research. Satellite Communications are being considered by the FAA and NASA as a possible alternative to the present and future ground systems supporting Air Traffic Communications. The international Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) have in place Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPS) for the Aeronautical Mobile Satellite Services (AMSS) which is mainly derived from the pre-existing Inmarsat service that has been in service since the 1980s. The Working Group A of the Aeronautical Mobile Communication Panel of ICAO has also been investigating SARPS for what is called the Next Generation Satellite Service (NGSS) which conforms less to the Inmarsat based architecture and explores wider options in terms of satellite architectures. Several designs are being proposed by Firms such as Boeing, ESA, NASA that are geared toward full or secondary usage of satellite communications for ATM. Satellite communications for ATM can serve several purposes ranging from primary usage where ground services would play a minimal backup role, to an integrated solution where it will be used to cover services, or areas that are less likely to be supported by the proposed and existing ground infrastructure. Such Integrated roles can include usage of satellite communications for oceanic and remote land areas for example. It also can include relieving the capacity of the ground network by providing broadcast based services of Traffic Information Services messages (TIS-B), or Flight Information Services (FIS-B) which can take a significant portion of the ground system capacity. Additionally, satellite communication can play a backup role to support any needs for ground replacement, or additional needed capacity even after the new digital systems are in place. The additional bandwidth that can be provided via satellite communications can also open the door for many new

Technical comparison of several global mobile satellite communications systems

Science.gov (United States)

Comparetto, Gary M.

The era of satellite-based mobile satellite communications (MSC) systems started with the first MARISAT satellite which was launched into a geostationary orbit over the Pacific Ocean in 1976 to provide communications between ships and shore stations. The combination of high cost and unacceptably large equipment has kept the space-based MSC systems from appealing to the wider market of personal mobile communications. The progress made over the last ten years, however, in digital voice processing, satellite technology, and component miniaturization has resulted in the viability of satellite-based mobile satellite communications systems to meet the growing market in personal mobile communications using handsets similar to those currently in use with land-based cellular systems. Three of the more mature LEO/MEO satellite systems are addressed in this paper including GLOBALSTAR, Iridium, and Odyssey. The system architectures of each system are presented along with a description of the satellite and user handset designs and the multiaccess techniques employed. It will be shown that, although a number of similarities exist among the system addressed, each system is unique in a variety of significant design areas. It is concluded that the technical feasibility of satellite-based mobile satellite communications systems seems to be secure. It will be challenging, however, for the vendors to actually develop and deploy these systems in a cost effective, timely, and reliable way that meets a continually evolving set of requirements based upon a rapidly changing technology base.

Satellite Power Systems (SPS) concept definition study. Volume 5: Special emphasis studies. [rectenna and solar power satellite design studies

Science.gov (United States)

Hanley, G. M.

1980-01-01

Satellite configurations based on the Satellite Power System baseline requirements were analyzed and a preferred concept selected. A satellite construction base was defined, precursor operations incident to establishment of orbital support facilities identified, and the satellite construction sequence and procedures developed. Rectenna construction requirement were also addressed. Mass flow to orbit requirements were revised and traffic models established based on construction of 60 instead of 120 satellites. Analyses were conducted to determine satellite control, resources, manufacturing, and propellant requirements. The impact of the laser beam used for space-to-Earth power transmission upon the intervening atmosphere was examined as well as the inverse effect. The significant space environments and their effects on spacecraft components were investigated to define the design and operational limits imposed by the environments on an orbit transfer vehicle. The results show that LEO altitude 300 nmi and transfer orbit duration 6 months are preferrable.

The Antarctic Ice Sheet, Sea Ice, and the Ozone Hole: Satellite Observations of how they are Changing

Science.gov (United States)

Parkinson, Claire L.

2012-01-01

Antarctica is the Earth's coldest and highest continent and has major impacts on the climate and life of the south polar vicinity. It is covered almost entirely by the Earth's largest ice sheet by far, with a volume of ice so great that if all the Antarctic ice were to go into the ocean (as ice or liquid water), this would produce a global sea level rise of about 60 meters (197 feet). The continent is surrounded by sea ice that in the wintertime is even more expansive than the continent itself and in the summertime reduces to only about a sixth of its wintertime extent. Like the continent, the expansive sea ice cover has major impacts, reflecting the sun's radiation back to space, blocking exchanges between the ocean and the atmosphere, and providing a platform for some animal species while impeding other species. Far above the continent, the Antarctic ozone hole is a major atmospheric phenomenon recognized as human-caused and potentially quite serious to many different life forms. Satellites are providing us with remarkable information about the ice sheet, the sea ice, and the ozone hole. Satellite visible and radar imagery are providing views of the large scale structure of the ice sheet never seen before; satellite laser altimetry has produced detailed maps of the topography of the ice sheet; and an innovative gravity-measuring two-part satellite has allowed mapping of regions of mass loss and mass gain on the ice sheet. The surrounding sea ice cover has a satellite record that goes back to the 1970s, allowing trend studies that show a decreasing sea ice presence in the region of the Bellingshausen and Amundsen seas, to the west of the prominent Antarctic Peninsula, but increasing sea ice presence around much of the rest of the continent. Overall, sea ice extent around Antarctica has increased at an average rate of about 17,000 square kilometers per year since the late 1970s, as determined from satellite microwave data that can be collected under both light and

Evaluation of the MiKlip decadal prediction system using satellite based cloud products

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thomas Spangehl

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The decadal hindcast simulations performed for the Mittelfristige Klimaprognosen (MiKlip project are evaluated using satellite-retrieved cloud parameters from the CM SAF cLoud, Albedo and RAdiation dataset from AVHRR data (CLARA-A1 provided by the EUMETSAT Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring (CM SAF and from the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP. The forecast quality of two sets of hindcasts, Baseline-1-LR and Baseline-0, which use differing initialisations, is assessed. Basic evaluation focuses on multi-year ensemble mean fields and cloud-type histograms utilizing satellite simulator output. Additionally, ensemble evaluation employing analysis of variance (ANOVA, analysis rank histograms (ARH and a deterministic correlation score is performed. Satellite simulator output is available for a subset of the full hindcast ensembles only. Therefore, the raw model cloud cover is complementary used. The new Baseline-1-LR hindcasts are closer to satellite data with respect to the simulated tropical/subtropical mean cloud cover pattern than the reference hindcasts (Baseline-0 emphasizing improvements of the new MiKlip initialisation procedure. A slightly overestimated occurrence rate of optically thick cloud-types is analysed for different experiments including hindcasts and simulations using realistic sea surface boundaries according to the Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project (AMIP. By contrast, the evaluation of cirrus and cirrostratus clouds is complicated by observational based uncertainties. Time series of the 3-year mean total cloud cover averaged over the tropical warm pool (TWP region show some correlation with the CLARA-A1 cloud fractional cover. Moreover, ensemble evaluation of the Baseline-1-LR hindcasts reveals potential predictability of the 2–5 lead year averaged total cloud cover for a large part of this region when regarding the full observational period. However, the hindcasts show only

Satellites vs. fiber optics based networks and services - Road map to strategic planning

Science.gov (United States)

Marandi, James H. R.

An overview of a generic telecommunications network and its components is presented, and the current developments in satellite and fiber optics technologies are discussed with an eye on the trends in industry. A baseline model is proposed, and a cost comparison of fiber- vs satellite-based networks is made. A step-by-step 'road map' to the successful strategic planning of telecommunications services and facilities is presented. This road map provides for optimization of the current and future networks and services through effective utilization of both satellites and fiber optics. The road map is then applied to different segments of the telecommunications industry and market place, to show its effectiveness for the strategic planning of executives of three types: (1) those heading telecommunications manufacturing concerns, (2) those leading communication service companies, and (3) managers of telecommunication/MIS departments of major corporations. Future networking issues, such as developments in integrated-services digital network standards and technologies, are addressed.

Integrated Satellite-HAP Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cianca, Ernestina; De Sanctis, Mauro; De Luise, Aldo

2005-01-01

Thus far, high-altitude platform (HAP)-based systems have been mainly conceived as an alternative to satellites for complementing the terrestrial network. This article aims to show that HAP should no longer be seen as a competitor technology by investors of satellites, but as a key element for an...

The Nature of Global Large-scale Sea Level Variability in Relation to Atmospheric Forcing: A Modeling Study

Science.gov (United States)

Fukumori, I.; Raghunath, R.; Fu, L. L.

1996-01-01

The relation between large-scale sea level variability and ocean circulation is studied using a numerical model. A global primitive equaiton model of the ocean is forced by daily winds and climatological heat fluxes corresponding to the period from January 1992 to February 1996. The physical nature of the temporal variability from periods of days to a year, are examined based on spectral analyses of model results and comparisons with satellite altimetry and tide gauge measurements.

OLFAR, a radio telescope based on nano satellites in moon orbit

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Engelen, S.; Verhoeven, C.J.M.; Bentum, Marinus Jan

2010-01-01

It seems very likely that missions with nano-satellites in professional scientific or commercial applications will not be single-satellite missions. Well structured formations or less structured swarms of nano-satellites will be able to perform tasks that cannot be done in the “traditional‿ way. The

The effects of rectification and Global Positioning System errors on satellite image-based estimates of forest area

Science.gov (United States)

Ronald E. McRoberts

2010-01-01

Satellite image-based maps of forest attributes are of considerable interest and are used for multiple purposes such as international reporting by countries that have no national forest inventory and small area estimation for all countries. Construction of the maps typically entails, in part, rectifying the satellite images to a geographic coordinate system, observing...

Satellite and Ground-Based Sensors for the Urban Heat Island Analysis in the City of Rome

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Roberto Fabrizi

2010-05-01

Full Text Available In this work, the trend of the Urban Heat Island (UHI of Rome is analyzed by both ground-based weather stations and a satellite-based infrared sensor. First, we have developed a suitable algorithm employing satellite brightness temperatures for the estimation of the air temperature belonging to the layer of air closest to the surface. UHI spatial characteristics have been assessed using air temperatures measured by both weather stations and brightness temperature maps from the Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR on board ENVISAT polar-orbiting satellite. In total, 634 daytime and nighttime scenes taken between 2003 and 2006 have been processed. Analysis of the Canopy Layer Heat Island (CLHI during summer months reveals a mean growth in magnitude of 3–4 K during nighttime and a negative or almost zero CLHI intensity during daytime, confirmed by the weather stations.

Advantages of geosynchronous solar power satellites for terrestrial base-load electrical supply compared to other renewable energy sources - or why civilization needs solar power satellites

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Strickland, J.K. Jr. [Texas Univ., Austin, TX (United States)

1998-06-01

The arguments in favour of using solar power satellites for primary base-load electrical supply are presented and compared with the advantages and drawbacks of other renewable energy sources, especially ground solar and wind systems. Popular misconceptions about energy use and the importation of space solar energy to the Earth`s surface are examined and discounted. Finally an optimal mix of space solar (focusing on geosynchronous solar power satellites), ground solar, and other energy sources is described which, it is argued, would be capable to meet future global energy demand. (UK)

Air traffic management system design using satellite based geo-positioning and communications assets

Science.gov (United States)

Horkin, Phil

1995-01-01

The current FAA and ICAO FANS vision of Air Traffic Management will transition the functions of Communications, Navigation, and Surveillance to satellite based assets in the 21st century. Fundamental to widespread acceptance of this vision is a geo-positioning system that can provide worldwide access with best case differential GPS performance, but without the associated problems. A robust communications capability linking-up aircraft and towers to meet the voice and data requirements is also essential. The current GPS constellation does not provide continuous global coverage with a sufficient number of satellites to meet the precision landing requirements as set by the world community. Periodic loss of the minimum number of satellites in view creates an integrity problem, which prevents GPS from becoming the primary system for navigation. Furthermore, there is reluctance on the part of many countries to depend on assets like GPS and GLONASS which are controlled by military communities. This paper addresses these concerns and provides a system solving the key issues associated with navigation, automatic dependent surveillance, and flexible communications. It contains an independent GPS-like navigation system with 27 satellites providing global coverage with a minimum of six in view at all times. Robust communications is provided by a network of TDMA/FDMA communications payloads contained on these satellites. This network can support simultaneous communications for up to 30,000 links, nearly enough to simultaneously support three times the current global fleet of jumbo air passenger aircraft. All of the required hardware is directly traceable to existing designs.

Connecting Satellite-Based Precipitation Estimates to Users

Science.gov (United States)

Huffman, George J.; Bolvin, David T.; Nelkin, Eric

2018-01-01

Beginning in 1997, the Merged Precipitation Group at NASA Goddard has distributed gridded global precipitation products built by combining satellite and surface gauge data. This started with the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP), then the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA), and recently the Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission (IMERG). This 20+-year (and on-going) activity has yielded an important set of insights and lessons learned for making state-of-the-art precipitation data accessible to the diverse communities of users. Merged-data products critically depend on the input sensors and the retrieval algorithms providing accurate, reliable estimates, but it is also important to provide ancillary information that helps users determine suitability for their application. We typically provide fields of estimated random error, and recently reintroduced the quality index concept at user request. Also at user request we have added a (diagnostic) field of estimated precipitation phase. Over time, increasingly more ancillary fields have been introduced for intermediate products that give expert users insight into the detailed performance of the combination algorithm, such as individual merged microwave and microwave-calibrated infrared estimates, the contributing microwave sensor types, and the relative influence of the infrared estimate.

The Satellite Clock Bias Prediction Method Based on Takagi-Sugeno Fuzzy Neural Network

Science.gov (United States)

Cai, C. L.; Yu, H. G.; Wei, Z. C.; Pan, J. D.

2017-05-01

The continuous improvement of the prediction accuracy of Satellite Clock Bias (SCB) is the key problem of precision navigation. In order to improve the precision of SCB prediction and better reflect the change characteristics of SCB, this paper proposes an SCB prediction method based on the Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy neural network. Firstly, the SCB values are pre-treated based on their characteristics. Then, an accurate Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy neural network model is established based on the preprocessed data to predict SCB. This paper uses the precise SCB data with different sampling intervals provided by IGS (International Global Navigation Satellite System Service) to realize the short-time prediction experiment, and the results are compared with the ARIMA (Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average) model, GM(1,1) model, and the quadratic polynomial model. The results show that the Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy neural network model is feasible and effective for the SCB short-time prediction experiment, and performs well for different types of clocks. The prediction results for the proposed method are better than the conventional methods obviously.

Effectiveness evaluation of double-layered satellite network with laser and microwave hybrid links based on fuzzy analytic hierarchy process

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Wei; Rao, Qiaomeng

2018-01-01

In order to solve the problem of high speed, large capacity and limited spectrum resources of satellite communication network, a double-layered satellite network with global seamless coverage based on laser and microwave hybrid links is proposed in this paper. By analyzing the characteristics of the double-layered satellite network with laser and microwave hybrid links, an effectiveness evaluation index system for the network is established. And then, the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process, which combines the analytic hierarchy process and the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation theory, is used to evaluate the effectiveness of the double-layered satellite network with laser and microwave hybrid links. Furthermore, the evaluation result of the proposed hybrid link network is obtained by simulation. The effectiveness evaluation process of the proposed double-layered satellite network with laser and microwave hybrid links can help to optimize the design of hybrid link double-layered satellite network and improve the operating efficiency of the satellite system.

Simultaneous Observations of pi 2 Pulsations on the Satellite and Geound-Based Measurements

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S. H. Lee

1997-12-01

Full Text Available We have investigated Pi2 pulsations which were observed both on ground magnetometer array and by satellites. On November 9th in 1994, pi2 pulsations appeared globally on the 190/210 magnetometer chain and Hermanus station when two satellites(EXOS-D and ETS-VI were located near the magnetic meridian of the 210 array. The local time of measurements covers form morning(LT=8.47hr to afternoon(LT=20.3hr and the bandwidth of peak frequency is found relatively small. The signals of the electric field measurement of board the EXOS-D, which is located inside the plasmasphere(L=2.35, are highly coherent with the ground-based observations with the out of phase oscillations. However, the magnetic field measurement on the ETS-VI in the outer magnetosphere(L=6.60 shows no signature of pi2 pulsations over the same time interval and the correlation with any of ground-based stations is found to be very weak, even though both satellites and magnetometer chain are located close to each other in local time. We suggest that this event may be a direct evidence of Pi2 pulsations as virtual resonant modes which are localized in the plasmasphere(Lee 1996. The results show that the cavity mode oscillations can occur in the inner magnetosphere with less spectral noise compared to the outer magnetospheric case.

Antarctic Ice Sheet Slope and Aspect Based on Icesat's Repeat Orbit Measurement

Science.gov (United States)

Yuan, L.; Li, F.; Zhang, S.; Xie, S.; Xiao, F.; Zhu, T.; Zhang, Y.

2017-09-01

Accurate information of ice sheet surface slope is essential for estimating elevation change by satellite altimetry measurement. A study is carried out to recover surface slope of Antarctic ice sheet from Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) elevation measurements based on repeat orbits. ICESat provides repeat ground tracks within 200 meters in cross-track direction and 170 meters in along-track direction for most areas of Antarctic ice sheet. Both cross-track and along-track surface slopes could be obtained by adjacent repeat ground tracks. Combining those measurements yields a surface slope model with resolution of approximately 200 meters. An algorithm considering elevation change is developed to estimate the surface slope of Antarctic ice sheet. Three Antarctic Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) were used to calculate surface slopes. The surface slopes from DEMs are compared with estimates by using in situ GPS data in Dome A, the summit of Antarctic ice sheet. Our results reveal an average surface slope difference of 0.02 degree in Dome A. High resolution remote sensing images are also used in comparing the results derived from other DEMs and this paper. The comparison implies that our results have a slightly better coherence with GPS observation than results from DEMs, but our results provide more details and perform higher accuracy in coastal areas because of the higher resolution for ICESat measurements. Ice divides are estimated based on the aspect, and are weakly consistent with ice divides from other method in coastal regions.