Particulate matter concentration mapping from MODIS satellite data: a Vietnamese case study

Science.gov (United States)

Nguyen, Thanh T. N.; Bui, Hung Q.; Pham, Ha V.; Luu, Hung V.; Man, Chuc D.; Pham, Hai N.; Le, Ha T.; Nguyen, Thuy T.

2015-09-01

Particulate Matter (PM) pollution is one of the most important air quality concerns in Vietnam. In this study, we integrate ground-based measurements, meteorological and satellite data to map temporal PM concentrations at a 10 × 10 km grid for the entire of Vietnam. We specifically used MODIS Aqua and Terra data and developed statistically-significant regression models to map and extend the ground-based PM concentrations. We validated our models over diverse geographic provinces i.e., North East, Red River Delta, North Central Coast and South Central Coast in Vietnam. Validation suggested good results for satellite-derived PM2.5 data compared to ground-based PM2.5 (n = 285, r2 = 0.411, RMSE = 20.299 μg m-3 and RE = 39.789%). Further, validation of satellite-derived PM2.5 on two independent datasets for North East and South Central Coast suggested similar results (n = 40, r2 = 0.455, RMSE = 21.512 μg m-3, RE = 45.236% and n = 45, r2 = 0.444, RMSE = 8.551 μg m-3, RE = 46.446% respectively). Also, our satellite-derived PM2.5 maps were able to replicate seasonal and spatial trends of ground-based measurements in four different regions. Our results highlight the potential use of MODIS datasets for PM estimation at a regional scale in Vietnam. However, model limitation in capturing maximal or minimal PM2.5 peaks needs further investigations on ground data, atmospheric conditions and physical aspects.

Satellite Power System (SPS) mapping of exclusion areas for rectenna sites

Science.gov (United States)

Blackburn, J. B., Jr.; Bavinger, B. A.

1978-01-01

The areas of the United States that were not available as potential sites for receiving antennas that are an integral part of the Satellite Power System concept are presented. Thirty-six variables with the potential to exclude the rectenna were mapped and coded in a computer. Some of these variables exclude a rectenna from locating within the area of its spatial influence, and other variables potentially exclude the rectenna. These maps of variables were assembled from existing data and were mapped on a grid system.

Simulation of seagrass bed mapping by satellite images based on the radiative transfer model

Science.gov (United States)

Sagawa, Tatsuyuki; Komatsu, Teruhisa

2015-06-01

Seagrass and seaweed beds play important roles in coastal marine ecosystems. They are food sources and habitats for many marine organisms, and influence the physical, chemical, and biological environment. They are sensitive to human impacts such as reclamation and pollution. Therefore, their management and preservation are necessary for a healthy coastal environment. Satellite remote sensing is a useful tool for mapping and monitoring seagrass beds. The efficiency of seagrass mapping, seagrass bed classification in particular, has been evaluated by mapping accuracy using an error matrix. However, mapping accuracies are influenced by coastal environments such as seawater transparency, bathymetry, and substrate type. Coastal management requires sufficient accuracy and an understanding of mapping limitations for monitoring coastal habitats including seagrass beds. Previous studies are mainly based on case studies in specific regions and seasons. Extensive data are required to generalise assessments of classification accuracy from case studies, which has proven difficult. This study aims to build a simulator based on a radiative transfer model to produce modelled satellite images and assess the visual detectability of seagrass beds under different transparencies and seagrass coverages, as well as to examine mapping limitations and classification accuracy. Our simulations led to the development of a model of water transparency and the mapping of depth limits and indicated the possibility for seagrass density mapping under certain ideal conditions. The results show that modelling satellite images is useful in evaluating the accuracy of classification and that establishing seagrass bed monitoring by remote sensing is a reliable tool.

Near-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer for investigation of Jupiter and its satellites

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aptaker, I.M.

1988-01-01

The Near-Infrared-Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS) is one of the science instruments in the Galileo mission, which will explore Jupiter and its satellites in the mid-1990's. The NIMS experiment will map geological units on the surfaces of the Jovian satellites and characterize their mineral content; and, for the atmosphere of Jupiter, investigate cloud properties and the spatial and temporal variability of molecular abundances. The optics are gold-coated reflective and consist of a telescope and a grating spectrometer. The balance of the instrument includes a 17-detector (silicon and indium antimonide) focal plane array, a tuning fork chopper, microprocessor-controlled electronics, and a passive radiative cooler. A wobbling secondary mirror in the telescope provides 20 pixels in one dimension of spatial scanning in a pushbroom mode with 0.5 mr x 0.5 mr instantaneous field of view. The spectral range is 0.7-5.2 microns; resolution is 0.025 micron. NIMS is the first infrared experiment to combine both spatial and spectral mapping capability in one instrument

The use of NOAA AVHRR satellite data for mapping sediment ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The use of NOAA AVHRR satellite data for mapping sediment variability in the marine and coastal environment. ... The area near Big Constance Lake, which has a persistently higher concentration of suspended sediment around the year, is a suspected non-depositional area. The southwest winds cause a circulation in the ...

Accuracy assessment of topographic mapping using UAV image integrated with satellite images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Azmi, S M; Ahmad, Baharin; Ahmad, Anuar

2014-01-01

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle or UAV is extensively applied in various fields such as military applications, archaeology, agriculture and scientific research. This study focuses on topographic mapping and map updating. UAV is one of the alternative ways to ease the process of acquiring data with lower operating costs, low manufacturing and operational costs, plus it is easy to operate. Furthermore, UAV images will be integrated with QuickBird images that are used as base maps. The objective of this study is to make accuracy assessment and comparison between topographic mapping using UAV images integrated with aerial photograph and satellite image. The main purpose of using UAV image is as a replacement for cloud covered area which normally exists in aerial photograph and satellite image, and for updating topographic map. Meanwhile, spatial resolution, pixel size, scale, geometric accuracy and correction, image quality and information contents are important requirements needed for the generation of topographic map using these kinds of data. In this study, ground control points (GCPs) and check points (CPs) were established using real time kinematic Global Positioning System (RTK-GPS) technique. There are two types of analysis that are carried out in this study which are quantitative and qualitative assessments. Quantitative assessment is carried out by calculating root mean square error (RMSE). The outputs of this study include topographic map and orthophoto. From this study, the accuracy of UAV image is ± 0.460 m. As conclusion, UAV image has the potential to be used for updating of topographic maps

Mapping daily evapotranspiration at field to continental scales using geostationary and polar orbiting satellite imagery

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. C. Anderson

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Thermal infrared (TIR remote sensing of land-surface temperature (LST provides valuable information about the sub-surface moisture status required for estimating evapotranspiration (ET and detecting the onset and severity of drought. While empirical indices measuring anomalies in LST and vegetation amount (e.g., as quantified by the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index; NDVI have demonstrated utility in monitoring ET and drought conditions over large areas, they may provide ambiguous results when other factors (e.g., air temperature, advection are affecting plant functioning. A more physically based interpretation of LST and NDVI and their relationship to sub-surface moisture conditions can be obtained with a surface energy balance model driven by TIR remote sensing. The Atmosphere-Land Exchange Inverse (ALEXI model is a multi-sensor TIR approach to ET mapping, coupling a two-source (soil + canopy land-surface model with an atmospheric boundary layer model in time-differencing mode to routinely and robustly map daily fluxes at continental scales and 5 to 10-km resolution using thermal band imagery and insolation estimates from geostationary satellites. A related algorithm (DisALEXI spatially disaggregates ALEXI fluxes down to finer spatial scales using moderate resolution TIR imagery from polar orbiting satellites. An overview of this modeling approach is presented, along with strategies for fusing information from multiple satellite platforms and wavebands to map daily ET down to resolutions on the order of 10 m. The ALEXI/DisALEXI model has potential for global applications by integrating data from multiple geostationary meteorological satellite systems, such as the US Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites, the European Meteosat satellites, the Chinese Fen-yung 2B series, and the Japanese Geostationary Meteorological Satellites. Work is underway to further evaluate multi-scale ALEXI implementations over the US, Europe, Africa

Particulate matter concentration mapping from MODIS satellite data: a Vietnamese case study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nguyen, Thanh T N; Bui, Hung Q; Pham, Ha V; Luu, Hung V; Man, Chuc D; Pham, Hai N; Le, Ha T; Nguyen, Thuy T

2015-01-01

Particulate Matter (PM) pollution is one of the most important air quality concerns in Vietnam. In this study, we integrate ground-based measurements, meteorological and satellite data to map temporal PM concentrations at a 10 × 10 km grid for the entire of Vietnam. We specifically used MODIS Aqua and Terra data and developed statistically-significant regression models to map and extend the ground-based PM concentrations. We validated our models over diverse geographic provinces i.e., North East, Red River Delta, North Central Coast and South Central Coast in Vietnam. Validation suggested good results for satellite-derived PM 2.5 data compared to ground-based PM 2.5 (n = 285, r 2  = 0.411, RMSE = 20.299 μg m −3 and RE = 39.789%). Further, validation of satellite-derived PM 2.5 on two independent datasets for North East and South Central Coast suggested similar results (n = 40, r 2  = 0.455, RMSE = 21.512 μg m −3 , RE = 45.236% and n = 45, r 2  = 0.444, RMSE = 8.551 μg m −3 , RE = 46.446% respectively). Also, our satellite-derived PM 2.5 maps were able to replicate seasonal and spatial trends of ground-based measurements in four different regions. Our results highlight the potential use of MODIS datasets for PM estimation at a regional scale in Vietnam. However, model limitation in capturing maximal or minimal PM 2.5 peaks needs further investigations on ground data, atmospheric conditions and physical aspects. (letter)

Validation of satellite SAR offshore wind speed maps to in-situ data, microscale and mesoscale model results

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hasager, C.B.; Astrup, Poul; Barthelmie, R.J.

2002-01-01

the assumption of no error in the SAR wind speed maps and for an uncertainty of ± 10% at a confidence level of 90%. Around 100 satellite SAR scenes may be available for some sites on Earth but far few at other sites. Currently the numberof available satellite SAR scenes is increasing rapidly with ERS-2, RADARSAT......A validation study has been performed in order to investigate the precision and accuracy of the satellite-derived ERS-2 SAR wind products in offshore regions. The overall project goal is to develop a method for utilizing the satellite wind speed maps foroffshore wind resources, e.g. in future...... band in which the SAR wind speed observations have a strong negative bias. The bathymetry of Horns Rev combined with tidal currents give rise to bias in the SAR wind speed maps near areas of shallow, complex bottom topography in some cases. Atotal of 16 cases were analyzed for Horns Rev. For Maddalena...

Validation of Satellite Snow Cover Maps in North America and Norway

Science.gov (United States)

Hall, Dorothy K.; Solberg, Rune; Riggs, George A.

2002-01-01

Satellite-derived snow maps from NASA's Earth Observing System Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) have been produced since February of 2000. The global maps are available daily at 500-m resolution, and at a climate-modeling grid (CMG) resolution of 1/20 deg (approximately 5.6 km). We compared the 8-day composite CMG MODIS-derived global maps from November 1,2001, through March 21,2002, and daily CMG maps from February 26 - March 5,2002, with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Interactive Multisensor Snow and Ice Mapping System (IMS) 25-km resolution maps for North America. For the Norwegian study area, national snow maps, based on synoptic measurements as well as visual interpretation of AVHRR images, published by the Det Norske Meteorologiske Institutt (Norwegian Meteorological Institute) (MI) maps, as well as Landsat ETM+ images were compared with the MODIS maps. The MODIS-derived maps agreed over most areas with the IMS or MI maps, however, there are important areas of disagreement between the maps, especially when the 8-day composite maps were used. It is concluded that MODIS daily CMG maps should be studied for validation purposes rather than the 8-day composite maps, despite the limitations imposed by cloud obscuration when using the daily maps.

NOAA Office for Coastal Management (OCM) Lake Level Data: Mapping Confidence

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — These data were created as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management's efforts to create an online mapping viewer...

NOAA Office for Coastal Management Sea Level Rise Data: Mapping Confidence

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — These data were created as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management's efforts to create an online mapping viewer...

Satellite derived bathymetry: mapping the Irish coastline

Science.gov (United States)

Monteys, X.; Cahalane, C.; Harris, P.; Hanafin, J.

2017-12-01

Ireland has a varied coastline in excess of 3000 km in length largely characterized by extended shallow environments. The coastal shallow water zone can be a challenging and costly environment in which to acquire bathymetry and other oceanographic data using traditional survey methods or airborne LiDAR techniques as demonstrated in the Irish INFOMAR program. Thus, large coastal areas in Ireland, and much of the coastal zone worldwide remain unmapped using modern techniques and is poorly understood. Earth Observations (EO) missions are currently being used to derive timely, cost effective, and quality controlled information for mapping and monitoring coastal environments. Different wavelengths of the solar light penetrate the water column to different depths and are routinely sensed by EO satellites. A large selection of multispectral imagery (MS) from many platforms were examined, as well as from small aircrafts and drones. A number of bays representing very different coastal environments were explored in turn. The project's workflow is created by building a catalogue of satellite and field bathymetric data to assess the suitability of imagery captured at a range of spatial, spectral and temporal resolutions. Turbidity indices are derived from the multispectral information. Finally, a number of spatial regression models using water-leaving radiance parameters and field calibration data are examined. Our assessment reveals that spatial regression algorithms have the potential to significantly improve the accuracy of the predictions up to 10m WD and offer a better handle on the error and uncertainty budget. The four spatial models investigated show better adjustments than the basic non-spatial model. Accuracy of the predictions is better than 10% WD at 95% confidence. Future work will focus on improving the accuracy of the predictions incorporating an analytical model in conjunction with improved empirical methods. The recently launched ESA Sentinel 2 will become the

SAT-MAP-CLIMATE project results[SATellite base bio-geophysical parameter MAPping and aggregation modelling for CLIMATE models

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bay Hasager, C.; Woetmann Nielsen, N.; Soegaard, H.; Boegh, E.; Hesselbjerg Christensen, J.; Jensen, N.O.; Schultz Rasmussen, M.; Astrup, P.; Dellwik, E.

2002-08-01

Earth Observation (EO) data from imaging satellites are analysed with respect to albedo, land and sea surface temperatures, land cover types and vegetation parameters such as the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the leaf area index (LAI). The observed parameters are used in the DMI-HIRLAM-D05 weather prediction model in order to improve the forecasting. The effect of introducing actual sea surface temperatures from NOAA AVHHR compared to climatological mean values, shows a more pronounced land-sea breeze effect which is also observable in field observations. The albedo maps from NOAA AVHRR are rather similar to the climatological mean values so for the HIRLAM model this is insignicant, yet most likely of some importance in the HIRHAM regional climate model. Land cover type maps are assigned local roughness values determined from meteorological field observations. Only maps with a spatial resolution around 25 m can adequately map the roughness variations of the typical patch size distribution in Denmark. A roughness map covering Denmark is aggregated (ie area-average non-linearly) by a microscale aggregation model that takes the non-linear turbulent responses of each roughness step change between patches in an arbitrary pattern into account. The effective roughnesses are calculated into a 15 km by 15 km grid for the HIRLAM model. The effect of hedgerows is included as an added roughness effect as a function of hedge density mapped from a digital vector map. Introducing the new effective roughness maps into the HIRLAM model appears to remedy on the seasonal wind speed bias over land and sea in spring. A new parameterisation on the effective roughness for scalar surface fluxes is developed and tested on synthetic data. Further is a method for the estimation the evapotranspiration from albedo, surface temperatures and NDVI succesfully compared to field observations. The HIRLAM predictions of water vapour at 12 GMT are used for atmospheric correction of

Satellite Map of Port-au-Prince, Haiti-2010-Infrared

Science.gov (United States)

Cole, Christopher J.; Sloan, Jeff

2010-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey produced 1:24,000-scale post-earthquake image base maps incorporating high- and medium-resolution remotely sensed imagery following the 7.0 magnitude earthquake near the capital city of Port au Prince, Haiti, on January 12, 2010. Commercial 2.4-meter multispectral QuickBird imagery was acquired by DigitalGlobe on January 15, 2010, following the initial earthquake. Ten-meter multispectral ALOS AVNIR-2 imagery was collected by the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) on January 12, 2010. These data were acquired under the Remote Sensing International Charter, a global team of space and satellite agencies that provide timely imagery in support of emergency response efforts worldwide. The images shown on this map were employed to support earthquake response efforts, specifically for use in determining ground deformation, damage assessment, and emergency management decisions. The raw, unprocessed imagery was geo-corrected, mosaicked, and reproduced onto a cartographic 1:24,000-scale base map. These maps are intended to provide a temporally current representation of post-earthquake ground conditions, which may be of use to decision makers and to the general public.

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

. Collaboration with GCOM-W is not only limited to its participation to GPM constellation but also coordination in areas of algorithm development and validation in Japan. Generation of high-temporal and high-accurate global rainfall map is one of targets of the GPM mission. As a proto-type for GPM era, JAXA has developed and operates the Global Precipitation Map algorithm in near-real-time since October 2008, and hourly and 0.1-degree resolution binary data and images available at http://sharaku.eorc.jaxa.jp/GSMaP/ four hours after observation. The algorithms are based on outcomes from the Global Satellite Mapping for Precipitation (GSMaP) project, which was sponsored by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) under the Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST) framework between 2002 and 2007 (Okamoto et al., 2005; Aonashi et al., 2009; Ushio et al., 2009). Target of GSMaP project is to produce global rainfall maps that are highly accurate and in high temporal and spatial resolution through the development of rain rate retrieval algorithms based on reliable precipitation physical models by using several microwave radiometer data, and comprehensive use of precipitation radar and geostationary infrared imager data. Near-real-time GSMaP data is distributed via internet and utilized by end users. Purpose of data utilization by each user covers broad areas and in world wide; Science researches (model validation, data assimilation, typhoon study, etc.), weather forecast/service, flood warning and rain analysis over river basin, oceanographic condition forecast, agriculture, and education. Toward the GPM era, operational application should be further emphasized as well as science application. JAXA continues collaboration with hydrological communities to utilize satellite-based precipitation data as inputs to future flood prediction and warning system, as well as with meteorological agencies to proceed further data utilization in numerical weather prediction

Vegetation mapping with satellite data of the Forsmark and Tierp regions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Boresjoe-Bronge, Laine; Wester, Kjell [SwedPower, Stockholm (Sweden)

2002-04-01

SKB (Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Co) performs a siting program for deep repository of spent nuclear fuel that includes survey of three potential sites. The SKB siting process has now reached the site investigation phase. There are several fields of investigations performed in this phase. One of them is description of the surface ecosystems. The surface ecosystems are mapped both on a regional (50-100 km{sup 2} ) and a local level (1 km{sup 2} ). Two inventory methods are used, remote sensing (satellite data/aerial photographs) for the regional level, and field inventory for the detailed level. As a part of the surface ecosystem characterisation on the regional level vegetation mapping using satellite data has been performed over the three potential deep depository sites, Forsmark, Tierp and Oskarshamn. The user requirements for the vegetation mapping of the potential sites are the following: Dominated species in the tree layer, shrub layer, field layer and ground layer shall be described both on regional and local level; Dominated species in all layers shall be quantified regarding share and percentage of ground cover, or absence of cover (vegetation free ground); The regional and the local inventory shall have identical or comparable classification systems; The classification system and the method used shall make it possible to scale the results from local to regional level and vice versa; The produced layers shall be presented in digital form and make it possible to model biomass and turnover of organic matter (carbon, nutrients, water); The produced information shall in a first phase be of use for planning and for making nature and environmental considerations. Data sources used in the study include geo-referenced SPOT4 XI data (20 m ground resolution), geo-referenced Landsat TM data (30 m ground resolution), soil type data, topographic map data and colour infrared aerial photographs. The production of vegetation layers has been carried out in two

Vegetation mapping with satellite data of the Forsmark and Tierp regions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boresjoe-Bronge, Laine; Wester, Kjell

2002-04-01

SKB (Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Co) performs a siting program for deep repository of spent nuclear fuel that includes survey of three potential sites. The SKB siting process has now reached the site investigation phase. There are several fields of investigations performed in this phase. One of them is description of the surface ecosystems. The surface ecosystems are mapped both on a regional (50-100 km 2 ) and a local level (1 km 2 ). Two inventory methods are used, remote sensing (satellite data/aerial photographs) for the regional level, and field inventory for the detailed level. As a part of the surface ecosystem characterisation on the regional level vegetation mapping using satellite data has been performed over the three potential deep depository sites, Forsmark, Tierp and Oskarshamn. The user requirements for the vegetation mapping of the potential sites are the following: Dominated species in the tree layer, shrub layer, field layer and ground layer shall be described both on regional and local level; Dominated species in all layers shall be quantified regarding share and percentage of ground cover, or absence of cover (vegetation free ground); The regional and the local inventory shall have identical or comparable classification systems; The classification system and the method used shall make it possible to scale the results from local to regional level and vice versa; The produced layers shall be presented in digital form and make it possible to model biomass and turnover of organic matter (carbon, nutrients, water); The produced information shall in a first phase be of use for planning and for making nature and environmental considerations. Data sources used in the study include geo-referenced SPOT4 XI data (20 m ground resolution), geo-referenced Landsat TM data (30 m ground resolution), soil type data, topographic map data and colour infrared aerial photographs. The production of vegetation layers has been carried out in two steps. In

NOAA Office for Coastal Management Sea Level Rise Data: Mapping Confidence (Hawaii)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — These data were created as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management's efforts to create an online mapping viewer...

Use of Satellite Remote Sensing Data in the Mapping of Global Landslide Susceptibility

Science.gov (United States)

Hong, Yang; Adler, Robert F.; Huffman, George J.

2007-01-01

Satellite remote sensing data has significant potential use in analysis of natural hazards such as landslides. Relying on the recent advances in satellite remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) techniques, this paper aims to map landslide susceptibility over most of the globe using a GIs-based weighted linear combination method. First , six relevant landslide-controlling factors are derived from geospatial remote sensing data and coded into a GIS system. Next, continuous susceptibility values from low to high are assigned to each of the six factors. Second, a continuous scale of a global landslide susceptibility index is derived using GIS weighted linear combination based on each factor's relative significance to the process of landslide occurrence (e.g., slope is the most important factor, soil types and soil texture are also primary-level parameters, while elevation, land cover types, and drainage density are secondary in importance). Finally, the continuous index map is further classified into six susceptibility categories. Results show the hot spots of landslide-prone regions include the Pacific Rim, the Himalayas and South Asia, Rocky Mountains, Appalachian Mountains, Alps, and parts of the Middle East and Africa. India, China, Nepal, Japan, the USA, and Peru are shown to have landslide-prone areas. This first-cut global landslide susceptibility map forms a starting point to provide a global view of landslide risks and may be used in conjunction with satellite-based precipitation information to potentially detect areas with significant landslide potential due to heavy rainfall. 1

Optical and Physical Methods for Mapping Flooding with Satellite Imagery

Science.gov (United States)

Fayne, Jessica Fayne; Bolten, John; Lakshmi, Venkat; Ahamed, Aakash

2016-01-01

Flood and surface water mapping is becoming increasingly necessary, as extreme flooding events worldwide can damage crop yields and contribute to billions of dollars economic damages as well as social effects including fatalities and destroyed communities (Xaio et al. 2004; Kwak et al. 2015; Mueller et al. 2016).Utilizing earth observing satellite data to map standing water from space is indispensable to flood mapping for disaster response, mitigation, prevention, and warning (McFeeters 1996; Brakenridge and Anderson 2006). Since the early 1970s(Landsat, USGS 2013), researchers have been able to remotely sense surface processes such as extreme flood events to help offset some of these problems. Researchers have demonstrated countless methods and modifications of those methods to help increase knowledge of areas at risk and areas that are flooded using remote sensing data from optical and radar systems, as well as free publically available and costly commercial datasets.

Satellite SAR wind resource mapping in China (SAR-China)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Badger, M.

2009-07-15

The project 'Off-Shore Wind Energy Resource Assessment and Feasibility Study of Off-Shore Wind Farm Development in China' is funded by the EU-China Energy and Environment Programme (EEP) and runs for one year (August 2008 - August 2009). The project is lead by the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) and supported by SgurrEnergy Ltd. Risoe National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy at the Technical University of Denmark (Risoe DTU) has been commissioned to perform a satellite based wind resource analysis as part of the project. The objective of this analysis is to map the wind resource offshore at a high spatial resolution (1 km). The detailed wind resource maps will be used, in combination with other data sets, for an assessment of potential sites for offshore wind farm development along the coastline from Fujian to Shandong in China. (au)

Mapping Urban Tree Canopy Cover Using Fused Airborne LIDAR and Satellite Imagery Data

Science.gov (United States)

Parmehr, Ebadat G.; Amati, Marco; Fraser, Clive S.

2016-06-01

Urban green spaces, particularly urban trees, play a key role in enhancing the liveability of cities. The availability of accurate and up-to-date maps of tree canopy cover is important for sustainable development of urban green spaces. LiDAR point clouds are widely used for the mapping of buildings and trees, and several LiDAR point cloud classification techniques have been proposed for automatic mapping. However, the effectiveness of point cloud classification techniques for automated tree extraction from LiDAR data can be impacted to the point of failure by the complexity of tree canopy shapes in urban areas. Multispectral imagery, which provides complementary information to LiDAR data, can improve point cloud classification quality. This paper proposes a reliable method for the extraction of tree canopy cover from fused LiDAR point cloud and multispectral satellite imagery data. The proposed method initially associates each LiDAR point with spectral information from the co-registered satellite imagery data. It calculates the normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) value for each LiDAR point and corrects tree points which have been misclassified as buildings. Then, region growing of tree points, taking the NDVI value into account, is applied. Finally, the LiDAR points classified as tree points are utilised to generate a canopy cover map. The performance of the proposed tree canopy cover mapping method is experimentally evaluated on a data set of airborne LiDAR and WorldView 2 imagery covering a suburb in Melbourne, Australia.

Creating soil moisture maps based on radar satellite imagery

Science.gov (United States)

Hnatushenko, Volodymyr; Garkusha, Igor; Vasyliev, Volodymyr

2017-10-01

The presented work is related to a study of mapping soil moisture basing on radar data from Sentinel-1 and a test of adequacy of the models constructed on the basis of data obtained from alternative sources. Radar signals are reflected from the ground differently, depending on its properties. In radar images obtained, for example, in the C band of the electromagnetic spectrum, soils saturated with moisture usually appear in dark tones. Although, at first glance, the problem of constructing moisture maps basing on radar data seems intuitively clear, its implementation on the basis of the Sentinel-1 data on an industrial scale and in the public domain is not yet available. In the process of mapping, for verification of the results, measurements of soil moisture obtained from logs of the network of climate stations NOAA US Climate Reference Network (USCRN) were used. This network covers almost the entire territory of the United States. The passive microwave radiometers of Aqua and SMAP satellites data are used for comparing processing. In addition, other supplementary cartographic materials were used, such as maps of soil types and ready moisture maps. The paper presents a comparison of the effect of the use of certain methods of roughening the quality of radar data on the result of mapping moisture. Regression models were constructed showing dependence of backscatter coefficient values Sigma0 for calibrated radar data of different spatial resolution obtained at different times on soil moisture values. The obtained soil moisture maps of the territories of research, as well as the conceptual solutions about automation of operations of constructing such digital maps, are presented. The comparative assessment of the time required for processing a given set of radar scenes with the developed tools and with the ESA SNAP product was carried out.

A Decadal Historical Satellite Data and Rainfall Trend Analysis (2001–2016 for Flood Hazard Mapping in Sri Lanka

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Niranga Alahacoon

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Critical information on a flood-affected area is needed in a short time frame to initiate rapid response operations and develop long-term flood management strategies. This study combined rainfall trend analysis using Asian Precipitation—Highly Resolved Observational Data Integration towards Evaluation of Water Resources (APHRODITE gridded rainfall data with flood maps derived from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR and multispectral satellite to arrive at holistic spatio-temporal patterns of floods in Sri Lanka. Advanced Land Observing Satellite Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (ALOS PALSAR data were used to map flood extents for emergency relief operations while eight-day Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS surface reflectance data for the time period from 2001 to 2016 were used to map long term flood-affected areas. The inundation maps produced for rapid response were published within three hours upon the availability of satellite imagery in web platforms, with the aim of supporting a wide range of stakeholders in emergency response and flood relief operations. The aggregated time series of flood extents mapped using MODIS data were used to develop a flood occurrence map (2001–2016 for Sri Lanka. Flood hotpots identified using both optical and synthetic aperture average of 325 km2 for the years 2006–2015 and exceptional flooding in 2016 with inundation extent of approximately 1400 km2. The time series rainfall data explains increasing trend in the extreme rainfall indices with similar observation derived from satellite imagery. The results demonstrate the feasibility of using multi-sensor flood mapping approaches, which will aid Disaster Management Center (DMC and other multi-lateral agencies involved in managing rapid response operations and preparing mitigation measures.

Satellite SAR interferometric techniques applied to emergency mapping

Science.gov (United States)

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

2017-04-01

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

Mapping Smallholder Wheat Yields and Sowing Dates Using Micro-Satellite Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Meha Jain

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Remote sensing offers a low-cost method for developing spatially continuous crop production statistics across large areas and through time. Nevertheless, it has been difficult to characterize the production of individual smallholder farms, given that the land-holding size in most areas of South Asia (<2 ha is smaller than the spatial resolution of most freely available satellite imagery, like Landsat and MODIS. In addition, existing methods to map yield require field-level data to develop and parameterize predictive algorithms that translate satellite vegetation indices to yield, yet these data are costly or difficult to obtain in many smallholder systems. To overcome these challenges, this study explores two issues. First, we employ new high spatial (2 m and temporal (bi-weekly resolution micro-satellite SkySat data to map sowing dates and yields of smallholder wheat fields in Bihar, India in the 2014–2015 and 2015–2016 growing seasons. Second, we compare how well we predict sowing date and yield when using ground data, like crop cuts and self-reports, versus using crop models, which require no on-the-ground data, to develop and parameterize prediction models. Overall, sow dates were predicted well (R2 = 0.41 in 2014–2015 and R2 = 0.62 in 2015–2016, particularly when using models that were parameterized using self-report sow dates collected close to the time of planting and when using imagery that spanned the entire growing season. We were also able to map yields fairly well (R2 = 0.27 in 2014–2015 and R2 = 0.33 in 2015–2016, with crop cut parameterized models resulting in the highest accuracies. While less accurate, we were able to capture the large range in sow dates and yields across farms when using models parameterized with crop model data and these estimates were able to detect known relationships between management factors (e.g., sow date, fertilizer, and irrigation and yield. While these results are specific to our study

Satellite Map of Port-au-Prince, Haiti-2010-Natural Color

Science.gov (United States)

Cole, Christopher J.; Sloan, Jeff

2010-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey produced 1:24,000-scale post-earthquake image base maps incorporating high- and medium-resolution remotely sensed imagery following the 7.0 magnitude earthquake near the capital city of Port au Prince, Haiti, on January 12, 2010. Commercial 2.4-meter multispectral QuickBird imagery was acquired by DigitalGlobe on January 15, 2010, following the initial earthquake. Ten-meter multispectral ALOS AVNIR-2 imagery was collected by the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) on January 12, 2010. These data were acquired under the Remote Sensing International Charter, a global team of space and satellite agencies that provide timely imagery in support of emergency response efforts worldwide. The images shown on this map were employed to support earthquake response efforts, specifically for use in determining ground deformation, damage assessment, and emergency management decisions. The raw, unprocessed imagery was geo-corrected, mosaicked, and reproduced onto a cartographic 1:24,000-scale base map. These maps are intended to provide a temporally current representation of post-earthquake ground conditions, which may be of use to decision makers and to the general public.

Solar resources and power potential mapping in Vietnam using satellite-derived and GIS-based information

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Polo, J.; Bernardos, A.; Navarro, A.A.; Fernandez-Peruchena, C.M.; Ramírez, L.; Guisado, María V.; Martínez, S.

2015-01-01

Highlights: • Satellite-based, reanalysis data and measurements are combined for solar mapping. • Plant output modeling for PV and CSP results in simple expressions of solar potential. • Solar resource, solar potential are used in a GIS for determine technical solar potential. • Solar resource and potential maps of Vietnam are presented. - Abstract: The present paper presents maps of the solar resources in Vietnam and of the solar potential for concentrating solar power (CSP) and for grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) technology. The mapping of solar radiation components has been calculated from satellite-derived data combined with solar radiation derived from sunshine duration and other additional sources of information based on reanalysis for several atmospheric and meteorological parameters involved. Two scenarios have been selected for the study of the solar potential: CSP Parabolic Trough of 50 MWe and grid-connected Flat Plate PV plant of around 1 MWe. For each selected scenario plant performance simulations have been computed for developing simple expressions that allow the estimation of the solar potential from the annual solar irradiation and the latitude of every site in Vietnam. Finally, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have been used for combining the solar potential with the land availability according each scenario to deliver the technical solar potential maps of Vietnam

Recurrent Neural Networks to Correct Satellite Image Classification Maps

Science.gov (United States)

Maggiori, Emmanuel; Charpiat, Guillaume; Tarabalka, Yuliya; Alliez, Pierre

2017-09-01

While initially devised for image categorization, convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are being increasingly used for the pixelwise semantic labeling of images. However, the proper nature of the most common CNN architectures makes them good at recognizing but poor at localizing objects precisely. This problem is magnified in the context of aerial and satellite image labeling, where a spatially fine object outlining is of paramount importance. Different iterative enhancement algorithms have been presented in the literature to progressively improve the coarse CNN outputs, seeking to sharpen object boundaries around real image edges. However, one must carefully design, choose and tune such algorithms. Instead, our goal is to directly learn the iterative process itself. For this, we formulate a generic iterative enhancement process inspired from partial differential equations, and observe that it can be expressed as a recurrent neural network (RNN). Consequently, we train such a network from manually labeled data for our enhancement task. In a series of experiments we show that our RNN effectively learns an iterative process that significantly improves the quality of satellite image classification maps.

INTEGRATION OF PALSAR AND ASTER SATELLITE DATA FOR GEOLOGICAL MAPPING IN TROPICS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Beiranvand Pour

2015-10-01

Full Text Available This research investigates the integration of the Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR and the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER satellite data for geological mapping applications in tropical environments. The eastern part of the central belt of peninsular Malaysia has been investigated to identify structural features and mineral mapping using PALSAR and ASTER data. Adaptive local sigma and directional filters were applied to PALSAR data for detecting geological structure elements in the study area. The vegetation, mineralogic and lithologic indices for ASTER bands were tested in tropical climate. Lineaments (fault and fractures and curvilinear (anticline or syncline were detected using PALSAR fused image of directional filters (N-S, NE-SW, and NW-SE.Vegetation index image map show vegetation cover by fusing ASTER VNIR bands. High concentration of clay minerals zone was detected using fused image map derived from ASTER SWIR bands. Fusion of ASTER TIR bands produced image map of the lithological units. Results indicate that data integration and data fusion from PALSAR and ASTER sources enhanced information extraction for geological mapping in tropical environments.

Remote Sensing of Volcanic ASH at the Met Office

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marenco F.

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in 2010 has triggered the rapid development of volcanic ash remote sensing activities at the Met Office. Volcanic ash qualitative and quantitative mapping have been achieved using lidar on board the Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements (FAAM research aircraft, and using improved satellite retrieval algorithms. After the eruption, a new aircraft facility, the Met Office Civil Contingencies Aircraft (MOCCA, has been set up to enable a rapid response, and a network of ground-based remote sensing sites with lidars and sunphotometers is currently being developed. Thanks to these efforts, the United Kingdom (UK will be much better equipped to deal with such a crisis, should it happen in the future.

Regional geology mapping using satellite-based remote sensing approach in Northern Victoria Land, Antarctica

Science.gov (United States)

Pour, Amin Beiranvand; Park, Yongcheol; Park, Tae-Yoon S.; Hong, Jong Kuk; Hashim, Mazlan; Woo, Jusun; Ayoobi, Iman

2018-06-01

Satellite remote sensing imagery is especially useful for geological investigations in Antarctica because of its remoteness and extreme environmental conditions that constrain direct geological survey. The highest percentage of exposed rocks and soils in Antarctica occurs in Northern Victoria Land (NVL). Exposed Rocks in NVL were part of the paleo-Pacific margin of East Gondwana during the Paleozoic time. This investigation provides a satellite-based remote sensing approach for regional geological mapping in the NVL, Antarctica. Landsat-8 and the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) datasets were used to extract lithological-structural and mineralogical information. Several spectral-band ratio indices were developed using Landsat-8 and ASTER bands and proposed for Antarctic environments to map spectral signatures of snow/ice, iron oxide/hydroxide minerals, Al-OH-bearing and Fe, Mg-OH and CO3 mineral zones, and quartz-rich felsic and mafic-to-ultramafic lithological units. The spectral-band ratio indices were tested and implemented to Level 1 terrain-corrected (L1T) products of Landsat-8 and ASTER datasets covering the NVL. The surface distribution of the mineral assemblages was mapped using the spectral-band ratio indices and verified by geological expeditions and laboratory analysis. Resultant image maps derived from spectral-band ratio indices that developed in this study are fairly accurate and correspond well with existing geological maps of the NVL. The spectral-band ratio indices developed in this study are especially useful for geological investigations in inaccessible locations and poorly exposed lithological units in Antarctica environments.

Comparison of mapped and measured total ionospheric electron content using global positioning system and beacon satellite observations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lanyi, G.E.; Roth, T.

1988-01-01

Total ionospheric electron contents (TEC) were measured by global positioning system (GPS) dual-frequency receivers developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The measurements included P-code (precise ranging code) and carrier phase data for six GPS satellites during multiple five-hour observing sessions. A set of these GPS TEC measurements were mapped from the GPS lines of sight to the line of sight of a Faraday beacon satellite by statistically fitting the TEC data to a simple model of the ionosphere. The mapped GPS TEC values were compared with the Faraday rotation measurements. Because GPS transmitter offsets are different for each satellite and because some GPS receiver offsets were uncalibrated, the sums of the satellite and receiver offsets were estimated simultaneously with the TEC in a least squares procedure. The accuracy of this estimation procedure is evaluated indicating that the error of the GPS-determined line of sight TEC can be at or below 1 x 10 to the 16th el/sq cm. Consequently, the current level of accuracy is comparable to the Faraday rotation technique; however, GPS provides superior sky coverage. 15 references

Mapping Russian forest biomass with data from satellites and forest inventories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Houghton, R A; Butman, D; Bunn, A G; Krankina, O N; Schlesinger, P; Stone, T A

2007-01-01

The forests of Russia cover a larger area and hold more carbon than the forests of any other nation and thus have the potential for a major role in global warming. Despite a systematic inventory of these forests, however, estimates of total carbon stocks vary, and spatial variations in the stocks within large aggregated units of land are unknown, thus hampering measurement of sources and sinks of carbon. We mapped the distribution of living forest biomass for the year 2000 by developing a relationship between ground measurements of wood volume at 12 sites throughout the Russian Federation and data from the MODIS satellite bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) product (MOD43B4). Based on the results of regression-tree analyses, we used the MOD43B4 product to assign biomass values to individual 500 m x 500 m cells in areas identified as forest by two satellite-based maps of land cover. According to the analysis, the total living biomass varied between 46 and 67 Pg, largely because of different estimates of forest area. Although optical data are limited in distinguishing differences in biomass in closed canopy forests, the estimates of total living biomass obtained here varied more in response to different definitions of forest than to saturation of the optical sensing of biomass

Mapping Russian forest biomass with data from satellites and forest inventories

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Houghton, R A [Woods Hole Research Center, 149 Woods Hole Road, Falmouth, MA 02540 (United States); Butman, D [Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Science, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511 (United States); Bunn, A G [Department of Environmental Sciences, Huxley College of the Environment, Western Washington University, 516 High Street, Bellingham, WA 98225-9181 (United States); Krankina, O N [Department of Forest Science, Oregon State University, 202 Richardson Hall, Corvallis, OR 97331-5752 (United States); Schlesinger, P [Woods Hole Research Center, 149 Woods Hole Road, Falmouth, MA 02540 (United States); Stone, T A [Woods Hole Research Center, 149 Woods Hole Road, Falmouth, MA 02540 (United States)

2007-10-15

The forests of Russia cover a larger area and hold more carbon than the forests of any other nation and thus have the potential for a major role in global warming. Despite a systematic inventory of these forests, however, estimates of total carbon stocks vary, and spatial variations in the stocks within large aggregated units of land are unknown, thus hampering measurement of sources and sinks of carbon. We mapped the distribution of living forest biomass for the year 2000 by developing a relationship between ground measurements of wood volume at 12 sites throughout the Russian Federation and data from the MODIS satellite bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) product (MOD43B4). Based on the results of regression-tree analyses, we used the MOD43B4 product to assign biomass values to individual 500 m x 500 m cells in areas identified as forest by two satellite-based maps of land cover. According to the analysis, the total living biomass varied between 46 and 67 Pg, largely because of different estimates of forest area. Although optical data are limited in distinguishing differences in biomass in closed canopy forests, the estimates of total living biomass obtained here varied more in response to different definitions of forest than to saturation of the optical sensing of biomass.

Estimated Depth Maps of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Derived from High Resolution IKONOS Satellite Imagery (Draft)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Estimated shallow-water, depth maps were produced using rule-based, semi-automated image analysis of high-resolution satellite imagery for nine locations in the...

Validation of satellite SAR offshore wind speed maps to in-situ data, microscala and mesoscale model results

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hasager, C B; Astrup, P; Barthelmie, R; Dellwik, E; Hoffmann Joergensen, B; Gylling Mortensen, N; Nielsen, M; Pryor, S; Rathmann, O

2002-05-01

A validation study has been performed in order to investigate the precision and accuracy of the satellite-derived ERS-2 SAR wind products in offshore regions. The overall project goal is to develop a method for utilizing the satellite wind speed maps for offshore wind resources, e.g. in future planning of offshore wind farms. The report describes the validation analysis in detail for three sites in Denmark, Italy and Egypt. The site in Norway is analyzed by the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Centre (NERSC). Wind speed maps and wind direction maps from Earth Observation data recorded by the ERS-2 SAR satellite have been obtained from the NERSC. For the Danish site the wind speed and wind direction maps have been compared to in-situ observations from a met-mast at Horns Rev in the North Sea located 14 km offshore. The SAR wind speeds have been area-averaged by simple and advanced footprint modelling, ie. the upwind conditions to the meteorological mast are explicitly averaged in the SAR wind speed maps before comparison. The comparison results are very promising with a standard error of {+-} 0.61 m s{sup -1}, a bias {approx}2 m s{sup -1} and R{sup 2} {approx}0.88 between in-situ wind speed observations and SAR footprint averaged values at 10 m level. Wind speeds predicted by the local scale model LINCOM and the mesoscale model KAMM2 have been compared to the spatial variations in the SAR wind speed maps. The finding is a good correspondence between SAR observations and model results. Near the coast is an 800 m wide band in which the SAR wind speed observations have a strong negative bias. The bathymetry of Horns Rev combined with tidal currents give rise to bias in the SAR wind speed maps near areas of shallow, complex bottom topography in some cases. A total of 16 cases were analyzed for Horns Rev. For Maddalena in Italy five cases were analyzed. At the Italian site the SAR wind speed maps were compared to WAsP and KAMM2 model results. The WAsP model

Combining forest inventory, satellite remote sensing, and geospatial data for mapping forest attributes of the conterminous United States

Science.gov (United States)

Mark Nelson; Greg Liknes; Charles H. Perry

2009-01-01

Analysis and display of forest composition, structure, and pattern provides information for a variety of assessments and management decision support. The objective of this study was to produce geospatial datasets and maps of conterminous United States forest land ownership, forest site productivity, timberland, and reserved forest land. Satellite image-based maps of...

Improved Satellite-based Crop Yield Mapping by Spatially Explicit Parameterization of Crop Phenology

Science.gov (United States)

Jin, Z.; Azzari, G.; Lobell, D. B.

2016-12-01

Field-scale mapping of crop yields with satellite data often relies on the use of crop simulation models. However, these approaches can be hampered by inaccuracies in the simulation of crop phenology. Here we present and test an approach to use dense time series of Landsat 7 and 8 acquisitions data to calibrate various parameters related to crop phenology simulation, such as leaf number and leaf appearance rates. These parameters are then mapped across the Midwestern United States for maize and soybean, and for two different simulation models. We then implement our recently developed Scalable satellite-based Crop Yield Mapper (SCYM) with simulations reflecting the improved phenology parameterizations, and compare to prior estimates based on default phenology routines. Our preliminary results show that the proposed method can effectively alleviate the underestimation of early-season LAI by the default Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator (APSIM), and that spatially explicit parameterization for the phenology model substantially improves the SCYM performance in capturing the spatiotemporal variation in maize and soybean yield. The scheme presented in our study thus preserves the scalability of SCYM, while significantly reducing its uncertainty.

Monturaqui meteorite impact crater, Chile: A field test of the utility of satellite-based mapping of ejecta at small craters

Science.gov (United States)

Rathbun, K.; Ukstins, I.; Drop, S.

2017-12-01

Monturaqui Crater is a small ( 350 m diameter), simple meteorite impact crater located in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile that was emplaced in Ordovician granite overlain by discontinuous Pliocene ignimbrite. Ejecta deposits are granite and ignimbrite, with lesser amounts of dark impact melt and rare tektites and iron shale. The impact restructured existing drainage systems in the area that have subsequently eroded through the ejecta. Satellite-based mapping and modeling, including a synthesis of photographic satellite imagery and ASTER thermal infrared imagery in ArcGIS, were used to construct a basic geological interpretation of the site with special emphasis on understanding ejecta distribution patterns. This was combined with field-based mapping to construct a high-resolution geologic map of the crater and its ejecta blanket and field check the satellite-based geologic interpretation. The satellite- and modeling-based interpretation suggests a well-preserved crater with an intact, heterogeneous ejecta blanket that has been subjected to moderate erosion. In contrast, field mapping shows that the crater has a heavily-eroded rim and ejecta blanket, and the ejecta is more heterogeneous than previously thought. In addition, the erosion rate at Monturaqui is much higher than erosion rates reported elsewhere in the Atacama Desert. The bulk compositions of the target rocks at Monturaqui are similar and the ejecta deposits are highly heterogeneous, so distinguishing between them with remote sensing is less effective than with direct field observations. In particular, the resolution of available imagery for the site is too low to resolve critical details that are readily apparent in the field on the scale of 10s of cm, and which significantly alter the geologic interpretation. The limiting factors for effective remote interpretation at Monturaqui are its target composition and crater size relative to the resolution of the remote sensing methods employed. This

Mapping turbidity in the Charles River, Boston using a high-resolution satellite.

Science.gov (United States)

Hellweger, Ferdi L; Miller, Will; Oshodi, Kehinde Sarat

2007-09-01

The usability of high-resolution satellite imagery for estimating spatial water quality patterns in urban water bodies is evaluated using turbidity in the lower Charles River, Boston as a case study. Water turbidity was surveyed using a boat-mounted optical sensor (YSI) at 5 m spatial resolution, resulting in about 4,000 data points. The ground data were collected coincidently with a satellite imagery acquisition (IKONOS), which consists of multispectral (R, G, B) reflectance at 1 m resolution. The original correlation between the raw ground and satellite data was poor (R2 = 0.05). Ground data were processed by removing points affected by contamination (e.g., sensor encounters a particle floc), which were identified visually. Also, the ground data were corrected for the memory effect introduced by the sensor's protective casing using an analytical model. Satellite data were processed to remove pixels affected by permanent non-water features (e.g., shoreline). In addition, water pixels within a certain buffer distance from permanent non-water features were removed due to contamination by the adjacency effect. To determine the appropriate buffer distance, a procedure that explicitly considers the distance of pixels to the permanent non-water features was applied. Two automatic methods for removing the effect of temporary non-water features (e.g., boats) were investigated, including (1) creating a water-only mask based on an unsupervised classification and (2) removing (filling) all local maxima in reflectance. After the various processing steps, the correlation between the ground and satellite data was significantly better (R2 = 0.70). The correlation was applied to the satellite image to develop a map of turbidity in the lower Charles River, which reveals large-scale patterns in water clarity. However, the adjacency effect prevented the application of this method to near-shore areas, where high-resolution patterns were expected (e.g., outfall plumes).

SAT-WIND project. Final report[Winds from satellites for offshore and coastal wind energy mapping and wind-indexing

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hasager, C.B.; Astrup, P.; Nielsen, M. (and others)

2007-04-15

The SAT-WIND project 'Winds from satellites for offshore and coastal wind energy mapping and wind-indexing' was a research project funded by STVF/DSF in the years 2003 to 2006 (Sagsnr. 2058-03-0006). The goal of the project was to verify the applicability of satellite wind maps derived from passive microwave, altimeter, scatterometer and imaging Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) technologies for wind energy tools for wind resources and wind-indexing. The study area was the Danish Seas including the North Sea, interior seas and the Baltic Sea. The report describes technical details on the satellite data sources including: 1) passive microwave (SSM/I, AMSR-E), 2) passive microwave polarimetric (WindSat), 3) scatterometer (ERS, QuikSCAT, Midori-2 and NSCAT), 4) altimeter (ERS, Topex, Poseidon, GFO-1, Jason-1), 5) SAR (ERS, Envisat). The SAR wind maps were treated in S-WAsP developed by Risoe National Laboratory in cooperation with GRAS A/S in the innovative project SAT-WIND-SMV (Sagsnr. 2104-05-0084) in the years 2005 and 2006 in parallel with SAT-WIND. The results from the SAT-WIND project are presented. These include ocean wind statistics, offshore wind resource estimates and comparison results for wind-indexing. (au)

SAT-WIND project. Final report[Winds from satellites for offshore and coastal wind energy mapping and wind-indexing

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hasager, C B; Astrup, P; Nielsen, M [and others

2007-04-15

The SAT-WIND project 'Winds from satellites for offshore and coastal wind energy mapping and wind-indexing' was a research project funded by STVF/DSF in the years 2003 to 2006 (Sagsnr. 2058-03-0006). The goal of the project was to verify the applicability of satellite wind maps derived from passive microwave, altimeter, scatterometer and imaging Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) technologies for wind energy tools for wind resources and wind-indexing. The study area was the Danish Seas including the North Sea, interior seas and the Baltic Sea. The report describes technical details on the satellite data sources including: 1) passive microwave (SSM/I, AMSR-E), 2) passive microwave polarimetric (WindSat), 3) scatterometer (ERS, QuikSCAT, Midori-2 and NSCAT), 4) altimeter (ERS, Topex, Poseidon, GFO-1, Jason-1), 5) SAR (ERS, Envisat). The SAR wind maps were treated in S-WAsP developed by Risoe National Laboratory in cooperation with GRAS A/S in the innovative project SAT-WIND-SMV (Sagsnr. 2104-05-0084) in the years 2005 and 2006 in parallel with SAT-WIND. The results from the SAT-WIND project are presented. These include ocean wind statistics, offshore wind resource estimates and comparison results for wind-indexing. (au)

Typhoon Doksuri Flooding in 2017 - High-Resolution Inundation Mapping and Monitoring from Sentinel Satellite SAR Data

Science.gov (United States)

Nghiem, S. V.; Nguyen, D. T.

2017-12-01

In 2017, typhoons and hurricanes have inflicted catastrophic flooding across extensive regions in many countries on several continents, including Asia and North America. The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) requested urgent support for flood mapping and monitoring in an emergency response to the devastating flood situation. An innovative satellite remote sensing method, called the Depolarization Reduction Algorithm for Global Observations of inundatioN (DRAGON), has been developed and implemented for use with Sentinel synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite data at a resolution of 10 meters to identify, map, and monitor inundation including pre-existing water bodies and newly flooded areas. Because Sentinel SAR operates at C-band microwave frequency, it can be used for flood mapping regardless of could cover conditions typically associated with storms, and thus can provide immediate results without the need to wait for the clouds to clear out. In Southeast Asia, Typhoon Doksuri caused significant flooding across extensive regions in Vietnam and other countries in September 2017. Figure 1 presents the flood mapping result over a region around Hà Tĩnh (north central coast of Vietnam) showing flood inundated areas (in yellow) on 16 September 2017 together with pre-existing surface water (in blue) on 4 September 2017. This is just one example selected from a larger flood map covering an extensive region of about 250 km x 680 km all along the central coast of Vietnam.

Seagrass mapping in Greek territorial waters using Landsat-8 satellite images

Science.gov (United States)

Topouzelis, Konstantinos; Makri, Despina; Stoupas, Nikolaos; Papakonstantinou, Apostolos; Katsanevakis, Stelios

2018-05-01

Seagrass meadows are among the most valuable coastal ecosystems on earth due to their structural and functional roles in the coastal environment. This study demonstrates remote sensing's capacity to produce seagrass distribution maps on a regional scale. The seagrass coverage maps provided here describe and quantify for the first time the extent and the spatial distribution of seagrass meadows in Greek waters. This information is needed for identifying priority conservation sites and to help coastal ecosystem managers and stakeholders to develop conservation strategies and design a resilient network of protected marine areas. The results were based on an object-based image analysis of 50 Landsat-8 satellite images. The time window of image acquisition was between June 2013 and July 2015. In total, the seagrass coverage in Greek waters was estimated at 2619 km2. The largest coverages of individual seagrass meadows were found around Lemnos Island (124 km2), Corfu Island (46 km2), and East Peloponnese (47 km2). The accuracy assessment of the detected areas was based on 62 Natura 2000 sites, for which habitat maps were available. The mean total accuracy for all 62 sites was estimated at 76.3%.

The Potential of Sentinel Satellites for Burnt Area Mapping and Monitoring in the Congo Basin Forests

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Astrid Verhegghen

2016-11-01

Full Text Available In this study, the recently launched Sentinel-2 (S2 optical satellite and the active radar Sentinel-1 (S1 satellite supported by active fire data from the MODIS sensor were used to detect and monitor forest fires in the Congo Basin. In the context of a very strong El Niño event, an unprecedented outbreak of fires was observed during the first months of 2016 in open forests formations in the north of the Republic of Congo. The anomalies of the recent fires and meteorological situation compared to historical data show the severity of the drought. Burnt areas mapped by the S1 SAR and S2 Multi Spectral Instrument (MSI sensors highlight that the fires occurred mainly in Marantaceae forests, characterized by open tree canopy cover and an extensive tall herbaceous layer. The maps show that the origin of the fires correlates with accessibility to the forest, suggesting an anthropogenic origin. The combined use of the two independent and fundamentally different satellite systems of S2 and S1 captured an extent of 36,000 ha of burnt areas, with each sensor compensating for the weakness (cloud perturbations for S2, and sensitivity to ground moisture for S1 of the other.

Land Cover Mapping in Northern High Latitude Permafrost Regions with Satellite Data: Achievements and Remaining Challenges

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Annett Bartsch

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Most applications of land cover maps that have been derived from satellite data over the Arctic require higher thematic detail than available in current global maps. A range of application studies has been reviewed, including up-scaling of carbon fluxes and pools, permafrost feature mapping and transition monitoring. Early land cover mapping studies were driven by the demand to characterize wildlife habitats. Later, in the 1990s, up-scaling of in situ measurements became central to the discipline of land cover mapping on local to regional scales at several sites across the Arctic. This includes the Kuparuk basin in Alaska, the Usa basin and the Lena Delta in Russia. All of these multi-purpose land cover maps have been derived from Landsat data. High resolution maps (from optical satellite data serve frequently as input for the characterization of periglacial features and also flux tower footprints in recent studies. The most used map to address circumpolar issues is the CAVM (Circum Arctic Vegetation Map based on AVHRR (1 km and has been manually derived. It provides the required thematic detail for many applications, but is confined to areas north of the treeline, and it is limited in spatial detail. A higher spatial resolution circumpolar land cover map with sufficient thematic content would be beneficial for a range of applications. Such a land cover classification should be compatible with existing global maps and applicable for multiple purposes. The thematic content of existing global maps has been assessed by comparison to the CAVM and regional maps. None of the maps provides the required thematic detail. Spatial resolution has been compared to used classes for local to regional applications. The required thematic detail increases with spatial resolution since coarser datasets are usually applied over larger areas covering more relevant landscape units. This is especially of concern when the entire Arctic is addressed. A spatial

Egypt satellite images for land surface characterization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hasager, Charlotte Bay

images used for mapping the vegetation cover types and other land cover types in Egypt. The mapping ranges from 1 km resolution to 30 m resolution. The aim is to provide satellite image mapping with land surface characteristics relevant for roughness mapping.......Satellite images provide information on the land surface properties. From optical remote sensing images in the blue, green, red and near-infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum it is possible to identify a large number of surface features. The report briefly describes different satellite...

Mapping reference evapotranspiration from meteorological satellite data and applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ming-Hwi Yao

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Reference evapotranspiration (ETo is an agrometeorological variable widely used in hydrology and agriculture. The FAO-56 Penman-Monteith combination method (PM method is a standard for computing ETo for water management. However, this scheme is limited to areas where climatic data with good quality are available. Maps of 10-day averaged ETo at 5 km × 5 km grid spacing for the Taiwan region were produced by multiplying pan evaporation (Epan, derived from ground solar radiation (GSR retrieved from satellite images using the Heliosat-3 method, by a fixed pan coefficient (Kp. Validation results indicated that the overall mean absolute percentage error (MAPE and normalized root-mean-square deviation (NRMSD were 6.2 and 7.7%, respectively, when compared with ETo computed by the PM method using spatially interpolated 10-day averaged daily maximum and minimum temperature datasets and GSR derived from satellite inputs. Land coefficient (KL values based on the derived ETo estimates and long term latent heat flux measurements, were determined for the following landscapes: Paddy rice (Oryza sativa, subtropical cypress forest (Chamaecyparis obtusa var. formosana and Chamaecyparis formosensis, warm-to-temperate mixed rainforest (Cryptocarya chinensis, Engelhardtia roxburghiana, Tutcheria shinkoensis, and Helicia formosana, and grass marsh (Brachiaria mutica and Phragmites australis. The determined land coefficients are indispensable to scale ETo in estimating regional evapotranspiration.

Forest Cover Mapping in Iskandar Malaysia Using Satellite Data

Science.gov (United States)

Kanniah, K. D.; Mohd Najib, N. E.; Vu, T. T.

2016-09-01

Malaysia is the third largest country in the world that had lost forest cover. Therefore, timely information on forest cover is required to help the government to ensure that the remaining forest resources are managed in a sustainable manner. This study aims to map and detect changes of forest cover (deforestation and disturbance) in Iskandar Malaysia region in the south of Peninsular Malaysia between years 1990 and 2010 using Landsat satellite images. The Carnegie Landsat Analysis System-Lite (CLASlite) programme was used to classify forest cover using Landsat images. This software is able to mask out clouds, cloud shadows, terrain shadows, and water bodies and atmospherically correct the images using 6S radiative transfer model. An Automated Monte Carlo Unmixing technique embedded in CLASlite was used to unmix each Landsat pixel into fractions of photosynthetic vegetation (PV), non photosynthetic vegetation (NPV) and soil surface (S). Forest and non-forest areas were produced from the fractional cover images using appropriate threshold values of PV, NPV and S. CLASlite software was found to be able to classify forest cover in Iskandar Malaysia with only a difference between 14% (1990) and 5% (2010) compared to the forest land use map produced by the Department of Agriculture, Malaysia. Nevertheless, the CLASlite automated software used in this study was found not to exclude other vegetation types especially rubber and oil palm that has similar reflectance to forest. Currently rubber and oil palm were discriminated from forest manually using land use maps. Therefore, CLASlite algorithm needs further adjustment to exclude these vegetation and classify only forest cover.

Minimizing Gaps of Daily Ndvi Map with Geostationary Satellite Remote Sensing Data

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Lee, S.; Ryu, Y.; Jiang, C.

2015-12-01

Satellite based remote sensing has been used to monitor plant phenology. Numerous studies have generally utilized normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) to quantify phenological patterns and changes in regional to the global scales. Obtaining the NDVI values during summer in East Asian Monsoon regions is important because most plants grow vigorously in this season. However, satellite derived NDVI data are error prone to clouds during most of the period. Various methods have attempted to reduce the effect of cloud in temporal and spatial NDVI monitoring; the fundamental solution is to have a large data pool that includes multiple images in short period and supplements NDVI values in same period. Multiple images of geostationary satellite in a day can be a method to expand the pool. In this study, we suggest an approach that minimizes data gaps in NDVI of the day through geostationary satellite derived NDVI composition. We acquired data from Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI) which is a satellite that was launched to monitor ocean around the Korean peninsula, China, Japan and Russia. The satellite observes eight times per day (09:00 - 16:00, every hour) at 500 x 500 m resolution from 2011 to 2015. GOCI red- and near infrared radiance was converted into surface reflectance by using 6S Radiative Transfer Model (6S). We calculated NDVI tiles for each of observed eight tiles per day and made one day NDVI through maximum-value composite method. We evaluated the composite GOCI derived NDVI by comparing with daily MODIS-derived NDVI (composited from MOD09GA and MYD09GA), 16-day Landsat 8-derived NDVI, and in-situ light emitting diode (LED) NDVI measurements at a homogeneous deciduous forest and rice paddy sites. We found that GOCI-derived NDVI maps revealed little data gaps compared to MODIS and Landsat, and GOCI derived NDVI time series were smoother than MODIS derived NDVI time series in summer. GOCI-derived NDVI agreed well with in-situ observations of NDVI

Habitat Mapping and Change Assessment of Coastal Environments: An Examination of WorldView-2, QuickBird, and IKONOS Satellite Imagery and Airborne LiDAR for Mapping Barrier Island Habitats

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Matthew J. McCarthy

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Habitat mapping can be accomplished using many techniques and types of data. There are pros and cons for each technique and dataset, therefore, the goal of this project was to investigate the capabilities of new satellite sensor technology and to assess map accuracy for a variety of image classification techniques based on hundreds of field-work sites. The study area was Masonboro Island, an undeveloped area in coastal North Carolina, USA. Using the best map results, a habitat change assessment was conducted between 2002 and 2010. WorldView-2, QuickBird, and IKONOS satellite sensors were tested using unsupervised and supervised methods using a variety of spectral band combinations. Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR elevation and texture data pan-sharpening, and spatial filtering were also tested. In total, 200 maps were generated and results indicated that WorldView-2 was consistently more accurate than QuickBird and IKONOS. Supervised maps were more accurate than unsupervised in 80% of the maps. Pan-sharpening the images did not consistently improve map accuracy but using a majority filter generally increased map accuracy. During the relatively short eight-year period, 20% of the coastal study area changed with intertidal marsh experiencing the most change. Smaller habitat classes changed substantially as well. For example, 84% of upland scrub-shrub experienced change. These results document the dynamic nature of coastal habitats, validate the use of the relatively new Worldview-2 sensor, and may be used to guide future coastal habitat mapping.

Advances in the Validation of Satellite-Based Maps of Volcanic Sulfur Dioxide Plumes

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Realmuto, V. J.; Berk, A.; Acharya, P. K.; Kennett, R.

2013-12-01

The monitoring of volcanic gas emissions with gas cameras, spectrometer arrays, tethersondes, and UAVs presents new opportunities for the validation of satellite-based retrievals of gas concentrations. Gas cameras and spectrometer arrays provide instantaneous observations of the gas burden, or concentration along an optical path, over broad sections of a plume, similar to the observations acquired by nadir-viewing satellites. Tethersondes and UAVs provide us with direct measurements of the vertical profiles of gas concentrations within plumes. This presentation will focus on our current efforts to validate ASTER-based maps of sulfur dioxide plumes at Turrialba and Kilauea Volcanoes (located in Costa Rica and Hawaii, respectively). These volcanoes, which are the subjects of comprehensive monitoring programs, are challenging targets for thermal infrared (TIR) remote sensing due the warm and humid atmospheric conditions. The high spatial resolution of ASTER in the TIR (90 meters) allows us to map the plumes back to their source vents, but also requires us to pay close attention to the temperature and emissivity of the surfaces beneath the plumes. Our knowledge of the surface and atmospheric conditions is never perfect, and we employ interactive mapping techniques that allow us to evaluate the impact of these uncertainties on our estimates of plume composition. To accomplish this interactive mapping we have developed the Plume Tracker tool kit, which integrates retrieval procedures, visualization tools, and a customized version of the MODTRAN radiative transfer (RT) model under a single graphics user interface (GUI). We are in the process of porting the RT calculations to graphics processing units (GPUs) with the goal of achieving a 100-fold increase in the speed of computation relative to conventional CPU-based processing. We will report on our progress with this evolution of Plume Tracker. Portions of this research were conducted at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory

A novel gridding algorithm to create regional trace gas maps from satellite observations

Science.gov (United States)

Kuhlmann, G.; Hartl, A.; Cheung, H. M.; Lam, Y. F.; Wenig, M. O.

2014-02-01

The recent increase in spatial resolution for satellite instruments has made it feasible to study distributions of trace gas column densities on a regional scale. For this application a new gridding algorithm was developed to map measurements from the instrument's frame of reference (level 2) onto a longitude-latitude grid (level 3). The algorithm is designed for the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) and can easily be employed for similar instruments - for example, the upcoming TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI). Trace gas distributions are reconstructed by a continuous parabolic spline surface. The algorithm explicitly considers the spatially varying sensitivity of the sensor resulting from the instrument function. At the swath edge, the inverse problem of computing the spline coefficients is very sensitive to measurement errors and is regularised by a second-order difference matrix. Since this regularisation corresponds to the penalty term for smoothing splines, it similarly attenuates the effect of measurement noise over the entire swath width. Monte Carlo simulations are conducted to study the performance of the algorithm for different distributions of trace gas column densities. The optimal weight of the penalty term is found to be proportional to the measurement uncertainty and the width of the instrument function. A comparison with an established gridding algorithm shows improved performance for small to moderate measurement errors due to better parametrisation of the distribution. The resulting maps are smoother and extreme values are more accurately reconstructed. The performance improvement is further illustrated with high-resolution distributions obtained from a regional chemistry model. The new algorithm is applied to tropospheric NO2 column densities measured by OMI. Examples of regional NO2 maps are shown for densely populated areas in China, Europe and the United States of America. This work demonstrates that the newly developed gridding

A novel gridding algorithm to create regional trace gas maps from satellite observations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. Kuhlmann

2014-02-01

Full Text Available The recent increase in spatial resolution for satellite instruments has made it feasible to study distributions of trace gas column densities on a regional scale. For this application a new gridding algorithm was developed to map measurements from the instrument's frame of reference (level 2 onto a longitude–latitude grid (level 3. The algorithm is designed for the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI and can easily be employed for similar instruments – for example, the upcoming TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI. Trace gas distributions are reconstructed by a continuous parabolic spline surface. The algorithm explicitly considers the spatially varying sensitivity of the sensor resulting from the instrument function. At the swath edge, the inverse problem of computing the spline coefficients is very sensitive to measurement errors and is regularised by a second-order difference matrix. Since this regularisation corresponds to the penalty term for smoothing splines, it similarly attenuates the effect of measurement noise over the entire swath width. Monte Carlo simulations are conducted to study the performance of the algorithm for different distributions of trace gas column densities. The optimal weight of the penalty term is found to be proportional to the measurement uncertainty and the width of the instrument function. A comparison with an established gridding algorithm shows improved performance for small to moderate measurement errors due to better parametrisation of the distribution. The resulting maps are smoother and extreme values are more accurately reconstructed. The performance improvement is further illustrated with high-resolution distributions obtained from a regional chemistry model. The new algorithm is applied to tropospheric NO2 column densities measured by OMI. Examples of regional NO2 maps are shown for densely populated areas in China, Europe and the United States of America. This work demonstrates that the newly

Mapping Impervious Surface Expansion using Medium-resolution Satellite Image Time Series: A Case Study in the Yangtze River Delta, China

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Gao, Feng; DeColstoun, Eric Brown; Ma, Ronghua; Weng, Qihao; Masek, Jeffrey G.; Chen, Jin; Pan, Yaozhong; Song, Conghe

2012-01-01

Cities have been expanding rapidly worldwide, especially over the past few decades. Mapping the dynamic expansion of impervious surface in both space and time is essential for an improved understanding of the urbanization process, land-cover and land-use change, and their impacts on the environment. Landsat and other medium-resolution satellites provide the necessary spatial details and temporal frequency for mapping impervious surface expansion over the past four decades. Since the US Geological Survey opened the historical record of the Landsat image archive for free access in 2008, the decades-old bottleneck of data limitation has gone. Remote-sensing scientists are now rich with data, and the challenge is how to make best use of this precious resource. In this article, we develop an efficient algorithm to map the continuous expansion of impervious surface using a time series of four decades of medium-resolution satellite images. The algorithm is based on a supervised classification of the time-series image stack using a decision tree. Each imerpervious class represents urbanization starting in a different image. The algorithm also allows us to remove inconsistent training samples because impervious expansion is not reversible during the study period. The objective is to extract a time series of complete and consistent impervious surface maps from a corresponding times series of images collected from multiple sensors, and with a minimal amount of image preprocessing effort. The approach was tested in the lower Yangtze River Delta region, one of the fastest urban growth areas in China. Results from nearly four decades of medium-resolution satellite data from the Landsat Multispectral Scanner (MSS), Thematic Mapper (TM), Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+) and China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite (CBERS) show a consistent urbanization process that is consistent with economic development plans and policies. The time-series impervious spatial extent maps derived

Temporal resolution requirements of satellite constellations for 30 m global burned area mapping

Science.gov (United States)

Melchiorre, A.; Boschetti, L.

2017-12-01

Global burned area maps have been generated systematically with daily, coarse resolution satellite data (Giglio et al. 2013). The production of moderate resolution (10 - 30 m) global burned area products would meet the needs of several user communities: improved carbon emission estimations due to heterogeneous landscapes and for local scale air quality and fire management applications (Mouillot et al. 2014; van der Werf et al. 2010). While the increased spatial resolution reduces the influence of mixed burnt/unburnt pixels and it would increase the spectral separation of burned areas, moderate resolution satellites have reduced temporal resolution (10 - 16 days). Fire causes a land-cover change spectrally visible for a period ranging from a few weeks in savannas to over a year in forested ecosystems (Roy et al. 2010); because clouds, smoke, and other optically thick aerosols limit the number of available observations (Roy et al. 2008; Smith and Wooster 2005), burned areas might disappear before they are observed by moderate resolution sensors. Data fusion from a constellation of different sensors has been proposed to overcome these limits (Boschetti et al. 2015; Roy 2015). In this study, we estimated the probability of moderate resolution satellites and virtual constellations (including Landsat-8/9, Sentinel-2A/B) to provide sufficient observations for burned area mapping globally, and by ecosystem. First, we estimated the duration of the persistence of the signal associated with burned areas by combining the MODIS Global Burned Area and the Nadir BRDF-Adjusted Reflectance Product by characterizing the post-fire trends in reflectance to determine the length of the period in which the burn class is spectrally distinct from the unburned and, therefore, detectable. The MODIS-Terra daily cloud data were then used to estimate the probability of cloud cover. The cloud probability was used at each location to estimate the minimum revisit time needed to obtain at least one

Active Fire Mapping Program

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Active Fire Mapping Program Current Large Incidents (Home) New Large Incidents Fire Detection Maps MODIS Satellite Imagery VIIRS Satellite Imagery Fire Detection GIS Data Fire Data in Google Earth ...

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.

Use of multispectral satellite imagery and hyperspectral endmember libraries for urban land cover mapping at the metropolitan scale

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Priem, Frederik; Okujeni, Akpona; van der Linden, Sebastian; Canters, Frank

2016-10-01

The value of characteristic reflectance features for mapping urban materials has been demonstrated in many experiments with airborne imaging spectrometry. Analysis of larger areas requires satellite-based multispectral imagery, which typically lacks the spatial and spectral detail of airborne data. Consequently the need arises to develop mapping methods that exploit the complementary strengths of both data sources. In this paper a workflow for sub-pixel quantification of Vegetation-Impervious-Soil urban land cover is presented, using medium resolution multispectral satellite imagery, hyperspectral endmember libraries and Support Vector Regression. A Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager surface reflectance image covering the greater metropolitan area of Brussels is selected for mapping. Two spectral libraries developed for the cities of Brussels and Berlin based on airborne hyperspectral APEX and HyMap data are used. First the combined endmember library is resampled to match the spectral response of the Landsat sensor. The library is then optimized to avoid spectral redundancy and confusion. Subsequently the spectra of the endmember library are synthetically mixed to produce training data for unmixing. Mapping is carried out using Support Vector Regression models trained with spectra selected through stratified sampling of the mixed library. Validation on building block level (mean size = 46.8 Landsat pixels) yields an overall good fit between reference data and estimation with Mean Absolute Errors of 0.06, 0.06 and 0.08 for vegetation, impervious and soil respectively. Findings of this work may contribute to the use of universal spectral libraries for regional scale land cover fraction mapping using regression approaches.

Minding the gaps: new insights into R&D management and operational transitions of NOAA satellite products

Science.gov (United States)

Colton, Marie C.; Powell, Alfred M.; Jordan, Gretchen; Mote, Jonathon; Hage, Jerald; Frank, Donald

2004-10-01

The NESDIS Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR), formerly ORA, Office of Research and Applications, consists of three research and applications divisions that encompass satellite meteorology, oceanography, climatology, and cooperative research with academic institutions. With such a wide background of talent, and a charter to develop operational algorithms and applications, STAR scientists develop satellite-derived land, ice, ocean, and atmospheric environmental data products in support of all of NOAA"s mission goals. In addition, in close association with the Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation, STAR scientists actively work with the numerical modeling communities of NOAA, NASA, and DOD to support the development of new methods for assimilation of satellite data. In this new era of observations from many new satellite instruments, STAR aims to effectively integrate these data into multi-platform data products for utilization by the forecast and applications communities. Much of our work is conducted in close partnerships with other agencies, academic institutes, and industry. In order to support the nearly 400 current satellite-derived products for various users on a routine basis from our sister operations office, and to evolve to future systems requires an ongoing strategic planning approach that maps research and development activities from NOAA goals to user requirements. Since R&D accomplishments are not necessarily amenable to precise schedules, appropriate motivators and measures of scientific progress must be developed to assure that the product development cycle remains aligned with the other engineering segments of a satellite program. This article presents the status and results of this comprehensive effort to chart a course from the present set of operational satellites to the future.

Mapping Sub-Antarctic Cushion Plants Using Random Forests to Combine Very High Resolution Satellite Imagery and Terrain Modelling

Science.gov (United States)

Bricher, Phillippa K.; Lucieer, Arko; Shaw, Justine; Terauds, Aleks; Bergstrom, Dana M.

2013-01-01

Monitoring changes in the distribution and density of plant species often requires accurate and high-resolution baseline maps of those species. Detecting such change at the landscape scale is often problematic, particularly in remote areas. We examine a new technique to improve accuracy and objectivity in mapping vegetation, combining species distribution modelling and satellite image classification on a remote sub-Antarctic island. In this study, we combine spectral data from very high resolution WorldView-2 satellite imagery and terrain variables from a high resolution digital elevation model to improve mapping accuracy, in both pixel- and object-based classifications. Random forest classification was used to explore the effectiveness of these approaches on mapping the distribution of the critically endangered cushion plant Azorella macquariensis Orchard (Apiaceae) on sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island. Both pixel- and object-based classifications of the distribution of Azorella achieved very high overall validation accuracies (91.6–96.3%, κ = 0.849–0.924). Both two-class and three-class classifications were able to accurately and consistently identify the areas where Azorella was absent, indicating that these maps provide a suitable baseline for monitoring expected change in the distribution of the cushion plants. Detecting such change is critical given the threats this species is currently facing under altering environmental conditions. The method presented here has applications to monitoring a range of species, particularly in remote and isolated environments. PMID:23940805

Inexpensive land-use maps extracted from satellite data

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Barney, T. W.; Barr, D. J.; Elifrits, C. D.; Johannsen, C. J.

1979-01-01

Satellite images are interpretable with minimal skill and equipment by employing method which uses false color composite print of image of area transmitted from Landsat satellite. Method is effective for those who have little experience with satellite imagery, little time, and little money available.

Satellite information for wind energy applications

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, M.; Astrup, Poul; Hasager, Charlotte Bay

2004-01-01

An introduction to satellite information relevant for wind energy applications is given. It includes digital elevation model (DEM) data based on satellite observations. The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) is useful for regional scale wind resourcestudies. Comparison results from complex...... terrain in Spain and flat terrain in Denmark are found to be acceptable for both sites. Also land cover type information can be retrieved from satellite observations. Land cover type maps have to be combined withroughness data from field observation or literature values. Land cover type maps constitute...... an aid to map larger regions within shorter time. Field site observations of obstacles and hedges are still necessary. The raster-based map information from DEMand land cover maps can be converted for use in WASP. For offshore locations it is possible to estimate the wind resources based on ocean surface...

Office of Satellite and Product Operations

Science.gov (United States)

; Strategy » International Agreements » POES Current » GOES Current History » History in Images » POES History » GOES History OSPO Information » Access and Distribution Policy » Organization Chart  Branch utilizes interactive processing technology to integrate multiple satellite sensor data streams

Mapping Global Ocean Surface Albedo from Satellite Observations: Models, Algorithms, and Datasets

Science.gov (United States)

Li, X.; Fan, X.; Yan, H.; Li, A.; Wang, M.; Qu, Y.

2018-04-01

Ocean surface albedo (OSA) is one of the important parameters in surface radiation budget (SRB). It is usually considered as a controlling factor of the heat exchange among the atmosphere and ocean. The temporal and spatial dynamics of OSA determine the energy absorption of upper level ocean water, and have influences on the oceanic currents, atmospheric circulations, and transportation of material and energy of hydrosphere. Therefore, various parameterizations and models have been developed for describing the dynamics of OSA. However, it has been demonstrated that the currently available OSA datasets cannot full fill the requirement of global climate change studies. In this study, we present a literature review on mapping global OSA from satellite observations. The models (parameterizations, the coupled ocean-atmosphere radiative transfer (COART), and the three component ocean water albedo (TCOWA)), algorithms (the estimation method based on reanalysis data, and the direct-estimation algorithm), and datasets (the cloud, albedo and radiation (CLARA) surface albedo product, dataset derived by the TCOWA model, and the global land surface satellite (GLASS) phase-2 surface broadband albedo product) of OSA have been discussed, separately.

CERN helps with the mapping of natural disasters

CERN Multimedia

Daisy Yuhas

2010-01-01

The headquarters of UNOSAT, the Operational Satellite Applications Programme of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, are in an unassuming office, not far from Restaurant 2. There, UN experts are on hand twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, waiting for an emergency message from anywhere on the globe and ready to respond. It was there that experts were called upon to respond to the recent earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, using CERN computing resources to develop some of the first response maps.   In the case of January’s earthquake in Haiti, an SMS message was received at 23:20, Geneva time, on January 12, only minutes after the quake. Immediately, UNOSAT began organizing and downloading satellite images for analysis, to create the very first maps used by relief workers in Haiti. In the weeks following, UNOSAT members were on shift continually, day and night, working nonstop to develop reports of the damage. UNOSAT also sent two staff members on the ground to ver...

Snow Cover Mapping at the Continental to Global Scale Using Combined Visible and Passive Microwave Satellite Data

Science.gov (United States)

Armstrong, R. L.; Brodzik, M.; Savoie, M. H.

2007-12-01

Over the past several decades both visible and passive microwave satellite data have been utilized for snow mapping at the continental to global scale. Snow mapping using visible data has been based primarily on the magnitude of the surface reflectance, and in more recent cases on specific spectral signatures, while microwave data can be used to identify snow cover because the microwave energy emitted by the underlying soil is scattered by the snow grains resulting in a sharp decrease in brightness temperature and a characteristic negative spectral gradient. Both passive microwave and visible data sets indicate a similar pattern of inter-annual variability, although the maximum snow extents derived from the microwave data are consistently less than those provided by the visible satellite data and the visible data typically show higher monthly variability. We describe the respective problems as well as the advantages and disadvantages of these two types of satellite data for snow cover mapping and demonstrate how a multi-sensor approach is optimal. For the period 1978 to present we combine data from the NOAA weekly snow charts with snow cover derived from the SMMR and SSM/I brightness temperature data. For the period since 2002 we blend NASA EOS MODIS and AMSR-E data sets. Our current product incorporates MODIS data from the Climate Modelers Grid (CMG) at approximately 5 km (0.05 deg.) with microwave-derived snow water equivalent (SWE) at 25 km, resulting in a blended product that includes percent snow cover in the larger grid cell whenever the microwave SWE signal is absent. Validation of AMSR-E at the brightness temperature level is provided through the comparison with data from the well-calibrated heritage SSM/I sensor over large homogeneous snow-covered surfaces (e.g. Dome C region, Antarctica). We also describe how the application of the higher frequency microwave channels (85 and 89 GHz)enhances accurate mapping of shallow and intermittent snow cover.

Fine-scale mapping of vector habitats using very high resolution satellite imagery: a liver fluke case-study.

Science.gov (United States)

De Roeck, Els; Van Coillie, Frieke; De Wulf, Robert; Soenen, Karen; Charlier, Johannes; Vercruysse, Jozef; Hantson, Wouter; Ducheyne, Els; Hendrickx, Guy

2014-12-01

The visualization of vector occurrence in space and time is an important aspect of studying vector-borne diseases. Detailed maps of possible vector habitats provide valuable information for the prediction of infection risk zones but are currently lacking for most parts of the world. Nonetheless, monitoring vector habitats from the finest scales up to farm level is of key importance to refine currently existing broad-scale infection risk models. Using Fasciola hepatica, a parasite liver fluke, as a case in point, this study illustrates the potential of very high resolution (VHR) optical satellite imagery to efficiently and semi-automatically detect detailed vector habitats. A WorldView2 satellite image capable of transmitted by freshwater snails. The vector thrives in small water bodies (SWBs), such as ponds, ditches and other humid areas consisting of open water, aquatic vegetation and/or inundated grass. These water bodies can be as small as a few m2 and are most often not present on existing land cover maps because of their small size. We present a classification procedure based on object-based image analysis (OBIA) that proved valuable to detect SWBs at a fine scale in an operational and semi-automated way. The classification results were compared to field and other reference data such as existing broad-scale maps and expert knowledge. Overall, the SWB detection accuracy reached up to 87%. The resulting fine-scale SWB map can be used as input for spatial distribution modelling of the liver fluke snail vector to enable development of improved infection risk mapping and management advice adapted to specific, local farm situations.

COSMIC Payload in NCAR-NASPO GPS Satellite System for Severe Weather Prediction

Science.gov (United States)

Lai-Chen, C.

Severe weather, such as cyclones, heavy rainfall, outburst of cold air, etc., results in great disaster all the world. It is the mission for the scientists to design a warning system, to predict the severe weather systems and to reduce the damage of the society. In Taiwan, National Satellite Project Office (NSPO) initiated ROCSAT-3 program at 1997. She scheduled the Phase I conceptual design to determine the mission for observation weather system. Cooperating with National Center of Atmospheric Research (NCAR), NSPO involved an international cooperation research and operation program to build a 32 GPS satellites system. NCAR will offer 24 GPS satellites. The total expanse will be US 100 millions. NSPO also provide US 80 millions for launching and system engineering operation. And NCAR will be responsible for Payload Control Center and Fiducial Network. The cooperative program contract has been signed by Taiwan National Science Council, Taipei Economic Cultural Office of United States and American Institute in Taiwan. One of the payload is COSMIC, Constellation Observation System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate. It is a GPS meteorology instrument system. The system will observe the weather information, e. g. electron density profiles, horizontal and vertical TEC and CFT scintillation and communication outage maps. The mission is to obtain the weather data such as vertical temperature profiles, water vapor distribution and pressure distribution over the world for global weather forecasting, especially during the severe weather period. The COSMIC Conference held on November, 1998. The export license was also issued by Department of Commerce of Unites States at November, 1998. Recently, NSPO begun to train their scientists to investigate the system. Scientists simulate the observation data to combine the existing routine satellite infrared cloud maps, radar echo and synoptic weather analysis for severe weather forecasting. It is hopeful to provide more accurate

Decision Fusion Based on Hyperspectral and Multispectral Satellite Imagery for Accurate Forest Species Mapping

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dimitris G. Stavrakoudis

2014-07-01

Full Text Available This study investigates the effectiveness of combining multispectral very high resolution (VHR and hyperspectral satellite imagery through a decision fusion approach, for accurate forest species mapping. Initially, two fuzzy classifications are conducted, one for each satellite image, using a fuzzy output support vector machine (SVM. The classification result from the hyperspectral image is then resampled to the multispectral’s spatial resolution and the two sources are combined using a simple yet efficient fusion operator. Thus, the complementary information provided from the two sources is effectively exploited, without having to resort to computationally demanding and time-consuming typical data fusion or vector stacking approaches. The effectiveness of the proposed methodology is validated in a complex Mediterranean forest landscape, comprising spectrally similar and spatially intermingled species. The decision fusion scheme resulted in an accuracy increase of 8% compared to the classification using only the multispectral imagery, whereas the increase was even higher compared to the classification using only the hyperspectral satellite image. Perhaps most importantly, its accuracy was significantly higher than alternative multisource fusion approaches, although the latter are characterized by much higher computation, storage, and time requirements.

Mapping Surface Broadband Albedo from Satellite Observations: A Review of Literatures on Algorithms and Products

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ying Qu

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Surface albedo is one of the key controlling geophysical parameters in the surface energy budget studies, and its temporal and spatial variation is closely related to the global climate change and regional weather system due to the albedo feedback mechanism. As an efficient tool for monitoring the surfaces of the Earth, remote sensing is widely used for deriving long-term surface broadband albedo with various geostationary and polar-orbit satellite platforms in recent decades. Moreover, the algorithms for estimating surface broadband albedo from satellite observations, including narrow-to-broadband conversions, bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF angular modeling, direct-estimation algorithm and the algorithms for estimating albedo from geostationary satellite data, are developed and improved. In this paper, we present a comprehensive literature review on algorithms and products for mapping surface broadband albedo with satellite observations and provide a discussion of different algorithms and products in a historical perspective based on citation analysis of the published literature. This paper shows that the observation technologies and accuracy requirement of applications are important, and long-term, global fully-covered (including land, ocean, and sea-ice surfaces, gap-free, surface broadband albedo products with higher spatial and temporal resolution are required for climate change, surface energy budget, and hydrological studies.

Probabilistic global maps of the CO2 column at daily and monthly scales from sparse satellite measurements

Science.gov (United States)

Chevallier, Frédéric; Broquet, Grégoire; Pierangelo, Clémence; Crisp, David

2017-07-01

The column-average dry air-mole fraction of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (XCO2) is measured by scattered satellite measurements like those from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2). We show that global continuous maps of XCO2 (corresponding to level 3 of the satellite data) at daily or coarser temporal resolution can be inferred from these data with a Kalman filter built on a model of persistence. Our application of this approach on 2 years of OCO-2 retrievals indicates that the filter provides better information than a climatology of XCO2 at both daily and monthly scales. Provided that the assigned observation uncertainty statistics are tuned in each grid cell of the XCO2 maps from an objective method (based on consistency diagnostics), the errors predicted by the filter at daily and monthly scales represent the true error statistics reasonably well, except for a bias in the high latitudes of the winter hemisphere and a lack of resolution (i.e., a too small discrimination skill) of the predicted error standard deviations. Due to the sparse satellite sampling, the broad-scale patterns of XCO2 described by the filter seem to lag behind the real signals by a few weeks. Finally, the filter offers interesting insights into the quality of the retrievals, both in terms of random and systematic errors.

7 CFR 611.22 - Availability of satellite imagery.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 6 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Availability of satellite imagery. 611.22 Section 611... § 611.22 Availability of satellite imagery. Cloud-free maps of the United States based on imagery received from a satellite are prepared and released to the pubic by NRCS. The maps offer the first image of...

Detailed Maps Depicting the Shallow-Water Benthic Habitats of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Derived from High Resolution IKONOS Satellite Imagery

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Detailed, shallow-water coral reef ecosystem maps were generated by rule-based, semi-automated image analysis of high-resolution satellite imagery for nine locations...

Mapping Satellite Inherent Optical Properties Index in Coastal Waters of the Yucatán Peninsula (Mexico

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jesús A. Aguilar-Maldonado

2018-06-01

Full Text Available The Yucatán Peninsula hosts worldwide-known tourism destinations that concentrate most of the Mexico tourism activity. In this region, tourism has exponentially increased over the last years, including wildlife oriented tourism. Rapid tourism development, involving the consequent construction of hotels and tourist commodities, is associated with domestic sewage discharges from septic tanks. In this karstic environment, submarine groundwater discharges are very important and highly vulnerable to anthropogenic pollution. Nutrient loadings are linked to harmful algal blooms, which are an issue of concern to local and federal authorities due to their recurrence and socioeconomic and human health costs. In this study, we used satellite products from MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer to calculate and map the satellite Inherent Optical Properties (IOP Index. We worked with different scenarios considering both holiday and hydrological seasons. Our results showed that the satellite IOP Index allows one to build baseline information in a sustainable mid-term or long-term basis which is key for ecosystem-based management.

Multitemporal mapping of peri-urban carbon stocks and soil sealing from satellite data.

Science.gov (United States)

Villa, Paolo; Malucelli, Francesco; Scalenghe, Riccardo

2018-01-15

Peri-urbanisation is the expansion of compact urban areas towards low-density settlements. This phenomenon directly challenges the agricultural landscape multifunctionality, including its carbon (C) storage capacity. Using satellite data, we mapped peri-urban C stocks in soil and built-up surfaces over three areas from 1993 to 2014 in the Emilia-Romagna region, Italy: a thinly populated area around Piacenza, an intermediate-density area covering the Reggio Emilia-Modena conurbation and a densely anthropized area developing along the coast of Rimini. Satellite-derived maps enabled the quantitative analysis of spatial and temporal features of urban growth and soil sealing, expressed as the ratio between C in built-up land and organic C in soils (Cc/Co). The three areas show substantial differences in C stock balance and soil sealing evolution. In Piacenza (Cc/Co=0.07 in 1993), although questioned by late industrial expansion and connected residential sprawl (Cc/Co growth by 38%), most of the new urbanisation spared the best rural soils. The Reggio Emilia-Modena conurbation, driven by the polycentricism of the area and the heterogeneity of economic sectors (Cc/Co rising from 0.08 to 0.14 from 1993 to 2014), balances sprawl and densification. Rimini, severely sealed since the 1960s (Cc/Co=0.23 in 1993), densifies its existing settlements and develops an industrial expansion of the hinterland, with Cc/Co growth accelerating from +15% before 2003 to +36% for the last decade. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Detailed Maps Depicting the Shallow-Water Benthic Habitats of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Derived from High Resolution IKONOS Satellite Imagery (Draft)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Detailed, shallow-water coral reef ecosystem maps were generated by rule-based, semi-automated image analysis of high-resolution satellite imagery for nine locations...

Spatial Mapping of NEO 2008 EV5 Using Small Satellite Formation Flying and Steresoscopic Technology

Science.gov (United States)

Gonzalez, Juan; Singh Derewa, Chrishma

2016-10-01

NASA is currently developing the first-ever robotic Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission (ARRM) to the near-Earth asteroid 2008 EV5 with the objective to capture a multi-ton boulder from the asteroids surface and use its mass to redirect its parent into a CIS lunar orbit where astronauts will study its physical and chemical composition.A critical step towards achieving this mission is to effectively map the target asteroid, identify the candidate boulder for retrieval and characterize its critical parameters. Currently, ARRM utilizes a laser altimeter to characterize the height of the boulders and mapping for final autonomous control of the capture. The proposed Lava-Kusha mission provides the increased of stereoscopic imaging and mapping, not only the Earthward side of the asteroid which has been observed for possible landing sites, but mapping the whole asteroid. LKM will enhance the fidelity of the data collected by the laser altimeter and gather improved topographic data for future Orion missions to 2008 EV5 once in cis lunar space.LKM consists of two low cost small satellites (6U) as a part of the ARRM. They will launch with ARRM as an integrated part of the system. Once at the target, this formation of pathfinder satellites will image the mission critical boulder to ensure the system design can support its removal. LKM will conduct a series of flybys prior to ARRM's rendezvous. LKMs stereoscopic cameras will provide detailed surveys of the boulder's terrain and environment to ensure ARRM can operate safely, reach the location and interface with the boulder. The LKM attitude control and cold gas propulsion system will enable formation maintenance maneuvers for global mapping of asteroid 2008 EV5 at an altitude of 100 km to a high-spatial resolution imaging altitude of 5 km.LKM will demonstrate formation flying in deep space and the reliability of stereoscopic cameras to precisely identify a specific target and provide physical characterization of an asteroid. An

Systematical estimation of GPM-based global satellite mapping of precipitation products over China

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Haigen; Yang, Bogang; Yang, Shengtian; Huang, Yingchun; Dong, Guotao; Bai, Juan; Wang, Zhiwei

2018-03-01

As the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory satellite continues its mission, new version 6 products for Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation (GSMaP) have been released. However, few studies have systematically evaluated the GSMaP products over mainland China. This study quantitatively evaluated three GPM-based GSMaP version 6 precipitation products for China and eight subregions referring to the Chinese daily Precipitation Analysis Product (CPAP). The GSMaP products included near-real-time (GSMaP_NRT), microwave-infrared reanalyzed (GSMaP_MVK), and gauge-adjusted (GSMaP_Gau) data. Additionally, the gauge-adjusted Integrated Multi-Satellite Retrievals for Global Precipitation Measurement Mission (IMERG_Gau) was also assessed and compared with GSMaP_Gau. The analyses of the selected daily products were carried out at spatiotemporal resolutions of 1/4° for the period of March 2014 to December 2015 in consideration of the resolution of CPAP and the consistency of the coverage periods of the satellite products. The results indicated that GSMaP_MVK and GSMaP_NRT performed comparably and underdetected light rainfall events (Pearson linear correlation coefficient (CC), fractional standard error (FSE), and root-mean-square error (RMSE) metrics during the summer. Compared with GSMaP_NRT and GSMaP_MVK, GSMaP_Gau possessed significantly improved metrics over mainland China and the eight subregions and performed better in terms of CC, RMSE, and FSE but underestimated precipitation to a greater degree than IMERG_Gau. As a quantitative assessment of the GPM-era GSMaP products, these validation results will supply helpful references for both end users and algorithm developers. However, the study findings need to be confirmed over a longer future study period when the longer-period IMERG retrospectively-processed data are available.

Satellite information for wind energy applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nielsen, M.; Astrup, P.; Bay Hasager, C.

2004-11-01

An introduction to satellite information relevant for wind energy applications is given. It includes digital elevation model (DEM) data based on satellite observations. The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) is useful for regional scale wind resource studies. Comparison results from complex terrain in Spain and flat terrain in Denmark are found to be acceptable for both sites. Also land cover type information can be retrieved from satellite observations. Land cover type maps have to be combined with roughness data from field observation or literature values. Land cover type maps constitute an aid to map larger regions within shorter time. Field site observations of obstacles and hedges are still necessary. The raster-based map information from DEM and land cover maps can be converted for use in WASP. For offshore locations it is possible to estimate the wind resources based on ocean surface wind data from several types of satellite observations. The RWT software allows an optimal calculation of SAR wind resource statistics. A tab-file with SAR-based observed wind climate (OWC) data can be obtained for 10 m above sea level and used in WASP. RWT uses a footprint averaging technique to obtain data as similar as possible to mast observations. Maximum-likelihood fitting is used to calculate the Weibull A and k parameters from the constrained data set. Satellite SAR wind maps cover the coastal zone from 3 km and offshore with very detailed information of 400 m by 400 m grid resolution. Spatial trends in mean wind, energy density, Weibull A and k and uncertainty values are provided for the area of interest. Satellite scatterometer wind observations have a spatial resolution of 25 km by 25 km. These data typically represent a site further offshore, and the tab-file statistics should be used in WASP combined with topography and roughness information to assess the coastal wind power potential. Scatterometer wind data are observed {approx} twice per day, whereas SAR only

Forest mapping and change analysis, using satellite imagery in Zagros mountain Iran, Islamic Republic o

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Torahi, A.A.

2013-01-01

A methodology to map and monitor land cover change using multi temporal Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and ASTER data in Zagros mountains of Iran for 1990, 1998, and 2006 was developed. Land- use/cover mapping is achieved through interpretation of Landsat TM satellite images of 1990, 1998 and TERRA-ASTER image of 2006 using ENVI 4.3. Basedon the Anderson land-use/cover classification system, land-use and land-covers are classified as forest land, range land, water bodies, agricultural land and residential land.The unsupervised image classification method was carried out prior to field visit, in order to determine strata for ground truth. Fieldwork was carried out to collect data for training and validating land use/cover interpretation from satellite image of 2006, and for qualitative description of the characteristics of each land use/cover class. The land - use/cover maps of 1990,1998 and 2006 were produced by using supervised image classification technique based on the Maximum Likelihood Classifier (MLC) and 132 training samples. Error matrices as cross-tabulations of the mapped class vs. the reference class were used to assess classification accuracy. Overall accuracy, users and produce accuracies, and the Kappa statistic were then derived from the error matrices. A multi-date post-classification comparison change detection algorithm was used to determine changes in land cover in three intervals, 1990,1998, 1998, 2006 and 1990, 2006.To evaluate the maps change for the 1990 to 2006 interval, areas classified as change and no-change were randomly sampled and checked whether they were correctly classified. The maps showed that between 1990 and 2006 the amount of forest land decreased from 67% to 38.5% of the total area, while rangelands, agriculture, settlement and surface water increased from 30.8% to 45%, 1.2% to.0%, 0.3% to 7.5% and 0.6% to 1.8%, respectively.In 1990,1998 and 2006, the area was dominated by dense forest (35.9%, 28.9%, 29.3%), open forest and

Assessing the accuracy of hyperspectral and multispectral satellite imagery for categorical and quantitative mapping of salinity stress in sugarcane fields

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hamzeh, Saied; Naseri, Abd Ali; Alavipanah, Seyed Kazem; Bartholomeus, Harm; Herold, Martin

2016-01-01

This study evaluates the feasibility of hyperspectral and multispectral satellite imagery for categorical and quantitative mapping of salinity stress in sugarcane fields located in the southwest of Iran. For this purpose a Hyperion image acquired on September 2, 2010 and a Landsat7 ETM+ image

Coastal habitat mapping in the Aegean Sea using high resolution orthophoto maps

Science.gov (United States)

Topouzelis, Konstantinos; Papakonstantinou, Apostolos; Doukari, Michaela; Stamatis, Panagiotis; Makri, Despina; Katsanevakis, Stelios

2017-09-01

The significance of coastal habitat mapping lies in the need to prevent from anthropogenic interventions and other factors. Until 2015, Landsat-8 (30m) imagery were used as medium spatial resolution satellite imagery. So far, Sentinel-2 satellite imagery is very useful for more detailed regional scale mapping. However, the use of high resolution orthophoto maps, which are determined from UAV data, is expected to improve the mapping accuracy. This is due to small spatial resolution of the orthophoto maps (30 cm). This paper outlines the integration of UAS for data acquisition and Structure from Motion (SfM) pipeline for the visualization of selected coastal areas in the Aegean Sea. Additionally, the produced orthophoto maps analyzed through an object-based image analysis (OBIA) and nearest-neighbor classification for mapping the coastal habitats. Classification classes included the main general habitat types, i.e. seagrass, soft bottom, and hard bottom The developed methodology applied at the Koumbara beach (Ios Island - Greece). Results showed that UAS's data revealed the sub-bottom complexity in large shallow areas since they provide such information in the spatial resolution that permits the mapping of seagrass meadows with extreme detail. The produced habitat vectors are ideal as reference data for studies with satellite data of lower spatial resolution.

77 FR 72788 - Copyright Office Fees

Science.gov (United States)

2012-12-06

... proposed fees failed to recover half of the actual operating costs of the cable and satellite program, and... Study for Setting Cable and Satellite SOA Filing Fees The original cost study for the Office's...-personnel costs to address concerns that an aberrant year may have an undue impact on the proposed fees. The...

Wind Atlas for the Gulf of Suez Satellite Imagery and Analyses

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hasager, Charlotte Bay

(SAR) data derived from the European Remote Sensing Satellite (ERS) have been used to make wind speed maps for the Gulf of Suez. 2. “Land cover from Landsat TM imagery”. Landsat Thematic Mapper(TM) data have been used to establish true- and false-colour land cover maps, as well as land cover...... classification maps. 3. “Reporting on satellite information for the Wind Atlas for Egypt”. Along-Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR) data from the European Remote Sensing Satellite (ERS) have been used to map the sea- and land-surface temperatures and albedos....

Technical note Flood map development by coupling satellite maps ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Flood maps are important for local authorities in designing mitigation plans to minimise damage and loss due to flooding. In recent years, flood events in the Sarawak River Basin, Malaysia have caused damage to property, loss of life and disruption of productive activities. Currently, the available flood map for Sarawak River ...

Selecting Appropriate Spatial Scale for Mapping Plastic-Mulched Farmland with Satellite Remote Sensing Imagery

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hasituya

2017-03-01

Full Text Available In recent years, the area of plastic-mulched farmland (PMF has undergone rapid growth and raised remarkable environmental problems. Therefore, mapping the PMF plays a crucial role in agricultural production, environmental protection and resource management. However, appropriate data selection criteria are currently lacking. Thus, this study was carried out in two main plastic-mulching practice regions, Jizhou and Guyuan, to look for an appropriate spatial scale for mapping PMF with remote sensing. The average local variance (ALV function was used to obtain the appropriate spatial scale for mapping PMF based on the GaoFen-1 (GF-1 satellite imagery. Afterwards, in order to validate the effectiveness of the selected method and to interpret the relationship between the appropriate spatial scale derived from the ALV and the spatial scale with the highest classification accuracy, we classified the imagery with varying spatial resolution by the Support Vector Machine (SVM algorithm using the spectral features, textural features and the combined spectral and textural features respectively. The results indicated that the appropriate spatial scales from the ALV lie between 8 m and 20 m for mapping the PMF both in Jizhou and Guyuan. However, there is a proportional relation: the spatial scale with the highest classification accuracy is at the 1/2 location of the appropriate spatial scale generated from the ALV in Jizhou and at the 2/3 location of the appropriate spatial scale generated from the ALV in Guyuan. Therefore, the ALV method for quantitatively selecting the appropriate spatial scale for mapping PMF with remote sensing imagery has theoretical and practical significance.

Evaluation of Multiple Kernel Learning Algorithms for Crop Mapping Using Satellite Image Time-Series Data

Science.gov (United States)

Niazmardi, S.; Safari, A.; Homayouni, S.

2017-09-01

Crop mapping through classification of Satellite Image Time-Series (SITS) data can provide very valuable information for several agricultural applications, such as crop monitoring, yield estimation, and crop inventory. However, the SITS data classification is not straightforward. Because different images of a SITS data have different levels of information regarding the classification problems. Moreover, the SITS data is a four-dimensional data that cannot be classified using the conventional classification algorithms. To address these issues in this paper, we presented a classification strategy based on Multiple Kernel Learning (MKL) algorithms for SITS data classification. In this strategy, initially different kernels are constructed from different images of the SITS data and then they are combined into a composite kernel using the MKL algorithms. The composite kernel, once constructed, can be used for the classification of the data using the kernel-based classification algorithms. We compared the computational time and the classification performances of the proposed classification strategy using different MKL algorithms for the purpose of crop mapping. The considered MKL algorithms are: MKL-Sum, SimpleMKL, LPMKL and Group-Lasso MKL algorithms. The experimental tests of the proposed strategy on two SITS data sets, acquired by SPOT satellite sensors, showed that this strategy was able to provide better performances when compared to the standard classification algorithm. The results also showed that the optimization method of the used MKL algorithms affects both the computational time and classification accuracy of this strategy.

An Effort to Map and Monitor Baldcypress Forest Areas in Coastal Louisiana, Using Landsat, MODIS, and ASTER Satellite Data

Science.gov (United States)

Spruce, Joseph P.; Sader, Steve; Smoot, James

2012-01-01

This presentation discusses a collaborative project to develop, test, and demonstrate baldcypress forest mapping and monitoring products for aiding forest conservation and restoration in coastal Louisiana. Low lying coastal forests in the region are being negatively impacted by multiple factors, including subsidence, salt water intrusion, sea level rise, persistent flooding, hydrologic modification, annual insect-induced forest defoliation, timber harvesting, and conversion to urban land uses. Coastal baldcypress forests provide invaluable ecological services in terms of wildlife habitat, forest products, storm buffers, and water quality benefits. Before this project, current maps of baldcypress forest concentrations and change did not exist or were out of date. In response, this project was initiated to produce: 1) current maps showing the extent and location of baldcypress dominated forests; and 2) wetland forest change maps showing temporary and persistent disturbance and loss since the early 1970s. Project products are being developed collaboratively with multiple state and federal agencies. Products are being validated using available reference data from aerial, satellite, and field survey data. Results include Landsat TM- based classifications of baldcypress in terms of cover type and percent canopy cover. Landsat MSS data was employed to compute a circa 1972 classification of swamp and bottomland hardwood forest types. Landsat data for 1972-2010 was used to compute wetland forest change products. MODIS-based change products were applied to view and assess insect-induced swamp forest defoliation. MODIS, Landsat, and ASTER satellite data products were used to help assess hurricane and flood impacts to coastal wetland forests in the region.

Assessment of Machine Learning Algorithms for Automatic Benthic Cover Monitoring and Mapping Using Towed Underwater Video Camera and High-Resolution Satellite Images

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hassan Mohamed

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Benthic habitat monitoring is essential for many applications involving biodiversity, marine resource management, and the estimation of variations over temporal and spatial scales. Nevertheless, both automatic and semi-automatic analytical methods for deriving ecologically significant information from towed camera images are still limited. This study proposes a methodology that enables a high-resolution towed camera with a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS to adaptively monitor and map benthic habitats. First, the towed camera finishes a pre-programmed initial survey to collect benthic habitat videos, which can then be converted to geo-located benthic habitat images. Second, an expert labels a number of benthic habitat images to class habitats manually. Third, attributes for categorizing these images are extracted automatically using the Bag of Features (BOF algorithm. Fourth, benthic cover categories are detected automatically using Weighted Majority Voting (WMV ensembles for Support Vector Machines (SVM, K-Nearest Neighbor (K-NN, and Bagging (BAG classifiers. Fifth, WMV-trained ensembles can be used for categorizing more benthic cover images automatically. Finally, correctly categorized geo-located images can provide ground truth samples for benthic cover mapping using high-resolution satellite imagery. The proposed methodology was tested over Shiraho, Ishigaki Island, Japan, a heterogeneous coastal area. The WMV ensemble exhibited 89% overall accuracy for categorizing corals, sediments, seagrass, and algae species. Furthermore, the same WMV ensemble produced a benthic cover map using a Quickbird satellite image with 92.7% overall accuracy.

Offshore winds mapped from satellite remote sensing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hasager, Charlotte Bay

2014-01-01

the uncertainty on the model results on the offshore wind resource, it is necessary to compare model results with observations. Observations from ground-based wind lidar and satellite remote sensing are the two main technologies that can provide new types of offshore wind data at relatively low cost....... The advantages of microwave satellite remote sensing are 1) horizontal spatial coverage, 2) long data archives and 3) high spatial detail both in the coastal zone and of far-field wind farm wake. Passive microwave ocean wind speed data are available since 1987 with up to 6 observations per day with near...

Korišćenje satelitskih snimaka za vođenje radne karte / Use of satellite images in situation map design

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Miodrag D. Regodić

2010-01-01

the working map; addition of new data; coding of the working map. Preparation for computer-based map design Computer-added map design demands and implies existence of appropriate programs with proper program tools, as well as adequate scanned or in vector form presented maps. On a suitable memorized base, that shows relevant geographic space, tactical symbols from digital topographic key are entered. USING AERIAL PHOTOS FOR MAKING A WORKING MAP Data going to be entered into a situation map are collected during monitoring and recording by different sensors from the land, air and space. Apart from visual inspection, as the oldest one, today there are various technical monitoring and recording means: photography, air photography, radars, infrared, television, video, radio ones and other. In the process of photo decoding, symbols are used to characterize particular objects, details and phenomena on the relief that disclose them. These symbols can be direct ones, such as shape, size and hue of an object, and indirect ones, such as relation among objects, traces of activities and object shadows. THE EXPERIMENT The subject of this experiment is a satellite photo presenting the area of the city of Belgrade, made by the IKONOS 2 satellite of The European Space Imaging Company. It belongs to the GEO Ortho Kit products category, which means that it is approximately geo-referenced (conveyed into a referent coordinate system and completely ortho- rectified. In order to complete the experiment, besides this satellite image, an appropriate topographic map (TM was provided. For the purpose of creating a working map and its updating by newly detected military objects due to the image interpretation and analysis, TM 50 (a map of the scale of 1:50 000 was selected. MODELS OF COORDINATE TRANSFORMATION Mathematical models of transformation are based on the fact that the Earth represents a three-dimensional object of a spheroidal shape. The crucial problem appears to be a need to properly

Vegetation mapping from high-resolution satellite images in the heterogeneous arid environments of Socotra Island (Yemen)

Science.gov (United States)

Malatesta, Luca; Attorre, Fabio; Altobelli, Alfredo; Adeeb, Ahmed; De Sanctis, Michele; Taleb, Nadim M.; Scholte, Paul T.; Vitale, Marcello

2013-01-01

Socotra Island (Yemen), a global biodiversity hotspot, is characterized by high geomorphological and biological diversity. In this study, we present a high-resolution vegetation map of the island based on combining vegetation analysis and classification with remote sensing. Two different image classification approaches were tested to assess the most accurate one in mapping the vegetation mosaic of Socotra. Spectral signatures of the vegetation classes were obtained through a Gaussian mixture distribution model, and a sequential maximum a posteriori (SMAP) classification was applied to account for the heterogeneity and the complex spatial pattern of the arid vegetation. This approach was compared to the traditional maximum likelihood (ML) classification. Satellite data were represented by a RapidEye image with 5 m pixel resolution and five spectral bands. Classified vegetation relevés were used to obtain the training and evaluation sets for the main plant communities. Postclassification sorting was performed to adjust the classification through various rule-based operations. Twenty-eight classes were mapped, and SMAP, with an accuracy of 87%, proved to be more effective than ML (accuracy: 66%). The resulting map will represent an important instrument for the elaboration of conservation strategies and the sustainable use of natural resources in the island.

Collaborative, Rapid Mapping of Water Extents During Hurricane Harvey Using Optical and Radar Satellite Sensors

Science.gov (United States)

Muench, R.; Jones, M.; Herndon, K. E.; Bell, J. R.; Anderson, E. R.; Markert, K. N.; Molthan, A.; Adams, E. C.; Shultz, L.; Cherrington, E. A.; Flores, A.; Lucey, R.; Munroe, T.; Layne, G.; Pulla, S. T.; Weigel, A. M.; Tondapu, G.

2017-12-01

On August 25, 2017, Hurricane Harvey made landfall between Port Aransas and Port O'Connor, Texas, bringing with it unprecedented amounts of rainfall and flooding. In times of natural disasters of this nature, emergency responders require timely and accurate information about the hazard in order to assess and plan for disaster response. Due to the extreme flooding impacts associated with Hurricane Harvey, delineations of water extent were crucial to inform resource deployment. Through the USGS's Hazards Data Distribution System, government and commercial vendors were able to acquire and distribute various satellite imagery to analysts to create value-added products that can be used by these emergency responders. Rapid-response water extent maps were created through a collaborative multi-organization and multi-sensor approach. One team of researchers created Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) water extent maps using modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2017), processed by ESA. This group used backscatter images, pre-processed by the Alaska Satellite Facility's Hybrid Pluggable Processing Pipeline (HyP3), to identify and apply a threshold to identify water in the image. Quality control was conducted by manually examining the image and correcting for potential errors. Another group of researchers and graduate student volunteers derived water masks from high resolution DigitalGlobe and SPOT images. Through a system of standardized image processing, quality control measures, and communication channels the team provided timely and fairly accurate water extent maps to support a larger NASA Disasters Program response. The optical imagery was processed through a combination of various band thresholds by using Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), Modified Normalized Water Index (MNDWI), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and cloud masking. Several aspects of the pre-processing and image access were run on internal servers to expedite the provision of images to

Collaborative, Rapid Mapping of Water Extents During Hurricane Harvey Using Optical and Radar Satellite Sensors

Science.gov (United States)

Muench, Rebekke; Jones, Madeline; Herndon, Kelsey; Schultz, Lori; Bell, Jordan; Anderson, Eric; Markert, Kel; Molthan, Andrew; Adams, Emily; Cherrington, Emil;

Wind class sampling of satellite SAR imagery for offshore wind resource mapping

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Badger, Merete; Badger, Jake; Nielsen, Morten

2010-01-01

developed for mesoscale modeling of wind resources. Its performance in connection with sampling of SAR scenes is tested against two sets of random SAR samples and meteorological observations at three sites in the North Sea during 2005–08. Predictions of the mean wind speed and the Weibull scale parameter......High-resolution wind fields retrieved from satellite synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery are combined for mapping of wind resources offshore where site measurements are costly and sparse. A new sampling strategy for the SAR scenes is introduced, based on a method for statistical......-dynamical downscaling of large-scale wind conditions using a set of wind classes that describe representative wind situations. One or more SAR scenes are then selected to represent each wind class and the classes are weighted according to their frequency of occurrence. The wind class methodology was originally...

Provisional maps of thermal areas in Yellowstone National Park, based on satellite thermal infrared imaging and field observations

Science.gov (United States)

Vaughan, R. Greg; Heasler, Henry; Jaworowski, Cheryl; Lowenstern, Jacob B.; Keszthelyi, Laszlo P.

2014-01-01

Maps that define the current distribution of geothermally heated ground are useful toward setting a baseline for thermal activity to better detect and understand future anomalous hydrothermal and (or) volcanic activity. Monitoring changes in the dynamic thermal areas also supports decisions regarding the development of Yellowstone National Park infrastructure, preservation and protection of park resources, and ensuring visitor safety. Because of the challenges associated with field-based monitoring of a large, complex geothermal system that is spread out over a large and remote area, satellite-based thermal infrared images from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) were used to map the location and spatial extent of active thermal areas, to generate thermal anomaly maps, and to quantify the radiative component of the total geothermal heat flux. ASTER thermal infrared data acquired during winter nights were used to minimize the contribution of solar heating of the surface. The ASTER thermal infrared mapping results were compared to maps of thermal areas based on field investigations and high-resolution aerial photos. Field validation of the ASTER thermal mapping is an ongoing task. The purpose of this report is to make available ASTER-based maps of Yellowstone’s thermal areas. We include an appendix containing the names and characteristics of Yellowstone’s thermal areas, georeferenced TIFF files containing ASTER thermal imagery, and several spatial data sets in Esri shapefile format.

Image Fusion Applied to Satellite Imagery for the Improved Mapping and Monitoring of Coral Reefs: a Proposal

Science.gov (United States)

Gholoum, M.; Bruce, D.; Hazeam, S. Al

2012-07-01

A coral reef ecosystem, one of the most complex marine environmental systems on the planet, is defined as biologically diverse and immense. It plays an important role in maintaining a vast biological diversity for future generations and functions as an essential spawning, nursery, breeding and feeding ground for many kinds of marine species. In addition, coral reef ecosystems provide valuable benefits such as fisheries, ecological goods and services and recreational activities to many communities. However, this valuable resource is highly threatened by a number of environmental changes and anthropogenic impacts that can lead to reduced coral growth and production, mass coral mortality and loss of coral diversity. With the growth of these threats on coral reef ecosystems, there is a strong management need for mapping and monitoring of coral reef ecosystems. Remote sensing technology can be a valuable tool for mapping and monitoring of these ecosystems. However, the diversity and complexity of coral reef ecosystems, the resolution capabilities of satellite sensors and the low reflectivity of shallow water increases the difficulties to identify and classify its features. This paper reviews the methods used in mapping and monitoring coral reef ecosystems. In addition, this paper proposes improved methods for mapping and monitoring coral reef ecosystems based on image fusion techniques. This image fusion techniques will be applied to satellite images exhibiting high spatial and low to medium spectral resolution with images exhibiting low spatial and high spectral resolution. Furthermore, a new method will be developed to fuse hyperspectral imagery with multispectral imagery. The fused image will have a large number of spectral bands and it will have all pairs of corresponding spatial objects. This will potentially help to accurately classify the image data. Accuracy assessment use ground truth will be performed for the selected methods to determine the quality of the

IMAGE FUSION APPLIED TO SATELLITE IMAGERY FOR THE IMPROVED MAPPING AND MONITORING OF CORAL REEFS: A PROPOSAL

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Gholoum

2012-07-01

Full Text Available A coral reef ecosystem, one of the most complex marine environmental systems on the planet, is defined as biologically diverse and immense. It plays an important role in maintaining a vast biological diversity for future generations and functions as an essential spawning, nursery, breeding and feeding ground for many kinds of marine species. In addition, coral reef ecosystems provide valuable benefits such as fisheries, ecological goods and services and recreational activities to many communities. However, this valuable resource is highly threatened by a number of environmental changes and anthropogenic impacts that can lead to reduced coral growth and production, mass coral mortality and loss of coral diversity. With the growth of these threats on coral reef ecosystems, there is a strong management need for mapping and monitoring of coral reef ecosystems. Remote sensing technology can be a valuable tool for mapping and monitoring of these ecosystems. However, the diversity and complexity of coral reef ecosystems, the resolution capabilities of satellite sensors and the low reflectivity of shallow water increases the difficulties to identify and classify its features. This paper reviews the methods used in mapping and monitoring coral reef ecosystems. In addition, this paper proposes improved methods for mapping and monitoring coral reef ecosystems based on image fusion techniques. This image fusion techniques will be applied to satellite images exhibiting high spatial and low to medium spectral resolution with images exhibiting low spatial and high spectral resolution. Furthermore, a new method will be developed to fuse hyperspectral imagery with multispectral imagery. The fused image will have a large number of spectral bands and it will have all pairs of corresponding spatial objects. This will potentially help to accurately classify the image data. Accuracy assessment use ground truth will be performed for the selected methods to determine

The Advanced Stellar Compass onboard the Oersted satellite

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jørgensen, John Leif; Eisenman, Allan R.; Liebe, Carl Christian

1997-01-01

In 1997 the first Danish satellite will be launched. The primarily scientific objective of the satellite is to map the magnetic field of the Earth. The attitude of the satellite is determined by an advanced stellar compass (star tracker). An advanced stellar compass consists of a CCD camera...

Mapping species of submerged aquatic vegetation with multi-seasonal satellite images and considering life history information

Science.gov (United States)

Luo, Juhua; Duan, Hongtao; Ma, Ronghua; Jin, Xiuliang; Li, Fei; Hu, Weiping; Shi, Kun; Huang, Wenjiang

2017-05-01

Spatial information of the dominant species of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) is essential for restoration projects in eutrophic lakes, especially eutrophic Taihu Lake, China. Mapping the distribution of SAV species is very challenging and difficult using only multispectral satellite remote sensing. In this study, we proposed an approach to map the distribution of seven dominant species of SAV in Taihu Lake. Our approach involved information on the life histories of the seven SAV species and eight distribution maps of SAV from February to October. The life history information of the dominant SAV species was summarized from the literature and field surveys. Eight distribution maps of the SAV were extracted from eight 30 m HJ-CCD images from February to October in 2013 based on the classification tree models, and the overall classification accuracies for the SAV were greater than 80%. Finally, the spatial distribution of the SAV species in Taihu in 2013 was mapped using multilayer erasing approach. Based on validation, the overall classification accuracy for the seven species was 68.4%, and kappa was 0.6306, which suggests that larger differences in life histories between species can produce higher identification accuracies. The classification results show that Potamogeton malaianus was the most widely distributed species in Taihu Lake, followed by Myriophyllum spicatum, Potamogeton maackianus, Potamogeton crispus, Elodea nuttallii, Ceratophyllum demersum and Vallisneria spiralis. The information is useful for planning shallow-water habitat restoration projects.

Mapping Fish Community Variables by Integrating Field and Satellite Data, Object-Based Image Analysis and Modeling in a Traditional Fijian Fisheries Management Area

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stacy Jupiter

2011-03-01

Full Text Available The use of marine spatial planning for zoning multi-use areas is growing in both developed and developing countries. Comprehensive maps of marine resources, including those important for local fisheries management and biodiversity conservation, provide a crucial foundation of information for the planning process. Using a combination of field and high spatial resolution satellite data, we use an empirical procedure to create a bathymetric map (RMSE 1.76 m and object-based image analysis to produce accurate maps of geomorphic and benthic coral reef classes (Kappa values of 0.80 and 0.63; 9 and 33 classes, respectively covering a large (>260 km2 traditional fisheries management area in Fiji. From these maps, we derive per-pixel information on habitat richness, structural complexity, coral cover and the distance from land, and use these variables as input in models to predict fish species richness, diversity and biomass. We show that random forest models outperform five other model types, and that all three fish community variables can be satisfactorily predicted from the high spatial resolution satellite data. We also show geomorphic zone to be the most important predictor on average, with secondary contributions from a range of other variables including benthic class, depth, distance from land, and live coral cover mapped at coarse spatial scales, suggesting that data with lower spatial resolution and lower cost may be sufficient for spatial predictions of the three fish community variables.

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.

Estimation and Mapping Forest Attributes Using “k Nearest Neighbor” Method on IRS-P6 LISS III Satellite Image Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amir Eslam Bonyad

2015-06-01

Full Text Available In this study, we explored the utility of k Nearest Neighbor (kNN algorithm to integrate IRS-P6 LISS III satellite imagery data and ground inventory data for application in forest attributes (DBH, trees height, volume, basal area, density and forest cover type estimation and mapping. The ground inventory data was based on a systematic-random sampling grid and the numbers of sampling plots were 408 circular plots in a plantation in Guilan province, north of Iran. We concluded that kNN method was useful tool for mapping at a fine accuracy between 80% and 93.94%. Values of k between 5 and 8 seemed appropriate. The best distance metrics were found Euclidean, Fuzzy and Mahalanobis. Results showed that kNN was accurate enough for practical applicability for mapping forest areas.

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...

Satellite Remote Sensing in Offshore Wind Energy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

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

2013-01-01

Satellite remote sensing of ocean surface winds are presented with focus on wind energy applications. The history on operational and research-based satellite ocean wind mapping is briefly described for passive microwave, scatterometer and synthetic aperture radar (SAR). Currently 6 GW installed...

Mapping bathymetry in an active surf zone with the WorldView2 multispectral satellite

Science.gov (United States)

Trimble, S. M.; Houser, C.; Brander, R.; Chirico, P.

2015-12-01

Rip currents are strong, narrow seaward flows of water that originate in the surf zones of many global beaches. They are related to hundreds of international drownings each year, but exact numbers are difficult to calculate due to logistical difficulties in obtaining accurate incident reports. Annual average rip current fatalities are estimated to be ~100, 53 and 21 in the United States (US), Costa Rica, and Australia respectively. Current warning systems (e.g. National Weather Service) do not account for fine resolution nearshore bathymetry because it is difficult to capture. The method shown here could provide frequent, high resolution maps of nearshore bathymetry at a scale required for improved rip prediction and warning. This study demonstrates a method for mapping bathymetry in the surf zone (20m deep and less), specifically within rip channels, because rips form at topographically low spots in the bathymetry as a result of feedback amongst waves, substrate, and antecedent bathymetry. The methods employ the Digital Globe WorldView2 (WV2) multispectral satellite and field measurements of depth to generate maps of the changing bathymetry at two embayed, rip-prone beaches: Playa Cocles, Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Costa Rica, and Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia. WV2 has a 1.1 day pass-over rate with 1.84m ground pixel resolution of 8 bands, including 'yellow' (585-625 nm) and 'coastal blue' (400-450 nm). The data is used to classify bottom type and to map depth to the return in multiple bands. The methodology is tested at each site for algorithm consistency between dates, and again for applicability between sites.

Comparative Analysis of Satellite DNA in the Drosophila melanogaster Species Complex

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Madhav Jagannathan

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Satellite DNAs are highly repetitive sequences that account for the majority of constitutive heterochromatin in many eukaryotic genomes. It is widely recognized that sequences and locations of satellite DNAs are highly divergent even in closely related species, contributing to the hypothesis that satellite DNA differences may underlie speciation. However, due to its repetitive nature, the mapping of satellite DNAs has been mostly left out of recent genomics analyses, hampering the use of molecular genetics techniques to better understand their role in speciation and evolution. Satellite DNAs are most extensively and comprehensively mapped in Drosophila melanogaster, a species that is also an excellent model system with which to study speciation. Yet the lack of comprehensive knowledge regarding satellite DNA identity and location in its sibling species (D. simulans, D. mauritiana, and D. sechellia has prevented the full utilization of D. melanogaster in studying speciation. To overcome this problem, we initiated the mapping of satellite DNAs on the genomes of the D. melanogaster species complex (D. melanogaster, D. simulans, D. mauritiana, and D. sechellia using multi-color fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH probes. Our study confirms a striking divergence of satellite DNAs in the D. melanogaster species complex, even among the closely related species of the D. simulans clade (D. simulans, D. mauritiana, and D. sechellia, and suggests the presence of unidentified satellite sequences in these species.

Land cover mapping and change detection in urban watersheds using QuickBird high spatial resolution satellite imagery

Science.gov (United States)

Hester, David Barry

The objective of this research was to develop methods for urban land cover analysis using QuickBird high spatial resolution satellite imagery. Such imagery has emerged as a rich commercially available remote sensing data source and has enjoyed high-profile broadcast news media and Internet applications, but methods of quantitative analysis have not been thoroughly explored. The research described here consists of three studies focused on the use of pan-sharpened 61-cm spatial resolution QuickBird imagery, the spatial resolution of which is the highest of any commercial satellite. In the first study, a per-pixel land cover classification method is developed for use with this imagery. This method utilizes a per-pixel classification approach to generate an accurate six-category high spatial resolution land cover map of a developing suburban area. The primary objective of the second study was to develop an accurate land cover change detection method for use with QuickBird land cover products. This work presents an efficient fuzzy framework for transforming map uncertainty into accurate and meaningful high spatial resolution land cover change analysis. The third study described here is an urban planning application of the high spatial resolution QuickBird-based land cover product developed in the first study. This work both meaningfully connects this exciting new data source to urban watershed management and makes an important empirical contribution to the study of suburban watersheds. Its analysis of residential roads and driveways as well as retail parking lots sheds valuable light on the impact of transportation-related land use on the suburban landscape. Broadly, these studies provide new methods for using state-of-the-art remote sensing data to inform land cover analysis and urban planning. These methods are widely adaptable and produce land cover products that are both meaningful and accurate. As additional high spatial resolution satellites are launched and the

Mapping invasive Phragmites australis in the coastal Great Lakes with ALOS PALSAR satellite imagery for decision support

Science.gov (United States)

Bourgeau-Chavez, Laura L.; Kowalski, Kurt P.; Carlson Mazur, Martha L.; Scarbrough, Kirk A.; Powell, Richard B.; Brooks, Colin N.; Huberty, Brian; Jenkins, Liza K.; Banda, Elizabeth C.; Galbraith, David M.; Laubach, Zachary M.; Riordan, Kevin

2013-01-01

The invasive variety of Phragmites australis (common reed) forms dense stands that can cause negative impacts on coastal Great Lakes wetlands including habitat degradation and reduced biological diversity. Early treatment is key to controlling Phragmites, therefore a map of the current distribution is needed. ALOS PALSAR imagery was used to produce the first basin-wide distribution map showing the extent of large, dense invasive Phragmites-dominated habitats in wetlands and other coastal ecosystems along the U.S. shore of the Great Lakes. PALSAR is a satellite imaging radar sensor that is sensitive to differences in plant biomass and inundation patterns, allowing for the detection and delineation of these tall (up to 5 m), high density, high biomass invasive Phragmites stands. Classification was based on multi-season ALOS PALSAR L-band (23 cm wavelength) HH and HV polarization data. Seasonal (spring, summer, and fall) datasets were used to improve discrimination of Phragmites by taking advantage of phenological changes in vegetation and inundation patterns over the seasons. Extensive field collections of training and randomly selected validation data were conducted in 2010–2011 to aid in mapping and for accuracy assessments. Overall basin-wide map accuracy was 87%, with 86% producer's accuracy and 43% user's accuracy for invasive Phragmites. The invasive Phragmites maps are being used to identify major environmental drivers of this invader's distribution, to assess areas vulnerable to new invasion, and to provide information to regional stakeholders through a decision support tool.

Mapping Sub-Saharan African Agriculture in High-Resolution Satellite Imagery with Computer Vision & Machine Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Debats, Stephanie Renee

Smallholder farms dominate in many parts of the world, including Sub-Saharan Africa. These systems are characterized by small, heterogeneous, and often indistinct field patterns, requiring a specialized methodology to map agricultural landcover. In this thesis, we developed a benchmark labeled data set of high-resolution satellite imagery of agricultural fields in South Africa. We presented a new approach to mapping agricultural fields, based on efficient extraction of a vast set of simple, highly correlated, and interdependent features, followed by a random forest classifier. The algorithm achieved similar high performance across agricultural types, including spectrally indistinct smallholder fields, and demonstrated the ability to generalize across large geographic areas. In sensitivity analyses, we determined multi-temporal images provided greater performance gains than the addition of multi-spectral bands. We also demonstrated how active learning can be incorporated in the algorithm to create smaller, more efficient training data sets, which reduced computational resources, minimized the need for humans to hand-label data, and boosted performance. We designed a patch-based uncertainty metric to drive the active learning framework, based on the regular grid of a crowdsourcing platform, and demonstrated how subject matter experts can be replaced with fleets of crowdsourcing workers. Our active learning algorithm achieved similar performance as an algorithm trained with randomly selected data, but with 62% less data samples. This thesis furthers the goal of providing accurate agricultural landcover maps, at a scale that is relevant for the dominant smallholder class. Accurate maps are crucial for monitoring and promoting agricultural production. Furthermore, improved agricultural landcover maps will aid a host of other applications, including landcover change assessments, cadastral surveys to strengthen smallholder land rights, and constraints for crop modeling

Mapping plastic greenhouse with medium spatial resolution satellite data: Development of a new spectral index

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Dedi; Chen, Jin; Zhou, Yuan; Chen, Xiang; Chen, Xuehong; Cao, Xin

2017-06-01

Plastic greenhouses (PGs) are an important agriculture development technique to protect and control the growing environment for food crops. The extensive use of PGs can change the agriculture landscape and affects the local environment. Accurately mapping and estimating the coverage of PGs is a necessity to the strategic planning of modern agriculture. Unfortunately, PG mapping over large areas is methodologically challenging, as the medium spatial resolution satellite imagery (such as Landsat data) used for analysis lacks spatial details and spectral variations. To fill the gap, the paper proposes a new plastic greenhouse index (PGI) based on the spectral, sensitivity, and separability analysis of PGs using medium spatial resolution images. In the context of the Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) imagery, the paper examines the effectiveness and capability of the proposed PGI. The results indicate that PGs in Landsat ETM+ image can be successfully detected by the PGI if the PG fraction is greater than 12% in a mixed pixel. A kappa coefficient of 0.83 and overall accuracy of 91.2% were achieved when applying the proposed PGI in the case of Weifang District, Shandong, China. These results show that the proposed index can be applied to identifying transparent PGs in atmospheric corrected Landsat image and has the potential for the digital mapping of plastic greenhouse coverage over a large area.

Topographic mapping

Science.gov (United States)

,

2008-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) produced its first topographic map in 1879, the same year it was established. Today, more than 100 years and millions of map copies later, topographic mapping is still a central activity for the USGS. The topographic map remains an indispensable tool for government, science, industry, and leisure. Much has changed since early topographers traveled the unsettled West and carefully plotted the first USGS maps by hand. Advances in survey techniques, instrumentation, and design and printing technologies, as well as the use of aerial photography and satellite data, have dramatically improved mapping coverage, accuracy, and efficiency. Yet cartography, the art and science of mapping, may never before have undergone change more profound than today.

Coral Bleaching Products - Office of Satellite and Product Operations

Science.gov (United States)

satellite remotely sensed global sea surface temperature (SST) measurements and derived indices of coral HotSpots, Degree Heating Weeks, Time Series, SST Contour Charts, Ocean Surface Winds, and On-site Buoys as the product, are derived from Coral Bleaching HotSpots and Degree Heating Weeks (DHW) values measured

NEPR Benthic Habitat Map 2015

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This benthic habitat map was created from a semi-automated habitat mapping process, using a combination of bathymetry, satellite imagery, aerial imagery and...

NEPR Geographic Zone Map 2015

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This geographic zone map was created by interpreting satellite and aerial imagery, seafloor topography (bathymetry model), and the new NEPR Benthic Habitat Map...

Research on Topographic Map Updating

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ivana Javorović

2013-04-01

Full Text Available The investigation of interpretability of panchromatic satellite image IRS-1C integrated with multispectral Landsat TM image with the purpose of updating the topographic map sheet at the scale of 1:25 000 has been described. The geocoding of source map was based on trigonometric points of the map sheet. Satellite images were geocoded using control points selected from the map. The contents of map have been vectorized and topographic database designed. The digital image processing improved the interpretability of images. Then, the vectorization of new contents was made. The change detection of the forest and water area was defined by using unsupervised classification of spatial and spectral merged images. Verification of the results was made using corresponding aerial photographs. Although this methodology could not insure the complete updating of topographic map at the scale of 1:25 000, the database has been updated with huge amount of data. Erdas Imagine 8.3. software was used. 

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.

Detection of a weak meddy-like anomaly from high-resolution satellite SST maps

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mikhail Emelianov

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Despite the considerable impact of meddies on climate through the long-distance transport of properties, a consistent observation of meddy generation and propagation in the ocean is rather elusive. Meddies propagate at about 1000 m below the ocean surface, so satellite sensors are not able to detect them directly and finding them in the open ocean is more fortuitous than intentional. However, a consistent census of meddies and their paths is required in order to gain knowledge about their role in transporting properties such as heat and salt. In this paper we propose a new methodology for processing high-resolution sea surface temperature maps in order to detect meddy-like anomalies in the open ocean on a near-real-time basis. We present an example of detection, involving an atypical meddy-like anomaly that was confirmed as such by in situ measurements.

Use of Fourier transforms for asynoptic mapping: Applications to the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite microwave limb sounder

Science.gov (United States)

Elson, Lee S.; Froidevaux, Lucien

1993-01-01

Fourier analysis has been applied to data obtained from limb viewing instruments on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite. A coordinate system rotation facilitates the efficient computation of Fourier transforms in the temporal and longitudinal domains. Fields such as ozone (O3), chlorine monoxide (ClO), temperature, and water vapor have been transformed by this process. The transforms have been inverted to provide maps of these quantities at selected times, providing a method of accurate time interpolation. Maps obtained by this process show evidence of both horizontal and vertical transport of important trace species such as O3 and ClO. An examination of the polar regions indicates that large-scale planetary variations are likely to play a significant role in transporting midstratospheric O3 into the polar regions. There is also evidence that downward transport occurs, providing a means of moving O3 into the polar vortex at lower altitudes. The transforms themselves show the structure and propagation characteristics of wave variations.

Application of the Lean Office philosophy and mapping of the value stream in the process of designing the banking units of a financial company

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nelson Antônio Calsavara

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study is to conduct a critical analysis of the effects of Lean Office on the design process of the banking units of a financial company and how the implementation of this philosophy may contribute to productivity, thus reducing implementation time. A literature review of the Toyota Production System was conducted, as well as studies on its methods, with advancement to lean thinking and consistent application of Lean philosophies in services and Office. A bibliographic and documentary survey of the Lean processes and procedures for opening bank branches was taken. A Current State Map was developed, modeling the current operating procedures. Soon after the identification and analysis of waste, proposals were presented for reducing deadlines and eliminating and grouping stages, with consequent development of the Future State Map, implementation and monitoring of stages, and the measurement of estimated time gains in operation, demonstrating an estimated 45% reduction, in days, from start to end of the process, concluding that the implementation of the Lean Office philosophy contributed to the process.

Detailed maps of tropical forest types are within reach: forest tree communities for Trinidad and Tobago mapped with multiseason Landsat and multiseason fine-resolution imagery

Science.gov (United States)

Eileen H. Helmer; Thomas S. Ruzycki; Jay Benner; Shannon M. Voggesser; Barbara P. Scobie; Courtenay Park; David W. Fanning; Seepersad. Ramnarine

2012-01-01

Tropical forest managers need detailed maps of forest types for REDD+, but spectral similarity among forest types; cloud and scan-line gaps; and scarce vegetation ground plots make producing such maps with satellite imagery difficult. How can managers map tropical forest tree communities with satellite imagery given these challenges? Here we describe a case study of...

Bringing satellite winds to hub-height

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Badger, Merete; Pena Diaz, Alfredo; Bredesen, Rolv Erlend

2012-01-01

Satellite observations of the ocean surface can provide detailed information about the spatial wind variability over large areas. This is very valuable for the mapping of wind resources offshore where other measurements are costly and sparse. Satellite sensors operating at microwave frequencies...... measure the amount of radar backscatter from the sea surface, which is a function of the instant wind speed, wind direction, and satellite viewing geometry. A major limitation related to wind retrievals from satellite observations is that existing empirical model functions relate the radar backscatter...... to wind speed at the height 10 m only. The extrapolation of satellite wind fields to higher heights, which are more relevant for wind energy, remains a challenge which cannot be addressed by means of satellite data alone. As part of the EU-NORSEWInD project (2008-12), a hybrid method has been developed...

Producing a satellite-derived map and modelling Spartina alterniflora expansion for Willapa Bay in Washington State

Science.gov (United States)

Berlin, Cynthia Jane

1998-12-01

This research addresses the identification of the areal extent of the intertidal wetlands of Willapa Bay, Washington, and the evaluation of the potential for exotic Spartina alterniflora (smooth cordgrass) expansion in the bay using a spatial geographic approach. It is hoped that the results will address not only the management needs of the study area but provide a research design that may be applied to studies of other coastal wetlands. Four satellite images, three Landsat Multi-Spectral (MSS) and one Thematic Mapper (TM), are used to derive a map showing areas of water, low, middle and high intertidal, and upland. Two multi-date remote sensing mapping techniques are assessed: a supervised classification using density-slicing and an unsupervised classification using an ISODATA algorithm. Statistical comparisons are made between the resultant derived maps and the U.S.G.S. topographic maps for the Willapa Bay area. The potential for Spartina expansion in the bay is assessed using a sigmoidal (logistic) growth model and a spatial modelling procedure for four possible growth scenarios: without management controls (Business-as-Usual), with moderate management controls (e.g. harvesting to eliminate seed setting), under a hypothetical increase in the growth rate that may reflect favorable environmental changes, and under a hypothetical decrease in the growth rate that may reflect aggressive management controls. Comparisons for the statistics of the two mapping techniques suggest that although the unsupervised classification method performed satisfactorily, the supervised classification (density-slicing) method provided more satisfactory results. Results from the modelling of potential Spartina expansion suggest that Spartina expansion will proceed rapidly for the Business-as-Usual and hypothetical increase in the growth rate scenario, and at a slower rate for the elimination of seed setting and hypothetical decrease in the growth rate scenarios, until all potential

Evaluation of World View-2 Satellite Data for Mapping Seaweed Beds Along Karachi Coast

Science.gov (United States)

Danish Siddiqui, Muhammad; Abdullah, Muhammad

2016-07-01

study. STUDY AREA Buleji, a small coastal village along Karachi coast in the country of Pakistan, is selected for this study. At this side seaweed resources are present. Its center lies at a latitude of 24o 51' 20" and a longitude of 66o 48' 24.2" METHODOLOGY In this research, high-resolution Worldview -2 satellite data have been used.WorldView-2 delivers 1.85 meter multispectral and 0.46 meter panchromatic images. A 0.5 meter multispectral pan sharpened image was developed by fusing these two images. Indices, such as normalized difference vegetative index (NDVI) and another index developed through spectral signatures, have been applied on worldview-2 imagery. Image enhancement technique, principal component analysis (PCA) is applied on the same image. Bathymetry map of the study area has been composed by relative bathymetry remote sensing technique. This map is later verified by the depth nautical chart and found satisfactory. For assessment of environmental parameters, freely available MODIS daily SST product has been acquired. MODIS product was converted to tiff (Tagged Image File Format) format and projected for further processing. SST image was reclassified using GIS technique and was overlaid on satellite images to detect the favorable temperature range for seaweed growth. CONCLUSION Since the macro-habitats and benthic communities around Pakistan coastline have not yet been properly mapped and defined, this study will be an outline for the protection of marine biodiversity and habitat of many sea species which rely on seaweeds for their sustenance. Regular monitoring and mapping are important to regulate the growth of seaweeds and their dependent species to maintain their biological associations which will eventually maintain the equilibrium among various species in the marine ecosystem. Seaweed is also important for the production of many consumable items and with proper import/export policies its marketing can ultimately help strengthen the country's economy

Future Satellite Gravimetry and Earth Dynamics

CERN Document Server

Flury, Jakob

2005-01-01

Currently, a first generation of dedicated satellite missions for the precise mapping of the Earth’s gravity field is in orbit (CHAMP, GRACE, and soon GOCE). The gravity data from these satellite missions provide us with very new information on the dynamics of planet Earth. In particular, on the mass distribution in the Earth’s interior, the entire water cycle (ocean circulation, ice mass balance, continental water masses, and atmosphere), and on changes in the mass distribution. The results are fascinating, but still rough with respect to spatial and temporal resolution. Technical progress in satellite-to-satellite tracking and in gravity gradiometry will allow more detailed results in the future. In this special issue, Earth scientists develop visions of future applications based on follow-on high-precision satellite gravimetry missions.

Satellite Image Classification of Building Damages Using Airborne and Satellite Image Samples in a Deep Learning Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Duarte, D.; Nex, F.; Kerle, N.; Vosselman, G.

2018-05-01

The localization and detailed assessment of damaged buildings after a disastrous event is of utmost importance to guide response operations, recovery tasks or for insurance purposes. Several remote sensing platforms and sensors are currently used for the manual detection of building damages. However, there is an overall interest in the use of automated methods to perform this task, regardless of the used platform. Owing to its synoptic coverage and predictable availability, satellite imagery is currently used as input for the identification of building damages by the International Charter, as well as the Copernicus Emergency Management Service for the production of damage grading and reference maps. Recently proposed methods to perform image classification of building damages rely on convolutional neural networks (CNN). These are usually trained with only satellite image samples in a binary classification problem, however the number of samples derived from these images is often limited, affecting the quality of the classification results. The use of up/down-sampling image samples during the training of a CNN, has demonstrated to improve several image recognition tasks in remote sensing. However, it is currently unclear if this multi resolution information can also be captured from images with different spatial resolutions like satellite and airborne imagery (from both manned and unmanned platforms). In this paper, a CNN framework using residual connections and dilated convolutions is used considering both manned and unmanned aerial image samples to perform the satellite image classification of building damages. Three network configurations, trained with multi-resolution image samples are compared against two benchmark networks where only satellite image samples are used. Combining feature maps generated from airborne and satellite image samples, and refining these using only the satellite image samples, improved nearly 4 % the overall satellite image

Satellite communication from user to user

Science.gov (United States)

Gern, Manfred

Satellite communication systems which allow a multitude of user-to-user, point-to-point, and multipoint connections, are presented. The bit rates are 64 kbit/sec and multiples, up to 1.92 Mbit/sec. If required, the ground-stations are installed at the customer's site or at suitable locations in order to serve several customers. However, technical requirements for station location have also to be fulfulled, in order to avoid interference with terrestrial radio services. The increasing number of participants to Satellite Multi Service and INTELSAT Business Services imposes the solution of the problem of communication using cheap techniques. The changes of the German Federal Post Office also permit the economic use of satellite radio techniques for short distances.

Quantifying offshore wind resources from satellite wind maps: Study area the North Sea

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hasager, Charlotte Bay; Barthelmie, Rebecca Jane; Christiansen, Merete B.

2006-01-01

Offshore wind resources are quantified from satellite synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and satellite scatterometer observations at local and regional scale respectively at the Horns Rev site in Denmark. The method for wind resource estimation from satellite observations interfaces with the wind atlas...... of the Horns Rev wind farm is quantified from satellite SAR images and compared with state-of-the-art wake model results with good agreement. It is a unique method using satellite observations to quantify the spatial extent of the wake behind large offshore wind farms. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd....... analysis and application program (WAsP). An estimate of the wind resource at the new project site at Horns Rev is given based on satellite SAR observations. The comparison of offshore satellite scatterometer winds, global model data and in situ data shows good agreement. Furthermore, the wake effect...

Primena satelitskih snimaka za dopunu sadržaja topografskih karata / An application of satellite images for improving the content of topographic maps

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Miodrag D. Regodić

2010-10-01

Full Text Available Neažurnost sadržaja topografskih karata (TK, uslovljena ponajviše stvarnim ekonomskim teškoćama pri izradi novih i dopuni postojećih izdanja, kao i nedovoljnost i sve teže stanje pri izradi ostalih geotopografskih materijala (GTM, u velikoj meri otežavaju geotopografsko obezbeđenje (GTOb vojske u miru, kao i u svim periodima pripreme i vođenja ratnih dejstava. Rešenje ovog problema je u iznalaženju adekvatnog načina upotrebe proizvoda svih vrsta daljinskih snimanja, a naročito u obradi kvalitetnih satelitskih snimaka. Kao najbolji pokazatelj velikih mogućnosti daljinske detekcije, korišćenjem satelitskih snimaka, u kartografskoj praksi primenom kvalitetnih softverskih rešenja, u radu je predstavljena dopuna topografske karte nedostajućim topografskim sadržajem. / Lack of updated content of topographic maps (TMs, mainly due to economic issues regarding the publishing of existing or revised TMs, substantially affects geo-topographic supply (GTS of the Army both in peace and warfare time, as well as shortage of other geo-topographic materials (GTMs. The solution to this problem is in finding an appropriate method of using products of all types of remote sensing, high quality satellite images in particular. Having shown the best possibilities of remote sensing while using satellite images in mapping through the quality software solutions, the author presents an addition to topographic maps based on missing topographic data. Introduction Numerous natural and social phenomena are constantly observed, surveyed, registered and analyzed. Permanent or periodical satellite surveillance and recording for different purposes are growing in importance. The purposes can range from meteorological issues, through study of large water surfaces to military intelligence, etc. These recording can be used in making topographic, thematic and working maps as well as other geo-topographic material. Processing and analyzing of ikonos2 satellite images

Satellite Derived Seafloor Bathymetry and Habitat Mapping on a Shallow Carbonate Platform: Campeche Bank, México.

Science.gov (United States)

Garza-Perez, J. R.; Rankey, E. C.; Rodriguez-Vázquez, R. A.; Naranjo-Garcia, M. J.

2017-12-01

Extensive and consistent high-resolution seafloor mapping is a difficult task involving important financial resources, intensive field work and careful planning; thus there is a paucity of this type of mapping products both in spatial distribution and through time. Remote sensed imagery has supported continuous mapping efforts elsewhere, but extensive seafloor mapping, even in shallow regions keeps being elusive. Challenges to this effort include cloud cover, surface sun-glint, and water turbidity caused by sediment resuspension and primary productivity. Nevertheless, using high-quality satellite imagery (Landsat-8 OLI -30x30m/pixel- and GeoEye-1 -2x2m/pixel) and rigorous pre-processing (atmospheric correction, de-glinting and water-column light extinction compensation), resulting data contribute towards the advancement of seafloor mapping. The Yucatan Peninsula in México is a carbonate ramp devoid of significant orographic features and surface water bodies. Its submerged portion is the Campeche Bank, gently sloping towards the Gulf of Mexico. The bottom features several distinct blankets composed by medium-fine sediment (dominated by pelecypods, gastropods, foraminifera, lithoclasts, calcareous peloids and algal nodules, Halimeda plaques and coralline algae fragments), and a reef unit with several bank-type coral reefs. Outside the coral reefs, biotic cover down to 20 m deep is dominated by macroalgae (red, brown, green), coralline and filamentous algae with sharp seasonal changes in abundance, from almost nil during north-winds (Oct. - Jan.) to high during dry (Feb.- May) and rainy seasons (Jun. - Sept.), with changes of dominance by algae groups between dry and rainy seasons. This bloom is favored by increases in sunlight and nutrients carried by the Caribbean current upwelling washing the Campeche Bank. Beyond 20 m depth, sandy plains dominate the seascape. Corals, octocorals, sponges and tunicates are spatially restricted to bottoms with thin layers of

Using Satellite Remote Sensing to assist the National Weather Service (NWS) in Storm Damage Surveys

Science.gov (United States)

Schultz, L. A.; Molthan, A.; McGrath, K.; Bell, J. R.; Cole, T.; Burks, J.

2016-12-01

In recent years, the NWS has developed a GIS-based application, called the Damage Assessment Toolkit (DAT), to conduct storm surveys after severe weather events. At present, the toolkit is primarily used for tornado damage surveys and facilitates the identification of damage indicators in accordance with the Enhanced Fujita (EF) intensity scale by allowing surveyors to compare time- and geo-tagged photos against the EF scale guidelines. Mobile and web-based applications provide easy access to the DAT for NWS personnel while performing their duties in the field or office. Multispectral satellite remote sensing imagery has demonstrated benefits for the detection and mapping of damage tracks caused by tornadoes, especially for long-track events and/or areas not easily accessed by NWS personnel. For example, imagery from MODIS, Landsat 7, Landsat 8, ASTER, Sentinel 2, and commercial satellites, collected and distributed in collaboration with the USGS Hazards Data Distribution System, have been useful for refining track location and extent through a "bird's eye" view of the damaged areas. The NASA Short-term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) Center has been working with the NWS and USGS to provide imagery and derived products from polar-orbiting satellite platforms to assist in the detection and refinement of tornado tracks as part of a NASA Applied Science: Disasters project. Working closely with select Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs) and Regional Operations Centers (ROCs) in both the NWS Central and Southern regions, high- and medium-resolution (0.5 - 30 m and 250 m - 1 km resolutions, respectively) imagery and derived products have been provided to the DAT interface for evaluation of operational utility by the NWS for their use in both the field and in the office during post event analysis. Highlighted in this presentation will be case studies where the remotely sensed imagery assisted in the adjustment of a tornado track. Examples will be shown highlighting

Satellites, tweets, forecasts: the future of flood disaster management?

Science.gov (United States)

Dottori, Francesco; Kalas, Milan; Lorini, Valerio; Wania, Annett; Pappenberger, Florian; Salamon, Peter; Ramos, Maria Helena; Cloke, Hannah; Castillo, Carlos

2017-04-01

Floods have devastating effects on lives and livelihoods around the world. Structural flood defence measures such as dikes and dams can help protect people. However, it is the emerging science and technologies for flood disaster management and preparedness, such as increasingly accurate flood forecasting systems, high-resolution satellite monitoring, rapid risk mapping, and the unique strength of social media information and crowdsourcing, that are most promising for reducing the impacts of flooding. Here, we describe an innovative framework which integrates in real-time two components of the Copernicus Emergency mapping services, namely the European Flood Awareness System and the satellite-based Rapid Mapping, with new procedures for rapid risk assessment and social media and news monitoring. The integrated framework enables improved flood impact forecast, thanks to the real-time integration of forecasting and monitoring components, and increases the timeliness and efficiency of satellite mapping, with the aim of capturing flood peaks and following the evolution of flooding processes. Thanks to the proposed framework, emergency responders will have access to a broad range of timely and accurate information for more effective and robust planning, decision-making, and resource allocation.

Application of ASTER SWIR bands in mapping anomaly pixels for Antarctic geological mapping

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Beiranvand Pour, Amin; Hashim, Mazlan; Park, Yongcheol

2017-01-01

Independent component analysis (ICA) was applied to shortwave infrared (SWIR) bands of ASTER satellite data for detailed mapping of alteration mineral zones in the context of polar environments, where little prior information is available. The Oscar II coast area north-eastern Graham Land, Antarctic Peninsula (AP) was selected to conduct a remote sensing satellite-based mapping approach to detect alteration mineral assemblages. Anomaly pixels in the ICA image maps related to spectral features of Al-O-H, Fe, Mg-O-H and CO3 groups were detected using SWIR datasets of ASTER. ICA method provided image maps of alteration mineral assemblages and discriminate lithological units with little available geological data for poorly mapped regions and/or without prior geological information for unmapped regions in northern and southern sectors of Oscar II coast area, Graham Land. The results of this investigation demonstrated the applicability of ASTER spectral data for lithological and alteration mineral mapping in poorly exposed lithologies and inaccessible regions, particularly using the image processing algorithm that are capable to detect anomaly pixels targets in the remotely sensed images, where no prior information is available. (paper)

Web Based Rapid Mapping of Disaster Areas using Satellite Images, Web Processing Service, Web Mapping Service, Frequency Based Change Detection Algorithm and J-iView

Science.gov (United States)

Bandibas, J. C.; Takarada, S.

2013-12-01

Timely identification of areas affected by natural disasters is very important for a successful rescue and effective emergency relief efforts. This research focuses on the development of a cost effective and efficient system of identifying areas affected by natural disasters, and the efficient distribution of the information. The developed system is composed of 3 modules which are the Web Processing Service (WPS), Web Map Service (WMS) and the user interface provided by J-iView (fig. 1). WPS is an online system that provides computation, storage and data access services. In this study, the WPS module provides online access of the software implementing the developed frequency based change detection algorithm for the identification of areas affected by natural disasters. It also sends requests to WMS servers to get the remotely sensed data to be used in the computation. WMS is a standard protocol that provides a simple HTTP interface for requesting geo-registered map images from one or more geospatial databases. In this research, the WMS component provides remote access of the satellite images which are used as inputs for land cover change detection. The user interface in this system is provided by J-iView, which is an online mapping system developed at the Geological Survey of Japan (GSJ). The 3 modules are seamlessly integrated into a single package using J-iView, which could rapidly generate a map of disaster areas that is instantaneously viewable online. The developed system was tested using ASTER images covering the areas damaged by the March 11, 2011 tsunami in northeastern Japan. The developed system efficiently generated a map showing areas devastated by the tsunami. Based on the initial results of the study, the developed system proved to be a useful tool for emergency workers to quickly identify areas affected by natural disasters.

Mapping Medicare Disparities Tool

Data.gov (United States)

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services — The CMS Office of Minority Health has designed an interactive map, the Mapping Medicare Disparities Tool, to identify areas of disparities between subgroups of...

ESA's satellite communications programme

Science.gov (United States)

Bartholome, P.

1985-02-01

The developmental history, current status, and future plans of the ESA satellite-communications programs are discussed in a general survey and illustrated with network diagrams and maps. Consideration is given to the parallel development of national and European direct-broadcast systems and telecommunications networks, the position of the European space and electronics industries in the growing world market, the impact of technological improvements (both in satellite systems and in ground-based networks), and the technological and commercial advantages of integrated space-terrestrial networks. The needs for a European definition of the precise national and international roles of satellite communications, for maximum speed in implementing such decisions (before the technology becomes obsolete), and for increased cooperation and standardization to assure European equipment manufacturers a reasonable share of the market are stressed.

Investigating the Capability of IRS-P6-LISS IV Satellite Image for Pistachio Forests Density Mapping (case Study: Northeast of Iran)

Science.gov (United States)

Hoseini, F.; Darvishsefat, A. A.; Zargham, N.

2012-07-01

In order to investigate the capability of satellite images for Pistachio forests density mapping, IRS-P6-LISS IV data were analyzed in an area of 500 ha in Iran. After geometric correction, suitable training areas were determined based on fieldwork. Suitable spectral transformations like NDVI, PVI and PCA were performed. A ground truth map included of 34 plots (each plot 1 ha) were prepared. Hard and soft supervised classifications were performed with 5 density classes (0-5%, 5-10%, 10-15%, 15-20% and > 20%). Because of low separability of classes, some classes were merged and classifications were repeated with 3 classes. Finally, the highest overall accuracy and kappa coefficient of 70% and 0.44, respectively, were obtained with three classes (0-5%, 5-20%, and > 20%) by fuzzy classifier. Considering the low kappa value obtained, it could be concluded that the result of the classification was not desirable. Therefore, this approach is not appropriate for operational mapping of these valuable Pistachio forests.

Commercial satellite data as support to the additional protocol declarations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Joensson, Camilla; Andersson, Christer

2001-01-01

Full text: Objectives - The overall objective of the project is to show how commercial satellite data can be used for safeguard purposes both at SKI and the International Atomic Energy Agency. Furthermore this project will support IAEA in its process to develop methods to make the best use of provided information such as digitised maps and satellite images. Finally it will give IAEA a case study of the usefulness of satellite data for change detection purposes. Background - The protocol calls among others for an extended/complete declaration of all nuclear fuel cycle-related research and development activities as well as sites where nuclear material is or was customarily used. The declaration shall include descriptions of all buildings at the sites as well as maps. In parallel to the development of the additional protocol IAEA has started to use a variety of measures/techniques both to verify that declarations are complete and correct but also to be able to come to the conclusion that a state has no undeclared nuclear material or undeclared nuclear activities. One such technique is the use of commercial satellite data. The IAEA is now in the process of evaluating the usefulness and effectiveness of such data for safeguard purposes. In order to come to a decision on how to use satellite data IAEA is highly dependant on support from member states which can provide results from case studies etc. Analysis - This project shall provide SKI with digitised maps and commercial satellite data by the means of GIS to verify the descriptions provided by two of the nuclear operators. Furthermore those digital data can be included in the declaration given to IAEA. The overall aim is to enhance the quality of the Swedish declaration including support to IAEA to develop methods to use commercial satellite data. Results - The paper will present experiences and mapping results made during the work. (author)

Satellite air temperature estimation for monitoring the canopy layer heat island of Milan

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pichierri, Manuele; Bonafoni, Stefania; Biondi, Riccardo

2012-01-01

across the city center from June to September confirming that, in Milan, urban heating is not an occasional phenomenon. Furthermore, this study shows the utility of space missions to monitor the metropolis heat islands if they are able to provide nighttime observations when CLHI peaks are generally......In this work, satellite maps of the urban heat island of Milan are produced using satellite-based infrared sensor data. For this aim, we developed suitable algorithms employing satellite brightness temperatures for the direct air temperature estimation 2 m above the surface (canopy layer), showing...... 2007 and 2010 were processed. Analysis of the canopy layer heat island (CLHI) maps during summer months reveals an average heat island effect of 3–4K during nighttime (with some peaks around 5K) and a weak CLHI intensity during daytime. In addition, the satellite maps reveal a well defined island shape...

Design of a High Resolution Open Access Global Snow Cover Web Map Service Using Ground and Satellite Observations

Science.gov (United States)

Kadlec, J.; Ames, D. P.

2014-12-01

The aim of the presented work is creating a freely accessible, dynamic and re-usable snow cover map of the world by combining snow extent and snow depth datasets from multiple sources. The examined data sources are: remote sensing datasets (MODIS, CryoLand), weather forecasting model outputs (OpenWeatherMap, forecast.io), ground observation networks (CUAHSI HIS, GSOD, GHCN, and selected national networks), and user-contributed snow reports on social networks (cross-country and backcountry skiing trip reports). For adding each type of dataset, an interface and an adapter is created. Each adapter supports queries by area, time range, or combination of area and time range. The combined dataset is published as an online snow cover mapping service. This web service lowers the learning curve that is required to view, access, and analyze snow depth maps and snow time-series. All data published by this service are licensed as open data; encouraging the re-use of the data in customized applications in climatology, hydrology, sports and other disciplines. The initial version of the interactive snow map is on the website snow.hydrodata.org. This website supports the view by time and view by site. In view by time, the spatial distribution of snow for a selected area and time period is shown. In view by site, the time-series charts of snow depth at a selected location is displayed. All snow extent and snow depth map layers and time series are accessible and discoverable through internationally approved protocols including WMS, WFS, WCS, WaterOneFlow and WaterML. Therefore they can also be easily added to GIS software or 3rd-party web map applications. The central hypothesis driving this research is that the integration of user contributed data and/or social-network derived snow data together with other open access data sources will result in more accurate and higher resolution - and hence more useful snow cover maps than satellite data or government agency produced data by

High-resolution Mapping of Permafrost and Soil Freeze/thaw Dynamics in the Tibetan Plateau Based on Multi-sensor Satellite Observations

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, W.; Yi, Y.; Yang, K.; Kimball, J. S.

2016-12-01

The Tibetan Plateau (TP) is underlain by the world's largest extent of alpine permafrost ( 2.5×106 km2), dominated by sporadic and discontinuous permafrost with strong sensitivity to climate warming. Detailed permafrost distributions and patterns in most of the TP region are still unknown due to extremely sparse in-situ observations in this region characterized by heterogeneous land cover and large temporal dynamics in surface soil moisture conditions. Therefore, satellite-based temperature and moisture observations are essential for high-resolution mapping of permafrost distribution and soil active layer changes in the TP region. In this study, we quantify the TP regional permafrost distribution at 1-km resolution using a detailed satellite data-driven soil thermal process model (GIPL2). The soil thermal model is calibrated and validated using in-situ soil temperature/moisture observations from the CAMP/Tibet field campaign (9 sites: 0-300 cm soil depth sampling from 1997-2007), a multi-scale soil moisture and temperature monitoring network in the central TP (CTP-SMTMN, 57 sites: 5-40 cm, 2010-2014) and across the whole plateau (China Meteorology Administration, 98 sites: 0-320 cm, 2000-2015). Our preliminary results using the CAMP/Tibet and CTP-SMTMN network observations indicate strong controls of surface thermal and soil moisture conditions on soil freeze/thaw dynamics, which vary greatly with underlying topography, soil texture and vegetation cover. For regional mapping of soil freeze/thaw and permafrost dynamics, we use the most recent soil moisture retrievals from the NASA SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive) sensor to account for the effects of temporal soil moisture dynamics on soil thermal heat transfer, with surface thermal conditions defined by MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) land surface temperature records. Our study provides the first 1-km map of spatial patterns and recent changes of permafrost conditions in the TP.

Mapping the space radiation environment in LEO orbit by the SATRAM Timepix payload on board the Proba-V satellite

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Granja, Carlos, E-mail: carlos.granja@utef.cvut.cz; Polansky, Stepan

2016-07-07

Detailed spatial- and time-correlated maps of the space radiation environment in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) are produced by the spacecraft payload SATRAM operating in open space on board the Proba-V satellite from the European Space Agency (ESA). Equipped with the hybrid semiconductor pixel detector Timepix, the compact radiation monitor payload provides the composition and spectral characterization of the mixed radiation field with quantum-counting and imaging dosimetry sensitivity, energetic charged particle tracking, directionality and energy loss response in wide dynamic range in terms of particle types, dose rates and particle fluxes. With a polar orbit (sun synchronous, 98° inclination) at the altitude of 820 km the payload samples the space radiation field at LEO covering basically the whole planet. First results of long-period data evaluation in the form of time-and spatially-correlated maps of total dose rate (all particles) are given.

The National Map - Orthoimagery

Science.gov (United States)

Mauck, James; Brown, Kim; Carswell, William J.

2009-01-01

Orthorectified digital aerial photographs and satellite images of 1-meter (m) pixel resolution or finer make up the orthoimagery component of The National Map. The process of orthorectification removes feature displacements and scale variations caused by terrain relief and sensor geometry. The result is a combination of the image characteristics of an aerial photograph or satellite image and the geometric qualities of a map. These attributes allow users to: *Measure distance *Calculate areas *Determine shapes of features *Calculate directions *Determine accurate coordinates *Determine land cover and use *Perform change detection *Update maps The standard digital orthoimage is a 1-m or finer resolution, natural color or color infra-red product. Most are now produced as GeoTIFFs and accompanied by a Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC)-compliant metadata file. The primary source for 1-m data is the National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) leaf-on imagery. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) utilizes NAIP imagery as the image layer on its 'Digital- Map' - a new generation of USGS topographic maps (http://nationalmap.gov/digital_map). However, many Federal, State, and local governments and organizations require finer resolutions to meet a myriad of needs. Most of these images are leaf-off, natural-color products at resolutions of 1-foot (ft) or finer.

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.

A feed-forward Hopfield neural network algorithm (FHNNA) with a colour satellite image for water quality mapping

Science.gov (United States)

Asal Kzar, Ahmed; Mat Jafri, M. Z.; Hwee San, Lim; Al-Zuky, Ali A.; Mutter, Kussay N.; Hassan Al-Saleh, Anwar

2016-06-01

There are many techniques that have been given for water quality problem, but the remote sensing techniques have proven their success, especially when the artificial neural networks are used as mathematical models with these techniques. Hopfield neural network is one type of artificial neural networks which is common, fast, simple, and efficient, but it when it deals with images that have more than two colours such as remote sensing images. This work has attempted to solve this problem via modifying the network that deals with colour remote sensing images for water quality mapping. A Feed-forward Hopfield Neural Network Algorithm (FHNNA) was modified and used with a satellite colour image from type of Thailand earth observation system (THEOS) for TSS mapping in the Penang strait, Malaysia, through the classification of TSS concentrations. The new algorithm is based essentially on three modifications: using HNN as feed-forward network, considering the weights of bitplanes, and non-self-architecture or zero diagonal of weight matrix, in addition, it depends on a validation data. The achieved map was colour-coded for visual interpretation. The efficiency of the new algorithm has found out by the higher correlation coefficient (R=0.979) and the lower root mean square error (RMSE=4.301) between the validation data that were divided into two groups. One used for the algorithm and the other used for validating the results. The comparison was with the minimum distance classifier. Therefore, TSS mapping of polluted water in Penang strait, Malaysia, can be performed using FHNNA with remote sensing technique (THEOS). It is a new and useful application of HNN, so it is a new model with remote sensing techniques for water quality mapping which is considered important environmental problem.

Progress in Near Real-Time Volcanic Cloud Observations Using Satellite UV Instruments

Science.gov (United States)

Krotkov, N. A.; Yang, K.; Vicente, G.; Hughes, E. J.; Carn, S. A.; Krueger, A. J.

2011-12-01

Volcanic clouds from explosive eruptions can wreak havoc in many parts of the world, as exemplified by the 2010 eruption at the Eyjafjöll volcano in Iceland, which caused widespread disruption to air traffic and resulted in economic impacts across the globe. A suite of satellite-based systems offer the most effective means to monitor active volcanoes and to track the movement of volcanic clouds globally, providing critical information for aviation hazard mitigation. Satellite UV sensors, as part of this suite, have a long history of making unique near-real time (NRT) measurements of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and ash (aerosol Index) in volcanic clouds to supplement operational volcanic ash monitoring. Recently a NASA application project has shown that the use of near real-time (NRT,i.e., not older than 3 h) Aura/OMI satellite data produces a marked improvement in volcanic cloud detection using SO2 combined with Aerosol Index (AI) as a marker for ash. An operational online NRT OMI AI and SO2 image and data product distribution system was developed in collaboration with the NOAA Office of Satellite Data Processing and Distribution. Automated volcanic eruption alarms, and the production of volcanic cloud subsets for multiple regions are provided through the NOAA website. The data provide valuable information in support of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration goal of a safe and efficient National Air Space. In this presentation, we will highlight the advantages of UV techniques and describe the advances in volcanic SO2 plume height estimation and enhanced volcanic ash detection using hyper-spectral UV measurements, illustrated with Aura/OMI observations of recent eruptions. We will share our plan to provide near-real-time volcanic cloud monitoring service using the Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) on the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS).

Relasphone—Mobile and Participative In Situ Forest Biomass Measurements Supporting Satellite Image Mapping

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Matthieu Molinier

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Due to the high cost of traditional forest plot measurements, the availability of up-to-date in situ forest inventory data has been a bottleneck for remote sensing image analysis in support of the important global forest biomass mapping. Capitalizing on the proliferation of smartphones, citizen science is a promising approach to increase spatial and temporal coverages of in situ forest observations in a cost-effective way. Digital cameras can be used as a relascope device to measure basal area, a forest density variable that is closely related to biomass. In this paper, we present the Relasphone mobile application with extensive accuracy assessment in two mixed forest sites from different biomes. Basal area measurements in Finland (boreal zone were in good agreement with reference forest inventory plot data on pine ( R 2 = 0 . 75 , R M S E = 5 . 33 m 2 /ha, spruce ( R 2 = 0 . 75 , R M S E = 6 . 73 m 2 /ha and birch ( R 2 = 0 . 71 , R M S E = 4 . 98 m 2 /ha, with total relative R M S E ( % = 29 . 66 % . In Durango, Mexico (temperate zone, Relasphone stem volume measurements were best for pine ( R 2 = 0 . 88 , R M S E = 32 . 46 m 3 /ha and total stem volume ( R 2 = 0 . 87 , R M S E = 35 . 21 m 3 /ha. Relasphone data were then successfully utilized as the only reference data in combination with optical satellite images to produce biomass maps. The Relasphone concept has been validated for future use by citizens in other locations.

Cloud detection method for Chinese moderate high resolution satellite imagery (Conference Presentation)

Science.gov (United States)

Zhong, Bo; Chen, Wuhan; Wu, Shanlong; Liu, Qinhuo

2016-10-01

Cloud detection of satellite imagery is very important for quantitative remote sensing research and remote sensing applications. However, many satellite sensors don't have enough bands for a quick, accurate, and simple detection of clouds. Particularly, the newly launched moderate to high spatial resolution satellite sensors of China, such as the charge-coupled device on-board the Chinese Huan Jing 1 (HJ-1/CCD) and the wide field of view (WFV) sensor on-board the Gao Fen 1 (GF-1), only have four available bands including blue, green, red, and near infrared bands, which are far from the requirements of most could detection methods. In order to solve this problem, an improved and automated cloud detection method for Chinese satellite sensors called OCM (Object oriented Cloud and cloud-shadow Matching method) is presented in this paper. It firstly modified the Automatic Cloud Cover Assessment (ACCA) method, which was developed for Landsat-7 data, to get an initial cloud map. The modified ACCA method is mainly based on threshold and different threshold setting produces different cloud map. Subsequently, a strict threshold is used to produce a cloud map with high confidence and large amount of cloud omission and a loose threshold is used to produce a cloud map with low confidence and large amount of commission. Secondly, a corresponding cloud-shadow map is also produced using the threshold of near-infrared band. Thirdly, the cloud maps and cloud-shadow map are transferred to cloud objects and cloud-shadow objects. Cloud and cloud-shadow are usually in pairs; consequently, the final cloud and cloud-shadow maps are made based on the relationship between cloud and cloud-shadow objects. OCM method was tested using almost 200 HJ-1/CCD images across China and the overall accuracy of cloud detection is close to 90%.

Albedo and color maps of the Saturnian satellites

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Buratti, B.J.; Mosher, J.A.; Johnson, T.V.

1990-01-01

The paper discusses the production of maps of the albedos and colors of Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, and Rhea over the full range of their imaged surfaces. Voyager images were used to prepare maps of the normal reflectances and color ratios (0.58/0.41 micron) of these satelites. 67 refs

A new planetary mapping for future space missions

Science.gov (United States)

Karachevtseva, Irina; Kokhanov, Alexander; Rodionova, Janna; Zubarev, Anatoliy; Nadezhdina, Irina; Kreslavsky, Mikhail; Oberst, Jürgen

2015-04-01

The wide studies of Solar system, including different planetary bodies, were announced by new Russian space program. Their geodesy and cartography support provides by MIIGAiK Extraterrestrial Laboratory (http://mexlab.miigaik.ru/eng) in frames of the new project "Studies of Fundamental Geodetic Parameters and Topography of Planets and Satellites". The objects of study are satellites of the outer planets (satellites of Jupiter - Europa, Calisto and Ganymede; Saturnine satellite Enceladus), some planets (Mercury and Mars) and the satellites of the terrestrial planets - Phobos (Mars) and the Moon (Earth). The new research project, which started in 2014, will address the following important scientific and practical tasks: - Creating new three-dimensional geodetic control point networks of satellites of the outer planets using innovative photogrammetry techniques; - Determination of fundamental geodetic parameters and study size, shape, and spin parameters and to create the basic framework for research of their surfaces; - Studies of relief of planetary bodies and comparative analysis of general surface characteristics of the Moon, Mars, and Mercury, as well as studies of morphometric parameters of volcanic formations on the Moon and Mars; - Modeling of meteoritic bombardment of celestial bodies and the study of the dynamics of particle emissions caused by a meteorite impacts; - Development of geodatabase for studies of planetary bodies, including creation of object catalogues, (craters and volcanic forms, etc.), and thematic mapping using GIS technology. The significance of the project is defined both by necessity of obtaining fundamental characteristics of the Solar System bodies, and practical tasks in preparation for future Russian and international space missions to the Jupiter system (Laplace-P and JUICE), the Moon (Luna-Glob and Luna-Resource), Mars (Exo-Mars), Mercury (Bepi-Colombo), and possible mission to Phobos (project Boomerang). For cartographic support of

Modelling risk of tick exposure in southern Scandinavia using machine learning techniques, satellite imagery, and human population density maps

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kjær, Lene Jung; Korslund, L.; Kjelland, V.

30 sites (forests and meadows) in each of Denmark, southern Norway and south-eastern Sweden. At each site we measured presence/absence of ticks, and used the data obtained along with environmental satellite images to run Boosted Regression Tree machine learning algorithms to predict overall spatial...... and Sweden), areas with high population densities tend to overlap with these zones.Machine learning techniques allow us to predict for larger areas without having to perform extensive sampling all over the region in question, and we were able to produce models and maps with high predictive value. The results...

The Lightning Mapping Imager (LMI) on the FY-4 satellite and a typical application experiment using the LMI data

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, F.; Hui, W.; Li, X.; Liu, R.; Zhang, Z.; Zheng, Y.; Kang, N.

2017-12-01

The Lightning Mapping Imager (LMI) on the FY-4A satellite, which was launched successfully in December 2016, is the first satellite-based lightning detector from space independently developed in China, and one of the world's first two stationary satellite LMIs. The optical imaging technique with a 400x600 CCD array plane and a frequency of 500 frames/s is adopted in the FY-4A LMI to perform real-time and continuous observation of total lightening in the Chinese mainland and adjacent areas. As of July 2017, the in-orbit test shows that the lightening observation date could be accurately obtained by the FY-4A LMI, and that the geo-location could be verified by the ground lightening observation network over China. Since the beginning of the 2017 flood season, every process of strong thunderstorms has been monitored by the FY-4A LMI throughout the various areas of China, and of these are used as a typical application case in this talk. On April 8 and 9, 2017, a strong convective precipitation process occurred in the middle-lower reaches of the Yangtze River, China. The observation data of the FY-4A LMI are used to monitor the occurrence, development, shift and extinction of the thunderstorm track. By means of analyzing the station's synchronous precipitation observation data, it is indicated that the moving track of the thunderstorm is not completely consistent with that of the precipitation center, and while the distribution areas of thunderstorm and precipitation are consistent to a certain extent, a significant difference also exists. This difference is mainly caused by the convective precipitation and stratus precipitation area during the precipitation process. Through comparative analysis, the preliminary satellite and foundation lightening observation data show a higher consistency. However, the time of lightening activity observed by satellite is one hour earlier than that of the ground observation, which is likely related to the total lightning observation by

Detection of pear thrips damage using satellite imagery data

Science.gov (United States)

James E. Vogelmann; Barrett N. Rock

1991-01-01

This study evaluates the potential of measuring, mapping and monitoring sugar maple damage caused by pear thrips in southern Vermont and northwestern Massachusetts using satellite imagery data. Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) data were obtained during a major thrips infestation in June 1988, and were compared with satellite data acquired during June 1984 (before pear...

Satellite Remote Sensing For Aluminum And Nickel Laterites

Science.gov (United States)

Henderson, Frederick B.; Penfield, Glen T.; Grubbs, Donald K.

1984-08-01

The new LANDSAT-4,-5/Thematic Mapper (TM) land observational satellite remote sensing systems are providing dramatically new and important short wave infrared (SWIR) data, which combined with Landsat's Multi-Spectral Scanner (MSS) visible (VIS), very near infrared (VNIR), and thermal infrared (TI) data greatly improves regional geological mapping on a global scale. The TM will significantly improve clay, iron oxide, aluminum, and nickel laterite mapping capabilities over large areas of the world. It will also improve the ability to discriminate vegetation stress and species distribution associated with lateritic environments. Nickel laterites on Gag Island, Indonesia are defined by MSS imagery. Satellite imagery of the Cape Bougainville and the Darling Range, Australia bauxite deposits show the potential use of MSS data for exploration and mining applications. Examples of satellite syn-thetic aperture radar (SAR) for Jamaica document the use of this method for bauxite exploration. Thematic Mapper data will be combined with the French SPOT satellite's high spatial resolution and stereoscopic digital data, and U.S., Japanese, European, and Canadian Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data to assist with logistics, mine development, and environ-mental concerns associated with aluminum and nickel lateritic deposits worldwide.

Integration of Satellite Tracking Data and Satellite Images for Detailed Characteristics of Wildlife Habitats

Science.gov (United States)

Dobrynin, D. V.; Rozhnov, V. V.; Saveliev, A. A.; Sukhova, O. V.; Yachmennikova, A. A.

2017-12-01

Methods of analysis of the results got from satellite tracking of large terrestrial mammals differ in the level of their integration with additional geographic data. The reliable fine-scale cartographic basis for assessing specific wildlife habitats can be developed through the interpretation of multispectral remote sensing data and extrapolation of the results to the entire estimated species range. Topographic maps were ordinated according to classified features using self-organizing maps (Kohonen's SOM). The satellite image of the Ussuriiskyi Nature Reserve area was interpreted for the analysis of movement conditions for seven wild Amur tigers ( Panthera tigris altaica) equipped with GPS collars. 225 SOM classes for cartographic visualization are sufficient for the detailed mapping of all natural complexes that were identified as a result of interpretation. During snow-free periods, tigers preferred deciduous and shrub associations at lower elevations, as well as mixed forests in the valleys of streams that are adjacent to sparse forests and shrub watershed in the mountain ranges; during heavy snow periods, the animals preferred the entire range of plant communities in different relief types, except for open sites in meadows and abandoned fields at foothills. The border zones of different biotopes were typically used by the tigers during all seasons. Amur tigers preferred coniferous forests for long-term movements.

Quad-Tree Visual-Calculus Analysis of Satellite Coverage

Science.gov (United States)

Lo, Martin W.; Hockney, George; Kwan, Bruce

2003-01-01

An improved method of analysis of coverage of areas of the Earth by a constellation of radio-communication or scientific-observation satellites has been developed. This method is intended to supplant an older method in which the global-coverage-analysis problem is solved from a ground-to-satellite perspective. The present method provides for rapid and efficient analysis. This method is derived from a satellite-to-ground perspective and involves a unique combination of two techniques for multiresolution representation of map features on the surface of a sphere.

Fracture mapping of lineaments and recognizing their tectonic significance using SPOT-5 satellite data: A case study from the Bajestan area, Lut Block, east of Iran

Science.gov (United States)

Ahmadirouhani, Reyhaneh; Rahimi, Behnam; Karimpour, Mohammad Hassan; Malekzadeh Shafaroudi, Azadeh; Afshar Najafi, Sadegh; Pour, Amin Beiranvand

2017-10-01

Syste'm Pour l'Observation de la Terre (SPOT) remote sensing satellite data have useful characteristics for lineament extraction and enhancement related to the tectonic evaluation of a region. In this study, lineament features in the Bajestan area associated with the tectonic significance of the Lut Block (LB), east Iran were mapped and characterized using SPOT-5 satellite data. The structure of the Bajestan area is affected by the activity of deep strike-slip faults in the boundary of the LB. Structural elements such as faults and major joints were extracted, mapped, and analyzed by the implementation of high-Pass and standard kernels (Threshold and Sobel) filters to bands 1, 2 and 3 of SPOT-5 Level 2 A scene product of the Bajestan area. Lineament map was produced by assigning resultant filter images to red-green-blue (RGB) colour combinations of three main directions such as N-S, E-W and NE-SW. Results derived from image processing technique and statistical assessment indicate that two main orientations, including NW-SE with N-110 azimuth and NE-SW with N-40 azimuth, were dominated in the Bajestan area. The NW-SE trend has a high frequency in the study area. Based on the results of remote sensing lineament analysis and fieldwork, two dextral and sinistral strike-slip components were identified as main fault trends in the Bajestan region. Two dextral faults have acted as the cause of shear in the south and north of the Bajestan granitoid mass. Furthermore, the results indicate that the most of the lineaments in this area are extensional fractures corresponding to both the dykes emplacement and hydrothermal alteration zones. The application of SPOT-5 satellite data for structural analysis in a study region has great capability to provide very useful information of a vast area with low cost and time-consuming.

A new web-based system for unsupervised classification of satellite images from the Google Maps engine

Science.gov (United States)

Ferrán, Ángel; Bernabé, Sergio; García-Rodríguez, Pablo; Plaza, Antonio

2012-10-01

In this paper, we develop a new web-based system for unsupervised classification of satellite images available from the Google Maps engine. The system has been developed using the Google Maps API and incorporates functionalities such as unsupervised classification of image portions selected by the user (at the desired zoom level). For this purpose, we use a processing chain made up of the well-known ISODATA and k-means algorithms, followed by spatial post-processing based on majority voting. The system is currently hosted on a high performance server which performs the execution of classification algorithms and returns the obtained classification results in a very efficient way. The previous functionalities are necessary to use efficient techniques for the classification of images and the incorporation of content-based image retrieval (CBIR). Several experimental validation types of the classification results with the proposed system are performed by comparing the classification accuracy of the proposed chain by means of techniques available in the well-known Environment for Visualizing Images (ENVI) software package. The server has access to a cluster of commodity graphics processing units (GPUs), hence in future work we plan to perform the processing in parallel by taking advantage of the cluster.

Satellite Maps Deliver More Realistic Gaming

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-01

When Redwood City, California-based Electronic Arts (EA) decided to make SSX, its latest snowboarding video game, it faced challenges in creating realistic-looking mountains. The solution was NASA's ASTER Global Digital Elevation Map, made available by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which EA used to create 28 real-life mountains from 9 different ranges for its award-winning game.

Digital Mapping and Land Information Systems - Volume 6

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Frederiksen, Poul

1998-01-01

Introduction of digital mapping techniques in the 28 counties of Latvia related to the offices of the national mapping agency (State Land Service). Major components are: Training of regional staff, procurement of hard- and software, training of technical staff from State Land Service, HQ. Develop......Introduction of digital mapping techniques in the 28 counties of Latvia related to the offices of the national mapping agency (State Land Service). Major components are: Training of regional staff, procurement of hard- and software, training of technical staff from State Land Service, HQ...

EVALUATING THE POTENTIAL OF SATELLITE HYPERSPECTRAL RESURS-P DATA FOR FOREST SPECIES CLASSIFICATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

O. Brovkina

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Satellite-based hyperspectral sensors provide spectroscopic information in relatively narrow contiguous spectral bands over a large area which can be useful in forestry applications. This study evaluates the potential of satellite hyperspectral Resurs-P data for forest species mapping. Firstly, a comparative study between top of canopy reflectance obtained from the Resurs-P, from the airborne hyperspectral scanner CASI and from field measurement (FieldSpec ASD 4 on selected vegetation cover types is conducted. Secondly, Resurs-P data is tested in classification and verification of different forest species compartments. The results demonstrate that satellite hyperspectral Resurs-P sensor can produce useful informational and show good performance for forest species classification comparable both with forestry map and classification from airborne CASI data, but also indicate that developments in pre-processing steps are still required to improve the mapping level.

Assessing the Suitability of Future Multi- and Hyperspectral Satellite Systems for Mapping the Spatial Distribution of Norway Spruce Timber Volume

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sascha Nink

2015-09-01

Full Text Available The availability of accurate and timely information on timber volume is important for supporting operational forest management. One option is to combine statistical concepts (e.g., small area estimates with specifically designed terrestrial sampling strategies to provide estimations also on the level of administrative units such as forest districts. This may suffice for economic assessments, but still fails to provide spatially explicit information on the distribution of timber volume within these management units. This type of information, however, is needed for decision-makers to design and implement appropriate management operations. The German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate is currently implementing an object-oriented database that will also allow the direct integration of Earth observation data products. This work analyzes the suitability of forthcoming multi- and hyperspectral satellite imaging systems for producing local distribution maps for timber volume of Norway spruce, one of the most economically important tree species. In combination with site-specific inventory data, fully processed hyperspectral data sets (HyMap were used to simulate datasets of the forthcoming EnMAP and Sentinel-2 systems to establish adequate models for estimating timber volume maps. The analysis included PLS regression and the k-NN method. Root Mean Square Errors between 21.6% and 26.5% were obtained, where k-NN performed slightly better than PLSR. It was concluded that the datasets of both simulated sensor systems fulfill accuracy requirements to support local forest management operations and could be used in synergy. Sentinel-2 can provide meaningful volume distribution maps in higher geometric resolution, while EnMAP, due to its hyperspectral coverage, can contribute complementary information, e.g., on biophysical conditions.

Cultures in orbit: Satellite technologies, global media and local practice

Science.gov (United States)

Parks, Lisa Ann

Since the launch of Sputnik in 1957, satellite technologies have had a profound impact upon cultures around the world. "Cultures in Orbit" examines these seemingly disembodied, distant relay machines in relation to situated social and cultural processes on earth. Drawing upon a range of materials including NASA and UNESCO documents, international satellite television broadcasts, satellite 'development' projects, documentary and science fiction films, remote sensing images, broadcast news footage, World Wide Web sites, and popular press articles I delineate and analyze a series of satellite mediascapes. "Cultures in Orbit" analyzes uses of satellites for live television relay, surveillance, archaeology and astronomy. The project examines such satellite media as the first live global satellite television program Our World, Elvis' Aloha from Hawaii concert, Aboriginal Australian satellite programs, and Star TV's Asian music videos. In addition, the project explores reconnaissance images of mass graves in Bosnia, archaeological satellite maps of Cleopatra's underwater palace in Egypt, and Hubble Space Telescope images. These case studies are linked by a theoretical discussion of the satellite's involvement in shifting definitions of time, space, vision, knowledge and history. The satellite fosters an aesthetic of global realism predicated on instantaneous transnational connections. It reorders linear chronologies by revealing traces of the ancient past on the earth's surface and by searching in deep space for the "edge of time." On earth, the satellite is used to modernize and develop "primitive" societies. Satellites have produced new electronic spaces of international exchange, but they also generate strategic maps that advance Western political and cultural hegemony. By technologizing human vision, the satellite also extends the epistemologies of the visible, the historical and the real. It allows us to see artifacts and activities on earth from new vantage points

Coastal erosion and accretion in Pak Phanang, Thailand by GIS analysis of maps and satellite imagery

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sayedur Rahman Chowdhury

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Coastal erosion and accretion in Pak Phanang of southern Thailand between 1973 and 2003 was measured using multi-temporal topographic maps and Landsat satellite imageries. Within a GIS environment landward and seaward movements of shoreline was estimated by a transect-based analysis, and amounts of land accretion and erosion were estimated by a parcel-based geoprocessing. The whole longitudinal extent of the 58 kilometer coast was classified based on the erosion and accretion trends during this period using agglomerative hierarchical clustering approach. Erosion and accretion were found variable over time and space, and periodic reversal of status was also noticed in many places. Estimates of erosion were evaluated against field-survey based data, and found reasonably accurate where the rates were relatively great. Smoothing of shoreline datasets was found desirable as its impacts on the estimates remained within tolerable limits.

Reconstructing Global-scale Ionospheric Outflow With a Satellite Constellation

Science.gov (United States)

Liemohn, M. W.; Welling, D. T.; Jahn, J. M.; Valek, P. W.; Elliott, H. A.; Ilie, R.; Khazanov, G. V.; Glocer, A.; Ganushkina, N. Y.; Zou, S.

2017-12-01

The question of how many satellites it would take to accurately map the spatial distribution of ionospheric outflow is addressed in this study. Given an outflow spatial map, this image is then reconstructed from a limited number virtual satellite pass extractions from the original values. An assessment is conducted of the goodness of fit as a function of number of satellites in the reconstruction, placement of the satellite trajectories relative to the polar cap and auroral oval, season and universal time (i.e., dipole tilt relative to the Sun), geomagnetic activity level, and interpolation technique. It is found that the accuracy of the reconstructions increases sharply from one to a few satellites, but then improves only marginally with additional spacecraft beyond 4. Increased dwell time of the satellite trajectories in the auroral zone improves the reconstruction, therefore a high-but-not-exactly-polar orbit is most effective for this task. Local time coverage is also an important factor, shifting the auroral zone to different locations relative to the virtual satellite orbit paths. The expansion and contraction of the polar cap and auroral zone with geomagnetic activity influences the coverage of the key outflow regions, with different optimal orbit configurations for each level of activity. Finally, it is found that reconstructing each magnetic latitude band individually produces a better fit to the original image than 2-D image reconstruction method (e.g., triangulation). A high-latitude, high-altitude constellation mission concept is presented that achieves acceptably accurate outflow reconstructions.

TOGA COARE Satellite data summaries available on the World Wide Web

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, S. S.; Houze, R. A., Jr.; Mapes, B. E.; Brodzick, S. R.; Yutler, S. E.

1995-01-01

Satellite data summary images and analysis plots from the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA COARE), which were initially prepared in the field at the Honiara Operations Center, are now available on the Internet via World Wide Web browsers such as Mosaic. These satellite data summaries consist of products derived from the Japanese Geosynchronous Meteorological Satellite IR data: a time-size series of the distribution of contiguous cold cloudiness areas, weekly percent high cloudiness (PHC) maps, and a five-month time-longitudinal diagram illustrating the zonal motion of large areas of cold cloudiness. The weekly PHC maps are overlaid with weekly mean 850-hPa wind calculated from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) global analysis field and can be viewed as an animation loop. These satellite summaries provide an overview of spatial and temporal variabilities of the cloud population and a large-scale context for studies concerning specific processes of various components of TOGA COARE.

Marsh dieback, loss, and recovery mapped with satellite optical, airborne polarimetric radar, and field data

Science.gov (United States)

Ramsey, Elijah W.; Rangoonwala, Amina; Chi, Zhaohui; Jones, Cathleen E.; Bannister, Terri

2014-01-01

Landsat Thematic Mapper and Satellite Pour l'Observation de la Terre (SPOT) satellite based optical sensors, NASA Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle synthetic aperture radar (UAVSAR) polarimetric SAR (PolSAR), and field data captured the occurrence and the recovery of an undetected dieback that occurred between the summers of 2010, 2011, and 2012 in the Spartina alterniflora marshes of coastal Louisiana. Field measurements recorded the dramatic biomass decrease from 2010 to 2011 and a biomass recovery in 2012 dominated by a decrease of live biomass, and the loss of marsh as part of the dieback event. Based on an established relationship, the near-infrared/red vegetation index (VI) and site-specific measurements delineated a contiguous expanse of marsh dieback encompassing 6649.9 ha of 18,292.3 ha of S. alterniflora marshes within the study region. PolSAR data were transformed to variables used in biophysical mapping, and of this variable suite, the cross-polarization HV (horizontal send and vertical receive) backscatter was the best single indicator of marsh dieback and recovery. HV backscatter exhibited substantial and significant changes over the dieback and recovery period, tracked measured biomass changes, and significantly correlated with the live/dead biomass ratio. Within the context of regional trends, both HV and VI indicators started higher in pre-dieback marshes and exhibited substantially and statistically higher variability from year to year than that exhibited in the non-dieback marshes. That distinct difference allowed the capturing of the S. alterniflora marsh dieback and recovery; however, these changes were incorporated in a regional trend exhibiting similar but more subtle biomass composition changes.

UV Spectrophotometry of the Galilean Satellites, Saturnian Satellites & Selected Asteroids

Science.gov (United States)

Nelson, Robert M.

We propose a series of ultraviolet spectral observations of solid surfaces of selected solar system objects, specifically the Galilean satellites of Jupiter, several atmosphereless satellites of Saturn, and the asteroids, 5 Astraea, 18 Melpomene, 532 Herculina, 68 Leto, 31 Euphmsyne, 80 Sappho, 3 Juno, and 39 Laetitia. Historically such spectral observations have allowed for the Identification of spectrally active solid state materials on planetary surfaces. Furthermore, because the rotational properties are known for all the objects proposed for study, this technique will provide a longitude map of such materials on the objects' surfaces. The study of asteroid surface mineralogy is an important method of constraining solar system formation models. The asteroid spectra we have previously acquired with IUE have created unique subdivisions within the existent asteroid types. The new spectra will provide more sophisticated mineralogical characterizations of asteroid surface materials. Our other accomplishments with IUE include mapping of the distribution of condensed S02 on Io, identification of a longitudinal asymmetry on Europa associated with magnetospheric particle bombardment of the surface, and establishing the ultraviolet geometric albedo variation as a function of longitude for all the Galilean satellites. Because Io is the most volcanically active body In the solar system, and short tern variations in selected regions of the Jovian magnetosphere are known to occur, it is important to periodically check for temporal variations in the spectra of the Galilean satellites that may be due to variations n Io tectonic/volcanic activity, or magnetosphere changes. These proposed UV observations are critical to the design and operation of several instruments on Project Galileo, NASA's Jupiter Orbiter and Probe Mission. Spectra of Iapetus, Rhea and Dione have been acquired during the previous year; however, only at orbital locations near elongation. In addition, the dark

78 FR 78257 - Verification of Statements of Account Submitted by Cable Operators and Satellite Carriers

Science.gov (United States)

2013-12-26

... royalty fees with the Office in order to use the statutory licenses that allow for the retransmission of... royalty fees that cable operators and satellite carriers file with the Office. See 17 U.S.C. 111(d)(6... new process to allow copyright owners to audit the SOAs and associated royalty payments. The Office...

Satellite-based mapping of field-scale stress indicators for crop yield forecasting: an application over Mead, NE

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Y.; Anderson, M. C.; Gao, F.; Wardlow, B.; Hain, C.; Otkin, J.; Sun, L.; Dulaney, W.

2017-12-01

In agricultural regions, water is one of the most widely limiting factors of crop performance and production. Evapotranspiration (ET) describes crop water use through transpiration and water lost through direct soil evaporation, which makes it a good indicator of soil moisture availability and vegetation health and thus has been an integral part of many yield estimation efforts. The Evaporative Stress Index (ESI) describes temporal anomalies in a normalized evapotranspiration metric (fRET) as derived from satellite remote sensing and has demonstrated capacity to explain regional yield variability in water limited crop growing regions. However, its performance in some regions where the vegetation cycle is intensively managed appears to be degraded. In this study we generated maps of ET, fRET, and ESI at high spatiotemporal resolution (30-m pixels, daily timesteps) using a multi-sensor data fusion method, integrating information from satellite platforms with good temporal coverage and other platforms that provide field-scale spatial detail. The study was conducted over the period 2010-2014, covering a region around Mead, Nebraska that includes both rainfed and irrigated crops. Correlations between ESI and measurements of corn yield are investigated at both the field and county level to assess the value of ESI as a yield forecasting tool. To examine the role of phenology in ESI-yield correlations, annual input fRET timeseries were aligned by both calendar day and by biophysically relevant dates (e.g. days since planting or emergence). Results demonstrate that mapping of fRET and ESI at 30-m has the advantage of being able to resolve different crop types with varying phenology. The study also suggests that incorporating phenological information significantly improves yield-correlations by accounting for effects of phenology such as variable planting date and emergence date. The yield-ESI relationship in this study well captures the inter-annual variability of yields

Processing Satellite Imagery To Detect Waste Tire Piles

Science.gov (United States)

Skiles, Joseph; Schmidt, Cynthia; Wuinlan, Becky; Huybrechts, Catherine

2007-01-01

A methodology for processing commercially available satellite spectral imagery has been developed to enable identification and mapping of waste tire piles in California. The California Integrated Waste Management Board initiated the project and provided funding for the method s development. The methodology includes the use of a combination of previously commercially available image-processing and georeferencing software used to develop a model that specifically distinguishes between tire piles and other objects. The methodology reduces the time that must be spent to initially survey a region for tire sites, thereby increasing inspectors and managers time available for remediation of the sites. Remediation is needed because millions of used tires are discarded every year, waste tire piles pose fire hazards, and mosquitoes often breed in water trapped in tires. It should be possible to adapt the methodology to regions outside California by modifying some of the algorithms implemented in the software to account for geographic differences in spectral characteristics associated with terrain and climate. The task of identifying tire piles in satellite imagery is uniquely challenging because of their low reflectance levels: Tires tend to be spectrally confused with shadows and deep water, both of which reflect little light to satellite-borne imaging systems. In this methodology, the challenge is met, in part, by use of software that implements the Tire Identification from Reflectance (TIRe) model. The development of the TIRe model included incorporation of lessons learned in previous research on the detection and mapping of tire piles by use of manual/ visual and/or computational analysis of aerial and satellite imagery. The TIRe model is a computational model for identifying tire piles and discriminating between tire piles and other objects. The input to the TIRe model is the georeferenced but otherwise raw satellite spectral images of a geographic region to be surveyed

Information technology road map 2015

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2009-09-01

This book introduces information technology road map 2015 with presentation, process, plan and conclusion of it. It also has introduction of IT road map by field : information technology road map 2015 on the next-generation of semiconductor, display, light emitting diode and light industry, home network and home electronic appliances, digital TV and broadcasting, radio technology, satellite communications, mobile communication for the next-generation, BcN field, software, computer for the next-generation and security of knowledge information.

Validation and Application of the Modified Satellite-Based Priestley-Taylor Algorithm for Mapping Terrestrial Evapotranspiration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yunjun Yao

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Satellite-based vegetation indices (VIs and Apparent Thermal Inertia (ATI derived from temperature change provide valuable information for estimating evapotranspiration (LE and detecting the onset and severity of drought. The modified satellite-based Priestley-Taylor (MS-PT algorithm that we developed earlier, coupling both VI and ATI, is validated based on observed data from 40 flux towers distributed across the world on all continents. The validation results illustrate that the daily LE can be estimated with the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE varying from 10.7 W/m2 to 87.6 W/m2, and with the square of correlation coefficient (R2 from 0.41 to 0.89 (p < 0.01. Compared with the Priestley-Taylor-based LE (PT-JPL algorithm, the MS-PT algorithm improves the LE estimates at most flux tower sites. Importantly, the MS-PT algorithm is also satisfactory in reproducing the inter-annual variability at flux tower sites with at least five years of data. The R2 between measured and predicted annual LE anomalies is 0.42 (p = 0.02. The MS-PT algorithm is then applied to detect the variations of long-term terrestrial LE over Three-North Shelter Forest Region of China and to monitor global land surface drought. The MS-PT algorithm described here demonstrates the ability to map regional terrestrial LE and identify global soil moisture stress, without requiring precipitation information.

Preliminary hard and soft bottom seafloor substrate map derived from an supervised classification of bathymetry derived from multispectral World View-2 satellite imagery of Ni'ihau Island, Territory of Main Hawaiian Islands, USA

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Preliminary hard and soft seafloor substrate map derived from a supervised classification from multispectral World View-2 satellite imagery of Ni'ihau Island,...

Satellite-based Drought Reporting on the Navajo Nation

Science.gov (United States)

McCullum, A. J. K.; Schmidt, C.; Ly, V.; Green, R.; McClellan, C.

2017-12-01

The Navajo Nation (NN) is the largest reservation in the US, and faces challenges related to water management during long-term and widespread drought episodes. The Navajo Nation is a federally recognized tribe, which has boundaries within Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. The Navajo Nation has a land area of over 70,000 square kilometers. The Navajo Nation Department of Water Resources (NNDWR) reports on drought and climatic conditions through the use of regional Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) values and a network of in-situ rainfall, streamflow, and climate data. However, these data sources lack the spatial detail and consistent measurements needed to provide a coherent understanding of the drought regime within the Nation's regional boundaries. This project, as part of NASA's Western Water Applications Office (WWAO), improves upon the recently developed Drought Severity Assessment Tool (DSAT) to ingest satellite-based precipitation data to generate SPI values for specific administrative boundaries within the reservation. The tool aims to: (1) generate SPI values and summary statistics for regions of interest on various timescales, (2) to visualize SPI values within a web-map application, and (3) produce maps and comparative statistical outputs in the format required for annual drought reporting. The co-development of the DSAT with NN partners is integral to increasing the sustained use of Earth Observations for water management applications. This tool will provide data to support the NN in allocation of drought contingency dollars to the regions most adversely impacted by declines in water availability.

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...

VHR satellite imagery for humanitarian crisis management: a case study

Science.gov (United States)

Bitelli, Gabriele; Eleias, Magdalena; Franci, Francesca; Mandanici, Emanuele

2017-09-01

During the last years, remote sensing data along with GIS have been largely employed for supporting emergency management activities. In this context, the use of satellite images and derived map products has become more common also in the different phases of humanitarian crisis response. In this work very high resolution satellite imagery was processed to assess the evolution of Za'atari Refugee Camp, built in Jordan in 2012 by the UN Refugee Agency to host Syrian refugees. Multispectral satellite scenes of the Za'atari area were processed by means of object-based classifications. The main aim of the present work is the development of a semiautomated procedure for multi-temporal camp monitoring with particular reference to the dwellings detection. Whilst in the emergency mapping domain automation of feature extraction is widely investigated, in the field of humanitarian missions the information is often extracted by means of photointerpretation of the satellite data. This approach requires time for the interpretation; moreover, it is not reliable enough in complex situations, where features of interest are often small, heterogeneous and inconsistent. Therefore, the present paper discusses a methodology to obtain information for assisting humanitarian crisis management, using a semi-automatic classification approach applied to satellite imagery.

A new tool for supervised classification of satellite images available on web servers: Google Maps as a case study

Science.gov (United States)

García-Flores, Agustín.; Paz-Gallardo, Abel; Plaza, Antonio; Li, Jun

2016-10-01

This paper describes a new web platform dedicated to the classification of satellite images called Hypergim. The current implementation of this platform enables users to perform classification of satellite images from any part of the world thanks to the worldwide maps provided by Google Maps. To perform this classification, Hypergim uses unsupervised algorithms like Isodata and K-means. Here, we present an extension of the original platform in which we adapt Hypergim in order to use supervised algorithms to improve the classification results. This involves a significant modification of the user interface, providing the user with a way to obtain samples of classes present in the images to use in the training phase of the classification process. Another main goal of this development is to improve the runtime of the image classification process. To achieve this goal, we use a parallel implementation of the Random Forest classification algorithm. This implementation is a modification of the well-known CURFIL software package. The use of this type of algorithms to perform image classification is widespread today thanks to its precision and ease of training. The actual implementation of Random Forest was developed using CUDA platform, which enables us to exploit the potential of several models of NVIDIA graphics processing units using them to execute general purpose computing tasks as image classification algorithms. As well as CUDA, we use other parallel libraries as Intel Boost, taking advantage of the multithreading capabilities of modern CPUs. To ensure the best possible results, the platform is deployed in a cluster of commodity graphics processing units (GPUs), so that multiple users can use the tool in a concurrent way. The experimental results indicate that this new algorithm widely outperform the previous unsupervised algorithms implemented in Hypergim, both in runtime as well as precision of the actual classification of the images.

Use of Openly Available Satellite Images for Remote Sensing Education

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, C.-K.

2011-09-01

With the advent of Google Earth, Google Maps, and Microsoft Bing Maps, high resolution satellite imagery are becoming more easily accessible than ever. It have been the case that the college students may already have wealth experiences with the high resolution satellite imagery by using these software and web services prior to any formal remote sensing education. It is obvious that the remote sensing education should be adjusted to the fact that the audience are already the customers of remote sensing products (through the use of the above mentioned services). This paper reports the use of openly available satellite imagery in an introductory-level remote sensing course in the Department of Geomatics of National Cheng Kung University as a term project. From the experience learned from the fall of 2009 and 2010, it shows that this term project has effectively aroused the students' enthusiastic toward Remote Sensing.

NOAA Office for Coastal Management Coastal Inundation Digital Elevation Model: Guam Weather Forecast Office (GUM WFO) - Guam

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — These data were created as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management's efforts to create an online mapping viewer...

NOAA Office for Coastal Management Coastal Inundation Digital Elevation Model: Caribou Weather Forecast Office (CAR WFO) - Maine

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — These data were created as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management's efforts to create an online mapping viewer...

NOAA Office for Coastal Management Coastal Inundation Digital Elevation Model: Honolulu Weather Forecast Office (HFO WFO) - Lanai

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — These data were created as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management's efforts to create an online mapping viewer...

NOAA Office for Coastal Management Coastal Inundation Digital Elevation Model: Honolulu Weather Forecast Office (HFO WFO) - Maui

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — These data were created as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management's efforts to create an online mapping viewer...

NOAA Office for Coastal Management Coastal Inundation Digital Elevation Model: National Weather Service Forecast Office - Charleston (CHS)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — These data were created as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management's efforts to create an online mapping viewer...

Geometric calibration of ERS satellite SAR images

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mohr, Johan Jacob; Madsen, Søren Nørvang

2001-01-01

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

Essential climatic variables estimation with satellite imagery

Science.gov (United States)

Kolotii, A.; Kussul, N.; Shelestov, A.; Lavreniuk, M. S.

2016-12-01

According to Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015 - 2030 Leaf Area Index (LAI) is considered as one of essential climatic variables. This variable represents the amount of leaf material in ecosystems and controls the links between biosphere and atmosphere through various processes and enables monitoring and quantitative assessment of vegetation state. LAI has added value for such important global resources monitoring tasks as drought mapping and crop yield forecasting with use of data from different sources [1-2]. Remote sensing data from space can be used to estimate such biophysical parameter at regional and national scale. High temporal satellite imagery is usually required to capture main parameters of crop growth [3]. Sentinel-2 mission launched in 2015 be ESA is a source of high spatial and temporal resolution satellite imagery for mapping biophysical parameters. Products created with use of automated Sen2-Agri system deployed during Sen2-Agri country level demonstration project for Ukraine will be compared with our independent results of biophysical parameters mapping. References Shelestov, A., Kolotii, A., Camacho, F., Skakun, S., Kussul, O., Lavreniuk, M., & Kostetsky, O. (2015, July). Mapping of biophysical parameters based on high resolution EO imagery for JECAM test site in Ukraine. In 2015 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), 1733-1736 Kolotii, A., Kussul, N., Shelestov, A., Skakun, S., Yailymov, B., Basarab, R., ... & Ostapenko, V. (2015). Comparison of biophysical and satellite predictors for wheat yield forecasting in Ukraine. The International Archives of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, 40(7), 39-44. Kussul, N., Lemoine, G., Gallego, F. J., Skakun, S. V., Lavreniuk, M., & Shelestov, A. Y. Parcel-Based Crop Classification in Ukraine Using Landsat-8 Data and Sentinel-1A Data. IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing , 9 (6), 2500-2508.

Mapping of land cover in Northern California with simulated HyspIRI images

Science.gov (United States)

Clark, M. L.; Kilham, N. E.

2014-12-01

Land-cover maps are important science products needed for natural resource and ecosystem service management, biodiversity conservation planning, and assessing human-induced and natural drivers of land change. Most land-cover maps at regional to global scales are produced with remote sensing techniques applied to multispectral satellite imagery with 30-500 m pixel sizes (e.g., Landsat, MODIS). Hyperspectral, or imaging spectrometer, imagery measuring the visible to shortwave infrared regions (i.e., full range) of the spectrum have shown improved capacity to map plant species and coarser land-cover associations, yet techniques have not been widely tested at regional and greater spatial scales. The Hyperspectral Infrared Imager (HyspIRI) mission is a full-range hyperspectral and thermal satellite being considered for development by NASA (hyspiri.jpl.nasa.gov). A hyperspectral satellite, such as HyspIRI, will provide detailed spectral and temporal information at global scales that could greatly improve our ability to map land cover with greater class detail and spatial and temporal accuracy than possible with conventional multispectral satellites. The broad goal of our research is to assess multi-temporal, HyspIRI-like satellite imagery for improved land cover mapping across a range of environmental and anthropogenic gradients in California. In this study, we mapped FAO Land Cover Classification System (LCCS) classes over 30,000 km2 in Northern California using multi-temporal HyspIRI imagery simulated from the AVIRIS airborne sensor. The Random Forests classification was applied to predictor variables derived from the multi-temporal hyperspectral data and accuracies were compared to that from Landsat 8 OLI. Results indicate increased mapping accuracy using HyspIRI multi-temporal imagery, particularly in discriminating different forest life-form types, such as mixed conifer and broadleaf forests and open- and closed-canopy forests.

Engineering a Responsive, Low Cost, Tactical Satellite, TacSat-1

OpenAIRE

Hurley, Michael; Duffey, Timothy; Huffine, Christopher; Weldy, Ken; Cleveland, Jeff; Hauser, Joe

2004-01-01

The Secretary of Defense’s Office of Force Transformation (OFT) is currently undertaking an initiative to develop a low-cost, responsive, operationally relevant space capability using small satellites. The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is tasked to be program manger for this initiative, which seeks to make space assets and capabilities available to operational users. TacSat-1 is the first in a series of small satellites that will result in rapid, tailored, and operationally relevant experim...

BEE FORAGE MAPPING BASED ON MULTISPECTRAL IMAGES LANDSAT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Moskalenko

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Possibilities of bee forage identification and mapping based on multispectral images have been shown in the research. Spectral brightness of bee forage has been determined with the use of satellite images. The effectiveness of some methods of image classification for mapping of bee forage is shown. Keywords: bee forage, mapping, multispectral images, image classification.

Comparison of Hyperspectral and Multispectral Satellites for Discriminating Land Cover in Northern California

Science.gov (United States)

Clark, M. L.; Kilham, N. E.

2015-12-01

Land-cover maps are important science products needed for natural resource and ecosystem service management, biodiversity conservation planning, and assessing human-induced and natural drivers of land change. Most land-cover maps at regional to global scales are produced with remote sensing techniques applied to multispectral satellite imagery with 30-500 m pixel sizes (e.g., Landsat, MODIS). Hyperspectral, or imaging spectrometer, imagery measuring the visible to shortwave infrared regions (VSWIR) of the spectrum have shown impressive capacity to map plant species and coarser land-cover associations, yet techniques have not been widely tested at regional and greater spatial scales. The Hyperspectral Infrared Imager (HyspIRI) mission is a VSWIR hyperspectral and thermal satellite being considered for development by NASA. The goal of this study was to assess multi-temporal, HyspIRI-like satellite imagery for improved land cover mapping relative to multispectral satellites. We mapped FAO Land Cover Classification System (LCCS) classes over 22,500 km2 in the San Francisco Bay Area, California using 30-m HyspIRI, Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2 imagery simulated from data acquired by NASA's AVIRIS airborne sensor. Random Forests (RF) and Multiple-Endmember Spectral Mixture Analysis (MESMA) classifiers were applied to the simulated images and accuracies were compared to those from real Landsat 8 images. The RF classifier was superior to MESMA, and multi-temporal data yielded higher accuracy than summer-only data. With RF, hyperspectral data had overall accuracy of 72.2% and 85.1% with full 20-class and reduced 12-class schemes, respectively. Multispectral imagery had lower accuracy. For example, simulated and real Landsat data had 7.5% and 4.6% lower accuracy than HyspIRI data with 12 classes, respectively. In summary, our results indicate increased mapping accuracy using HyspIRI multi-temporal imagery, particularly in discriminating different natural vegetation types, such as

Applying satellite technology to energy and mineral exploration

Science.gov (United States)

Carter, William D.; Rowan, Lawrence C.

1978-01-01

IGCP Project 143 ("Remote Sensing and Mineral Exploration"), is a worldwide research project designed to make satellite data an operational geological tool along with the geologic pick, hand lens, topographic map, aerial photo and geophysical instruments and data that comprise the exploration package. While remote sensing data will not replace field exploration and mapping, careful study of such data prior to field work should make the effort more efficient.

Coordinate systems and map projections

CERN Document Server

Maling, DH

1992-01-01

A revised and expanded new edition of the definitive English work on map projections. The revisions take into account the huge advances in geometrical geodesy which have occurred since the early years of satellite geodesy. The detailed configuration of the geoid resulting from the GEOS and SEASAT altimetry measurements are now taken into consideration. Additionally, the chapter on computation of map projections is updated bearing in mind the availability of pocket calculators and microcomputers. Analytical derivation of some map projections including examples of pseudocylindrical and polyconic

Mapping Urban Tree Canopy Coverage and Structure using Data Fusion of High Resolution Satellite Imagery and Aerial Lidar

Science.gov (United States)

Elmes, A.; Rogan, J.; Williams, C. A.; Martin, D. G.; Ratick, S.; Nowak, D.

2015-12-01

Urban tree canopy (UTC) coverage is a critical component of sustainable urban areas. Trees provide a number of important ecosystem services, including air pollution mitigation, water runoff control, and aesthetic and cultural values. Critically, urban trees also act to mitigate the urban heat island (UHI) effect by shading impervious surfaces and via evaporative cooling. The cooling effect of urban trees can be seen locally, with individual trees reducing home HVAC costs, and at a citywide scale, reducing the extent and magnitude of an urban areas UHI. In order to accurately model the ecosystem services of a given urban forest, it is essential to map in detail the condition and composition of these trees at a fine scale, capturing individual tree crowns and their vertical structure. This paper presents methods for delineating UTC and measuring canopy structure at fine spatial resolution (body of methods, relying on a data fusion method to combine the information contained in high resolution WorldView-3 satellite imagery and aerial lidar data using an object-based image classification approach. The study area, Worcester, MA, has recently undergone a large-scale tree removal and reforestation program, following a pest eradication effort. Therefore, the urban canopy in this location provides a wide mix of tree age class and functional type, ideal for illustrating the effectiveness of the proposed methods. Early results show that the object-based classifier is indeed capable of identifying individual tree crowns, while continued research will focus on extracting crown structural characteristics using lidar-derived metrics. Ultimately, the resulting fine resolution UTC map will be compared with previously created UTC maps of the same area but for earlier dates, producing a canopy change map corresponding to the Worcester area tree removal and replanting effort.

FROM ORDER TO CHAOS IN EARTH SATELLITE ORBITS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gkolias, Ioannis; Gachet, Fabien [Department of Mathematics, University of Rome Tor Vergata, I-00133 Rome (Italy); Daquin, Jérôme [IMCCE/Observatoire de Paris, Université Lille1, F-59000 Lille (France); Rosengren, Aaron J., E-mail: gkolias@mat.uniroma2.it [IFAC-CNR, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Florence (Italy)

2016-11-01

We consider Earth satellite orbits in the range of semimajor axes where the perturbing effects of Earth’s oblateness and lunisolar gravity are of comparable order. This range covers the medium-Earth orbits (MEO) of the Global Navigation Satellite Systems and the geosynchronous orbits (GEO) of the communication satellites. We recall a secular and quadrupolar model, based on the Milankovitch vector formulation of perturbation theory, which governs the long-term orbital evolution subject to the predominant gravitational interactions. We study the global dynamics of this two-and-a-half degrees-of-freedom Hamiltonian system by means of the fast Lyapunov indicator (FLI), used in a statistical sense. Specifically, we characterize the degree of chaoticity of the action space using angle-averaged normalized FLI maps, thereby overcoming the angle dependencies of the conventional stability maps. Emphasis is placed upon the phase-space structures near secular resonances, which are of primary importance to the space debris community. We confirm and quantify the transition from order to chaos in MEO, stemming from the critical inclinations and find that highly inclined GEO orbits are particularly unstable. Despite their reputed normality, Earth satellite orbits can possess an extraordinarily rich spectrum of dynamical behaviors and, from a mathematical perspective, have all the complications that make them very interesting candidates for testing the modern tools of chaos theory.

Extrapolating Satellite Winds to Turbine Operating Heights

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Badger, Merete; Pena Diaz, Alfredo; Hahmann, Andrea N.

2016-01-01

Ocean wind retrievals from satellite sensors are typically performed for the standard level of 10 m. This restricts their full exploitation for wind energy planning, which requires wind information at much higher levels where wind turbines operate. A new method is presented for the vertical...... extrapolation of satellitebased wind maps. Winds near the sea surface are obtained from satellite data and used together with an adaptation of the Monin–Obukhov similarity theory to estimate the wind speed at higher levels. The thermal stratification of the atmosphere is taken into account through a long...

NOAA Office for Coastal Management Coastal Inundation Digital Elevation Model: Honolulu Weather Forecast Office (HFO WFO) - Hawaii Island

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — These data were created as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management's efforts to create an online mapping viewer...

Analysis of Patient Visits and Collections After Opening a Satellite Pediatric Emergency Department.

Science.gov (United States)

Nichols, Katherine M; Caperell, Kerry; Cross, Keith; Duncan, Scott; Foster, Ben; Liu, Gil; Pritchard, Hank; Southard, Gary; Shinabery, Ben; Sutton, Brad; Kim, In K

2018-04-01

Satellite pediatric emergency departments (PEDs) have emerged as a strategy to increase patient capacity. We sought to determine the impact on patient visits, physician fee collections, and value of emergency department (ED) time at the primary PED after opening a nearby satellite PED. We also illustrate the spatial distribution of patient demographics and overlapping catchment areas for the primary and satellite PEDs using geographical information system. A structured, financial retrospective review was conducted. Aggregate patient demographic data and billing data were collected regarding physician fee charges, collections, and patient visits for both PEDs. All ED visits from January 2009 to December 2013 were analyzed. Geographical information system mapping using ArcGIS mapped ED patient visits. Patient visits at the primary PED were 53,050 in 2009 before the satellite PED opened. The primary PED visits increased after opening the satellite PED to 55,932 in 2013. The satellite PED visits increased to 21,590 in 2013. Collections per visit at the primary PED decreased from $105.13 per visit in 2011 to $86.91 per visit in 2013. Total collections at the satellite PED decreased per visit from $155.41 per visit in 2011 to $128.53 per visit in 2013. After opening a nearby satellite PED, patient visits at the primary PED did not substantially decrease, suggesting that there was a previously unrecognized demand for PED services. The collections per ED visit were greater at the satellite ED, likely due to a higher collection rate.

NOAA Office of Exploration and Research > About OER > Organization > Map of

Science.gov (United States)

About OER Overview Organization Guiding Documents Organizational Structure Map of Staff and Affiliate of Staff and Affiliate Locations About OER Organization Map of Staff and Affiliate Locations Home About OER Overview Organization Guiding Documents Organizational Structure Map of Staff and Affiliate

Northeast Puerto Rico and Culebra Island - Benthic Habitat Map 2015

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This benthic habitat map was created from a semi-automated habitat mapping process, using a combination of bathymetry, satellite imagery, aerial imagery and...

Northeast Puerto Rico and Culebra Island - Geographic Zone Map 2015

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This geographic zone map was created by interpreting satellite and aerial imagery, seafloor topography (bathymetry model), and the new NEPR Benthic Habitat Map...

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.

ARC Code TI: Crisis Mapping Toolkit

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The Crisis Mapping Toolkit (CMT) is a collection of tools for processing geospatial data (images, satellite data, etc.) into cartographic products that improve...

On the Use of Global Flood Forecasts and Satellite-Derived Inundation Maps for Flood Monitoring in Data-Sparse Regions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Beatriz Revilla-Romero

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Early flood warning and real-time monitoring systems play a key role in flood risk reduction and disaster response decisions. Global-scale flood forecasting and satellite-based flood detection systems are currently operating, however their reliability for decision-making applications needs to be assessed. In this study, we performed comparative evaluations of several operational global flood forecasting and flood detection systems, using 10 major flood events recorded over 2012–2014. Specifically, we evaluated the spatial extent and temporal characteristics of flood detections from the Global Flood Detection System (GFDS and the Global Flood Awareness System (GloFAS. Furthermore, we compared the GFDS flood maps with those from NASA’s two Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS sensors. Results reveal that: (1 general agreement was found between the GFDS and MODIS flood detection systems, (2 large differences exist in the spatio-temporal characteristics of the GFDS detections and GloFAS forecasts, and (3 the quantitative validation of global flood disasters in data-sparse regions is highly challenging. Overall, satellite remote sensing provides useful near real-time flood information that can be useful for risk management. We highlight the known limitations of global flood detection and forecasting systems, and propose ways forward to improve the reliability of large-scale flood monitoring tools.

Mapping Submerged Habitats and Mangroves of Lampi Island Marine National Park (Myanmar from in Situ and Satellite Observations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Claudia Giardino

2015-12-01

Full Text Available In this study we produced the first thematic maps of submerged and coastal habitats of Lampi Island (Myanmar from in situ and satellite data. To focus on key elements of bio-diversity typically existing in tropical islands the detection of corals, seagrass, and mangrove forests was addressed. Satellite data were acquired from Landsat-8; for the purpose of validation Rapid-Eye data were also used. In situ data supporting image processing were collected in a field campaign performed from 28 February to 4 March 2015 at the time of sensors overpasses. A hybrid approach based on bio-optical modeling and supervised classification techniques was applied to atmospherically-corrected Landsat-8 data. Bottom depth estimations, to be used in the classification process of shallow waters, were in good agreement with depth soundings (R2 = 0.87. Corals were classified with producer and user accuracies of 58% and 77%, while a lower accuracy (producer and user accuracies of 50% was found for the seagrass due to the patchy distribution of meadows; accuracies more than 88% were obtained for mangrove forests. The classification indicated the presence of 18 mangroves sites with extension larger than 5 km2; for 15 of those the coexistence of corals and seagrass were also found in the fronting bays, suggesting a significant rate of biodiversity for the study area.

Using Worldview Satellite Imagery to Map Yield in Avocado (Persea americana: A Case Study in Bundaberg, Australia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrew Robson

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Accurate pre-harvest estimation of avocado (Persea americana cv. Haas yield offers a range of benefits to industry and growers. Currently there is no commercial yield monitor available for avocado tree crops and the manual count method used for yield forecasting can be highly inaccurate. Remote sensing using satellite imagery offers a potential means to achieve accurate pre-harvest yield forecasting. This study evaluated the accuracies of high resolution WorldView (WV 2 and 3 satellite imagery and targeted field sampling for the pre-harvest prediction of total fruit weight (kg·tree−1 and average fruit size (g and for mapping the spatial distribution of these yield parameters across the orchard block. WV 2 satellite imagery was acquired over two avocado orchards during 2014, and WV3 imagery was acquired in 2016 and 2017 over these same two orchards plus an additional three orchards. Sample trees representing high, medium and low vigour zones were selected from normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI derived from the WV images and sampled for total fruit weight (kg·tree−1 and average fruit size (g per tree. For each sample tree, spectral reflectance data was extracted from the eight band multispectral WV imagery and 18 vegetation indices (VIs derived. Principal component analysis (PCA and non-linear regression analysis was applied to each of the derived VIs to determine the index with the strongest relationship to the measured total fruit weight and average fruit size. For all trees measured over the three year period (2014, 2016, and 2017 a consistent positive relationship was identified between the VI using near infrared band one and the red edge band (RENDVI1 to both total fruit weight (kg·tree−1 (R2 = 0.45, 0.28, and 0.29 respectively and average fruit size (g (R2 = 0.56, 0.37, and 0.29 respectively across all orchard blocks. Separate analysis of each orchard block produced higher R2 values as well as identifying different

Satellite-aided survey sampling and implementation in low- and middle-income contexts: a low-cost/low-tech alternative.

Science.gov (United States)

Haenssgen, Marco J

2015-01-01

The increasing availability of online maps, satellite imagery, and digital technology can ease common constraints of survey sampling in low- and middle-income countries. However, existing approaches require specialised software and user skills, professional GPS equipment, and/or commercial data sources; they tend to neglect spatial sampling considerations when using satellite maps; and they continue to face implementation challenges analogous to conventional survey implementation methods. This paper presents an alternative way of utilising satellite maps and digital aides that aims to address these challenges. The case studies of two rural household surveys in Rajasthan (India) and Gansu (China) compare conventional survey sampling and implementation techniques with the use of online map services such as Google, Bing, and HERE maps. Modern yet basic digital technology can be integrated into the processes of preparing, implementing, and monitoring a rural household survey. Satellite-aided systematic random sampling enhanced the spatial representativeness of the village samples and entailed savings of approximately £4000 compared to conventional household listing, while reducing the duration of the main survey by at least 25 %. This low-cost/low-tech satellite-aided survey sampling approach can be useful for student researchers and resource-constrained research projects operating in low- and middle-income contexts with high survey implementation costs. While achieving transparent and efficient survey implementation at low costs, researchers aiming to adopt a similar process should be aware of the locational, technical, and logistical requirements as well as the methodological challenges of this strategy.

Urban and Rural Landslide Hazard and Exposure Mapping Using Landsat and Corona Satellite Imagery for Tehran and the Alborz Mountains, Iran

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexander Fekete

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Tehran, Karaj, Quazvin and nearby rural areas in the Alborz Mountains, Iran are prone to earthquake and landslide hazards. Risks for settlement areas, transport infrastructure and pastoralist areas exist due to a combination of natural as well as man-made factors. This study analyses data derived from satellite and airborne sensors, specifically, Landsat and declassified Corona data to identify landslide occurrence and urban sprawl. In a Geographic Information System, other data such as geology, topography, road network and river flows were integrated from various sources. A digital elevation model (DEM was computed based on contour lines that were extracted from topographic maps. The DEM allows for mapping topographic factors such as slope angle and aspect. Finally, change detection analysis has documented urban sprawl in massive dimensions since the 1970s. A multi-criteria landslide hazard and exposure zonation map was developed for a small rural area where several settlements and segments of roads were affected by landslides. The estimated risk areas were then overlaid with real landslide occurrences. The match of hypothetical and real event occurrence areas demonstrated the feasibility of this approach. The main contribution of this paper is to inform about recent landslide risks in Iran and how certain factors can be derived from spatial information.

Daily Weather Maps

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Several different government offices have published the Daily weather maps over its history. The publication has also gone by different names over time. The U.S....

An assessment of commonly employed satellite-based remote sensors for mapping mangrove species in Mexico using an NDVI-based classification scheme.

Science.gov (United States)

Valderrama-Landeros, L; Flores-de-Santiago, F; Kovacs, J M; Flores-Verdugo, F

2017-12-14

Optimizing the classification accuracy of a mangrove forest is of utmost importance for conservation practitioners. Mangrove forest mapping using satellite-based remote sensing techniques is by far the most common method of classification currently used given the logistical difficulties of field endeavors in these forested wetlands. However, there is now an abundance of options from which to choose in regards to satellite sensors, which has led to substantially different estimations of mangrove forest location and extent with particular concern for degraded systems. The objective of this study was to assess the accuracy of mangrove forest classification using different remotely sensed data sources (i.e., Landsat-8, SPOT-5, Sentinel-2, and WorldView-2) for a system located along the Pacific coast of Mexico. Specifically, we examined a stressed semiarid mangrove forest which offers a variety of conditions such as dead areas, degraded stands, healthy mangroves, and very dense mangrove island formations. The results indicated that Landsat-8 (30 m per pixel) had  the lowest overall accuracy at 64% and that WorldView-2 (1.6 m per pixel) had the highest at 93%. Moreover, the SPOT-5 and the Sentinel-2 classifications (10 m per pixel) were very similar having accuracies of 75 and 78%, respectively. In comparison to WorldView-2, the other sensors overestimated the extent of Laguncularia racemosa and underestimated the extent of Rhizophora mangle. When considering such type of sensors, the higher spatial resolution can be particularly important in mapping small mangrove islands that often occur in degraded mangrove systems.

Advancing Wetlands Mapping and Monitoring with GNSS Reflectometry

Science.gov (United States)

Zuffada, Cinzia; Chew, Clara; Nghiem, Son V.; Shah, Rashmi; Podest, Erika; Bloom, A. Anthony; Koning, Alexandra; Small, Eric; Schimel, David; Reager, J. T.; Mannucci, Anthony; Williamson, Walton; Cardellach, Estel

2016-08-01

Wetland dynamics is crucial to address changes in both atmospheric methane (CH4) and terrestrial water storage. Yet, both spatial distribution and temporal variability of wetlands remain highly unconstrained despite the existence of remote sensing products from past and present satellite sensors. An innovative approach to mapping wetlands is offered by the Global Navigation Satellite System Reflectometry (GNSS-R), which is a bistatic radar concept that takes advantage of the ever increasing number of GNSS transmitting satellites to yield many randomly distributed measurements with broad-area global coverage and rapid revisit time. Hence, this communication presents the science motivation for mapping of wetlands and monitoring of their dynamics, and shows the relevance of the GNSS-R technique in this context, relative to and in synergy with other existing measurement systems. Additionally, the communication discusses results of our data analysis on wetlands in the Amazon, specifically from the initial analysis of satellite data acquired by the TechDemoSat-1 mission launched in 2014. Finally, recommendations are provided for the design of a GNSS-R mission specifically to address wetlands science issues.

A dense camera network for cropland (CropInsight) - developing high spatiotemporal resolution crop Leaf Area Index (LAI) maps through network images and novel satellite data

Science.gov (United States)

Kimm, H.; Guan, K.; Luo, Y.; Peng, J.; Mascaro, J.; Peng, B.

2017-12-01

Monitoring crop growth conditions is of primary interest to crop yield forecasting, food production assessment, and risk management of individual farmers and agribusiness. Despite its importance, there are limited access to field level crop growth/condition information in the public domain. This scarcity of ground truth data also hampers the use of satellite remote sensing for crop monitoring due to the lack of validation. Here, we introduce a new camera network (CropInsight) to monitor crop phenology, growth, and conditions that are designed for the US Corn Belt landscape. Specifically, this network currently includes 40 sites (20 corn and 20 soybean fields) across southern half of the Champaign County, IL ( 800 km2). Its wide distribution and automatic operation enable the network to capture spatiotemporal variations of crop growth condition continuously at the regional scale. At each site, low-maintenance, and high-resolution RGB digital cameras are set up having a downward view from 4.5 m height to take continuous images. In this study, we will use these images and novel satellite data to construct daily LAI map of the Champaign County at 30 m spatial resolution. First, we will estimate LAI from the camera images and evaluate it using the LAI data collected from LAI-2200 (LI-COR, Lincoln, NE). Second, we will develop relationships between the camera-based LAI estimation and vegetation indices derived from a newly developed MODIS-Landsat fusion product (daily, 30 m resolution, RGB + NIR + SWIR bands) and the Planet Lab's high-resolution satellite data (daily, 5 meter, RGB). Finally, we will scale up the above relationships to generate high spatiotemporal resolution crop LAI map for the whole Champaign County. The proposed work has potentials to expand to other agro-ecosystems and to the broader US Corn Belt.

Fluxgate magnetometry for precise mapping of the Earth's field

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Primdahl, Fritz; Merayo, José M.G.; Brauer, Peter

2007-01-01

The requirements for precise global mapping of the Earth's vector magnetic field from a high inclination LEO satellite needs a stable and precise vector magnetometer. Equally important are the measurement of the stellar attitude of the vector sensor and establishment of the calibration by onboard...... comparison to an absolute scalar magnetometer. In addition, the position in orbit and the precise timing relative to the UTC is needed. Finally, the end-to-end system precision also depends on a known and controlled local satellite magnetic field.......The requirements for precise global mapping of the Earth's vector magnetic field from a high inclination LEO satellite needs a stable and precise vector magnetometer. Equally important are the measurement of the stellar attitude of the vector sensor and establishment of the calibration by onboard...

The satellite archaeological survey of Egypt

OpenAIRE

Sparavigna, Amelia Carolina

2011-01-01

A recent announcement of some pyramids, buried under the sand of Egypt and discovered by means of infrared remote sensing, renewed the interest on the archaeological surveys aided by satellites. Here we propose the use of images, obtained from those of Google Maps after some processing to enhance their details, to locate archaeological remains in Egypt.

Coastal flood inundation monitoring with Satellite C-band and L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar data

Science.gov (United States)

Ramsey, Elijah W.; Rangoonwala, Amina; Bannister, Terri

2013-01-01

Satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) was evaluated as a method to operationally monitor the occurrence and distribution of storm- and tidal-related flooding of spatially extensive coastal marshes within the north-central Gulf of Mexico. Maps representing the occurrence of marsh surface inundation were created from available Advanced Land Observation Satellite (ALOS) Phased Array type L-Band SAR (PALSAR) (L-band) (21 scenes with HH polarizations in Wide Beam [100 m]) data and Environmental Satellite (ENVISAT) Advanced SAR (ASAR) (C-band) data (24 scenes with VV and HH polarizations in Wide Swath [150 m]) during 2006-2009 covering 500 km of the Louisiana coastal zone. Mapping was primarily based on a decrease in backscatter between reference and target scenes, and as an extension of previous studies, the flood inundation mapping performance was assessed by the degree of correspondence between inundation mapping and inland water levels. Both PALSAR- and ASAR-based mapping at times were based on suboptimal reference scenes; however, ASAR performance seemed more sensitive to reference-scene quality and other types of scene variability. Related to water depth, PALSAR and ASAR mapping accuracies tended to be lower when water depths were shallow and increased as water levels decreased below or increased above the ground surface, but this pattern was more pronounced with ASAR. Overall, PALSAR-based inundation accuracies averaged 84% (n = 160), while ASAR-based mapping accuracies averaged 62% (n = 245).

Impact of GPS antenna phase center and code residual variation maps on orbit and baseline determination of GRACE

Science.gov (United States)

Mao, X.; Visser, P. N. A. M.; van den IJssel, J.

2017-06-01

Precision Orbit Determination (POD) is a prerequisite for the success of many Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) satellite missions. With high-quality, dual-frequency Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers, typically precisions of the order of a few cm are possible for single-satellite POD, and of a few mm for relative POD of formation flying spacecraft with baselines up to hundreds of km. To achieve the best precision, the use of Phase Center Variation (PCV) maps is indispensable. For LEO GPS receivers, often a-priori PCV maps are obtained by a pre-launch ground campaign, which is not able to represent the real space-borne environment of satellites. Therefore, in-flight calibration of the GPS antenna is more widely conducted. This paper shows that a further improvement is possible by including the so-called Code Residual Variation (CRV) maps in absolute/undifferenced and relative/Double-differenced (DD) POD schemes. Orbit solutions are produced for the GRACE satellite formation for a four months test period (August-November, 2014), demonstrating enhanced orbit precision after first using the in-flight PCV maps and a further improvement after including the CRV maps. The application of antenna maps leads to a better consistency with independent Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) and K-band Ranging (KBR) low-low Satellite-to-Satellite Tracking (ll-SST) observations. The inclusion of the CRV maps results also in a much better consistency between reduced-dynamic and kinematic orbit solutions for especially the cross-track direction. The improvements are largest for GRACE-B, where a cross-talk between the GPS main antenna and the occultation antenna yields higher systematic observation residuals. For high-precision relative POD which necessitates DD carrier-phase ambiguity fixing, in principle frequency-dependent PCV maps would be required. To this aim, use is made of an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) that is capable of optimizing relative spacecraft dynamics and iteratively fixing

GEO Satellites as Space Weather Sensors

Science.gov (United States)

2016-04-26

AFRL-AFOSR-VA-TR-2016-0161 GEO Satellites as Space Weather Sensors Kerri Cahoy MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 77 MASSACHUSETTS AVE CAMBRIDGE ... Cambridge , MA 02139 8. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMBER 9. SPONSORING/MONITORING AGENCY NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) AF Office of Scientific...Lohmeyer  and  Cahoy,  2013;   Lohmeyer,  et  al.,  2015].  From  the   statistical  analysis,  we  identified  that

How does sustainability certification affect the design process? Mapping final design projects at an architectural office

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Landgren, Mathilde; Jensen, Lotte Bjerregaard

2017-01-01

process and informing the industry of them. This has led to optimised design processes such as Integrated Energy Design, in which many decisions related to energy consumption and indoor climate are made in the early design stages. The current tendency is to use an expanded notion of sustainability......, derived from the sustainability certification system itself, and to apply it even in the early design process. This perspective emphasises all phases of the life cycle of a building. The goal of the present study was to map how a Danish architectural office approached sustainability in the projects......The context of the study is the very strict regulation of energy consumption for operating buildings in Denmark. It is difficult to meet the requirements by system optimisation in the final design phase, so recent research has focused on ways of meeting the target by adapting the whole design...

Map of Nasca Geoglyphs

Science.gov (United States)

Hanzalová, K.; Pavelka, K.

2013-07-01

The Czech Technical University in Prague in the cooperation with the University of Applied Sciences in Dresden (Germany) work on the Nasca Project. The cooperation started in 2004 and much work has been done since then. All work is connected with Nasca lines in southern Peru. The Nasca project started in 1995 and its main target is documentation and conservation of the Nasca lines. Most of the project results are presented as WebGIS application via Internet. In the face of the impending destruction of the soil drawings, it is possible to preserve this world cultural heritage for the posterity at least in a digital form. Creating of Nasca lines map is very useful. The map is in a digital form and it is also available as a paper map. The map contains planimetric component of the map, map lettering and altimetry. Thematic folder in this map is a vector layer of the geoglyphs in Nasca/Peru. Basis for planimetry are georeferenced satellite images, altimetry is created from digital elevation model. This map was created in ArcGis software.

MAP OF NASCA GEOGLYPHS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K. Hanzalová

2013-07-01

Full Text Available The Czech Technical University in Prague in the cooperation with the University of Applied Sciences in Dresden (Germany work on the Nasca Project. The cooperation started in 2004 and much work has been done since then. All work is connected with Nasca lines in southern Peru. The Nasca project started in 1995 and its main target is documentation and conservation of the Nasca lines. Most of the project results are presented as WebGIS application via Internet. In the face of the impending destruction of the soil drawings, it is possible to preserve this world cultural heritage for the posterity at least in a digital form. Creating of Nasca lines map is very useful. The map is in a digital form and it is also available as a paper map. The map contains planimetric component of the map, map lettering and altimetry. Thematic folder in this map is a vector layer of the geoglyphs in Nasca/Peru. Basis for planimetry are georeferenced satellite images, altimetry is created from digital elevation model. This map was created in ArcGis software.

Mapping post-fire forest regeneration and vegetation recovery using a combination of very high spatial resolution and hyperspectral satellite imagery

Science.gov (United States)

Mitri, George H.; Gitas, Ioannis Z.

2013-02-01

Careful evaluation of forest regeneration and vegetation recovery after a fire event provides vital information useful in land management. The use of remotely sensed data is considered to be especially suitable for monitoring ecosystem dynamics after fire. The aim of this work was to map post-fire forest regeneration and vegetation recovery on the Mediterranean island of Thasos by using a combination of very high spatial (VHS) resolution (QuickBird) and hyperspectral (EO-1 Hyperion) imagery and by employing object-based image analysis. More specifically, the work focused on (1) the separation and mapping of three major post-fire classes (forest regeneration, other vegetation recovery, unburned vegetation) existing within the fire perimeter, and (2) the differentiation and mapping of the two main forest regeneration classes, namely, Pinus brutia regeneration, and Pinus nigra regeneration. The data used in this study consisted of satellite images and field observations of homogeneous regenerated and revegetated areas. The methodology followed two main steps: a three-level image segmentation, and, a classification of the segmented images. The process resulted in the separation of classes related to the aforementioned objectives. The overall accuracy assessment revealed very promising results (approximately 83.7% overall accuracy, with a Kappa Index of Agreement of 0.79). The achieved accuracy was 8% higher when compared to the results reported in a previous work in which only the EO-1 Hyperion image was employed in order to map the same classes. Some classification confusions involving the classes of P. brutia regeneration and P. nigra regeneration were observed. This could be attributed to the absence of large and dense homogeneous areas of regenerated pine trees in the study area.

NOAA Office for Coastal Management Coastal Inundation Digital Elevation Model: Boston Weather Forecast Office (BOX WFO) - Massachusetts and Rhode Island

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — These data were created as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management's efforts to create an online mapping viewer...

Coupling Satellite and Ground-Based Instruments to Map Climate Forcing by Anthropogenic Aerosols

Science.gov (United States)

Charlson, Robert J.; Anderson, Theodore L.; Hostetler, Chris (Technical Monitor)

2000-01-01

Climate forcing by anthropogenic aerosols is a significant but highly uncertain factor in global climate change. Only satellites can offer the global coverage essential to reducing this uncertainty; however, satellite measurements must be coupled with correlative, in situ measurements both to constrain the aerosol optical properties required in satellite retrieval algorithms and to provide chemical identification of aerosol sources. This grant funded the first two years of a three-year project which seeks to develop methodologies for combining spaceborne lidar with in-situ aerosol data sets to improve estimates of direct aerosol climate forcing. Progress under this two-year grant consisted in the development and deployment of a new in-situ capability for measuring aerosol 180' backscatter and the extinction-to-backscatter ratio. This new measurement capacity allows definitive lidar/in-situ comparisons and improves our ability to interpret lidar data in terms of climatically relevant quantities such as the extinction coefficient and optical depth. Measurements were made along the coast of Washington State, in Central Illinois, over the Indian Ocean, and in the Central Pacific. Thus, this research, combined with previous measurements by others, is rapidly building toward a global data set of extinction-to-backscatter ratio for key aerosol types. Such information will be critical to interpreting lidar data from the upcoming PICASSO-CENA, or P-C, satellite mission. Another aspect of this project is to investigate innovative ways to couple the lidar-satellite signal with targeted in-situ measurements toward a direct determination of aerosol forcing. This aspect is progressing in collaboration with NASA Langley's P-C lidar simulator and radiative transfer modeling by the University of Lille, France.

Mapping global precipitation with satellite borne microwave radiometer and infrared radiometer using Kalman filter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Noda, S.; Sasashige, K.; Katagami, D.; Ushio, T.; Kubota, T.; Okamoto, K.; Iida, Y.; Kida, S.; Shige, S.; Shimomura, S.; Aonashi, K.; Inoue, T.; Morimoto, T.; Kawasaki, Z.

2007-01-01

Estimates of precipitation at a high time and space resolution are required for many important applications. In this paper, a new global precipitation map with high spatial (0.1 degree) and temporal (1 hour) resolution using Kalman filter technique is presented and evaluated. Infrared radiometer data, which are available globally nearly everywhere and nearly all the time from geostationary orbit, are used with the several microwave radiometers aboard the LEO satellites. IR data is used as a means to move the precipitation estimates from microwave observation during periods when microwave data are not available at a given location. Moving vector is produced by computing correlations on successive images of IR data. When precipitation is moved, the Kalman filter is applied for improving the moving technique in this research. The new approach showed a better score than the technique without Kalman filter. The correlation coefficient was 0.1 better than without the Kalman filter about 6 hours after the last microwave overpasses, and the RMS error was improved about 0.1 mm/h with the Kalman filter technique. This approach is unique in that 1) the precipitation estimates from the microwave radiometer is mainly used, 2) the IR temperature in every hour is also used for the precipitation estimates based on the Kalman filter theory

Morphodynamics of nearshore rhythmic sandbars in a mixed-energy environment (SW France): I. Mapping beach changes using visible satellite imagery

Science.gov (United States)

Lafon, V.; De Melo Apoluceno, D.; Dupuis, H.; Michel, D.; Howa, H.; Froidefond, J. M.

2004-10-01

This paper presents a new method to analyze the morphology and migration of shallow water sandbanks based on the retrieval of maps from high-resolution Spot satellite imagery. This approach was applied to the study of intertidal ridge and runnel systems and subtidal crescents that border the southwest coast of France. Maps were obtained from 16 Spot images recorded between 1986 and 2000. Ridge and runnel shapes, with regard to a reference level, were delineated using a watercolor reflectance code parameterized and validated with field data. Crescent plan shapes, which appear on the images due to water transparency or breaking-induced foam, were directly extracted. The spatial maps show that, in conformity with field surveys, the mean alongshore spacing of intertidal systems and crescents range from 370 ± 146 m (variability is indicated by standard deviation) to 462 ± 188 m, and from 579 ± 200 to 818 ± 214 m, respectively. Several couples of images also show that ridge and runnel systems and crescents move in the longshore drift direction (southward) by about 2.4-3.1 and 1 m day -1, respectively. Alongshore migration rates of intertidal systems are confirmed by field surveys, whilst crescent dynamics cannot be validated because there is no in situ data available. To complete these measurements, an analysis of the influence of wave climate on both the shape and movements of these rhythmic sedimentary patterns is proposed in a companion paper.

Modeling Earth Albedo for Satellites in Earth Orbit

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bhanderi, Dan; Bak, Thomas

2005-01-01

Many satellite are influences by the Earthøs albedo, though very few model schemes exist.in order to predict this phenomenon. Earth albedo is often treated as noise, or ignored completely. When applying solar cells in the attitude hardware, Earth albedo can cause the attitude estimate to deviate...... with as much as 20 deg. Digital Sun sensors with Earth albedo correction in hardware exist, but are expensive. In addition, albedo estimates are necessary in thermal calculations and power budgets. We present a modeling scheme base4d on Eartht reflectance, measured by NASA's Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer......, in which the Earth Probe Satellite has recorded reflectivity data daily since mid 1996. The mean of these data can be used to calculate the Earth albedo given the positions of the satellite and the Sun. Our results show that the albedo varies highly with the solar angle to the satellite's field of view...

Satellite Remote Sensing in Seismology. A Review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrew A. Tronin

2009-12-01

Full Text Available A wide range of satellite methods is applied now in seismology. The first applications of satellite data for earthquake exploration were initiated in the ‘70s, when active faults were mapped on satellite images. It was a pure and simple extrapolation of airphoto geological interpretation methods into space. The modern embodiment of this method is alignment analysis. Time series of alignments on the Earth's surface are investigated before and after the earthquake. A further application of satellite data in seismology is related with geophysical methods. Electromagnetic methods have about the same long history of application for seismology. Stable statistical estimations of ionosphere-lithosphere relation were obtained based on satellite ionozonds. The most successful current project "DEMETER" shows impressive results. Satellite thermal infra-red data were applied for earthquake research in the next step. Numerous results have confirmed previous observations of thermal anomalies on the Earth's surface prior to earthquakes. A modern trend is the application of the outgoing long-wave radiation for earthquake research. In ‘80s a new technology—satellite radar interferometry—opened a new page. Spectacular pictures of co-seismic deformations were presented. Current researches are moving in the direction of pre-earthquake deformation detection. GPS technology is also widely used in seismology both for ionosphere sounding and for ground movement detection. Satellite gravimetry has demonstrated its first very impressive results on the example of the catastrophic Indonesian earthquake in 2004. Relatively new applications of remote sensing for seismology as atmospheric sounding, gas observations, and cloud analysis are considered as possible candidates for applications.

NOAA Office for Coastal Management Coastal Inundation Digital Elevation Model: San Juan, Puerto Rico Weather Forecast Office (SJU WFO) - Puerto Rico

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — These data were created as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management's efforts to create an online mapping viewer...

NOAA Office for Coastal Management Coastal Inundation Digital Elevation Model: Gray/Portland Weather Forecast Office (GYX WFO) - Maine and New Hampshire

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — These data were created as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management's efforts to create an online mapping viewer...

Super-Resolution for "Jilin-1" Satellite Video Imagery via a Convolutional Network.

Science.gov (United States)

Xiao, Aoran; Wang, Zhongyuan; Wang, Lei; Ren, Yexian

2018-04-13

Super-resolution for satellite video attaches much significance to earth observation accuracy, and the special imaging and transmission conditions on the video satellite pose great challenges to this task. The existing deep convolutional neural-network-based methods require pre-processing or post-processing to be adapted to a high-resolution size or pixel format, leading to reduced performance and extra complexity. To this end, this paper proposes a five-layer end-to-end network structure without any pre-processing and post-processing, but imposes a reshape or deconvolution layer at the end of the network to retain the distribution of ground objects within the image. Meanwhile, we formulate a joint loss function by combining the output and high-dimensional features of a non-linear mapping network to precisely learn the desirable mapping relationship between low-resolution images and their high-resolution counterparts. Also, we use satellite video data itself as a training set, which favors consistency between training and testing images and promotes the method's practicality. Experimental results on "Jilin-1" satellite video imagery show that this method demonstrates a superior performance in terms of both visual effects and measure metrics over competing methods.

Emergency Response Damage Assessment using Satellite Remote Sensing Data

Science.gov (United States)

Clandillon, Stephen; Yésou, Hervé; Schneiderhan, Tobias; de Boissezon, Hélène; de Fraipont, Paul

2013-04-01

During disasters rescue and relief organisations need quick access to reliable and accurate information to be better equipped to do their job. It is increasingly felt that satellites offer a unique near real time (NRT) tool to aid disaster management. A short introduction to the International Charter 'Space and Major Disasters', in operation since 2000 promoting worldwide cooperation among member space agencies, will be given as it is the foundation on which satellite-based, emergency response, damage assessment has been built. Other complementary mechanisms will also be discussed. The user access, triggering mechanism, an essential component for this user-driven service, will be highlighted with its 24/7 single access point. Then, a clear distinction will be made between data provision and geo-information delivery mechanisms to underline the user need for geo-information that is easily integrated into their working environments. Briefly, the path to assured emergency response product quality will be presented beginning with user requirements, expressed early-on, for emergency response value-adding services. Initiatives were then established, supported by national and European institutions, to develop the sector, with SERTIT and DLR being key players, providing support to decision makers in headquarters and relief teams in the field. To consistently meet the high quality levels demanded by users, rapid mapping has been transformed via workflow and quality control standardisation to improve both speed and quality. As such, SERTIT located in Alsace, France, and DLR/ZKI from Bavaria, Germany, join their knowledge in this presentation to report about recent standards as both have ISO certified their rapid mapping services based on experienced, well-trained, 24/7 on-call teams and established systems providing the first crisis analysis product in 6 hours after satellite data reception. The three main product types provided are then outlined: up-to-date pre

Performance Evaluation of Three Different High Resolution Satellite Images in Semi-Automatic Urban Illegal Building Detection

Science.gov (United States)

Khalilimoghadama, N.; Delavar, M. R.; Hanachi, P.

2017-09-01

The problem of overcrowding of mega cities has been bolded in recent years. To meet the need of housing this increased population, which is of great importance in mega cities, a huge number of buildings are constructed annually. With the ever-increasing trend of building constructions, we are faced with the growing trend of building infractions and illegal buildings (IBs). Acquiring multi-temporal satellite images and using change detection techniques is one of the proper methods of IB monitoring. Using the type of satellite images with different spatial and spectral resolutions has always been an issue in efficient detection of the building changes. In this research, three bi-temporal high-resolution satellite images of IRS-P5, GeoEye-1 and QuickBird sensors acquired from the west of metropolitan area of Tehran, capital of Iran, in addition to city maps and municipality property database were used to detect the under construction buildings with improved performance and accuracy. Furthermore, determining the employed bi-temporal satellite images to provide better performance and accuracy in the case of IB detection is the other purpose of this research. The Kappa coefficients of 70 %, 64 %, and 68 % were obtained for producing change image maps using GeoEye-1, IRS-P5, and QuickBird satellite images, respectively. In addition, the overall accuracies of 100 %, 6 %, and 83 % were achieved for IB detection using the satellite images, respectively. These accuracies substantiate the fact that the GeoEye-1 satellite images had the best performance among the employed images in producing change image map and detecting the IBs.

Results of a Musa mapping project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lagoda, P.J.L.; Noyer, J.L.; Baurens, F.C.

1998-01-01

A completed map, based on two selfed progenies from two banana cultivars (M53 and SFB5) is presented (roughly 1200 cM). More than three hundred markers are linked in 11 linkage groups representing the genome (2n=22) of Musa acuminata. Roughly one third of the markers are co-dominant restriction fragment polymorphisms (RFLPs; one hundred) or micro satellites (thirty). Two thirds of the markers are dominant amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLPs; 10% could be considered to be co-dominant). The mean linkage distance is 3 cM, but marker density still should be increased on a couple of linkage groups. Particularities for a mapping job in banana are discussed. Due to Musa acuminata sub-species specific translocations, up to 36% of all the markers tested show important segregation distortions. The need for a cooperative mapping initiative based on a proposed ''frame-map'' harbouring evenly spaced co-dominant ''anchor'' markers is proposed. CIRAD has published 45 sequence tagged micro satellite sites (STMS) in the EMBL database which are accessible at: ''http://www.ebi.ac.uk/'' using the keywords LAGODA and MICROSATELLITE (EMBL accessions X87258 to X87265, X90740 to X90750 and Z85950 to Z85977). (author)

Polar2Grid 2.0: Reprojecting Satellite Data Made Easy

Science.gov (United States)

Hoese, D.; Strabala, K.

2015-12-01

Polar-orbiting multi-band meteorological sensors such as those on the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP) satellite pose substantial challenges for taking imagery the last mile to forecast offices, scientific analysis environments, and the general public. To do this quickly and easily, the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) at the University of Wisconsin has created an open-source, modular application system, Polar2Grid. This bundled solution automates tools for converting various satellite products like those from VIIRS and MODIS into a variety of output formats, including GeoTIFFs, AWIPS compatible NetCDF files, and NinJo forecasting workstation compatible TIFF images. In addition to traditional visible and infrared imagery, Polar2Grid includes three perceptual enhancements for the VIIRS Day-Night Band (DNB), as well as providing the capability to create sharpened true color, sharpened false color, and user-defined RGB images. Polar2Grid performs conversions and projections in seconds on large swaths of data. Polar2Grid is currently providing VIIRS imagery over the Continental United States, as well as Alaska and Hawaii, from various Direct-Broadcast antennas to operational forecasters at the NOAA National Weather Service (NWS) offices in their AWIPS terminals, within minutes of an overpass of the Suomi NPP satellite. Three years after Polar2Grid development started, the Polar2Grid team is now releasing version 2.0 of the software; supporting more sensors, generating more products, and providing all of its features in an easy to use command line interface.

Autonomous Planetary 3-D Reconstruction From Satellite Images

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Denver, Troelz

1999-01-01

is discussed.Based on such features, 3-D representations may be compiled from two or more 2-D satellite images. The main purposes of such a mapping system are extraction of landing sites, objects of scientific interest and general planetary surveying. All data processing is performed autonomously onboard...

Europe over the moon with new satellite

CERN Document Server

2002-01-01

ESA has taken delivery of a 3kg device that it plans to use to complete the first high-resolution map of the moon. The D-CIXS (Demonstration of a Compact Imaging X-Ray Spectrometer) will be aboard the SMART-1 satellite to be launched from French Guyana in South America next February (1/2 page).

Using Fuzzy SOM Strategy for Satellite Image Retrieval and Information Mining

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yo-Ping Huang

2008-02-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes an efficient satellite image retrieval and knowledge discovery model. The strategy comprises two major parts. First, a computational algorithm is used for off-line satellite image feature extraction, image data representation and image retrieval. Low level features are automatically extracted from the segmented regions of satellite images. A self-organization feature map is used to construct a two-layer satellite image concept hierarchy. The events are stored in one layer and the corresponding feature vectors are categorized in the other layer. Second, a user friendly interface is provided that retrieves images of interest and mines useful information based on the events in the concept hierarchy. The proposed system is evaluated with prominent features such as typhoons or high-pressure masses.

The National Map product and services directory

Science.gov (United States)

Newell, Mark R.

2008-01-01

As one of the cornerstones of the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) National Geospatial Program (NGP), The National Map is a collaborative effort among the USGS and other Federal, state, and local partners to improve and deliver topographic information for the Nation. It has many uses ranging from recreation to scientific analysis to emergency response. The National Map is easily accessible for display on the Web, as products, and as downloadable data. The geographic information available from The National Map includes orthoimagery (aerial photographs), elevation, geographic names, hydrography, boundaries, transportation, structures, and land cover. Other types of geographic information can be added to create specific types of maps. Of major importance, The National Map currently is being transformed to better serve the geospatial community. The USGS National Geospatial Program Office (NGPO) was established to provide leadership for placing geographic knowledge at the fingertips of the Nation. The office supports The National Map, Geospatial One-Stop (GOS), National Atlas of the United States®, and the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC). This integrated portfolio of geospatial information and data supports the essential components of delivering the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) and capitalizing on the power of place.

Rapid response flood detection using the MSG geostationary satellite

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Proud, Simon Richard; Fensholt, Rasmus; Rasmussen, Laura Vang

2011-01-01

A novel technique for the detection of flooded land using satellite data is presented. This new method takes advantage of the high temporal resolution of the Spinning Enhanced Visible and InfraRed Imager (SEVIRI) aboard the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) series of satellites to derive several p...... of data gathered during the 2009 flooding events in West Africa shows that the presented method can detect floods of comparable size to the SEVIRI pixel resolution on a short timescale, making it a valuable tool for large scale flood mapping....

Cosmology with the Planck Satellite

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2015-01-01

Sketched out in 1992, selected by ESA in 1996, and launched in 2009, the Planck satellite was shut off in 2013, after a measuring mission that exceeded all expectations. The Planck collaboration delivered a first set of cosmological data and results in March 21st 2013, and the full set in February 2015. Part of the data delivery is a "definitive" map of the anisotropies of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), its angular power spectrum together with their full statistical characterisation. The 2015 delivery also includes pioneering polarisation data. The temperature anisotropy map displays minuscule variations as a function of the observing direction, of rms ~100microK, of the fossil radiation around its mean temperature of 2.725K. Other maps reveal the CMB polarisation. The anisotropies are the imprint of the primordial fluctuations which initiated the growth of the large scale structures of the Universe, as transformed by their evolution, in particular during the first 370 000 years, as well as finer e...

Quantitative and Qualitative Assessment of Soil Erosion Risk in Małopolska (Poland), Supported by an Object-Based Analysis of High-Resolution Satellite Images

Science.gov (United States)

Drzewiecki, Wojciech; Wężyk, Piotr; Pierzchalski, Marcin; Szafrańska, Beata

2014-06-01

In 2011 the Marshal Office of Małopolska Voivodeship decided to evaluate the vulnerability of soils to water erosion for the entire region. The quantitative and qualitative assessment of the erosion risk for the soils of the Małopolska region was done based on the USLE approach. The special work-flow of geoinformation technologies was used to fulfil this goal. A high-resolution soil map, together with rainfall data, a detailed digital elevation model and statistical information about areas sown with particular crops created the input information for erosion modelling in GIS environment. The satellite remote sensing technology and the object-based image analysis (OBIA) approach gave valuable support to this study. RapidEye satellite images were used to obtain the essential up-to-date data about land use and vegetation cover for the entire region (15,000 km2). The application of OBIA also led to defining the direction of field cultivation and the mapping of contour tillage areas. As a result, the spatially differentiated values of erosion control practice factor were used. Both, the potential and the actual soil erosion risk were assessed quantificatively and qualitatively. The results of the erosion assessment in the Małopolska Voivodeship reveal the fact that a majority of its agricultural lands is characterized by moderate or low erosion risk levels. However, high-resolution erosion risk maps show its substantial spatial diversity. According to our study, average or higher actual erosion intensity levels occur for 10.6 % of agricultural land, i.e. 3.6 % of the entire voivodeship area. In 20 % of the municipalities there is a very urgent demand for erosion control. In the next 23 % an urgent erosion control is needed. Our study showed that even a slight improvement of P-factor estimation may have an influence on modeling results. In our case, despite a marginal change of erosion assessment figures on a regional scale, the influence on the final prioritization of

Mapping Above-Ground Biomass of Winter Oilseed Rape Using High Spatial Resolution Satellite Data at Parcel Scale under Waterlogging Conditions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jiahui Han

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Oilseed rape (Brassica napus L. is one of the three most important oil crops in China, and is regarded as a drought-tolerant oilseed crop. However, it is commonly sensitive to waterlogging, which usually refers to an adverse environment that limits crop development. Moreover, crop growth and soil irrigation can be monitored at a regional level using remote sensing data. High spatial resolution optical satellite sensors are very useful to capture and resist unfavorable field conditions at the sub-field scale. In this study, four different optical sensors, i.e., Pleiades-1A, Worldview-2, Worldview-3, and SPOT-6, were used to estimate the dry above-ground biomass (AGB of oilseed rape and track the seasonal growth dynamics. In addition, three different soil water content field experiments were carried out at different oilseed rape growth stages from November 2014 to May 2015 in Northern Zhejiang province, China. As a significant indicator of crop productivity, AGB was measured during the seasonal growth stages of the oilseed rape at the experimental plots. Several representative vegetation indices (VIs obtained from multiple satellite sensors were compared with the simultaneously-collected oilseed rape AGB. Results showed that the estimation model using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI with a power regression model performed best through the seasonal growth dynamics, with the highest coefficient of determination (R2 = 0.77, the smallest root mean square error (RMSE = 104.64 g/m2, and the relative RMSE (rRMSE = 21%. It is concluded that the use of selected VIs and high spatial multiple satellite data can significantly estimate AGB during the winter oilseed rape growth stages, and can be applied to map the variability of winter oilseed rape at the sub-field level under different waterlogging conditions, which is very promising in the application of agricultural irrigation and precision agriculture.

The Nimbus satellites - Pioneering earth observers

Science.gov (United States)

White, Carolynne

1990-01-01

The many scientific achievements of the Nimbus series of seven satellites for low-altitude atmospheric research and global weather surveillance are reviewed. The series provides information on fishery resources, weather modeling, atmospheric pollution monitoring, earth's radiation budget, ozone monitoring, ocean dynamics, and the effects of cloudiness. Data produced by the forty-eight instruments and sensors flown on the satellites are applied in the fields of oceanography, hydrology, geology, geomorphology, geography, cartography, agriculture and meteorology. The instruments include the Coastal Zone Color Scanner (which depicts phytoplankton concentrations in coastal areas), the Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (which measures sea-surface temperatures and sea-surface wind-speed), and the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (which provides information on total amounts of ozone in the earth's atmosphere).

Enhanced-Resolution Satellite Microwave Brightness Temperature Records for Mapping Boreal-Arctic Landscape Freeze-Thaw Heterogeneity

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Y.; Du, J.; Kimball, J. S.

2017-12-01

The landscape freeze-thaw (FT) status derived from satellite microwave remote sensing is closely linked to vegetation phenology and productivity, surface energy exchange, evapotranspiration, snow/ice melt dynamics, and trace gas fluxes over land areas affected by seasonally frozen temperatures. A long-term global satellite microwave Earth System Data Record of daily landscape freeze-thaw status (FT-ESDR) was developed using similar calibrated 37GHz, vertically-polarized (V-pol) brightness temperatures (Tb) from SMMR, SSM/I, and SSMIS sensors. The FT-ESDR shows mean annual spatial classification accuracies of 90.3 and 84.3 % for PM and AM overpass retrievals relative surface air temperature (SAT) measurement based FT estimates from global weather stations. However, the coarse FT-ESDR gridding (25-km) is insufficient to distinguish finer scale FT heterogeneity. In this study, we tested alternative finer scale FT estimates derived from two enhanced polar-grid (3.125-km and 6-km resolution), 36.5 GHz V-pol Tb records derived from calibrated AMSR-E and AMSR2 sensor observations. The daily FT estimates are derived using a modified seasonal threshold algorithm that classifies daily Tb variations in relation to grid cell-wise FT thresholds calibrated using ERA-Interim reanalysis based SAT, downscaled using a digital terrain map and estimated temperature lapse rates. The resulting polar-grid FT records for a selected study year (2004) show mean annual spatial classification accuracies of 90.1% (84.2%) and 93.1% (85.8%) for respective PM (AM) 3.125km and 6-km Tb retrievals relative to in situ SAT measurement based FT estimates from regional weather stations. Areas with enhanced FT accuracy include water-land boundaries and mountainous terrain. Differences in FT patterns and relative accuracy obtained from the enhanced grid Tb records were attributed to several factors, including different noise contributions from underlying Tb processing and spatial mismatches between Tb

NOAA Office for Coastal Management Coastal Inundation Digital Elevation Model: Baltimore/Washington Weather Forecast Office (LWX WFO) - Maryland (West of Chesapeake Bay)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — These data were created as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management's efforts to create an online mapping viewer...

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...

The Satellite Data Thematic Core Service within the EPOS Research Infrastructure

Science.gov (United States)

Manunta, Michele; Casu, Francesco; Zinno, Ivana; De Luca, Claudio; Buonanno, Sabatino; Zeni, Giovanni; Wright, Tim; Hooper, Andy; Diament, Michel; Ostanciaux, Emilie; Mandea, Mioara; Walter, Thomas; Maccaferri, Francesco; Fernandez, Josè; Stramondo, Salvatore; Bignami, Christian; Bally, Philippe; Pinto, Salvatore; Marin, Alessandro; Cuomo, Antonio

2017-04-01

EPOS, the European Plate Observing System, is a long-term plan to facilitate the integrated use of data, data products, software and services, available from distributed Research Infrastructures (RI), for solid Earth science in Europe. Indeed, EPOS integrates a large number of existing European RIs belonging to several fields of the Earth science, from seismology to geodesy, near fault and volcanic observatories as well as anthropogenic hazards. The EPOS vision is that the integration of the existing national and trans-national research infrastructures will increase access and use of the multidisciplinary data recorded by the solid Earth monitoring networks, acquired in laboratory experiments and/or produced by computational simulations. The establishment of EPOS will foster the interoperability of products and services in the Earth science field to a worldwide community of users. Accordingly, the EPOS aim is to integrate the diverse and advanced European Research Infrastructures for solid Earth science, and build on new e-science opportunities to monitor and understand the dynamic and complex solid-Earth System. One of the EPOS Thematic Core Services (TCS), referred to as Satellite Data, aims at developing, implementing and deploying advanced satellite data products and services, mainly based on Copernicus data (namely Sentinel acquisitions), for the Earth science community. This work intends to present the technological enhancements, fostered by EPOS, to deploy effective satellite services in a harmonized and integrated way. In particular, the Satellite Data TCS will deploy five services, EPOSAR, GDM, COMET, 3D-Def and MOD, which are mainly based on the exploitation of SAR data acquired by the Sentinel-1 constellation and designed to provide information on Earth surface displacements. In particular, the planned services will provide both advanced DInSAR products (deformation maps, velocity maps, deformation time series) and value-added measurements (source model

Exploitation of Amplitude and Phase of Satellite SAR Images for Landslide Mapping: The Case of Montescaglioso (South Italy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Federico Raspini

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Pre- event and event landslide deformations have been detected and measured for the landslide that occurred on 3 December 2013 on the south-western slope of the Montescaglioso village (Basilicata Region, southern Italy. In this paper, ground displacements have been mapped through an integrated analysis based on a series of high resolution SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar images acquired by the Italian constellation of satellites COSMO-SkyMed. Analysis has been performed by exploiting both phase (through multi-image SAR interferometry and amplitude information (through speckle tracking techniques of the satellite images. SAR Interferometry, applied to images taken before the event, revealed a general pre-event movement, in the order of a few mm/yr, in the south-western slope of the Montescaglioso village. Highest pre-event velocities, ranging between 8 and 12 mm/yr, have been recorded in the sector of the slope where the first movement of the landslide took place. Speckle tracking, applied to images acquired before and after the event, allowed the retrieval of the 3D deformation field produced by the landslide. It also showed that ground displacements produced by the landslide have a dominant SSW component, with values exceeding 10 m for large sectors of the landslide area, with local peaks of 20 m in its central and deposit areas. Two minor landslides with a dominant SSE direction, which were detected in the upper parts of the slope, likely also occurred as secondary phenomena as consequence of the SSW movement of the main Montescaglioso landslide.

77 FR 55783 - Verification of Statements of Account Submitted by Cable Operators and Satellite Carriers

Science.gov (United States)

2012-09-11

... the Office by cable operators and satellite carriers. Initial comments are available for review on the... Program Suppliers represent copyright owners that produce and/or syndicate movies, programs, and specials...

Monitoring Corals and Submerged Aquatic Vegetation in Western Pacific Using Satellite Remote Sensing Integrated with Field Data

Science.gov (United States)

Roelfsema, C. M.; Phinn, S. R.; Lyons, M. B.; Kovacs, E.; Saunders, M. I.; Leon, J. X.

2013-12-01

Corals and Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (SAV) are typically found in highly dynamic environments where the magnitude and types of physical and biological processes controlling their distribution, diversity and function changes dramatically. Recent advances in the types of satellite image data and the length of their archives that are available globally, coupled with new techniques for extracting environmental information from these data sets has enabled significant advances to be made in our ability to map and monitor coral and SAV environments. Object Based Image Analysis techniques are one of the most significant advances in information extraction techniques for processing images to deliver environmental information at multiple spatial scales. This poster demonstrates OBIA applied to high spatial resolution satellite image data to map and monitor coral and SAV communities across a variety of environments in the Western Pacific that vary in their extent, biological composition, forcing physical factors and location. High spatial resolution satellite imagery (Quickbird, Ikonos and Worldview2) were acquired coincident with field surveys on each reef to collect georeferenced benthic photo transects, over various areas in the Western Pacific. Base line maps were created, from Roviana Lagoon Solomon island (600 km2), Bikini Atoll Marshall Island (800 Km2), Lizard Island, Australia (30 km2) and time series maps for geomorphic and benthic communities were collected for Heron Reef, Australia (24 km2) and Eastern Banks area of Moreton Bay, Australia (200 km2). The satellite image data were corrected for radiometric and atmospheric distortions to at-surface reflectance. Georeferenced benthic photos were acquired by divers or Autonomous Underwater Vehicles, analysed for benthic cover composition, and used for calibration and validation purposes. Hierarchical mapping from: reef/non-reef (1000's - 10000's m); reef type (100's - 1000's m); 'geomorphic zone' (10's - 100's m); to

[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.

Accurate 3D Mapping Algorithm for Flexible Antennas

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Saed Asaly

2018-01-01

Full Text Available This work addresses the problem of performing an accurate 3D mapping of a flexible antenna surface. Consider a high-gain satellite flexible antenna; even a submillimeter change in the antenna surface may lead to a considerable loss in the antenna gain. Using a robotic subreflector, such changes can be compensated for. Yet, in order to perform such tuning, an accurate 3D mapping of the main antenna is required. This paper presents a general method for performing an accurate 3D mapping of marked surfaces such as satellite dish antennas. Motivated by the novel technology for nanosatellites with flexible high-gain antennas, we propose a new accurate mapping framework which requires a small-sized monocamera and known patterns on the antenna surface. The experimental result shows that the presented mapping method can detect changes up to 0.1-millimeter accuracy, while the camera is located 1 meter away from the dish, allowing an RF antenna optimization for Ka and Ku frequencies. Such optimization process can improve the gain of the flexible antennas and allow an adaptive beam shaping. The presented method is currently being implemented on a nanosatellite which is scheduled to be launched at the end of 2018.

Geomorphological mapping of shallow landslides using UAVs

Science.gov (United States)

Fiorucci, Federica; Giordan, Daniele; Dutto, Furio; Rossi, Mauro; Guzzetti, Fausto

2015-04-01

The mapping of event shallow landslides is a critical activity, due to the large number of phenomena, mostly with small dimension, affecting extensive areas. This is commonly done through aerial photo-interpretation or through field surveys. Nowadays, landslide maps can be realized exploiting other methods/technologies: (i) airborne LiDARs, (ii) stereoscopic satellite images, and (iii) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). In addition to the landslide maps, these methods/technologies allow the generation of updated Digital Terrain Models (DTM). In December 2013, in the Collazzone area (Umbria, Central Italy), an intense rainfall event triggered a large number of shallow landslides. To map the landslides occurred in the area, we exploited data and images obtained through (A) an airborne LiDAR survey, (B) a remote controlled optocopter (equipped with a Canon EOS M) survey, and (C) a stereoscopic satellite WorldView II MS. To evaluate the mapping accuracy of these methods, we select two landslides and we mapped them using a GPS RTK instrumentation. We consider the GPS survey as the benchmark being the most accurate system. The results of the comparison allow to highlight pros and cons of the methods/technologies used. LiDAR can be considered the most accurate system and in addition it allows the extraction and the classification of the digital surface models from the surveyed point cloud. Conversely, LiDAR requires additional time for the flight planning, and specific data analysis user capabilities. The analysis of the satellite WorldView II MS images facilitates the landslide mapping over large areas, but at the expenses of a minor resolution to detect the smaller landslides and their boundaries. UAVs can be considered the cheapest and fastest solution for the acquisition of high resolution ortho-photographs on limited areas, and the best solution for a multi-temporal analysis of specific landslide phenomena. Limitations are due to (i) the needs of optimal climatic

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 communication system for emergency monitoring within the Chernobyl exclusion zone

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Franchini, C.; Mensa, M.; Kanevsky, V.A.

1997-01-01

A Satellite Emergency Monitoring system of the Chernobyl Exclusive Zone (SEM CEZ) was designed to provide the Ukraine authorities and the neighbouring countries with updated information when an emergency situation occurs in the Exclusion Zone. This is of particular importance when environment contamination has transboundary effect. SEM system consists of mobile and fixed sensors reporting data via a dedicated satellite communications link. Mobile sensors are fitted with Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers that determine current coordinates of the sensor. Sensors data are transmitted to the Emergency Monitoring Centre equipped with PC and a satellite terminal. Both sensors data and the current position are visualized on digital maps

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.

Viking lander tracking contributions to Mars mapping

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Michael, W.H. Jr.

1979-01-01

The major recent advances in planetary mapping have been accomplished through use of photography from orbiting satellites, as is the case for Mars with Mariner and Viking photographs. The requirement for greater precision demands that inputs to the photogrammatic process be more precisely defined. This paper describes how analyses of Doppler and ranging data from the Viking landers are contributing to more precise mapping of Mars in several specific areas. (Auth.)

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.

Forest Tree Species Distribution Mapping Using Landsat Satellite Imagery and Topographic Variables with the Maximum Entropy Method in Mongolia

Science.gov (United States)

Hao Chiang, Shou; Valdez, Miguel; Chen, Chi-Farn

2016-06-01

Forest is a very important ecosystem and natural resource for living things. Based on forest inventories, government is able to make decisions to converse, improve and manage forests in a sustainable way. Field work for forestry investigation is difficult and time consuming, because it needs intensive physical labor and the costs are high, especially surveying in remote mountainous regions. A reliable forest inventory can give us a more accurate and timely information to develop new and efficient approaches of forest management. The remote sensing technology has been recently used for forest investigation at a large scale. To produce an informative forest inventory, forest attributes, including tree species are unavoidably required to be considered. In this study the aim is to classify forest tree species in Erdenebulgan County, Huwsgul province in Mongolia, using Maximum Entropy method. The study area is covered by a dense forest which is almost 70% of total territorial extension of Erdenebulgan County and is located in a high mountain region in northern Mongolia. For this study, Landsat satellite imagery and a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) were acquired to perform tree species mapping. The forest tree species inventory map was collected from the Forest Division of the Mongolian Ministry of Nature and Environment as training data and also used as ground truth to perform the accuracy assessment of the tree species classification. Landsat images and DEM were processed for maximum entropy modeling, and this study applied the model with two experiments. The first one is to use Landsat surface reflectance for tree species classification; and the second experiment incorporates terrain variables in addition to the Landsat surface reflectance to perform the tree species classification. All experimental results were compared with the tree species inventory to assess the classification accuracy. Results show that the second one which uses Landsat surface reflectance coupled

FOREST TREE SPECIES DISTRIBUTION MAPPING USING LANDSAT SATELLITE IMAGERY AND TOPOGRAPHIC VARIABLES WITH THE MAXIMUM ENTROPY METHOD IN MONGOLIA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. H. Chiang

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Forest is a very important ecosystem and natural resource for living things. Based on forest inventories, government is able to make decisions to converse, improve and manage forests in a sustainable way. Field work for forestry investigation is difficult and time consuming, because it needs intensive physical labor and the costs are high, especially surveying in remote mountainous regions. A reliable forest inventory can give us a more accurate and timely information to develop new and efficient approaches of forest management. The remote sensing technology has been recently used for forest investigation at a large scale. To produce an informative forest inventory, forest attributes, including tree species are unavoidably required to be considered. In this study the aim is to classify forest tree species in Erdenebulgan County, Huwsgul province in Mongolia, using Maximum Entropy method. The study area is covered by a dense forest which is almost 70% of total territorial extension of Erdenebulgan County and is located in a high mountain region in northern Mongolia. For this study, Landsat satellite imagery and a Digital Elevation Model (DEM were acquired to perform tree species mapping. The forest tree species inventory map was collected from the Forest Division of the Mongolian Ministry of Nature and Environment as training data and also used as ground truth to perform the accuracy assessment of the tree species classification. Landsat images and DEM were processed for maximum entropy modeling, and this study applied the model with two experiments. The first one is to use Landsat surface reflectance for tree species classification; and the second experiment incorporates terrain variables in addition to the Landsat surface reflectance to perform the tree species classification. All experimental results were compared with the tree species inventory to assess the classification accuracy. Results show that the second one which uses Landsat surface

Semi-automatic mapping of linear-trending bedforms using 'Self-Organizing Maps' algorithm

Science.gov (United States)

Foroutan, M.; Zimbelman, J. R.

2017-09-01

Increased application of high resolution spatial data such as high resolution satellite or Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) images from Earth, as well as High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) images from Mars, makes it necessary to increase automation techniques capable of extracting detailed geomorphologic elements from such large data sets. Model validation by repeated images in environmental management studies such as climate-related changes as well as increasing access to high-resolution satellite images underline the demand for detailed automatic image-processing techniques in remote sensing. This study presents a methodology based on an unsupervised Artificial Neural Network (ANN) algorithm, known as Self Organizing Maps (SOM), to achieve the semi-automatic extraction of linear features with small footprints on satellite images. SOM is based on competitive learning and is efficient for handling huge data sets. We applied the SOM algorithm to high resolution satellite images of Earth and Mars (Quickbird, Worldview and HiRISE) in order to facilitate and speed up image analysis along with the improvement of the accuracy of results. About 98% overall accuracy and 0.001 quantization error in the recognition of small linear-trending bedforms demonstrate a promising framework.

Mapping the extent of abandoned farmland in Central and Eastern Europe using MODIS time series satellite data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alcantara, Camilo; Kuemmerle, Tobias; Griffiths, Patrick; Hostert, Patrick; Knorn, Jan; Müller, Daniel; Sieber, Anika; Baumann, Matthias; Bragina, Eugenia V; Radeloff, Volker C; Prishchepov, Alexander V; Schierhorn, Florian

2013-01-01

The demand for agricultural products continues to grow rapidly, but further agricultural expansion entails substantial environmental costs, making recultivating currently unused farmland an interesting alternative. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 led to widespread abandonment of agricultural lands, but the extent and spatial patterns of abandonment are unclear. We quantified the extent of abandoned farmland, both croplands and pastures, across the region using MODIS NDVI satellite image time series from 2004 to 2006 and support vector machine classifications. Abandoned farmland was widespread, totaling 52.5 Mha, particularly in temperate European Russia (32 Mha), northern and western Ukraine, and Belarus. Differences in abandonment rates among countries were striking, suggesting that institutional and socio-economic factors were more important in determining the amount of abandonment than biophysical conditions. Indeed, much abandoned farmland occurred in areas without major constraints for agriculture. Our map provides a basis for assessing the potential of Central and Eastern Europe’s abandoned agricultural lands to contribute to food or bioenergy production, or carbon storage, as well as the environmental trade-offs and social constraints of recultivation. (letter)

NOAA Office for Coastal Management Coastal Inundation Digital Elevation Model: Guam Weather Forecast Office (GUM WFO) - Saipan, Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — These data were created as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management's efforts to create an online mapping viewer...

NOAA Coastal Mapping Shoreline Products

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — The NOAA Coastal Mapping Shoreline Products from the Remote Sensing Division are primarily for application to the nautical charts produced by NOAA's Office of Coast...

An evaluation of the use of ERTS-1 satellite imagery for grizzly bear habitat analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Varney, J. R.; Craighead, J. J.; Sumner, J.

1973-01-01

Multispectral scanner images taken by the ERTS-1 satellite in August and October, 1972, were examined to determine if they would be useful in identifying and mapping favorable habitat for grizzly bears. It was possible to identify areas having a suitable mixture of alpine meadow and timber, and to eliminate those which did not meet the isolation requirements of grizzlies because of farming or grazing activity. High altitude timbered areas mapped from satellite imagery agreed reasonably well with the distribution of whitebark pine, an important food species. Analysis of satellite imagery appears to be a valuable supplement to present ground observation methods, since it allows the most important areas to be identified for intensive study and many others to be eliminated from consideration. A sampling plan can be developed from such data which will minimize field effort and overall program cost.

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.

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...

Framework of Jitter Detection and Compensation for High Resolution Satellites

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaohua Tong

2014-05-01

Full Text Available Attitude jitter is a common phenomenon in the application of high resolution satellites, which may result in large errors of geo-positioning and mapping accuracy. Therefore, it is critical to detect and compensate attitude jitter to explore the full geometric potential of high resolution satellites. In this paper, a framework of jitter detection and compensation for high resolution satellites is proposed and some preliminary investigation is performed. Three methods for jitter detection are presented as follows. (1 The first one is based on multispectral images using parallax between two different bands in the image; (2 The second is based on stereo images using rational polynomial coefficients (RPCs; (3 The third is based on panchromatic images employing orthorectification processing. Based on the calculated parallax maps, the frequency and amplitude of the detected jitter are obtained. Subsequently, two approaches for jitter compensation are conducted. (1 The first one is to conduct the compensation on image, which uses the derived parallax observations for resampling; (2 The second is to conduct the compensation on attitude data, which treats the influence of jitter on attitude as correction of charge-coupled device (CCD viewing angles. Experiments with images from several satellites, such as ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiaometer, LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and ZY-3 (ZiYuan-3 demonstrate the promising performance and feasibility of the proposed framework.

Historical satellite data used to map Pan-Amazon forest cover

Science.gov (United States)

Kalluri, Satya; Desch, Arthur; Curry, Troy; Altstatt, Alice; Devers, Didier; Townshend, John; Tucker, Compton

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is well documented and the contributions of Brazilian deforestation to global change have been extensively discussed in both scientific and popular literature [e.g., Skole and Tucker, 1993]. However, deforestation within the non-Brazilian tropics of South America has received much less attention. The Pan-Amazon region covering Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia comprises ˜2 million km2 of tropical forest that is under increasing pressure from logging and development. Wall-to-wall high-resolution forest cover maps are needed to properly document the complex distribution patterns of deforestation in the Pan-Amazon [Tucker and Townshend, 2000]. The Deforestation Mapping Group at the University of Marylands Global Land Cover Facility is using Landsat data to generate tropical forest cover maps in this region (Figure l). The study shows that while rates of forest loss are generally lower than those in Brazil, there are hot spots where deforestation rates run as high as 2,200 km2 yr1.

Comparison of Satellite Surveying to Traditional Surveying Methods for the Resources Industry

Science.gov (United States)

Osborne, B. P.; Osborne, V. J.; Kruger, M. L.

Modern ground-based survey methods involve detailed survey, which provides three-space co-ordinates for surveyed points, to a high level of accuracy. The instruments are operated by surveyors, who process the raw results to create survey location maps for the subject of the survey. Such surveys are conducted for a location or region and referenced to the earth global co- ordinate system with global positioning system (GPS) positioning. Due to this referencing the survey is only as accurate as the GPS reference system. Satellite survey remote sensing utilise satellite imagery which have been processed using commercial geographic information system software. Three-space co-ordinate maps are generated, with an accuracy determined by the datum position accuracy and optical resolution of the satellite platform.This paper presents a case study, which compares topographic surveying undertaken by traditional survey methods with satellite surveying, for the same location. The purpose of this study is to assess the viability of satellite remote sensing for surveying in the resources industry. The case study involves a topographic survey of a dune field for a prospective mining project area in Pakistan. This site has been surveyed using modern surveying techniques and the results are compared to a satellite survey performed on the same area.Analysis of the results from traditional survey and from the satellite survey involved a comparison of the derived spatial co- ordinates from each method. In addition, comparisons have been made of costs and turnaround time for both methods.The results of this application of remote sensing is of particular interest for survey in areas with remote and extreme environments, weather extremes, political unrest, poor travel links, which are commonly associated with mining projects. Such areas frequently suffer language barriers, poor onsite technical support and resources.

A simple and efficient algorithm to estimate daily global solar radiation from geostationary satellite data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lu, Ning; Qin, Jun; Yang, Kun; Sun, Jiulin

2011-01-01

Surface global solar radiation (GSR) is the primary renewable energy in nature. Geostationary satellite data are used to map GSR in many inversion algorithms in which ground GSR measurements merely serve to validate the satellite retrievals. In this study, a simple algorithm with artificial neural network (ANN) modeling is proposed to explore the non-linear physical relationship between ground daily GSR measurements and Multi-functional Transport Satellite (MTSAT) all-channel observations in an effort to fully exploit information contained in both data sets. Singular value decomposition is implemented to extract the principal signals from satellite data and a novel method is applied to enhance ANN performance at high altitude. A three-layer feed-forward ANN model is trained with one year of daily GSR measurements at ten ground sites. This trained ANN is then used to map continuous daily GSR for two years, and its performance is validated at all 83 ground sites in China. The evaluation result demonstrates that this algorithm can quickly and efficiently build the ANN model that estimates daily GSR from geostationary satellite data with good accuracy in both space and time. -- Highlights: → A simple and efficient algorithm to estimate GSR from geostationary satellite data. → ANN model fully exploits both the information from satellite and ground measurements. → Good performance of the ANN model is comparable to that of the classical models. → Surface elevation and infrared information enhance GSR inversion.

Monitoring coastal inundation with Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite data

Science.gov (United States)

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

2011-01-01

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

Forest map of southern Africa with the aid of LANDSAT imagery

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

van der Zel, DW

1988-01-01

Full Text Available satellite data. A project was initiated in 1981 to compile a forestry map of southern Africa (Republic of South-Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho, Ciskei, Venda, Transkei and Bophuthatswana). A portfolio of 31 maps on a scale of 1:250 000 has now been produced...

Commercial Satellite Data as a Support to the Additional Protocol Declarations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Isaksson, Stig; Dahlin, Goeran; Joensson, Camilla

2003-05-01

The overall objective of the project is to show how commercial satellite data can be used for safeguard purposes both at the Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate, SKI and IAEA. Furthermore the experiences from this project can support IAEA in its process to develop methods and routines to make the best use of the Member State provided information in combination with satellite images. Finally it will give IAEA a relevant case study of the usefulness of satellite data for change detection purposes. This project shall provide SKI with digitised maps and commercial satellite data to verify the descriptions provided by two Swedish nuclear operators. Furthermore those digital data may be included in the declaration given to IAEA. The long-term aim is to enhance the quality of the Swedish declaration as well as to give the IAEA support as regards methods to use commercial satellite data. The project has provided SKI with digitised vector maps and optical satellite data over two selected nuclear sites. Furthermore these data will help to verify the descriptions that those two Swedish nuclear operators will give to SKI. The selected sites in this project are: Simpevarp with the three Oskarshamn nuclear power reactors, CLAB (the Central Interim Storage Facility for Spent Nuclear Fuel) and Aespoe laboratory. The area has been chosen since it contains nuclear power reactors, as well as storage facilities for used nuclear fuels and an underground research laboratory. For the Simpevarp site historical data has also been included to illustrate changes that have occurred since the first reactor O1 came in to use; and Studsvik with the materials testing reactor 'R2', a number of other types of nuclear technical activities and other non-nuclear related activities. The site has been chosen for its complexity

Geomorphology of coastal environments from satellite images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Da Rocha Ribeiro, R.; Velho, L.; Schossler, V.

2010-01-01

This study aims at recognizing coastal environments supported by data from the Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) satellite. The digital processing of images, System Information Geographic (SIG) techniques and field observation in one section of the “Província Costeira do Rio Grande do Sul” between the Rio Grande and the São Gonçalo channels - resulted in a geomorphologic profile and mapping

Ionosphere Delay Calibration and Calibration Errors for Satellite Navigation of Aircraft

Science.gov (United States)

Harris, Ian; Manucci, Anthony; Iijima, Byron; Lindqwister, Ulf; Muna, Demitri; Pi, Xiaoqing; Wilson, Brian

2000-01-01

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is implementing a satellite-based navigation system for aircraft using the Global Positioning System (GPS). Positioning accuracy of a few meters will be achieved by broadcasting corrections to the direct GPS signal. These corrections are derived using the wide-area augmentation system (WAAS), which includes a ground network of at least 24 GPS receivers across the Continental US (CONUS). WAAS will provide real-time total electron content (TEC) measurements that can be mapped to fixed grid points using a real-time mapping algorithm. These TECs will be converted into vertical delay corrections for the GPS L1 frequency and broadcast to users every five minutes via geosynchronous satellite. Users will convert these delays to slant calibrations along their own lines-of-sight (LOS) to GPS satellites. Uncertainties in the delay calibrations will also be broadcast, allowing users to estimate the uncertainty of their position. To maintain user safety without reverting to excessive safety margins an empirical model of user calibration errors has been developed. WAAS performance depends on factors that include geographic location (errors increase near WAAS borders), and ionospheric conditions, such as the enhanced spatial electron density gradients found during ionospheric storms.

Land Cover Characterization and Mapping of South America for the Year 2010 Using Landsat 30 m Satellite Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chandra Giri

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Detailed and accurate land cover and land cover change information is needed for South America because the continent is in constant flux, experiencing some of the highest rates of land cover change and forest loss in the world. The land cover data available for the entire continent are too coarse (250 m to 1 km for resource managers, government and non-government organizations, and Earth scientists to develop conservation strategies, formulate resource management options, and monitor land cover dynamics. We used Landsat 30 m satellite data of 2010 and prepared the land cover database of South America using state-of-the-science remote sensing techniques. We produced regionally consistent and locally relevant land cover information by processing a large volume of data covering the entire continent. Our analysis revealed that in 2010, 50% of South America was covered by forests, 2.5% was covered by water, and 0.02% was covered by snow and ice. The percent forest area of South America varies from 9.5% in Uruguay to 96.5% in French Guiana. We used very high resolution (<5 m satellite data to validate the land cover product. The overall accuracy of the 2010 South American 30-m land cover map is 89% with a Kappa coefficient of 79%. Accuracy of barren areas needs to improve possibly using multi-temporal Landsat data. An update of land cover and change database of South America with additional land cover classes is needed. The results from this study are useful for developing resource management strategies, formulating biodiversity conservation strategies, and regular land cover monitoring and forecasting.

SHADOW DETECTION FROM VERY HIGH RESOLUTON SATELLITE IMAGE USING GRABCUT SEGMENTATION AND RATIO-BAND ALGORITHMS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N. M. S. M. Kadhim

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Very-High-Resolution (VHR satellite imagery is a powerful source of data for detecting and extracting information about urban constructions. Shadow in the VHR satellite imageries provides vital information on urban construction forms, illumination direction, and the spatial distribution of the objects that can help to further understanding of the built environment. However, to extract shadows, the automated detection of shadows from images must be accurate. This paper reviews current automatic approaches that have been used for shadow detection from VHR satellite images and comprises two main parts. In the first part, shadow concepts are presented in terms of shadow appearance in the VHR satellite imageries, current shadow detection methods, and the usefulness of shadow detection in urban environments. In the second part, we adopted two approaches which are considered current state-of-the-art shadow detection, and segmentation algorithms using WorldView-3 and Quickbird images. In the first approach, the ratios between the NIR and visible bands were computed on a pixel-by-pixel basis, which allows for disambiguation between shadows and dark objects. To obtain an accurate shadow candidate map, we further refine the shadow map after applying the ratio algorithm on the Quickbird image. The second selected approach is the GrabCut segmentation approach for examining its performance in detecting the shadow regions of urban objects using the true colour image from WorldView-3. Further refinement was applied to attain a segmented shadow map. Although the detection of shadow regions is a very difficult task when they are derived from a VHR satellite image that comprises a visible spectrum range (RGB true colour, the results demonstrate that the detection of shadow regions in the WorldView-3 image is a reasonable separation from other objects by applying the GrabCut algorithm. In addition, the derived shadow map from the Quickbird image indicates

Shadow Detection from Very High Resoluton Satellite Image Using Grabcut Segmentation and Ratio-Band Algorithms

Science.gov (United States)

Kadhim, N. M. S. M.; Mourshed, M.; Bray, M. T.

2015-03-01

Very-High-Resolution (VHR) satellite imagery is a powerful source of data for detecting and extracting information about urban constructions. Shadow in the VHR satellite imageries provides vital information on urban construction forms, illumination direction, and the spatial distribution of the objects that can help to further understanding of the built environment. However, to extract shadows, the automated detection of shadows from images must be accurate. This paper reviews current automatic approaches that have been used for shadow detection from VHR satellite images and comprises two main parts. In the first part, shadow concepts are presented in terms of shadow appearance in the VHR satellite imageries, current shadow detection methods, and the usefulness of shadow detection in urban environments. In the second part, we adopted two approaches which are considered current state-of-the-art shadow detection, and segmentation algorithms using WorldView-3 and Quickbird images. In the first approach, the ratios between the NIR and visible bands were computed on a pixel-by-pixel basis, which allows for disambiguation between shadows and dark objects. To obtain an accurate shadow candidate map, we further refine the shadow map after applying the ratio algorithm on the Quickbird image. The second selected approach is the GrabCut segmentation approach for examining its performance in detecting the shadow regions of urban objects using the true colour image from WorldView-3. Further refinement was applied to attain a segmented shadow map. Although the detection of shadow regions is a very difficult task when they are derived from a VHR satellite image that comprises a visible spectrum range (RGB true colour), the results demonstrate that the detection of shadow regions in the WorldView-3 image is a reasonable separation from other objects by applying the GrabCut algorithm. In addition, the derived shadow map from the Quickbird image indicates significant performance of

The retrieval of cloud microphysical properties using satellite measurements and an in situ database

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. Poix

1996-01-01

Full Text Available By combining AVHRR data from the NOAA satellites with information from a database of in situ measurements, large-scale maps can be generated of the microphysical parameters most immediately significant for the modelling of global circulation and climate. From the satellite data, the clouds can be classified into cumuliform, stratiform and cirrus classes and then into further sub-classes by cloud top temperature. At the same time a database of in situ measurements made by research aircraft is classified into the same sub-classes and a statistical analysis is used to derive relationships between the sub-classes and the cloud microphysical properties. These two analyses are then linked to give estimates of the microphysical properties of the satellite observed clouds. Examples are given of the application of this technique to derive maps of the probability of occurrence of precipitating clouds and of precipitating water content derived from a case study within the International Cirrus Experiment (ICE held in 1989 over the North Sea.

The retrieval of cloud microphysical properties using satellite measurements and an in situ database

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christophe Poix

Full Text Available By combining AVHRR data from the NOAA satellites with information from a database of in situ measurements, large-scale maps can be generated of the microphysical parameters most immediately significant for the modelling of global circulation and climate. From the satellite data, the clouds can be classified into cumuliform, stratiform and cirrus classes and then into further sub-classes by cloud top temperature. At the same time a database of in situ measurements made by research aircraft is classified into the same sub-classes and a statistical analysis is used to derive relationships between the sub-classes and the cloud microphysical properties. These two analyses are then linked to give estimates of the microphysical properties of the satellite observed clouds. Examples are given of the application of this technique to derive maps of the probability of occurrence of precipitating clouds and of precipitating water content derived from a case study within the International Cirrus Experiment (ICE held in 1989 over the North Sea.

High resolution mapping of urban areas using SPOT-5 images and ancillary data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elif Sertel

2015-08-01

Full Text Available This research aims to propose new rule sets to be used for object based classification of SPOT-5 images to accurately create detailed urban land cover/use maps. In addition to SPOT-5 satellite images, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI and Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI maps, cadastral maps, Openstreet maps, road maps and Land Cover maps, were also integrated into classification to increase the accuracy of resulting maps. Gaziantep city, one of the highly populated cities of Turkey with different landscape patterns was selected as the study area. Different rule sets involving spectral, spatial and geometric characteristics were developed to be used for object based classification of 2.5 m resolution Spot-5 satellite images to automatically create urban map of the region. Twenty different land cover/use classes obtained from European Urban Atlas project were applied and an automatic classification approach was suggested for high resolution urban map creation and updating. Integration of different types of data into the classification decision tree increased the performance and accuracy of the suggested approach. The accuracy assessment results illustrated that with the usage of newly proposed rule set algorithms in object-based classification, urban areas represented with seventeen different sub-classes could be mapped with 94 % or higher overall accuracy.

365 MAPPING MALARIA CASE EVENT AND FACTORS OF ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Osondu

Key words: Malaria case event; prevention; vulnerability; GIS; Nigeria. Introduction. The mapping of ... Ethiopian Journal of Environmental Studies and Management Vol. 6 No.4 2013 ... review articles Tanser et al., (2000), indicate that. Satellite ...

High-resolution CASSINI-VIMS mosaics of Titan and the icy Saturnian satellites

Science.gov (United States)

Jaumann, R.; Stephan, K.; Brown, R.H.; Buratti, B.J.; Clark, R.N.; McCord, T.B.; Coradini, A.; Capaccioni, F.; Filacchione, G.; Cerroni, P.; Baines, K.H.; Bellucci, G.; Bibring, J.-P.; Combes, M.; Cruikshank, D.P.; Drossart, P.; Formisano, V.; Langevin, Y.; Matson, D.L.; Nelson, R.M.; Nicholson, P.D.; Sicardy, B.; Sotin, Christophe; Soderbloom, L.A.; Griffith, C.; Matz, K.-D.; Roatsch, Th.; Scholten, F.; Porco, C.C.

2006-01-01

The Visual Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) onboard the CASSINI spacecraft obtained new spectral data of the icy satellites of Saturn after its arrival at Saturn in June 2004. VIMS operates in a spectral range from 0.35 to 5.2 ??m, generating image cubes in which each pixel represents a spectrum consisting of 352 contiguous wavebands. As an imaging spectrometer VIMS combines the characteristics of both a spectrometer and an imaging instrument. This makes it possible to analyze the spectrum of each pixel separately and to map the spectral characteristics spatially, which is important to study the relationships between spectral information and geological and geomorphologic surface features. The spatial analysis of the spectral data requires the determination of the exact geographic position of each pixel on the specific surface and that all 352 spectral elements of each pixel show the same region of the target. We developed a method to reproject each pixel geometrically and to convert the spectral data into map projected image cubes. This method can also be applied to mosaic different VIMS observations. Based on these mosaics, maps of the spectral properties for each Saturnian satellite can be derived and attributed to geographic positions as well as to geological and geomorphologic surface features. These map-projected mosaics are the basis for all further investigations. ?? 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

Using Open Access Satellite Data Alongside Ground Based Remote Sensing: An Assessment, with Case Studies from Egypt’s Delta

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sarah Parcak

2017-09-01

Full Text Available This paper will assess the most recently available open access high-resolution optical satellite data (0.3 m–0.6 m and its detection of buried ancient features versus ground based remote sensing tools. It also discusses the importance of CORONA satellite data to evaluate landscape changes over the past 50 years surrounding sites. The study concentrates on Egypt’s Nile Delta, which is threatened by rising sea and water tables and urbanization. Many ancient coastal sites will be lost in the next few decades, thus this paper emphasizes the need to map them before they disappear. It shows that high resolution satellites can sometimes provide the same general picture on ancient sites in the Egyptian Nile Delta as ground based remote sensing, with relatively sandier sedimentary and degrading tell environments, during periods of rainfall, and higher groundwater conditions. Research results also suggest potential solutions for rapid mapping of threatened Delta sites, and urge a collaborative global effort to maps them before they disappear.

Compressing interpreted satellite imagery for geographic information systems applications over extensive regions

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, Stephan W.

1981-01-01

Image processing systems (IPS) and techniques effectively transform satellite imagery into data for input into a spatial database. Geographic information systems (GIS), consisting of graphic input and spatial database management subsystems, are capable of processing digital map and map overlay data to build and manipulate a spatial database. These systems can be successfully integrated to create a successful spatial data handling capability provided certain obstacle are understood and overcome.

Satellite Application for Disaster Management Information Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Okpanachi, George

Abstract Satellites are becoming increasingly vital to modern day disaster management activities. Earth observation (EO) satellites provide images at various wavelengths that assist rapid-mapping in all phases of the disaster management cycle: mitigation of potential risks in a given area, preparedness for eventual disasters, immediate response to a disaster event, and the recovery/reconstruction efforts follo wing it. Global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) such as the Global Positioning System (GPS) assist all the phases by providing precise location and navigation data, helping manage land and infrastructures, and aiding rescue crews coordinate their search efforts. Effective disaster management is a complex problem, because it involves many parameters, which are usually not easy to measure and even identify: Analysis of current situation, planning, optimum resource management, coordination, controlling and monitoring current activities and making quick and correct decisions are only some of these parameters, whose complete list is very long. Disaster management information systems (DMIS) assist disaster management to analyse the situation better, make decisions and suggest further actions following the emergency plans. This requires not only fast and thorough processing and optimization abilities, but also real-time data provided to the DMIS. The need of DMIS for disaster’s real-time data can be satisfied by small satellites data utilization. Small satellites can provide up-to-data, plus a better media to transfer data. This paper suggests a rationale and a framework for utilization of small Satellite data by DMIS. DMIS should be used ‘’before’’, ‘’during’’ and ‘’after’’ the disasters. Data provided by the Small Satellites are almost crucial in any period of the disasters, because early warning can save lives, and satellite data may help to identify disasters before they occur. The paper also presents’ ‘when’’, �

Capability of integrated MODIS imagery and ALOS for oil palm, rubber and forest areas mapping in tropical forest regions.

Science.gov (United States)

Razali, Sheriza Mohd; Marin, Arnaldo; Nuruddin, Ahmad Ainuddin; Shafri, Helmi Zulhaidi Mohd; Hamid, Hazandy Abdul

2014-05-07

Various classification methods have been applied for low resolution of the entire Earth's surface from recorded satellite images, but insufficient study has determined which method, for which satellite data, is economically viable for tropical forest land use mapping. This study employed Iterative Self Organizing Data Analysis Techniques (ISODATA) and K-Means classification techniques to classified Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Surface Reflectance satellite image into forests, oil palm groves, rubber plantations, mixed horticulture, mixed oil palm and rubber and mixed forest and rubber. Even though frequent cloud cover has been a challenge for mapping tropical forests, our MODIS land use classification map found that 2008 ISODATA-1 performed well with overall accuracy of 94%, with the highest Producer's Accuracy of Forest with 86%, and were consistent with MODIS Land Cover 2008 (MOD12Q1), respectively. The MODIS land use classification was able to distinguish young oil palm groves from open areas, rubber and mature oil palm plantations, on the Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) map, whereas rubber was more easily distinguished from an open area than from mixed rubber and forest. This study provides insight on the potential for integrating regional databases and temporal MODIS data, in order to map land use in tropical forest regions.

Comparing satellite SAR and wind farm wake models

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hasager, Charlotte Bay; Vincent, P.; Husson, R.

2015-01-01

. These extend several tens of kilometres downwind e.g. 70 km. Other SAR wind maps show near-field fine scale details of wake behind rows of turbines. The satellite SAR wind farm wake cases are modelled by different wind farm wake models including the PARK microscale model, the Weather Research and Forecasting...... (WRF) model in high resolution and WRF with coupled microscale parametrization....

High resolution satellite imagery : from spies to pipeline management

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Adam, S. [Canadian Geomatic Solutions Ltd., Calgary, AB (Canada); Farrell, M. [TransCanada Transmission, Calgary, AB (Canada)

2000-07-01

The launch of Space Imaging's IKONOS satellite in September 1999 has opened the door for corridor applications. The technology has been successfully implemented by TransCanada PipeLines in mapping over 1500 km of their mainline. IKONOS is the world's first commercial high resolution satellite which collects data at 1-meter black/white and 4-meter multi-spectral. Its use is regulated by the U.S. government. It is the best source of high resolution satellite image data. Other sources include the Indian Space Agency's IRS-1 C/D satellite and the Russian SPIN-2 which provides less reliable coverage. In addition, two more high resolution satellites may be launched this year to provide imagery every day of the year. IKONOS scenes as narrow as 5 km can be purchased. TransCanada conducted a pilot study to determine if high resolution satellite imagery is as effective as ortho-photos for identifying population structures within a buffer of TransCanada's east line right-of-way. The study examined three unique segments where residential, commercial, industrial and public features were compared. It was determined that IKONOS imagery is as good as digital ortho-photos for updating structures from low to very high density areas. The satellite imagery was also logistically easier than ortho-photos to acquire. This will be even more evident when the IKONOS image archives begins to grow. 4 tabs., 3 figs.

Mert Davies: Pioneer in the Use of Spacecraft to Map Earth and Mars

Science.gov (United States)

Murray, B.; Augenstein, B.

2002-12-01

Mert Davies was one of the founding employees of the RAND Corporation in 1946, and continued that relationship until his death in 2001. He began his involvement in satellite imaging at Rand as one of about 100 researchers in Project Feedback in 1954, provided the basis for the initial US military space program. In 1957, in response to the Soviet launch of Sputnik, Mert and a small group of Rand cohorts proposed a family of recoverable reconnaissance satellites featuring spin stabilized cameras, for which he later received a patent. This work, now declassified, was for a short time considered as a basis for the Corona, America's first reconnaissance satellite Corona, although ultimately alternative technologies were employed. In addition he was looking beyond Earth quite early and in May, 1958 published an analysis of a lunar mapping satellite. The 1957 work at Rand spurred considerations of space-based geodesy and mapping. These and other early contributions were recognized in 1999 by the National Reconnaissance Office which honored him as one of the founders of national reconnaissance. He was so enthused by the opportunity developing in the mid 1960?s to explore photographically the planets that he changed careers and joined the Television Team of the Mariner probes being developed to flyby Mars in 1969 (Mariner's 6&7). His abilities and accomplishments there led directly to central roles later in the Mariner 9 Mars Orbiter mission (1971-72) as well as Mariner 10 to Mercury (1973-75) and Voyagers 1&2 (1979-89) These early flights to Mars represented unprecedented technical challenges, especially to radio communications. As a consequence, analog television systems, like that carried on the Ranger impact probe in 1964-65 or film readout technology like that used on Lunar Orbiter in 1965-66 to send back high-resolution images from the Moon were not feasible from planetary distances. In order to exploit the remarkable communication potential of the DSN, JPL

Using satellite imagery for crime mapping in South Africa

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Schmitz, Peter MU

2002-12-01

Full Text Available In South Africa, as with may developing countries, there are informal settlements on the fringes of some towns and cities. Maps of these areas generally do not exist, making it difficult for authorities to plan for, and work in, these areas...

Antartic sea ice, 1973 - 1976: Satellite passive-microwave observations

Science.gov (United States)

Zwally, H. J.; Comiso, J. C.; Parkinson, C. L.; Campbell, W. J.; Carsey, F. D.; Gloersen, P.

1983-01-01

Data from the Electrically Scanning Microwave Radiometer (ESMR) on the Nimbus 5 satellite are used to determine the extent and distribution of Antarctic sea ice. The characteristics of the southern ocean, the mathematical formulas used to obtain quantitative sea ice concentrations, the general characteristics of the seasonal sea ice growth/decay cycle and regional differences, and the observed seasonal growth/decay cycle for individual years and interannual variations of the ice cover are discussed. The sea ice data from the ESMR are presented in the form of color-coded maps of the Antarctic and the southern oceans. The maps show brightness temperatures and concentrations of pack ice averaged for each month, 4-year monthly averages, and month-to-month changes. Graphs summarizing the results, such as areas of sea ice as a function of time in the various sectors of the southern ocean are included. The images demonstrate that satellite microwave data provide unique information on large-scale sea ice conditions for determining climatic conditions in polar regions and possible global climatic changes.

PAU/GNSS-R: Implementation, Performance and First Results of a Real-Time Delay-Doppler Map Reflectometer Using Global Navigation Satellite System Signals

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Enric Valencia

2008-05-01

Full Text Available Signals from Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS were originally conceived for position and speed determination, but they can be used as signals of opportunity as well. The reflection process over a given surface modifies the properties of the scattered signal, and therefore, by processing the reflected signal, relevant geophysical data regarding the surface under study (land, sea, ice… can be retrieved. In essence, a GNSS-R receiver is a multi-channel GNSS receiver that computes the received power from a given satellite at a number of different delay and Doppler bins of the incoming signal. The first approaches to build such a receiver consisted of sampling and storing the scattered signal for later post-processing. However, a real-time approach to the problem is desirable to obtain immediately useful geophysical variables and reduce the amount of data. The use of FPGA technology makes this possible, while at the same time the system can be easily reconfigured. The signal tracking and processing constraints made necessary to fully design several new blocks. The uniqueness of the implemented system described in this work is the capability to compute in real-time Delay-Doppler maps (DDMs either for four simultaneous satellites or just one, but with a larger number of bins. The first tests have been conducted from a cliff over the sea and demonstrate the successful performance of the instrument to compute DDMs in real-time from the measured reflected GNSS/R signals. The processing of these measurements shall yield quantitative relationships between the sea state (mainly driven by the surface wind and the swell and the overall DDM shape. The ultimate goal is to use the DDM shape to correct the sea state influence on the L-band brightness temperature to improve the retrieval of the sea surface salinity (SSS.

The use of airborne laser data to calibrate satellite radar altimetry data over ice sheets

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ekholm, Simon; Bamber, J.L.; Krabill, W.B.

2002-01-01

Satellite radar altimetry is the most important data source for ice sheet elevation modeling but it is well established that the accuracy of such data from satellite borne radar altimeters degrade seriously with increasing surface slope and level of roughness. A significant fraction of the slope......-precision airborne laser profiling data from the so-called Arctic Ice Mapping project as a tool to determine that bias and to calibrate the satellite altimetry. This is achieved by a simple statistical analysis of the airborne laser profiles, which defines the mean amplitude of the local surface undulations...

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.

Mapping for the masses: using free remote sensing data for disaster management

Science.gov (United States)

Teeuw, R.; McWilliam, N.; Morris, N.; Saunders, C.

2009-04-01

We examine the uses of free satellite imagery and Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) for disaster management, targeting three data sources: the United Nations Charter on Space and Disasters, Google Earth and internet-based satellite data archives, such as the Global Land Cover Facility (GLCF). The research has assessed SRTM and ASTER DEM data, Landsat TM/ETM+ and ASTER imagery, as well as utilising datasets and basic GIS operations available via Google Earth. As an aid to Disaster Risk Reduction, four sets of maps can be produced from satellite data: (i) Multiple Geohazards: areas prone to slope instability, coastal inundation and fluvial flooding; (ii) Vulnerability: population density, habitation types, land cover types and infrastructure; (iii) Disaster Risk: produced by combining severity scores from (i) and (ii); (iv) Reconstruction: zones of rock/sediment with construction uses; areas of woodland (for fuel/construction) water sources; transport routes; zones suitable for re-settlement. This set of Disaster Risk Reduction maps are ideal for regional (1:50,000 to 1:250,000 scale) planning for in low-income countries: more detailed assessments require relatively expensive high resolution satellite imagery or aerial photography, although Google Earth has a good track record for posting high-res imagery of disaster zones (e.g. the 2008 Burma storm surge). The Disaster Risk maps highlight areas of maximum risk to a region's emergency planners and decision makers, enabling various types of public education and other disaster mitigation measures. The Reconstruction map also helps to save lives, by facilitating disaster recovery. Many problems have been identified. Access to the UN Charter imagery is fine after a disaster, but very difficult if assessing pre-disaster indicators: the data supplied also tends to be pre-processed, when some relief agencies would prefer to have raw data. The limited and expensive internet access in many developing countries limits access to

Morphology and Scaling of Ejecta Deposits on Icy Satellites

Science.gov (United States)

Schenk, Paul M.; Ridolfi, Francis J.; Bredekamp, Joe (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

Continuous ejecta deposits on Ganymede consist of two major units, or facies: a thick inner hummocky pedestal facies, and a relatively thin outer radially scoured facies defined also by the inner limit of the secondary crater field. Both ejecta facies have a well-defined power-law relationship to crater diameter for craters ranging from 15 to approx. 600 km across. This relationship can be used to estimate the nominal crater diameter for impact features on icy satellites (such as palimpsests and multiring basins) for which the crater rim is no longer recognizable. Ejecta deposits have also been mapped on 4 other icy satellites. Although morphologically similar to eject deposits on the Moon, ejecta deposits for smaller craters are generally significantly broader in extent on the icy satellites, in apparent defiance of predictions of self-similarity. A greater degree of rim collapse and enlargement on the Moon may explain the observed difference.

Origin of the Local Group satellite planes

Science.gov (United States)

Banik, Indranil; O'Ryan, David; Zhao, Hongsheng

2018-04-01

We attempt to understand the planes of satellite galaxies orbiting the Milky Way (MW) and M31 in the context of Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND), which implies a close MW-M31 flyby occurred ≈8 Gyr ago. Using the timing argument, we obtain MW-M31 trajectories consistent with cosmological initial conditions and present observations. We adjust the present M31 proper motion within its uncertainty in order to simulate a range of orbital geometries and closest approach distances. Treating the MW and M31 as point masses, we follow the trajectories of surrounding test particle disks, thereby mapping out the tidal debris distribution. Around each galaxy, the resulting tidal debris tends to cluster around a particular orbital pole. We find some models in which these preferred spin vectors align fairly well with those of the corresponding observed satellite planes. The radial distributions of material in the simulated satellite planes are similar to what we observe. Around the MW, our best-fitting model yields a significant fraction (0.22) of counter-rotating material, perhaps explaining why Sculptor counter-rotates within the MW satellite plane. In contrast, our model yields no counter-rotating material around M31. This is testable with proper motions of M31 satellites. In our best model, the MW disk is thickened by the flyby 7.65 Gyr ago to a root mean square height of 0.75 kpc. This is similar to the observed age and thickness of the Galactic thick disk. Thus, the MW thick disk may have formed together with the MW and M31 satellite planes during a past MW-M31 flyby.

Super-Resolution for “Jilin-1” Satellite Video Imagery via a Convolutional Network

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aoran Xiao

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Super-resolution for satellite video attaches much significance to earth observation accuracy, and the special imaging and transmission conditions on the video satellite pose great challenges to this task. The existing deep convolutional neural-network-based methods require pre-processing or post-processing to be adapted to a high-resolution size or pixel format, leading to reduced performance and extra complexity. To this end, this paper proposes a five-layer end-to-end network structure without any pre-processing and post-processing, but imposes a reshape or deconvolution layer at the end of the network to retain the distribution of ground objects within the image. Meanwhile, we formulate a joint loss function by combining the output and high-dimensional features of a non-linear mapping network to precisely learn the desirable mapping relationship between low-resolution images and their high-resolution counterparts. Also, we use satellite video data itself as a training set, which favors consistency between training and testing images and promotes the method’s practicality. Experimental results on “Jilin-1” satellite video imagery show that this method demonstrates a superior performance in terms of both visual effects and measure metrics over competing methods.

Accuracy Assessment of Satellite Derived Forest Cover Products in South and Southeast Asia

Science.gov (United States)

Gilani, H.; Xu, X.; Jain, A. K.

2017-12-01

South and Southeast Asia (SSEA) region occupies 16 % of worlds land area. It is home to over 50% of the world's population. The SSEA's countries are experiencing significant land-use and land-cover changes (LULCCs), primarily in agriculture, forest, and urban land. For this study, we compiled four existing global forest cover maps for year 2010 by Gong et al.(2015), Hansen et al. (2013), Sexton et al.(2013) and Shimada et al. (2014), which were all medium resolution (≤30 m) products based on Landsat and/or PALSAR satellite images. To evaluate the accuracy of these forest products, we used three types of information: (1) ground measurements, (2) high resolution satellite images and (3) forest cover maps produced at the national scale. The stratified random sampling technique was used to select a set of validation data points from the ground and high-resolution satellite images. Then the confusion matrix method was used to assess and rank the accuracy of the forest cover products for the entire SSEA region. We analyzed the spatial consistency of different forest cover maps, and further evaluated the consistency with terrain characteristics. Our study suggests that global forest cover mapping algorithms are trained and tested using limited ground measurement data. We found significant uncertainties in mountainous areas due to the topographical shadow effect and the dense tree canopies effects. The findings of this study will facilitate to improve our understanding of the forest cover dynamics and their impacts on the quantities and pathways of terrestrial carbon and nitrogen fluxes. Gong, P., et al. (2012). "Finer resolution observation and monitoring of global land cover: first mapping results with Landsat TM and ETM+ data." International Journal of Remote Sensing 34(7): 2607-2654. Hansen, M. C., et al. (2013). "High-Resolution Global Maps of 21st-Century Forest Cover Change." Science 342(6160): 850-853. Sexton, J. O., et al. (2013). "Global, 30-m resolution

Leveraging Machine Learning to Estimate Soil Salinity through Satellite-Based Remote Sensing

Science.gov (United States)

Welle, P.; Ravanbakhsh, S.; Póczos, B.; Mauter, M.

2016-12-01

Human-induced salinization of agricultural soils is a growing problem which now affects an estimated 76 million hectares and causes billions of dollars of lost agricultural revenues annually. While there are indications that soil salinization is increasing in extent, current assessments of global salinity levels are outdated and rely heavily on expert opinion due to the prohibitive cost of a worldwide sampling campaign. A more practical alternative to field sampling may be earth observation through remote sensing, which takes advantage of the distinct spectral signature of salts in order to estimate soil conductivity. Recent efforts to map salinity using remote sensing have been met with limited success due to tractability issues of managing the computational load associated with large amounts of satellite data. In this study, we use Google Earth Engine to create composite satellite soil datasets, which combine data from multiple sources and sensors. These composite datasets contain pixel-level surface reflectance values for dates in which the algorithm is most confident that the surface contains bare soil. We leverage the detailed soil maps created and updated by the United States Geological Survey as label data and apply machine learning regression techniques such as Gaussian processes to learn a smooth mapping from surface reflection to noisy estimates of salinity. We also explore a semi-supervised approach using deep generative convolutional networks to leverage the abundance of unlabeled satellite images in producing better estimates for salinity values where we have relatively fewer measurements across the globe. The general method results in two significant contributions: (1) an algorithm that can be used to predict levels of soil salinity in regions without detailed soil maps and (2) a general framework that serves as an example for how remote sensing can be paired with extensive label data to generate methods for prediction of physical phenomenon.

Southern European ionospheric TEC maps based on Kriging technique to monitor ionosphere behavior

Science.gov (United States)

Rodríguez-Bouza, Marta; Paparini, Claudia; Otero, Xurxo; Herraiz, Miguel; Radicella, Sandro M.; Abe, Oladipo E.; Rodríguez-Caderot, Gracia

2017-10-01

Global or regional Maps of the ionospheric Total Electron Content (TEC) are an efficient tool to monitor the delay introduced by the ionosphere in the satellite signals. Ionospheric disturbance periods are of particular interest because these conditions can strongly affect satellite navigation range measurements. This work presents post-processing regional vertical TEC maps over Southern Europe ([35°N-50°N] latitude) obtained by applying Kriging interpolation to GPS derived TEC over more than 100 Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) stations. These maps are used to study the behavior of the ionosphere during space weather events and their effects. To validate these maps, hereafter called Southern European Ionospheric Maps (SEIMs), their TEC values have been compared with those obtained from EGNOS Message Server (EMS) and with direct experimental TEC data from GNSS stations. Ionospheric space weather events related to geomagnetic storms of March 17th, 2013, February 19th, 2014 and March 17th, 2015 have been selected. To test the methodology, one period of quiet days has been also analyzed. TEC values obtained by SEIMs in the Ionospheric Grid Points (IGPs) defined by EGNOS are very close to those given by EMS and in the period of major geomagnetic storms the difference does not exceed 6 TEC units. These results confirm the good performance of the technique used for obtaining the SEIMs that can be a useful tool to study the ionosphere behavior during geomagnetic storms and their effects in the region of interest.

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...

Simultaneous Localization and Mapping for Satellite Rendezvous and Proximity Operations

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) attempts to estimate a vehicle’s position and orientation (localization) and the location of an initially unknown number...

A remote characterization system for subsurface mapping of buried waste sites

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sandness, G.A.; Bennett, D.W.

1992-10-01

Mapping of buried objects and regions of chemical and radiological contamination is required at US Department of Energy (DOE) buried waste sites. The DOE Office of Technology Development Robotics Integrated Program has initiated a project to develop and demonstrate a remotely controlled subsurface sensing system, called the Remote Characterization System (RCS). This project, a collaborative effort by five of the National Laboratories, involves the development of a unique low-signature survey vehicle, a base station, radio telemetry data links, satellite-based vehicle tracking, stereo vision, and sensors for non-invasive inspection of the surface and subsurface. To minimize interference with on-board sensors, the survey vehicle has been constructed predominatantly of non-metallic materials. The vehicle is self-propelled and will be guided by an operator located at a remote base station. The RCS sensors will be environmentally sealed and internally cooled to preclude contamination during use. Ground-penetrating radar, magnetometers, and conductivity devices are planned for geophysical surveys. Chemical and radiological sensors will be provided to locate hot spots and to provide isotopic concentration data

Leonardo-BRDF: A New Generation Satellite Constellation

Science.gov (United States)

Esper, Jaime; Neeck, Steven; Wiscombe, Warren; Ryschkewitsch, Michael; Andary, J. (Technical Monitor)

2000-01-01

Instantaneous net radiation flux at the top of the atmosphere is one of the primary drivers of climate and global change. Since the dawn of the satellite era, great efforts and expense have gone into measuring this flux from single satellites and even (for a several-year period) from a constellation of three satellites called ERBE. However, the reflected solar flux is an angular and spectral integral over the so-called "BRDF" or Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function, which is the angular distribution of reflected solar radiation for each solar zenith angle and each wavelength. Previous radiation flux satellites could not measure instantaneous BRDF, so scientists have had to fall back on models or composites. Because their range of observed solar zenith angles was very limited due to sunsynchronous orbits, the resultant flux maps are too inaccurate to see the dynamics of radiation flux or to reliably correlate it with specific phenomena (hurricanes, biomass fires, urban pollution, dust outbreaks, etc.). Accuracy only becomes acceptable after monthly averaging, but this washes out almost all cause-and-effect information, further exacerbated by the lack of spectral resolution. Leonardo-BRDF is a satellite system designed to measure the instantaneous spectral BRDF using a formation of highly coordinated satellites, all pointing at the same Earth targets at the same time. It will allow scientists for the first time to assess the radiative forcing of climate due to specific phenomena, which is bound to be important in the ongoing debate about global warming and what is causing it. The formation is composed of two satellite types having, as instrument payloads, single highly-integrated miniature imaging spectrometers or radiometers. Two nearby "keystone" satellites anchor the formation and fly in static orbits. They employ wide field of view imaging spectrometers that are extremely light and compact. The keystone satellites are identical and can operate in

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

NOAA Office for Coastal Management Coastal Digital Elevation Model: Lake Superior

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — These data were created as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management's efforts to create an online mapping viewer...

NOAA Office for Coastal Management Coastal Inundation Digital Elevation Model: Connecticut

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — These data were created as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management's efforts to create an online mapping viewer...

NOAA Office for Coastal Management Coastal Digital Elevation Model: Lake Michigan

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — These data were created as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management's efforts to create an online mapping viewer...

NOAA Office for Coastal Management Coastal Inundation Digital Elevation Model: Delaware

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — These data were created as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management's efforts to create an online mapping viewer...

NOAA Office for Coastal Management Coastal Digital Elevation Model: Lake Erie

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — These data were created as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management's efforts to create an online mapping viewer...

NOAA Office for Coastal Management Coastal Digital Elevation Model: Lake Huron

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — These data were created as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management's efforts to create an online mapping viewer...

Estimation of solar radiation over Cambodia from long-term satellite data

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Janjai, S.; Pankaew, P.; Laksanaboonsong, J. [Solar Energy Research Laboratory, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Silpakorn University, Nakhon Pathom 73000 (Thailand); Kitichantaropas, P. [Department of Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency, Ministry of Energy, 17 Rama 1 Road, Patumwan, Bangkok 10330 (Thailand)

2011-04-15

In this work, monthly average daily global solar irradiation over Cambodia was estimated from a long-term satellite data. A 14-year period (1995-2008) of visible channel data from GMS5, GOES9 and MTSAT-1R satellites were used to provide earth-atmospheric reflectivity. A satellite-based solar radiation model developed for a tropical environment was used to estimate surface solar radiation. The model relates the satellite-derived earth-atmospheric reflectivity to absorption and scattering coefficients of various atmospheric constituents. The absorption of solar radiation due to water vapour was calculated from precipitable water derived from ambient relative humidity and temperature. Ozone data from the TOMS and OMI satellite data were employed to compute the solar radiation absorption by ozone. The depletion of radiation due to aerosols was estimated from the visibility data. Five new solar radiation measuring stations were established at Cambodian cities, namely Siem Reap (13.87 N, 103.85 E), Kompong Thom (12.68 N, 104.88 E), Phnom Penh (11.55 N, 104.83 E), Sihanouke Ville (10.67 N, 103.63 E) and Kampot (10.70 N, 104.28 E). Global solar radiation measured at these stations was used to validate the model. The validation was also carried out by using solar radiation measured at four Thai meteorological stations. These stations are situated near the Cambodian border. Monthly average daily global irradiation from these stations was compared with that calculated from the model. The measured and calculated irradiation is in good agreement, with the root mean square difference of 6.3%, with respect to the mean values. After the validation, the model was used to calculate monthly average daily global solar irradiation over Cambodia. Based on this satellite-derived irradiation, solar radiation maps for Cambodia were generated. These maps show that solar radiation climate of this country is strongly influenced by the monsoons. A solar radiation database was also generated

Building a Geologic Map of Neptune's Moon Triton

Science.gov (United States)

Martin, E. S.; Patthoff, D. A.; Bland, M. T.; Watters, T. R.; Collins, G. C.; Becker, T.

2018-06-01

Triton serves as a bridge between KBOs and icy satellites, and characterization of its terrains is important for advancing comparative planetological studies. We aim to create a geologic map of the Neptune-facing side of Triton at a scale of 1:5M.

Mapping and Naming the Moon

Science.gov (United States)

Whitaker, Ewen A.

2003-12-01

Preface; Introduction; Part I. First Era: From Prehistoric Images to Archetype Map: 1. Pre-telescopic lunar observations; 2. Early telescopic observations of the Moon; 3. Van Langren (Langrenus) and the birth of selenography; 4. Six more years of sporadic activity; Part II. Second Era: From Archetype to Maturity: 5. 140 years of sporadic activity; 6. A globe, tree rings, and a city; 7. Lunar cartography comes of age; Part III. Third Era: From proliferation to standardisation: 8. Lunar mapping in the Victorian period; 9. Nomenclature gets international attention; Part IV. The Space Age Demands Changes: 10. Setting up guidelines; 11. Planets and satellites set the rules. Appendices 1 - 22.

Satellite Contributions to Global Change Studies

Science.gov (United States)

Parkinson, Claire L.

2009-01-01

By providing a global view with a level playing field (no region missed because of unfavorable surface conditions or political boundaries), satellites have made major contributions to improved monitoring and understanding of our constantly changing planet. The global view has allowed surprising realizations like the relative sparsity of lightning strikes over oceans and the large-scale undulations on the massive Antarctic ice sheet. It has allowed the tracking of all sorts of phenomena, including aerosols, both natural and anthropogenic, as they move with the atmospheric circulation and impact weather and human health. But probably nothing that the global view allows is more important in the long term than its provision. of unbiased data sets to address the issue of global change, considered by many to be among the most important issues facing humankind today. With satellites we can monitor atmospheric temperatures at all latitudes and longitudes, and obtain a global average that lessens the likelihood of becoming endlessly mired in the confusions brought about by the certainty of regional differences. With satellites we can monitor greenhouse gases such as CO2 not just above individual research stations but around the globe. With satellites we can monitor the polar sea ice covers, as we have done since the late 1970s, determining and quantifying the significant reduction in Arctic sea ice and the slight growth in Antarctic sea ice over that period, With satellites we can map the full extent and changes in the Antarctic stratospheric ozone depletions that were first identified from using a single ground station; and through satellite data we have witnessed from afar land surface changes brought about by humans both intentionally, as with wide-scale deforestation, and unintentionally, as with the decay of the Aral Sea. The satellite data are far from sufficient for all that we need in order to understand the global system and forecast its changes, as we also need

Operational use of open satellite data for marine water quality monitoring

Science.gov (United States)

Symeonidis, Panagiotis; Vakkas, Theodoros

2017-09-01

The purpose of this study was to develop an operational platform for marine water quality monitoring using near real time satellite data. The developed platform utilizes free and open satellite data available from different data sources like COPERNICUS, the European Earth Observation Initiative, or NASA, from different satellites and instruments. The quality of the marine environment is operationally evaluated using parameters like chlorophyll-a concentration, water color and Sea Surface Temperature (SST). For each parameter, there are more than one dataset available, from different data sources or satellites, to allow users to select the most appropriate dataset for their area or time of interest. The above datasets are automatically downloaded from the data provider's services and ingested to the central, spatial engine. The spatial data platform uses the Postgresql database with the PostGIS extension for spatial data storage and Geoserver for the provision of the spatial data services. The system provides daily, 10 days and monthly maps and time series of the above parameters. The information is provided using a web client which is based on the GET SDI PORTAL, an easy to use and feature rich geospatial visualization and analysis platform. The users can examine the temporal variation of the parameters using a simple time animation tool. In addition, with just one click on the map, the system provides an interactive time series chart for any of the parameters of the available datasets. The platform can be offered as Software as a Service (SaaS) to any area in the Mediterranean region.

Integrating Remote Sensing with Species Distribution Models; Mapping Tamarisk Invasions Using the Software for Assisted Habitat Modeling (SAHM)

OpenAIRE

West, Amanda M.; Evangelista, Paul H.; Jarnevich, Catherine S.; Young, Nicholas E.; Stohlgren, Thomas J.; Talbert, Colin; Talbert, Marian; Morisette, Jeffrey; Anderson, Ryan

2016-01-01

Early detection of invasive plant species is vital for the management of natural resources and protection of ecosystem processes. The use of satellite remote sensing for mapping the distribution of invasive plants is becoming more common, however conventional imaging software and classification methods have been shown to be unreliable. In this study, we test and evaluate the use of five species distribution model techniques fit with satellite remote sensing data to map invasive tamarisk (Tama...

Mapping rice extent map with crop intensity in south China through integration of optical and microwave images based on google earth engine

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, X.; Wu, B.; Zhang, M.; Zeng, H.

2017-12-01

Rice is one of the main staple foods in East Asia and Southeast Asia, which has occupied more than half of the world's population with 11% of cultivated land. Study on rice can provide direct or indirect information on food security and water source management. Remote sensing has proven to be the most effective method to monitoring the cropland in large scale by using temporary and spectral information. There are two main kinds of satellite have been used to mapping rice including microwave and optical. Rice, as the main crop of paddy fields, the main feature different from other crops is flooding phenomenon at planning stage (Figure 1). Microwave satellites can penetrate through clouds and efficiency on monitoring flooding phenomenon. Meanwhile, the vegetation index based on optical satellite can well distinguish rice from other vegetation. Google Earth Engine is a cloud-based platform that makes it easy to access high-performance computing resources for processing very large geospatial datasets. Google has collected large number of remote sensing satellite data around the world, which providing researchers with the possibility of doing application by using multi-source remote sensing data in a large area. In this work, we map rice planting area in south China through integration of Landsat-8 OLI, Sentienl-2, and Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images. The flowchart is shown in figure 2. First, a threshold method the VH polarized backscatter from SAR sensor and vegetation index including normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and enhanced vegetation index (EVI) from optical sensor were used the classify the rice extent map. The forest and water surface extent map provided by earth engine were used to mask forest and water. To overcome the problem of the "salt and pepper effect" by Pixel-based classification when the spatial resolution increased, we segment the optical image and use the pixel- based classification results to merge the object

Essential Technology and Application of Jitter Detection and Compensation for High Resolution Satellites

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

TONG Xiaohua

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Satellite jitter is a common and complex phenomenon for the on-orbit high resolution satellites, which may affect the mapping accuracy and quality of imagery. A framework of jitter detection and compensation integrating data processing of multiple sensors is proposed in this paper. Jitter detection is performed based on multispectral imagery, three-line-array imagery, dense ground control and attitude measurement data, and jitter compensation is conducted both on image and on attitude with the sensor model. The platform jitter of ZY-3 satellite is processed and analyzed using the proposed technology, and the results demonstrate the feasibility and reliability of jitter detection and compensation. The variation law analysis of jitter indicates that the frequencies of jitter of ZY-3 satellite hold in the range between 0.6 and 0.7 Hz, while the amplitudes of jitter of ZY-3 satellite drop from 1 pixel in the early stage to below 0.4 pixels and tend to remain stable in the following stage.

Application of Satellite Observations to Manage Natural Disasters in the Lake Victoria Basin

Science.gov (United States)

Habib, Shahid; Policelli, F.; Irwin, D.; Korme, Tesfaye; Adler, Bob; Hong, Yang

2010-01-01

Lake Victoria, the second largest fresh water lake in the Eastern part of Africa is a vital natural resource for the economic well being and prosperity of over 30 million people located in riparian regions of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. It covers a large area of about 68,870 km2 and produces a GDP of about US $30 billion per year. The region is also very much prone to natural disasters such as severe floods during heavy precipitation periods in the Eastern part of Africa. In addition to floods, the precipitation also produces large infestations of mosquito larvae due to the standing water in many areas. This further causes multiple vector borne diseases such as Malaria, Rift Valley Fever and more. These problems are of serious concern and require active and aggressive surveillance and management to minimize the loss of human and animal lives and property damage. Satellite imagery and observations along with the in situ measurements provide a great tool to analyze and study this area and inform the policy makers to make calculated policy decisions which are more beneficial to the environment. Recently, NASA and USAID have joined forces with the Regional Center for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD) located in Nairobi, Kenya to utilize multiple NASA sensors such as TRMM, SRTM and MODIS to develop flood potential maps for the Lake Victoria Basin. The idea is to generate a flood forecasts and "nowcasts" that can be sent to the disaster management organizations of Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania. Post flood event satellite imagery is becoming a common tool to assess the areas inundated by flooding. However, this work is unique undertaking by utilizing land imaging and atmospheric satellites to build credible flood potential maps. At same time, we are also studying the potential occurrence and spread of Rift Valley Fever disease based on the short term climate records and precipitation data. These activities require multi-nation coordination and agreements and

Determining the best phenological state for accurate mapping of Phragmites australis in wetlands using time series multispectral satellite data

Science.gov (United States)

Rupasinghe, P. A.; Markle, C. E.; Marcaccio, J. V.; Chow-Fraser, P.

2017-12-01

Phragmites australis (European common reed), is a relatively recent invader of wetlands and beaches in Ontario. It can establish large homogenous stands within wetlands and disperse widely throughout the landscape by wind and vehicular traffic. A first step in managing this invasive species includes accurate mapping and quantification of its distribution. This is challenging because Phragimtes is distributed in a large spatial extent, which makes the mapping more costly and time consuming. Here, we used freely available multispectral satellite images taken monthly (cloud free images as available) for the calendar year to determine the optimum phenological state of Phragmites that would allow it to be accurately identified using remote sensing data. We analyzed time series, Landsat-8 OLI and Sentinel-2 images for Big Creek Wildlife Area, ON using image classification (Support Vector Machines), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI). We used field sampling data and high resolution image collected using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV; 8 cm spatial resolution) as training data and for the validation of the classified images. The accuracy for all land cover classes and for Phragmites alone were low at both the start and end of the calendar year, but reached overall accuracy >85% by mid to late summer. The highest classification accuracies for Landsat-8 OLI were associated with late July and early August imagery. We observed similar trends using the Sentinel-2 images, with higher overall accuracy for all land cover classes and for Phragmites alone from late July to late September. During this period, we found the greatest difference between Phragmites and Typha, commonly confused classes, with respect to near-infrared and shortwave infrared reflectance. Therefore, the unique spectral signature of Phragmites can be attributed to both the level of greenness and factors related to water content in the leaves during late

Operational Use of OGC Web Services at the Met Office

Science.gov (United States)

Wright, Bruce

2010-05-01

The Met Office has adopted the Service-Orientated Architecture paradigm to deliver services to a range of customers through Rich Internet Applications (RIAs). The approach uses standard Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) web services to provide information to web-based applications through a range of generic data services. "Invent", the Met Office beta site, is used to showcase Met Office future plans for presenting web-based weather forecasts, product and information to the public. This currently hosts a freely accessible Weather Map Viewer, written in JavaScript, which accesses a Web Map Service (WMS), to deliver innovative web-based visualizations of weather and its potential impacts to the public. The intention is to engage the public in the development of new web-based services that more accurately meet their needs. As the service is intended for public use within the UK, it has been designed to support a user base of 5 million, the analysed level of UK web traffic reaching the Met Office's public weather information site. The required scalability has been realised through the use of multi-tier tile caching: - WMS requests are made for 256x256 tiles for fixed areas and zoom levels; - a Tile Cache, developed in house, efficiently serves tiles on demand, managing WMS request for the new tiles; - Edge Servers, externally hosted by Akamai, provide a highly scalable (UK-centric) service for pre-cached tiles, passing new requests to the Tile Cache; - the Invent Weather Map Viewer uses the Google Maps API to request tiles from Edge Servers. (We would expect to make use of the Web Map Tiling Service, when it becomes an OGC standard.) The Met Office delivers specialist commercial products to market sectors such as transport, utilities and defence, which exploit a Web Feature Service (WFS) for data relating forecasts and observations to specific geographic features, and a Web Coverage Service (WCS) for sub-selections of gridded data. These are locally rendered as maps or

Object-based random forest classification of Landsat ETM+ and WorldView-2 satellite imagery for mapping lowland native grassland communities in Tasmania, Australia

Science.gov (United States)

Melville, Bethany; Lucieer, Arko; Aryal, Jagannath

2018-04-01

This paper presents a random forest classification approach for identifying and mapping three types of lowland native grassland communities found in the Tasmanian Midlands region. Due to the high conservation priority assigned to these communities, there has been an increasing need to identify appropriate datasets that can be used to derive accurate and frequently updateable maps of community extent. Therefore, this paper proposes a method employing repeat classification and statistical significance testing as a means of identifying the most appropriate dataset for mapping these communities. Two datasets were acquired and analysed; a Landsat ETM+ scene, and a WorldView-2 scene, both from 2010. Training and validation data were randomly subset using a k-fold (k = 50) approach from a pre-existing field dataset. Poa labillardierei, Themeda triandra and lowland native grassland complex communities were identified in addition to dry woodland and agriculture. For each subset of randomly allocated points, a random forest model was trained based on each dataset, and then used to classify the corresponding imagery. Validation was performed using the reciprocal points from the independent subset that had not been used to train the model. Final training and classification accuracies were reported as per class means for each satellite dataset. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was undertaken to determine whether classification accuracy differed between the two datasets, as well as between classifications. Results showed mean class accuracies between 54% and 87%. Class accuracy only differed significantly between datasets for the dry woodland and Themeda grassland classes, with the WorldView-2 dataset showing higher mean classification accuracies. The results of this study indicate that remote sensing is a viable method for the identification of lowland native grassland communities in the Tasmanian Midlands, and that repeat classification and statistical significant testing can be

A scalable satellite-based crop yield mapper: Integrating satellites and crop models for field-scale estimation in India

Science.gov (United States)

Jain, M.; Singh, B.; Srivastava, A.; Lobell, D. B.

2015-12-01

Food security will be challenged over the upcoming decades due to increased food demand, natural resource degradation, and climate change. In order to identify potential solutions to increase food security in the face of these changes, tools that can rapidly and accurately assess farm productivity are needed. With this aim, we have developed generalizable methods to map crop yields at the field scale using a combination of satellite imagery and crop models, and implement this approach within Google Earth Engine. We use these methods to examine wheat yield trends in Northern India, which provides over 15% of the global wheat supply and where over 80% of farmers rely on wheat as a staple food source. In addition, we identify the extent to which farmers are shifting sow date in response to heat stress, and how well shifting sow date reduces the negative impacts of heat stress on yield. To identify local-level decision-making, we map wheat sow date and yield at a high spatial resolution (30 m) using Landsat satellite imagery from 1980 to the present. This unique dataset allows us to examine sow date decisions at the field scale over 30 years, and by relating these decisions to weather experienced over the same time period, we can identify how farmers learn and adapt cropping decisions based on weather through time.

Utilizing Multi-Sensor Fire Detections to Map Fires in the United States

Science.gov (United States)

Howard, S. M.; Picotte, J. J.; Coan, M. J.

2014-11-01

In 2006, the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) project began a cooperative effort between the US Forest Service (USFS) and the U.S.Geological Survey (USGS) to map and assess burn severity all large fires that have occurred in the United States since 1984. Using Landsat imagery, MTBS is mandated to map wildfire and prescribed fire that meet specific size criteria: greater than 1000 acres in the west and 500 acres in the east, regardless of ownership. Relying mostly on federal and state fire occurrence records, over 15,300 individual fires have been mapped. While mapping recorded fires, an additional 2,700 "unknown" or undocumented fires were discovered and assessed. It has become apparent that there are perhaps thousands of undocumented fires in the US that are yet to be mapped. Fire occurrence records alone are inadequate if MTBS is to provide a comprehensive accounting of fire across the US. Additionally, the sheer number of fires to assess has overwhelmed current manual procedures. To address these problems, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Applied Sciences Program is helping to fund the efforts of the USGS and its MTBS partners (USFS, National Park Service) to develop, and implement a system to automatically identify fires using satellite data. In near real time, USGS will combine active fire satellite detections from MODIS, AVHRR and GOES satellites with Landsat acquisitions. Newly acquired Landsat imagery will be routinely scanned to identify freshly burned area pixels, derive an initial perimeter and tag the burned area with the satellite date and time of detection. Landsat imagery from the early archive will be scanned to identify undocumented fires. Additional automated fire assessment processes will be developed. The USGS will develop these processes using open source software packages in order to provide freely available tools to local land managers providing them with the capability to assess fires at the local level.

Satellite Imagery Analysis for Automated Global Food Security Forecasting

Science.gov (United States)

Moody, D.; Brumby, S. P.; Chartrand, R.; Keisler, R.; Mathis, M.; Beneke, C. M.; Nicholaeff, D.; Skillman, S.; Warren, M. S.; Poehnelt, J.

2017-12-01

The recent computing performance revolution has driven improvements in sensor, communication, and storage technology. Multi-decadal remote sensing datasets at the petabyte scale are now available in commercial clouds, with new satellite constellations generating petabytes/year of daily high-resolution global coverage imagery. Cloud computing and storage, combined with recent advances in machine learning, are enabling understanding of the world at a scale and at a level of detail never before feasible. We present results from an ongoing effort to develop satellite imagery analysis tools that aggregate temporal, spatial, and spectral information and that can scale with the high-rate and dimensionality of imagery being collected. We focus on the problem of monitoring food crop productivity across the Middle East and North Africa, and show how an analysis-ready, multi-sensor data platform enables quick prototyping of satellite imagery analysis algorithms, from land use/land cover classification and natural resource mapping, to yearly and monthly vegetative health change trends at the structural field level.

Historical Map & Chart Collection of NOAA's Nautical Charts, Hydrographic Surveys, Topographic Surveys, Geodetic Surveys, City Plans, and Civil War Battle Maps Starting from the mid 1700's

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — The Historical Map and Chart Collection of the Office of Coast Survey contains over 20000 historical maps and charts from the mid 1700s through the late 1900s. These...

Energy use in office buildings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

None

1980-10-01

This is the report on Task IB, Familiarization with Additional Data Collection Plans of Annual Survey of BOMA Member and Non-Member Buildings in 20 Cities, of the Energy Use in Office Buildings project. The purpose of the work was to monitor and understand the efforts of the Building Owners and Managers Association International (BOMA) in gathering an energy-use-oriented data base. In order to obtain an improved data base encompassing a broad spectrum of office space and with information suitable for energy analysis in greater detail than is currently available, BOMA undertook a major data-collection effort. Based on a consideration of geographic area, climate, population, and availability of data, BOMA selected twenty cities for data collection. BOMA listed all of the major office space - buildings in excess of 40,000 square feet - in each of the cities. Tax-assessment records, local maps, Chamber of Commerce data, recent industrial-development programs, results of related studies, and local-realtor input were used in an effort to assemble a comprehensive office-building inventory. In order to verify the accuracy and completeness of the building lists, BOMA assembled an Ad-Hoc Review Committee in each city to review the assembled inventory of space. A questionnaire on office-building energy use and building characteristics was developed. In each city BOMA assembled a data collection team operating under the supervision of its regional affiliate to gather the data. For each city a random sample of buildings was selected, and data were gathered. Responses for over 1000 buildings were obtained.

Exploitation of satellite optical and SAR data for public work studies

Science.gov (United States)

Ioannidis, Charalabos; Soile, Sofia; Stamos, Athanassios; Vassilaki, Dimitra; Maltezos, Evangelos; Verykokou, Styliani

2015-06-01

This paper studies the use of high resolution satellite optical and SAR images for 1:5,000 mapping production, which is essential for public work and environmental impact assessment studies. The images were used for the extraction of DEMs and their "fit for purpose" use was investigated, through the examination of parameters like accuracy, reliability and performance of morphological features. Orthoimages from satellite optical images using the produced DEMs with or without breaklines were produced. An application was developed on Antiparos island, a Greek island with irregular terrain. The data includes: (a) a triplet of Pleiades (1A, tri-stereo) satellite images, with a resolution of 0.5m, (b) a TanDEM-X Intermediate DEM, a preliminary version of the forthcoming TanDEM-X global DEM, and (c) an accurate DEM produced from the Greek National Cadastre & Mapping Agency S.A. was used as the reference DEM. The georeferencing of the optical images was computed using GCPs which were measured with GNSS. DEMs were extracted using all the possible combinations of the images triplet using automated image matching without any filtering or editing and were evaluated using the reference DEM. The combination of images which yielded the best DEM was then used to manually editing 3D points and collecting breaklines in order to produce a better DEM, which was also evaluated using various statistical measures and geo-morphological features. Orthoimages were created and evaluated using DEMs from optical and SAR data. A discussion about the use of the computed mapping products for the various stages of the public work studies is included.

77 FR 21991 - Federal Housing Administration (FHA): Multifamily Accelerated Processing (MAP)-Lender and...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-04-12

.... This practice would mitigate risk, since MAP lenders and underwriters will now be approved at a tier... Administration (FHA): Multifamily Accelerated Processing (MAP)--Lender and Underwriter Eligibility Criteria and Credit Watch for MAP Lenders AGENCY: Office of the Assistant Secretary for Housing--Federal Housing...

Toward accountable land use mapping: Using geocomputation to improve classification accuracy and reveal uncertainty

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Beekhuizen, J.; Clarke, K.C.

2010-01-01

The classification of satellite imagery into land use/cover maps is a major challenge in the field of remote sensing. This research aimed at improving the classification accuracy while also revealing uncertain areas by employing a geocomputational approach. We computed numerous land use maps by

Classification of very high resolution satellite remote sensing data in a pilot phase of the forest cover classification of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Forêts d'Afrique Central Evaluées par Télédetection (FACET) product

Science.gov (United States)

Singa Monga Lowengo, C.

2012-12-01

The Observatoire Satellital des Forêts d'Afrique Centrale (OSFAC) based in Kinshasa, serves as the focal point of the GOFC-GOLD network for Central Africa. OSFAC's long term objective is building regional capacity to use remotely sensed data to map forest cover and forest cover change across Central Africa. OSFAC archives and disseminates satellite data, offers training in geospatial data applications in coordination with the University of Kinshasa, and provides technical support to CARPE partners. Forêts d'Afrique Centrale Évaluées par Télédétection (FACET) is an OSFAC initiative that implements the UMD/SDSU methodology at the national level and quantitatively evaluates the spatiotemporal dynamics of forest cover in Central Africa. The multi-temporal series of FACET data is a useful contribution to many projects, such as biodiversity monitoring, climate modeling, conservation, natural resource management, land use planning, agriculture and REDD+. I am working as Remote Sensing and GIS Officer in various projects of OSFAC. My activities include forest cover and lands dynamics monitoring in Congo Basin. I am familiar with the use of digital mapping software, GIS and RS (Arc GIS, ENVI and PCI Geomatica etc.), classification and spatial Analysis of satellite images, 3D modeling, etc. I started as an intern at OSFAC, Assistant Trainer (Professional Training) and Consultant than permanent employee since October 2009. To assist in the OSFAC activities regarding the monitoring of forest cover and the CARPE program in the context of natural resources management, I participated in the development of the FACET Atlas (Republic of Congo). I received data from Matt Hansen (map.img), WRI and Brazzaville (shapefiles). With all these data I draw maps of the ROC Atlas and statistics of forest cover and forest loss. We organize field work on land to collect data to validate the FACET product. Therefore, to assess forest cover in the region of Kwamouth and Kahuzi-Maiko Biega

REMOTE SENSING METHODS FOR PHYTOMASS ESTIMATION AND MAPPING OF TUNDRA VEGETATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elena Golubeva

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Mapping of above-ground phytomass provides a baseline for monitoring climate-induced changes, especially in the northern regions. This is important for practical applications, such as assessing quality of pastures and defining reindeer migration routes. Use of very high resolution (1 m and better aerial and satellite images is of particular interest, because changes at the level of individual trees can be monitored over comparatively large areas. The goals of this study were to: i establish relations between phytomass values and structure and spectral reflectance derived from ground research and ii upscale from ground data to QuickBird satellite imagery to compile maps of above-ground phytomass for key sites. As a result, the study has produced a preliminary map of the above-ground phytomass of lichens for a test site in the Tuliok Valley, Khibiny Mountains, central Kola Peninsula, Russia, with phytomass values well in line with fieldwork data.

Applications of Satellite Data to Support Improvements in Irrigation and Groundwater Management in California

Science.gov (United States)

Melton, F. S.; Huntington, J. L.; Johnson, L.; Guzman, A.; Morton, C.; Zaragoza, I.; Dexter, J.; Rosevelt, C.; Michaelis, A.; Nemani, R. R.; Cahn, M.; Temesgen, B.; Trezza, R.; Frame, K.; Eching, S.; Grimm, R.; Hall, M.

2017-12-01

In agricultural regions around the world, threats to water supplies from drought and groundwater depletion are driving increased demand for tools to advance agricultural water use efficiency and support sustainable groundwater management. Satellite mapping of evapotranspiration (ET) from irrigated agricultural lands can provide agricultural producers and water resource managers with information that can be used to both optimize ag water use and improve estimates of groundwater withdrawals for irrigation. We describe the development of two remote sensing-based tools for ET mapping in California, including important lessons in terms of system design, partnership development, and transition to operations. For irrigation management, the integration of satellite data and surface sensor networks to provide timely delivery of information on crop water requirements can make irrigation scheduling more practical, convenient, and accurate. Developed through a partnership between NASA and the CA Department of Water Resources, the Satellite Irrigation Management Support (SIMS) framework integrates satellite data with information from agricultural weather networks to map crop canopy development and crop water requirements at the scale of individual fields. Information is distributed to agricultural producers and water managers via a web-based interface and web data services. SIMS also provides an API that facilitates integration with other irrigation decision support tools, such as CropManage and IrriQuest. Field trials using these integrated tools have shown that they can be used to sustain yields while improving water use efficiency and nutrient management. For sustainable groundwater management, the combination of satellite-derived estimates of ET and data on surface water deliveries for irrigation can increase the accuracy of estimates of groundwater pumping. We are developing an OpenET platform to facilitate access to ET data from multiple models and accelerate operational

Satellite Derived Bathymetry as a Coastal Geo-Intelligence Tool for Alaska

Science.gov (United States)

Ventura, D. C.

2017-12-01

What do marine rescue, navigation safety, resource management, coastal infrastructure management, climate adaptation and resilience, economic investment, habitat protection agencies and institutions all have in common? They all benefit from accurate coastal bathymetric data As Arctic-Related Incidents of National Significance (IoNS) workshop points out, reducing time and cost of collecting coastal bathymetry in the Arctic is fundamental to addressing needs of a multitude of stakeholders. Until recently, high resolution coastal data acquisition involved field mobilization of planes, vessels, and people. Given limited resources, short season and remoteness, this approach results in very modest progress toward filling the Alaska's coastal bathymetry data gap and updating vintage data from circa Captain Cook.After successfully executing Satellite Derived Bathymetry (SDB) projects in other more environmentally suitable locations, Fugro and its partner EOMAP are now assessing suitability SDB technique along the Alaska coast. This includes aaccessing archived satellite data and understanding best environmental conditions for the mapping and defining maximum mapping depth as an initial action to understand potentials for Alaska. Here we leverage the physics-based approach to satellite imagery data extraction to derive water depth and complimentary intelligence such as seafloor habitat mapping and certain water quality parameters, such as clarity, turbidity, sediment and chlorophyll-a concentrations, and seasonal changes. Both new and archive imagery are utilized as part of the process. If successful, the benefits and cost savings of this approach are enormous as repeat rate for data collects like this can be measured in months/years as opposed to decades/centuries. Arctic coasts have multiple vulnerabilities and the rate of change will continue to outpace the budgets. As innovative and learning organizations, Fugro and EOMAP strive to not only share the results of this

NORSEWInD satellite wind climatology

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hasager, Charlotte Bay; Badger, Merete; Mouche, Alexis

The EU-NORSEWInD project www.norsewind.eu has taken place from August 2008 to July 2012 (4 years). NORSEWInD is short for Northern Seas Wind Index database. In the project ocean surface wind observations from space have been retrieved, processed and analysed. The overall aim of the work...... is to provide new offshore wind climatology map for the entire area of interest based on satellite remote sensing. This has been based on Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) from Envisat ASAR using 9000 scenes re-processed with ECMWF wind direction and CMOD-IFR. The number of overlapping samples range from 450...... in the Irish Sea to more than 1200 in most of the Baltic Sea. Wind resource statistics include maps at 2 km spatial resolution of mean wind speed, Weibull A and k, and energy density at 10 m above sea level. Uncertainty estimates on the number of available samples for each of the four parameters are presented...

A new map of global urban extent from MODIS satellite data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schneider, A; Friedl, M A; Potere, D

2009-01-01

Although only a small percentage of global land cover, urban areas significantly alter climate, biogeochemistry, and hydrology at local, regional, and global scales. To understand the impact of urban areas on these processes, high quality, regularly updated information on the urban environment-including maps that monitor location and extent-is essential. Here we present results from efforts to map the global distribution of urban land use at 500 m spatial resolution using remotely sensed data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). Our approach uses a supervised decision tree classification algorithm that we process using region-specific parameters. An accuracy assessment based on sites from a stratified random sample of 140 cities shows that the new map has an overall accuracy of 93% (k = 0.65) at the pixel level and a high level of agreement at the city scale (R 2 = 0.90). Our results (available at http://sage.wisc.edu/urbanenvironment.html) also reveal that the land footprint of cities occupies less than 0.5% of the Earth's total land area.

The performance evaluation of a new neural network based traffic management scheme for a satellite communication network

Science.gov (United States)

Ansari, Nirwan; Liu, Dequan

1991-01-01

A neural-network-based traffic management scheme for a satellite communication network is described. The scheme consists of two levels of management. The front end of the scheme is a derivation of Kohonen's self-organization model to configure maps for the satellite communication network dynamically. The model consists of three stages. The first stage is the pattern recognition task, in which an exemplar map that best meets the current network requirements is selected. The second stage is the analysis of the discrepancy between the chosen exemplar map and the state of the network, and the adaptive modification of the chosen exemplar map to conform closely to the network requirement (input data pattern) by means of Kohonen's self-organization. On the basis of certain performance criteria, whether a new map is generated to replace the original chosen map is decided in the third stage. A state-dependent routing algorithm, which arranges the incoming call to some proper path, is used to make the network more efficient and to lower the call block rate. Simulation results demonstrate that the scheme, which combines self-organization and the state-dependent routing mechanism, provides better performance in terms of call block rate than schemes that only have either the self-organization mechanism or the routing mechanism.

Improving snow fraction spatio-temporal continuity using a combination of MODIS and Fengyun-2 satellites over China

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, L.; Wang, G.

2017-12-01

Snow cover is one of key elements in the investigations of weather, climatic change, water resource, and snow hazard. Satellites observations from on-board optical sensors provides the ability to snow cover mapping through the discrimination of snow from other surface features and cloud. MODIS provides maximum of snow cover data using 8-day composition data in order to reduce the cloud obscuration impacts. However, snow cover mapping is often required to obtain at the temporal scale of less than one day, especially in the case of disasters. Geostationary satellites provide much higher temporal resolution measurements (typically at 15 min or half or one hour), which has a great potential to reduce cloud cover problem and observe ground surface for identifying snow. The proposed method in this work is that how to take the advantages of polar-orbiting and geostationary optical sensors to accurately map snow cover without data gaps due to cloud. FY-2 geostationary satellites have high temporal resolution observations, however, they are lacking enough spectral bands essential for snow cover monitoring, such as the 1.6 μm band. Based on our recent work (Wang et al., 2017), we improved FY-2/VISSR fractional snow cover estimation with a linear spectral unmixing analysis method. The linear approach is applied then using the reflectance observed at the certain hourly image of FY-2 to calculate pixel-wise snow cover fraction. The composition of daily factional snow cover employs the sun zenith angle, where the snow fraction under lowest sun zenith angle is considered as the most confident result. FY-2/VISSR fractional snow cover map has less cloud due to the composition of multi-temporal snow maps in a single day. In order to get an accurate and cloud-reduced fractional snow cover map, both of MODIS and FY-2/VISSR daily snow fraction maps are blended together. With the combination of FY-2E/VISSR and MODIS, there are still some cloud existing in the daily snow fraction map

Forest loss maps from regional satellite monitoring systematically underestimate deforestation in two rapidly changing parts of the Amazon

Science.gov (United States)

Milodowski, D. T.; Mitchard, E. T. A.; Williams, M.

2017-09-01

Accurate, consistent reporting of changing forest area, stratified by forest type, is required for all countries under their commitments to the Paris Agreement (UNFCCC 2015 Adoption of the Paris Agreement (Paris: UNFCCC)). Such change reporting may directly impact on payments through comparisons to national Reference (Emissions) Levels under the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) framework. The emergence of global, satellite-based forest monitoring systems, including Global Forest Watch (GFW) and FORMA, have great potential in aiding this endeavour. However, the accuracy of these systems has been questioned and their uncertainties are poorly constrained, both in terms of the spatial extent of forest loss and timing of change. Here, using annual time series of 5 m optical imagery at two sites in the Brazilian Amazon, we demonstrate that GFW more accurately detects forest loss than the coarser-resolution FORMA or Brazil’s national-level PRODES product, though all underestimate the rate of loss. We conclude GFW provides robust indicators of forest loss, at least for larger-scale forest change, but under-predicts losses driven by small-scale disturbances (< 2 ha), even though these are much larger than its minimum mapping unit (0.09 ha).

Water Mapping Technology Rebuilds Lives in Arid Regions

Science.gov (United States)

2015-01-01

Using NASA Landsat satellite and other remote sensing topographical data, Radar Technologies International developed an algorithm-based software program that can locate underground water sources. Working with international organizations and governments, the firm, which maintains an office in New Braunfels, Texas, is helping to provide water for refugees and other people in drought-stricken regions such as Kenya, Sudan, and Afghanistan.

Geometrical Model of Solar Radiation Pressure Based on High-Performing Galileo Clocks - First Geometrical Mapping of the Yarkowsky effect

Science.gov (United States)

Svehla, Drazen; Rothacher, Markus; Hugentobler, Urs; Steigenberger, Peter; Ziebart, Marek

2014-05-01

Solar radiation pressure is the main source of errors in the precise orbit determination of GNSS satellites. All deficiencies in the modeling of Solar radiation pressure map into estimated terrestrial reference frame parameters as well as into derived gravity field coefficients and altimetry results when LEO orbits are determined using GPS. Here we introduce a new approach to geometrically map radial orbit perturbations of GNSS satellites using highly-performing clocks on board the first Galileo satellites. Only a linear model (time bias and time drift) needs to be removed from the estimated clock parameters and the remaining clock residuals map all radial orbit perturbations along the orbit. With the independent SLR measurements, we show that a Galileo clock is stable enough to map radial orbit perturbations continuously along the orbit with a negative sign in comparison to SLR residuals. Agreement between the SLR residuals and the clock residuals is at the 1 cm RMS for an orbit arc of 24 h. Looking at the clock parameters determined along one orbit revolution over a period of one year, we show that the so-called SLR bias in Galileo and GPS orbits can be explained by the translation of the determined orbit in the orbital plane towards the Sun. This orbit translation is due to thermal re-radiation and not accounting for the Sun elevation in the parameterization of the estimated Solar radiation pressure parameters. SLR ranging to GNSS satellites takes place typically at night, e.g. between 6 pm and 6 am local time when the Sun is in opposition to the satellite. Therefore, SLR observes only one part of the GNSS orbit with a negative radial orbit error that is mapped as an artificial bias in SLR observables. The Galileo clocks clearly show orbit translation for all Sun elevations: the radial orbit error is positive when the Sun is in conjuction (orbit noon) and negative when the Sun is in opposition (orbit midnight). The magnitude of this artificial negative SLR bias

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

Review of progress in gathering, distributing and using satellite data for activities within COST 238 (PRIME

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. Stankov

1996-06-01

Full Text Available Recent progress in using the satellite data for various PRIME purposes is briefly presented. The satellite data base is already in operation and contains data of local plasma and neutral atmosphere parameters taken from several ionospheric satellites. A method of tracing the locally measured parameters along the magnetic field lines down to hmF2 is developed using a theoretical F-region code. This method is applied to receive f0F2sat needed to test monthly median and instantaneous mapping methods. In order to reduce the uncertainties arising from the unknown photoionization and recombination rates, f0F2 is calibrated at one point on the satellite orbit with a Vertical Incident (VI f0F2 and their ratio is then assumed constant along the whole satellite track over the PRIME area. The testing procedure for monthly median maps traces the measured plasma density down to a basic height of 400 km, where individual f0F2sat values are accumulated in every time/subarea bin within the given month, then their median is calibrated with the available medians from the VI ionosonde network. From all available satellite orbits over the PRIME area, 35 of them were found to pass over two VI ionosonde stations. The second station in these orbits was used to check the calculated f0F2sat with the measured VI f0F2. The standard deviation was found to be only 0.15 MHz.

Evaluating kriging as a tool to improve moderate resolution maps of forest biomass

Science.gov (United States)

Elizabeth A. Freeman; Gretchen G. Moisen

2007-01-01

The USDA Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis program (FIA) recently produced a nationwide map of forest biomass by modeling biomass collected on forest inventory plots as nonparametric functions of moderate resolution satellite data and other environmental variables using Cubist software. Efforts are underway to develop methods to enhance this initial map. We...

NOAA Office for Coastal Management Coastal Inundation Digital Elevation Model: Virginia, Northern

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — These data were created as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management's efforts to create an online mapping viewer...

NOAA Office for Coastal Management Coastal Inundation Digital Elevation Model: Virginia, Middle

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — These data were created as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management's efforts to create an online mapping viewer...

NOAA Office for Coastal Management Coastal Digital Elevation Model: Lake St. Clair

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — These data were created as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management's efforts to create an online mapping viewer...

NOAA Office for Coastal Management Coastal Inundation Digital Elevation Model: Maryland, Southeast

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — These data were created as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management's efforts to create an online mapping viewer...

NOAA Office for Coastal Management Coastal Inundation Digital Elevation Model: Virginia, Southern

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — These data were created as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management's efforts to create an online mapping viewer...

Towards High-Definition 3D Urban Mapping: Road Feature-Based Registration of Mobile Mapping Systems and Aerial Imagery

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mahdi Javanmardi

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Various applications have utilized a mobile mapping system (MMS as the main 3D urban remote sensing platform. However, the accuracy and precision of the three-dimensional data acquired by an MMS is highly dependent on the performance of the vehicle’s self-localization, which is generally performed by high-end global navigation satellite system (GNSS/inertial measurement unit (IMU integration. However, GNSS/IMU positioning quality degrades significantly in dense urban areas with high-rise buildings, which block and reflect the satellite signals. Traditional landmark updating methods, which improve MMS accuracy by measuring ground control points (GCPs and manually identifying those points in the data, are both labor-intensive and time-consuming. In this paper, we propose a novel and comprehensive framework for automatically georeferencing MMS data by capitalizing on road features extracted from high-resolution aerial surveillance data. The proposed framework has three key steps: (1 extracting road features from the MMS and aerial data; (2 obtaining Gaussian mixture models from the extracted aerial road features; and (3 performing registration of the MMS data to the aerial map using a dynamic sliding window and the normal distribution transform (NDT. The accuracy of the proposed framework is verified using field data, demonstrating that it is a reliable solution for high-precision urban mapping.

Global Land Survey Impervious Mapping Project Web Site

Science.gov (United States)

DeColstoun, Eric Brown; Phillips, Jacqueline

2014-01-01

The Global Land Survey Impervious Mapping Project (GLS-IMP) aims to produce the first global maps of impervious cover at the 30m spatial resolution of Landsat. The project uses Global Land Survey (GLS) Landsat data as its base but incorporates training data generated from very high resolution commercial satellite data and using a Hierarchical segmentation program called Hseg. The web site contains general project information, a high level description of the science, examples of input and output data, as well as links to other relevant projects.

Chromosomal structures and repetitive sequences divergence in Cucumis species revealed by comparative cytogenetic mapping.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Yunxia; Cheng, Chunyan; Li, Ji; Yang, Shuqiong; Wang, Yunzhu; Li, Ziang; Chen, Jinfeng; Lou, Qunfeng

2015-09-25

Differentiation and copy number of repetitive sequences affect directly chromosome structure which contributes to reproductive isolation and speciation. Comparative cytogenetic mapping has been verified an efficient tool to elucidate the differentiation and distribution of repetitive sequences in genome. In present study, the distinct chromosomal structures of five Cucumis species were revealed through genomic in situ hybridization (GISH) technique and comparative cytogenetic mapping of major satellite repeats. Chromosome structures of five Cucumis species were investigated using GISH and comparative mapping of specific satellites. Southern hybridization was employed to study the proliferation of satellites, whose structural characteristics were helpful for analyzing chromosome evolution. Preferential distribution of repetitive DNAs at the subtelomeric regions was found in C. sativus, C hystrix and C. metuliferus, while majority was positioned at the pericentromeric heterochromatin regions in C. melo and C. anguria. Further, comparative GISH (cGISH) through using genomic DNA of other species as probes revealed high homology of repeats between C. sativus and C. hystrix. Specific satellites including 45S rDNA, Type I/II, Type III, Type IV, CentM and telomeric repeat were then comparatively mapped in these species. Type I/II and Type IV produced bright signals at the subtelomeric regions of C. sativus and C. hystrix simultaneously, which might explain the significance of their amplification in the divergence of Cucumis subgenus from the ancient ancestor. Unique positioning of Type III and CentM only at the centromeric domains of C. sativus and C. melo, respectively, combining with unique southern bands, revealed rapid evolutionary patterns of centromeric DNA in Cucumis. Obvious interstitial telomeric repeats were observed in chromosomes 1 and 2 of C. sativus, which might provide evidence of the fusion hypothesis of chromosome evolution from x = 12 to x = 7 in

Geospatial Information from Satellite Imagery for Geovisualisation of Smart Cities in India

Science.gov (United States)

Mohan, M.

2016-06-01

In the recent past, there have been large emphasis on extraction of geospatial information from satellite imagery. The Geospatial information are being processed through geospatial technologies which are playing important roles in developing of smart cities, particularly in developing countries of the world like India. The study is based on the latest geospatial satellite imagery available for the multi-date, multi-stage, multi-sensor, and multi-resolution. In addition to this, the latest geospatial technologies have been used for digital image processing of remote sensing satellite imagery and the latest geographic information systems as 3-D GeoVisualisation, geospatial digital mapping and geospatial analysis for developing of smart cities in India. The Geospatial information obtained from RS and GPS systems have complex structure involving space, time and presentation. Such information helps in 3-Dimensional digital modelling for smart cities which involves of spatial and non-spatial information integration for geographic visualisation of smart cites in context to the real world. In other words, the geospatial database provides platform for the information visualisation which is also known as geovisualisation. So, as a result there have been an increasing research interest which are being directed to geospatial analysis, digital mapping, geovisualisation, monitoring and developing of smart cities using geospatial technologies. However, the present research has made an attempt for development of cities in real world scenario particulary to help local, regional and state level planners and policy makers to better understand and address issues attributed to cities using the geospatial information from satellite imagery for geovisualisation of Smart Cities in emerging and developing country, India.

Hydrocarbons on Saturn's satellites Iapetus and Phoebe

Science.gov (United States)

Cruikshank, D.P.; Wegryn, E.; Dalle, Ore C.M.; Brown, R.H.; Bibring, J.-P.; Buratti, B.J.; Clark, R.N.; McCord, T.B.; Nicholson, P.D.; Pendleton, Y.J.; Owen, T.C.; Filacchione, G.; Coradini, A.; Cerroni, P.; Capaccioni, F.; Jaumann, R.; Nelson, R.M.; Baines, K.H.; Sotin, Christophe; Bellucci, G.; Combes, M.; Langevin, Y.; Sicardy, B.; Matson, D.L.; Formisano, V.; Drossart, P.; Mennella, V.

2008-01-01

Material of low geometric albedo (pV ??? 0.1) is found on many objects in the outer Solar System, but its distribution in the saturnian satellite system is of special interest because of its juxtaposition with high-albedo ice. In the absence of clear, diagnostic spectral features, the composition of this low-albedo (or "dark") material is generally inferred to be carbon-rich, but the form(s) of the carbon is unknown. Near-infrared spectra of the low-albedo hemisphere of Saturn's satellite Iapetus were obtained with the Visible-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) on the Cassini spacecraft at the fly-by of that satellite of 31 December 2004, yielding a maximum spatial resolution on the satellite's surface of ???65 km. The spectral region 3-3.6 ??m reveals a broad absorption band, centered at 3.29 ??m, and concentrated in a region comprising about 15% of the low-albedo surface area. This is identified as the C{single bond}H stretching mode vibration in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) molecules. Two weaker bands attributed to {single bond}CH2{single bond} stretching modes in aliphatic hydrocarbons are found in association with the aromatic band. The bands most likely arise from aromatic and aliphatic units in complex macromolecular carbonaceous material with a kerogen- or coal-like structure, similar to that in carbonaceous meteorites. VIMS spectra of Phoebe, encountered by Cassini on 11 June 2004, also show the aromatic hydrocarbon band, although somewhat weaker than on Iapetus. The origin of the PAH molecular material on these two satellites is unknown, but PAHs are found in carbonaceous meteorites, cometary dust particles, circumstellar dust, and interstellar dust. ?? 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

ESPACE - a geodetic Master's program for the education of Satellite Application Engineers

Science.gov (United States)

Hedman, K.; Kirschner, S.; Seitz, F.

2012-04-01

In the last decades there has been a rapid development of new geodetic and other Earth observation satellites. Applications of these satellites such as car navigation systems, weather predictions, and, digital maps (such as Google Earth or Google Maps) play a more and more important role in our daily life. For geosciences, satellite applications such as remote sensing and precise positioning/navigation have turned out to be extremely useful and are meanwhile indispensable. Today, researchers within geodesy, climatology, oceanography, meteorology as well as within Earth system science are all dependent on up-to-date satellite data. Design, development and handling of these missions require experts with knowledge not only in space engineering, but also in the specific applications. That gives rise to a new kind of engineers - satellite application engineers. The study program for these engineers combines parts of different classical disciplines such as geodesy, aerospace engineering or electronic engineering. The satellite application engineering program Earth Oriented Space Science and Technology (ESPACE) was founded in 2005 at the Technische Universität München, mainly from institutions involved in geodesy and aerospace engineering. It is an international, interdisciplinary Master's program, and is open to students with a BSc in both Science (e.g. Geodesy, Mathematics, Informatics, Geophysics) and Engineering (e.g. Aerospace, Electronical and Mechanical Engineering). The program is completely conducted in English. ESPACE benefits from and utilizes its location in Munich with its unique concentration of expertise related to space science and technology. Teaching staff from 3 universities (Technische Universität München, Ludwig-Maximilian University, University of the Federal Armed Forces), research institutions (such as the German Aerospace Center, DLR and the German Geodetic Research Institute, DGFI) and space industry (such as EADS or Kayser-Threde) are

Estimation of Chinese surface NO2 concentrations combining satellite data and Land Use Regression

Science.gov (United States)

Anand, J.; Monks, P.

2016-12-01

Monitoring surface-level air quality is often limited by in-situ instrument placement and issues arising from harmonisation over long timescales. Satellite instruments can offer a synoptic view of regional pollution sources, but in many cases only a total or tropospheric column can be measured. In this work a new technique of estimating surface NO2 combining both satellite and in-situ data is presented, in which a Land Use Regression (LUR) model is used to create high resolution pollution maps based on known predictor variables such as population density, road networks, and land cover. By employing a mixed effects approach, it is possible to take advantage of the spatiotemporal variability in the satellite-derived column densities to account for daily and regional variations in surface NO2 caused by factors such as temperature, elevation, and wind advection. In this work, surface NO2 maps are modelled over the North China Plain and Pearl River Delta during high-pollution episodes by combining in-situ measurements and tropospheric columns from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI). The modelled concentrations show good agreement with in-situ data and surface NO2 concentrations derived from the MACC-II global reanalysis.

Significant results from using earth observation satellites for mineral and energy resource exploration

Science.gov (United States)

Carter, William D.

1981-01-01

A large number of Earth-observation satellites orbit our world several times each day, providing new information about the land and sea surfaces and the overlying thin layer of atmosphere that makes our planet unique. Meteorological satellites have had the longest history of experimental use and most are now considered operational. The geologic information collected by the Landsat, Polar Orbiting Geophysical Observatory (POGO), Magsat, Heat Capacity Mapping Mission (HCMM) and Seasat land and ocean observation systems is being thoroughly tested, and some of these systems are now approaching operational use.

Satellite images survey for the identification of the coastal sedimentary system changes and associated vulnerability along the western bay of the Gulf of Tunis (northern Africa)

Science.gov (United States)

Hzami, Abderraouf; Amrouni, Oula; Romanescu, Gheorghe; Constantin Stoleriu, Cristian; Mihu-Pintilie, Alin; Saâdi, Abdeljaouad

2018-04-01

The aim of this study consists in testing the effectiveness of satellite data in order to monitoring shoreline and sedimentary features changes, especially the rapidly changing of Gulf of Tunis coast. The study area is located in the Gulf of Tunis western bay (Southern Mediterranean Sea) which is characterized by sandy beaches of Ghar Melah and Raoued (Medjerda Delta area). The aerial photographs and satellite imageries were used for mapping the evolution of shoreline. Diachronic data (satellite imagery, aerial photography and topographic maps) were used to monitor and to quantify, the evolution of the coastal areas. These thematic data were digitally overlaid and vectorised for highlighting the shoreline changes between 1936 and 2016, in order to map the rate of erosion and accretion along the shoreline. Results show that the accretion and degradation are related to the Medjerda: change of outlet in 1973 and impoundment of the Sidi Salem dam in 1982. We found that the general trend of the coastal geomorphic processes can be monitored with satellite imageries (such as Sentinel A2, Spots 4 and 5), due to its repetitive coverage along the time and their high quality concerning the spectral contrast between land and sea areas. Improved satellite imageries with high resolution should be a valuable tool for complementing traditional methods for mapping and assessing the sedimentary structures (such as shoreline, delta, marine bars), and monitoring especially the lowlands coastal areas (slightly eroded).

Sensitivity of Attitude Determination on the Model Assumed for ISAR Radar Mappings

Science.gov (United States)

Lemmens, S.; Krag, H.

2013-09-01

Inverse synthetic aperture radars (ISAR) are valuable instrumentations for assessing the state of a large object in low Earth orbit. The images generated by these radars can reach a sufficient quality to be used during launch support or contingency operations, e.g. for confirming the deployment of structures, determining the structural integrity, or analysing the dynamic behaviour of an object. However, the direct interpretation of ISAR images can be a demanding task due to the nature of the range-Doppler space in which these images are produced. Recently, a tool has been developed by the European Space Agency's Space Debris Office to generate radar mappings of a target in orbit. Such mappings are a 3D-model based simulation of how an ideal ISAR image would be generated by a ground based radar under given processing conditions. These radar mappings can be used to support a data interpretation process. E.g. by processing predefined attitude scenarios during an observation sequence and comparing them with actual observations, one can detect non-nominal behaviour. Vice versa, one can also estimate the attitude states of the target by fitting the radar mappings to the observations. It has been demonstrated for the latter use case that a coarse approximation of the target through an 3D-model is already sufficient to derive the attitude information from the generated mappings. The level of detail required for the 3D-model is determined by the process of generating ISAR images, which is based on the theory of scattering bodies. Therefore, a complex surface can return an intrinsically noisy ISAR image. E.g. when many instruments on a satellite are visible to the observer, the ISAR image can suffer from multipath reflections. In this paper, we will further analyse the sensitivity of the attitude fitting algorithms to variations in the dimensions and the level of detail of the underlying 3D model. Moreover, we investigate the ability to estimate the orientations of different

Effect of Ionosphere on Geostationary Communication Satellite Signals

Science.gov (United States)

Erdem, Esra; Arikan, Feza; Gulgonul, Senol

2016-07-01

ionosphere using IRI-Plas-G software. One of the outstanding features of IONOLAB-RAY is the opportunity of Global Ionospheric Map-Total Electron Content (GIM-TEC) assimilation. This feature enables more realistic representation of ionosphere, especially for the times when ionosphere deviates from the generalized models, such as during geomagnetic storms. This feature is critical to examine the effect of ionosphere on satellite signals under ionospheric storm conditions. In this study TURKSAT satellite data is used to compare the results of IONOLAB-RAY and evaluate the effect of ionosphere. TURKSAT is one of the world's leading companies providing all sorts of satellite communications through the satellites of TURKSAT as well as the other satellites. Providing services for voice, data, internet, TV, and radio broadcasting through the satellites across a wide area extending from Europe to Asia. The latest satellite of TURKSAT, namely Turksat 4B was launched on October 2015, before that various versions of TURKSAT satellites are launched since 1994. In the future enlargement of broadcasting area towards equatorial region is aimed, where the ionospheric anomalies and storms are highly expected. In the future this study can be applied to the satellite signals in equatorial regions and effects of ionosphere especially under storm conditions can be discussed. This study is supported by TUBITAK 114E541, 115E915 and Joint TUBITAK 114E092 and AS CR 14/001 projects.

About Non-Line-Of-Sight Satellite Detection and Exclusion in a 3D Map-Aided Localization Algorithm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

François Peyret

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Reliable GPS positioning in city environment is a key issue: actually, signals are prone to multipath, with poor satellite geometry in many streets. Using a 3D urban model to forecast satellite visibility in urban contexts in order to improve GPS localization is the main topic of the present article. A virtual image processing that detects and eliminates possible faulty measurements is the core of this method. This image is generated using the position estimated a priori by the navigation process itself, under road constraints. This position is then updated by measurements to line-of-sight satellites only. This closed-loop real-time processing has shown very first promising full-scale test results.

About Non-Line-Of-Sight Satellite Detection and Exclusion in a 3D Map-Aided Localization Algorithm

Science.gov (United States)

Peyraud, Sébastien; Bétaille, David; Renault, Stéphane; Ortiz, Miguel; Mougel, Florian; Meizel, Dominique; Peyret, François

2013-01-01

Reliable GPS positioning in city environment is a key issue actually, signals are prone to multipath, with poor satellite geometry in many streets. Using a 3D urban model to forecast satellite visibility in urban contexts in order to improve GPS localization is the main topic of the present article. A virtual image processing that detects and eliminates possible faulty measurements is the core of this method. This image is generated using the position estimated a priori by the navigation process itself, under road constraints. This position is then updated by measurements to line-of-sight satellites only. This closed-loop real-time processing has shown very first promising full-scale test results. PMID:23344379

Automated Generation of the Alaska Coastline Using High-Resolution Satellite Imagery

Science.gov (United States)

Roth, G.; Porter, C. C.; Cloutier, M. D.; Clementz, M. E.; Reim, C.; Morin, P. J.

2015-12-01

Previous campaigns to map Alaska's coast at high resolution have relied on airborne, marine, or ground-based surveying and manual digitization. The coarse temporal resolution, inability to scale geographically, and high cost of field data acquisition in these campaigns is inadequate for the scale and speed of recent coastal change in Alaska. Here, we leverage the Polar Geospatial Center (PGC) archive of DigitalGlobe, Inc. satellite imagery to produce a state-wide coastline at 2 meter resolution. We first select multispectral imagery based on time and quality criteria. We then extract the near-infrared (NIR) band from each processed image, and classify each pixel as water or land with a pre-determined NIR threshold value. Processing continues with vectorizing the water-land boundary, removing extraneous data, and attaching metadata. Final coastline raster and vector products maintain the original accuracy of the orthorectified satellite data, which is often within the local tidal range. The repeat frequency of coastline production can range from 1 month to 3 years, depending on factors such as satellite capacity, cloud cover, and floating ice. Shadows from trees or structures complicate the output and merit further data cleaning. The PGC's imagery archive, unique expertise, and computing resources enabled us to map the Alaskan coastline in a few months. The DigitalGlobe archive allows us to update this coastline as new imagery is acquired, and facilitates baseline data for studies of coastal change and improvement of topographic datasets. Our results are not simply a one-time coastline, but rather a system for producing multi-temporal, automated coastlines. Workflows and tools produced with this project can be freely distributed and utilized globally. Researchers and government agencies must now consider how they can incorporate and quality-control this high-frequency, high-resolution data to meet their mapping standards and research objectives.

Use of satellite images for the monitoring of water systems

Science.gov (United States)

Hillebrand, Gudrun; Winterscheid, Axel; Baschek, Björn; Wolf, Thomas

2015-04-01

Satellite images are a proven source of information for monitoring ecological indicators in coastal waters and inland river systems. This potential of remote sensing products was demonstrated by recent research projects (e.g. EU-funded project Freshmon - www.freshmon.eu) and other activities by national institutions. Among indicators for water quality, a particular focus was set on the temporal and spatial dynamics of suspended particulate matter (SPM) and Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a). The German Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG) was using the Weser and Elbe estuaries as test cases to compare in-situ measurements with results obtained from a temporal series of automatically generated maps of SPM distributions based on remote sensing data. Maps of SPM and Chl-a distributions in European inland rivers and alpine lakes were generated by the Freshmon Project. Earth observation based products are a valuable source for additional data that can well supplement in-situ monitoring. For 2015, the BfG and the Institute for Lake Research of the State Institute for the Environment, Measurements and Nature Conservation of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany (LUBW) are in the process to start implementing an operational service for monitoring SPM and Chl-a based on satellite images (Landsat 7 & 8, Sentinel 2, and if required other systems with higher spatial resolution, e.g. Rapid Eye). In this 2-years project, which is part of the European Copernicus Programme, the operational service will be set up for - the inland rivers of Rhine and Elbe - the North Sea estuaries of Elbe, Weser and Ems. Furthermore - Lake Constance and other lakes located within the Federal State of Baden-Wuerttemberg. In future, the service can be implemented for other rivers and lakes as well. Key feature of the project is a data base that holds the stock of geo-referenced maps of SPM and Chl-a distributions. Via web-based portals (e.g. GGInA - geo-portal of the BfG; UIS - environmental information system of the

AN APPROACH FOR STITCHING SATELLITE IMAGES IN A BIGDATA MAPREDUCE FRAMEWORK

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

H. Sarı

2017-11-01

Full Text Available In this study we present a two-step map/reduce framework to stitch satellite mosaic images. The proposed system enable recognition and extraction of objects whose parts falling in separate satellite mosaic images. However this is a time and resource consuming process. The major aim of the study is improving the performance of the image stitching processes by utilizing big data framework. To realize this, we first convert the images into bitmaps (first mapper and then String formats in the forms of 255s and 0s (second mapper, and finally, find the best possible matching position of the images by a reduce function.

An Approach for Stitching Satellite Images in a Bigdata Mapreduce Framework

Science.gov (United States)

Sarı, H.; Eken, S.; Sayar, A.

2017-11-01

In this study we present a two-step map/reduce framework to stitch satellite mosaic images. The proposed system enable recognition and extraction of objects whose parts falling in separate satellite mosaic images. However this is a time and resource consuming process. The major aim of the study is improving the performance of the image stitching processes by utilizing big data framework. To realize this, we first convert the images into bitmaps (first mapper) and then String formats in the forms of 255s and 0s (second mapper), and finally, find the best possible matching position of the images by a reduce function.

Satellite line mapping in Eu3+–Ce3+ and Pr3+–Ce3+ codoped Y2SiO5

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Serrano, D.; Karlsson, J.; Zheng, L.; Dong, Y.; Ferrier, A.; Goldner, P.; Walther, A.; Rippe, L.; Kröll, S.

2016-01-01

In this work we perform a high-resolution spectroscopic investigation of Eu 3+ –Ce 3+ and Pr 3+ –Ce 3+ codoped Y 2 SiO 5 crystals. Satellite line spectra were recorded at low temperatures around the Eu 3+ : 7 F 0 → 5 D 0 and the Pr 3+ : 3 H 4 → 1 D 2 transitions. It is observed that the incorporation of Ce 3+ as a codopant notably changes the Eu 3+ and Pr 3+ satellite line patterns. Satellite lines measured in singly doped Eu 3+ :Y 2 SiO 5 were found at the same spectral positions in Eu 3+ –Ce 3+ codoped crystals. These coincident lines were concluded to be due to pairs of Eu 3+ ions. Extra satellite lines appeared in the codoped crystals, which were assigned to Ce 3+ related structures such as Ce 3+ –Eu 3+ pairs. The analysis of the Pr 3+ satellite line spectra presents further challenges. Satellite lines associated to Pr 3+ pairs show weaker intensity, presumably due to the efficient quenching of the Pr 3+1 D 2 emission through cross-relaxation paths ( 1 D 2 → 1 G 4 ; 3 H 4 → 3 F 4 ). The investigation of the Eu 3+ and Pr 3+ satellite line patterns in Y 2 SiO 5 is particularly interesting for their exploitation in rare-earth based quantum computation schemes. - Highlights: • We recorded Eu and Pr satellite lines in Y 2 SiO 5 with and without Ce as a codopant. • The presence of Ce leads to the appearance of extra satellite lines in the spectra. • The satellite lines are associated to minor crystal sites such as ion pairs. • Less than 100 ion pairs were detected per satellite line. • The exploitation of the satellite line structure is proposed for quantum computing.

77 FR 50759 - Noise Exposure Map Notice, Orlando Sanford International Airport, Sanford, FL

Science.gov (United States)

2012-08-22

... DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION Federal Aviation Administration Noise Exposure Map Notice, Orlando... Maps submitted by the Sanford Airport Authority for Orlando Sanford International Airport under the... Aviation Administration, Orlando Airports District Office, 5950 Hazeltine National Drive, Citadel...

Improvements on mapping soil liquefaction at a regional scale

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Jing

Earthquake induced soil liquefaction is an important secondary hazard during earthquakes and can lead to significant damage to infrastructure. Mapping liquefaction hazard is important in both planning for earthquake events and guiding relief efforts by positioning resources once the events have occurred. This dissertation addresses two aspects of liquefaction hazard mapping at a regional scale including 1) predictive liquefaction hazard mapping and 2) post-liquefaction cataloging. First, current predictive hazard liquefaction mapping relies on detailed geologic maps and geotechnical data, which are not always available in at-risk regions. This dissertation improves the predictive liquefaction hazard mapping by the development and validation of geospatial liquefaction models (Chapter 2 and 3) that predict liquefaction extent and are appropriate for global application. The geospatial liquefaction models are developed using logistic regression from a liquefaction database consisting of the data from 27 earthquake events from six countries. The model that performs best over the entire dataset includes peak ground velocity (PGV), VS30, distance to river, distance to coast, and precipitation. The model that performs best over the noncoastal dataset includes PGV, VS30, water table depth, distance to water body, and precipitation. Second, post-earthquake liquefaction cataloging historically relies on field investigation that is often limited by time and expense, and therefore results in limited and incomplete liquefaction inventories. This dissertation improves the post-earthquake cataloging by the development and validation of a remote sensing-based method that can be quickly applied over a broad region after an earthquake and provide a detailed map of liquefaction surface effects (Chapter 4). Our method uses the optical satellite images before and after an earthquake event from the WorldView-2 satellite with 2 m spatial resolution and eight spectral bands. Our method

Chinese HJ-1C SAR And Its Wind Mapping Capability

Science.gov (United States)

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

2010-04-01

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

Analysis of raw AIS spectrum recordings from a LEO satellite

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, Jesper Abildgaard; Mortensen, Hans Peter

2014-01-01

The AAUSAT3 satellite is a 1U cubesat, which has been developed by students at Aalborg University, Denmark in collaboration with the Danish Maritime Authority. The satellite was launched in February 2013 on a mission to monitor ships from space using their AIS broadcast signals as an indication...... of position. The SDR receiver developed to listen for these AIS signals also allows for sampling and storing of the raw intermediate frequency spectrum, which has been used in order to map channel utilization over the areas of interest for the mission, which is mainly the arctic regions. The SDR based...... receiver used onboard the satellite is using a single chip front-end solution, which down converts the AIS signal located around 162 MHz into an intermediate frequency, with a up to 200 kHz bandwidth. This I/F signal is sampled with a 750 kSPS A/D converter and further processed by an Analog Devices DSP...

GNSS, Satellite Altimetry and Formosat-3/COSMIC for Determination of Ionosphere Parameters

Science.gov (United States)

Mahdi Alizadeh Elizei, M.; Schuh, Harald; Schmidt, Michael; Todorova, Sonya

The dispersion of ionosphere with respect to the microwave signals allows gaining information about the parameters of this medium in terms of the electron density (Ne), or the Total Elec-tron Content (TEC). In the last decade space geodetic techniques, such as Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), satellite altimetry missions, and Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) satel-lites have turned into a promising tool for remote sensing the ionosphere. The dual-frequency GNSS observations provide the main input data for development of Global Ionosphere Maps (GIM). However, the GNSS stations are heterogeneously distributed, with large gaps particu-larly over the sea surface, which lowers the precision of the GIM over these areas. Conversely, dual-frequency satellite altimetry missions provide information about the ionosphere precisely above the sea surface. In addition, LEO satellites such as Formosat-3/COSMIC (F-3/C) pro-vide well-distributed information of ionosphere around the world. In this study we developed GIMs of VTEC from combination of GNSS, satellite altimetry and F-3/C data with temporal resolution of 2 hours and spatial resolution of 5 degree in longitude and 2.5 degree in latitude. The combined GIMs provide a more homogeneous global coverage and higher precision and reliability than results of each individual technique.

Improved wetland classification using eight-band high-resolution satellite imagery and a hybrid approach

Science.gov (United States)

Although remote sensing technology has long been used in wetland inventory and monitoring, the accuracy and detail level of derived wetland maps were limited or often unsatisfactory largely due to the relatively coarse spatial resolution of conventional satellite imagery. This re...

The UNOSAT-GRID Project: Access to Satellite Imagery through the Grid Environment

CERN Document Server

Méndez-Lorenzo, P; Lamanna, M; Meyer, X; Lazeyras, M; Bjorgo, E; Retiere, A; Falzone, A; Venuti, N; Maccarone, S; Ugolotti, B

2007-01-01

UNOSAT is a United Nations activity to provide access to satellite images and geographic system services for humanitarian operations for rescue or aid activities. UNOSAT is implemented by the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and managed by the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS). In addition, partners from different organizations constitute the UNOSAT consortium. Among these partners, CERN participates actively providing the required computational and storage resources. The critical part of the UNOSAT activity is the storage and processing of large quantities of satellite images. The fast and secure access to these images from any part of the world is mandatory during these activities. Based on two successful CERN-GRID/UNOSAT pilot projects (data storage/compression/download and image access through mobile phone), the GRIDUNOSAT project has consolidated the considerable work undertaken so far in the present activity. The main use case already demonstrated is the delivery of satellite images ...

Saturn satellites

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ruskol, E.L.

1981-01-01

The characteristics of the Saturn satellites are discussed. The satellites close to Saturn - Janus, Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione and Rhea - rotate along the circular orbits. High reflectivity is attributed to them, and the density of the satellites is 1 g/cm 3 . Titan is one of the biggest Saturn satellites. Titan has atmosphere many times more powerful than that of Mars. The Titan atmosphere is a peculiar medium with a unique methane and hydrogen distribution in the whole Solar system. The external satellites - Hyperion, Japetus and Phoebe - are poorly investigated. Neither satellite substance density, nor their composition are known. The experimental data on the Saturn rings obtained on the ''Pioneer-11'' and ''Voyager-1'' satellites are presented [ru

MAP SERVICES FOR MANAGEMENT OF HUNTING ORGANIZATIONS (THE CASE OF HUNTING ORGANIZATION “MEDVEDICA”

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. A. Zaichenko

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The current state map support of the system of hunting management requires updating an information database and the creation of new schemes of hunting organization. In this case the beneficial is using of satellite imagery data for the mapping and also for important environmental research. Presentation of the results in the form of Internet web services provides broad benefits to the paper version of the maps.

Monitoring Powdery Mildew of Winter Wheat by Using Moderate Resolution Multi-Temporal Satellite Imagery

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Jingcheng; Pu, Ruiliang; Yuan, Lin; Wang, Jihua; Huang, Wenjiang; Yang, Guijun

2014-01-01

Powdery mildew is one of the most serious diseases that have a significant impact on the production of winter wheat. As an effective alternative to traditional sampling methods, remote sensing can be a useful tool in disease detection. This study attempted to use multi-temporal moderate resolution satellite-based data of surface reflectances in blue (B), green (G), red (R) and near infrared (NIR) bands from HJ-CCD (CCD sensor on Huanjing satellite) to monitor disease at a regional scale. In a suburban area in Beijing, China, an extensive field campaign for disease intensity survey was conducted at key growth stages of winter wheat in 2010. Meanwhile, corresponding time series of HJ-CCD images were acquired over the study area. In this study, a number of single-stage and multi-stage spectral features, which were sensitive to powdery mildew, were selected by using an independent t-test. With the selected spectral features, four advanced methods: mahalanobis distance, maximum likelihood classifier, partial least square regression and mixture tuned matched filtering were tested and evaluated for their performances in disease mapping. The experimental results showed that all four algorithms could generate disease maps with a generally correct distribution pattern of powdery mildew at the grain filling stage (Zadoks 72). However, by comparing these disease maps with ground survey data (validation samples), all of the four algorithms also produced a variable degree of error in estimating the disease occurrence and severity. Further, we found that the integration of MTMF and PLSR algorithms could result in a significant accuracy improvement of identifying and determining the disease intensity (overall accuracy of 72% increased to 78% and kappa coefficient of 0.49 increased to 0.59). The experimental results also demonstrated that the multi-temporal satellite images have a great potential in crop diseases mapping at a regional scale. PMID:24691435

Satellite-based emergency mapping using optical imagery: experience and reflections from the 2015 Nepal earthquakes

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, Jack G.; Rosser, Nick J.; Kincey, Mark E.; Benjamin, Jessica; Oven, Katie J.; Densmore, Alexander L.; Milledge, David G.; Robinson, Tom R.; Jordan, Colm A.; Dijkstra, Tom A.

2018-01-01

Landslides triggered by large earthquakes in mountainous regions contribute significantly to overall earthquake losses and pose a major secondary hazard that can persist for months or years. While scientific investigations of coseismic landsliding are increasingly common, there is no protocol for rapid (hours-to-days) humanitarian-facing landslide assessment and no published recognition of what is possible and what is useful to compile immediately after the event. Drawing on the 2015 Mw 7.8 Gorkha earthquake in Nepal, we consider how quickly a landslide assessment based upon manual satellite-based emergency mapping (SEM) can be realistically achieved and review the decisions taken by analysts to ascertain the timeliness and type of useful information that can be generated. We find that, at present, many forms of landslide assessment are too slow to generate relative to the speed of a humanitarian response, despite increasingly rapid access to high-quality imagery. Importantly, the value of information on landslides evolves rapidly as a disaster response develops, so identifying the purpose, timescales, and end users of a post-earthquake landslide assessment is essential to inform the approach taken. It is clear that discussions are needed on the form and timing of landslide assessments, and how best to present and share this information, before rather than after an earthquake strikes. In this paper, we share the lessons learned from the Gorkha earthquake, with the aim of informing the approach taken by scientists to understand the evolving landslide hazard in future events and the expectations of the humanitarian community involved in disaster response.

SENTINEL-1 and SENTINEL-2 Data Fusion for Wetlands Mapping: Balikdami, Turkey

Science.gov (United States)

Kaplan, G.; Avdan, U.

2018-04-01

Wetlands provide a number of environmental and socio-economic benefits such as their ability to store floodwaters and improve water quality, providing habitats for wildlife and supporting biodiversity, as well as aesthetic values. Remote sensing technology has proven to be a useful and frequent application in monitoring and mapping wetlands. Combining optical and microwave satellite data can help with mapping and monitoring the biophysical characteristics of wetlands and wetlands` vegetation. Also, fusing radar and optical remote sensing data can increase the wetland classification accuracy. In this paper, data from the fine spatial resolution optical satellite, Sentinel-2 and the Synthetic Aperture Radar Satellite, Sentinel-1, were fused for mapping wetlands. Both Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 images were pre-processed. After the pre-processing, vegetation indices were calculated using the Sentinel-2 bands and the results were included in the fusion data set. For the classification of the fused data, three different classification approaches were used and compared. The results showed significant improvement in the wetland classification using both multispectral and microwave data. Also, the presence of the red edge bands and the vegetation indices used in the data set showed significant improvement in the discrimination between wetlands and other vegetated areas. The statistical results of the fusion of the optical and radar data showed high wetland mapping accuracy, showing an overall classification accuracy of approximately 90 % in the object-based classification method. For future research, we recommend multi-temporal image use, terrain data collection, as well as a comparison of the used method with the traditional image fusion techniques.

Archaeological field survey automation: concurrent multisensor site mapping and automated analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Józefowicz, Mateusz; Sokolov, Oleksandr; Meszyński, Sebastian; Siemińska, Dominika; Kołosowski, Przemysław

2016-04-01

ABM SE develops mobile robots (rovers) used for analog research of Mars exploration missions. The rovers are all-terrain exploration platforms, carrying third-party payloads: scientific instrumentation. "Wisdom" ground penetrating radar for Exomars mission has been tested onboard, as well as electrical resistivity module and other devices. Robot has operated in various environments, such as Central European countryside, Dachstein ice caves or Sahara, Morocco (controlled remotely via satellite from Toruń, Poland. Currently ABM SE works on local and global positioning system for a Mars rover basing on image and IMU data. This is performed under a project from ESA. In the next Mars rover missions a Mars GIS model will be build, including an acquired GPR profile, DEM and regular image data, integrated into a concurrent 3D terrain model. It is proposed to use similar approach in surveys of archaeological sites, especially those, where solid architecture remains can be expected at shallow depths or being partially exposed. It is possible to deploy a rover that will concurrently map a selected site with GPR, 2D and 3D cameras to create a site model. The rover image processing algorithms are capable of automatic tracing of distinctive features (such as exposed structure remains on a desert ground, differences in color of the ground, etc.) and to mark regularities on a created map. It is also possible to correlate the 3D map with an aerial photo taken under any angle to achieve interpretation synergy. Currently the algorithms are an interpretation aid and their results must be confirmed by a human. The advantages of a rover over traditional approaches, such as a manual cart or a drone include: a) long hours of continuous work or work in unfavorable environment, such as high desert, frozen water pools or large areas, b) concurrent multisensory data acquisition, c) working from the ground level enables capturing of sites obstructed from the air (trees), d) it is possible to

Satellite skill in detecting extreme episodes in near-surface air quality

Science.gov (United States)

Ruiz, D. J.; Prather, M. J.

2017-12-01

Ozone (O3) contributes to ambient air pollution, adversely affecting public health, agriculture, and ecosystems. Reliable, long-term, densely distributed surface networks are required to establish the scale, intensity and repeatability of major pollution events (designated here in a climatological sense as air quality extremes, AQX as defined in Schnell's work). Regrettably, such networks are only available for North America (NA) and Europe (EU), which does not include many populated regions where the deaths associated with air pollution exposure are alarmingly high. Directly measuring surface pollutants from space without lidar is extremely difficult. Mapping of daily pollution events requires cross-track nadir scanners and these have limited sensitivity to surface O3 levels. This work examines several years of coincident surface and OMI satellite measurements over NA-EU, in combination with a chemistry-transport model (CTM) hindcast of that period to understand how the large-scale AQX episodes may extend into the free troposphere and thus be more amenable to satellite mapping. We show how extreme NA-EU episodes are measured from OMI and then look for such patterns over other polluted regions of the globe. We gather individual high-quality O3 surface site measurements from these other regions, to check on our satellite detection. Our approach with global satellite detection would avoid issues associated with regional variations in seasonality, chemical regime, data product biases; and it does not require defining a separate absolute threshold for each data product (surface site and satellite). This also enables coherent linking of the extreme events into large-scale pollution episodes whose magnitude evolves over 100's of km for several days. Tools used here include the UC Irvine CTM, which shows that much of the O3 surface variability is lost at heights above 2 km, but AQX local events are readily seen in a 0-3 km column average. The OMI data are taken from X

Automatic Blocked Roads Assessment after Earthquake Using High Resolution Satellite Imagery

Science.gov (United States)

Rastiveis, H.; Hosseini-Zirdoo, E.; Eslamizade, F.

2015-12-01

In 2010, an earthquake in the city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, happened quite by chance an accident and killed over 300000 people. According to historical data such an earthquake has not occurred in the area. Unpredictability of earthquakes has necessitated the need for comprehensive mitigation efforts to minimize deaths and injuries. Blocked roads, caused by debris of destroyed buildings, may increase the difficulty of rescue activities. In this case, a damage map, which specifies blocked and unblocked roads, can be definitely helpful for a rescue team. In this paper, a novel method for providing destruction map based on pre-event vector map and high resolution world view II satellite images after earthquake, is presented. For this purpose, firstly in pre-processing step, image quality improvement and co-coordination of image and map are performed. Then, after extraction of texture descriptor from the image after quake and SVM classification, different terrains are detected in the image. Finally, considering the classification results, specifically objects belong to "debris" class, damage analysis are performed to estimate the damage percentage. In this case, in addition to the area objects in the "debris" class their shape should also be counted. The aforementioned process are performed on all the roads in the road layer.In this research, pre-event digital vector map and post-event high resolution satellite image, acquired by Worldview-2, of the city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, were used to evaluate the proposed method. The algorithm was executed on 1200×800 m2 of the data set, including 60 roads, and all the roads were labelled correctly. The visual examination have authenticated the abilities of this method for damage assessment of urban roads network after an earthquake.

Coral reef remote sensing a guide for mapping, monitoring and management

CERN Document Server

Goodman, James A; Phinn, Stuart R

2013-01-01

This book offers a multi-level examination of remote-sensing technologies for mapping and monitoring coral reef ecosystems, ranging from satellite and airborne imagery to ship-based observation. Includes examples of practical applications of the technologies.

Constraint map for landfill site selection in Akure Metropolis ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

An integration of remote sensing, soil type, geological, geoelectrical, hydrogeological and geotechnical data was carried out in a GIS environment with a view to developing a constraint map for the location of landfill (waste disposal) site(s) in Akure, Metropolis.. Geomorphological features identified from satellite images ...

An Improved Image Encryption Algorithm Based on Cyclic Rotations and Multiple Chaotic Sequences: Application to Satellite Images

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

MADANI Mohammed

2017-10-01

Full Text Available In this paper, a new satellite image encryption algorithm based on the combination of multiple chaotic systems and a random cyclic rotation technique is proposed. Our contribution consists in implementing three different chaotic maps (logistic, sine, and standard combined to improve the security of satellite images. Besides enhancing the encryption, the proposed algorithm also focuses on advanced efficiency of the ciphered images. Compared with classical encryption schemes based on multiple chaotic maps and the Rubik's cube rotation, our approach has not only the same merits of chaos systems like high sensitivity to initial values, unpredictability, and pseudo-randomness, but also other advantages like a higher number of permutations, better performances in Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR and a Maximum Deviation (MD.

Robust satellite techniques for remote sensing of seismically active areas

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tramutoli, V; Di Bello, G [Potenza Univ., Potenza (Italy). Dipt. di Ingegneria e Fisica dell' Ambiente; Pergola, N; Piscitelli, S [Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto di Metodologie Avanzate di Analisi Ambientale, Potenza (Italy)

2001-04-01

Several satellite techniques have been recently proposed to remotely map seismically active zones and to monitor geophysical phenomena possibly associated with earthquakes. Even if questionable in terms of their effective applicability, all these techniques highlight as the major problem, still to be overcome, the high number of natural factors (independent of any seismic activity) whose variable contributions to the investigated signal can be so high as to completely mask (or simulate) the space-time anomaly possibly associated to the seismic event under study. A robust approach (RAT) has recently been proposed (and successfully applied in the field of the monitoring of the major environmental risks) which, better than other methods, seems suitable for recognising space-time anomalies in the satellite observation field also in the presence of highly variable contributions from atmospheric (transmittance), surface (emissivity and morphology) and observational (time/season, but also solar and satellite zenithal angles) conditions. This work presents the first preliminary results, based on several years of NOA A/AVHRR observations, regarding its extension to satellite monitoring of thermal anomalies possibly associated to seismically active areas of Southern Italy. The main merits of this approach are its robustness against the possibility of false events detection (specially important for this kind of applications) as well as its intrinsic exportability not only to different geographic areas but also to different satellite instrumental packages.

Robust satellite techniques for remote sensing of seismically active areas

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. Piscitelli

2001-06-01

Full Text Available Several satellite techniques have been recently proposed to remotely map seismically active zones and to monitor geophysical phenomena possibly associated with earthquakes. Even if questionable in terms of their effective applicability, all these techniques highlight as the major problem, still to be overcome, the high number of natural factors (independent of any seismic activity whose variable contributions to the investigated signal can be so high as to completely mask (or simulate the space-time anomaly possibly associated to the seismic event under study. A robust approach (RAT has recently been proposed (and successfully applied in the field of the monitoring of the major environmental risks which, better than other methods, seems suitable for recognising space-time anomalies in the satellite observational field also in the presence of highly variable contributions from atmospheric (transmittance, surface (emissivity and morphology and observational (time/season, but also solar and satellite zenithal angles conditions.This work presents the first preliminary results, based on several years of NOAA/AVHRR observations, regarding its extension to satellite monitoring of thermal anomalies possibly associated to seismically active areas of Southern Italy. The main merits of this approach are its robustness against the possibility of false events detection (specially important for this kind of applications as well as its intrinsic exportability not only to different geographic areas but also to different satellite instrumental packages.

Determination of the Impact of Urbanization on Agricultural Lands using Multi-temporal Satellite Sensor Images

Science.gov (United States)

Kaya, S.; Alganci, U.; Sertel, E.; Ustundag, B.

2015-12-01

Throughout the history, agricultural activities have been performed close to urban areas. Main reason behind this phenomenon is the need of fast marketing of the agricultural production to urban residents and financial provision. Thus, using the areas nearby cities for agricultural activities brings out advantage of easy transportation of productions and fast marketing. For decades, heavy migration to cities has directly and negatively affected natural grasslands, forests and agricultural lands. This pressure has caused agricultural lands to be changed into urban areas. Dense urbanization causes increase in impervious surfaces, heat islands and many other problems in addition to destruction of agricultural lands. Considering the negative impacts of urbanization on agricultural lands and natural resources, a periodic monitoring of these changes becomes indisputably important. At this point, satellite images are known to be good data sources for land cover / use change monitoring with their fast data acquisition, large area coverages and temporal resolution properties. Classification of the satellite images provides thematic the land cover / use maps of the earth surface and changes can be determined with GIS based analysis multi-temporal maps. In this study, effects of heavy urbanization over agricultural lands in Istanbul, metropolitan city of Turkey, were investigated with use of multi-temporal Landsat TM satellite images acquired between 1984 and 2011. Images were geometrically registered to each other and classified using supervised maximum likelihood classification algorithm. Resulting thematic maps were exported to GIS environment and destructed agricultural lands by urbanization were determined using spatial analysis.

Trajectory mapping of middle atmospheric water vapor by a mini network of NDACC instruments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Lainer

2015-08-01

Full Text Available The important task to observe the global coverage of middle atmospheric trace gases like water vapor or ozone usually is accomplished by satellites. Climate and atmospheric studies rely upon the knowledge of trace gas distributions throughout the stratosphere and mesosphere. Many of these gases are currently measured from satellites, but it is not clear whether this capability will be maintained in the future. This could lead to a significant knowledge gap of the state of the atmosphere. We explore the possibilities of mapping middle atmospheric water vapor in the Northern Hemisphere by using Lagrangian trajectory calculations and water vapor profile data from a small network of five ground-based microwave radiometers. Four of them are operated within the frame of NDACC (Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change. Keeping in mind that the instruments are based on different hardware and calibration setups, a height-dependent bias of the retrieved water vapor profiles has to be expected among the microwave radiometers. In order to correct and harmonize the different data sets, the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS on the Aura satellite is used to serve as a kind of traveling standard. A domain-averaging TM (trajectory mapping method is applied which simplifies the subsequent validation of the quality of the trajectory-mapped water vapor distribution towards direct satellite observations. Trajectories are calculated forwards and backwards in time for up to 10 days using 6 hourly meteorological wind analysis fields. Overall, a total of four case studies of trajectory mapping in different meteorological regimes are discussed. One of the case studies takes place during a major sudden stratospheric warming (SSW accompanied by the polar vortex breakdown; a second takes place after the reformation of stable circulation system. TM cases close to the fall equinox and June solstice event from the year 2012 complete the study, showing the high

Photometric and Spectral Study of the Saturnian Satellites

Science.gov (United States)

Newman, Sarah F.

2005-01-01

Photometric and spectra analysis of data from the Cassini Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) has yielded intriguing findings regarding the surface properties of several of the icy Saturnian satellites. Spectral cubes were obtained of these satellites with a wavelength distribution in the IR far more extensive than from any previous observations. Disk-integrated solar phase curves were constructed in several key IR wavelengths that are indicative of key properties of the surface of the body, such as macroscopic roughness, fluffiness (or the porosity of the surface), global albedo and scattering properties of surface particles. Polynomial fits to these phase curves indicate a linear albedo trend of the curvature of the phase functions. Rotational phase functions from Enceladus were found to exhibit a double-peaked sinusoidal curve, which shows larger amplitudes for bands corresponding to water ice and a linear amplitude-albedo trend. These functions indicate regions on the surface of the satellite of more recent geologic activity. In addition, recent images of Enceladus show tectonic features and an absence of impact craters on Southern latitudes which could be indicative of a younger surface. Investigations into the properties of these features using VIMS are underway.

NOAA Office for Coastal Management Coastal Inundation Digital Elevation Model: North Carolina, Northern

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — These data were created as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management's efforts to create an online mapping viewer...

NOAA Office for Coastal Management Coastal Inundation Digital Elevation Model: New Jersey, Northern

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — These data were created as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management's efforts to create an online mapping viewer...

NOAA Office for Coastal Management Coastal Inundation Digital Elevation Model: District of Columbia

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — These data were created as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management's efforts to create an online mapping viewer...

NOAA Office for Coastal Management Coastal Inundation Digital Elevation Model: Channel Islands, CA

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — These data were created as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management's efforts to create an online mapping viewer...

NOAA Office for Coastal Management Coastal Inundation Digital Elevation Model: New York, Metro

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — These data were created as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management's efforts to create an online mapping viewer...

NOAA Office for Coastal Management Coastal Inundation Digital Elevation Model: New Jersey, Middle

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — These data were created as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management's efforts to create an online mapping viewer...

Mapping the CMB with the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe

Science.gov (United States)

Hinshaw, Gary F.

2007-01-01

The data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) satellite provide detailed full-sky maps of the cosmic microwave background temperature anisotropy and new full-sky maps of the polarization. Together, the data provide a wealth of cosmological information, including the age of the universe, the epoch when the first stars formed, and the overall composition of baryonic matter, dark matter, and dark energy. The results also provide constraints on the period of inflationary expansion in the very first moments of time. These and other aspects of the mission results will be discussed and commented on. WMAP, part of NASA's Explorers program, was launched on June 30,200 1. The WMAP satellite was produced in a partnership between the Goddard Space Flight Center and Princeton University. The WMAP team also includes researchers at the Johns Hopkins University; the Canadian Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics; University of Texas; University of Chicago; Brown University; University of British Columbia; and University of California, Los Angeles.

Thermal and lighting perception in four fully glazed office buildings in Santiago, Chile

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Claudio Vásquez Záldivar

2013-12-01

Full Text Available This paper is part of a general research project whose main objective is to establish a baseline for post-occupancy energy consumption and indoor environmental quality for office buildings in Santiago, Chile. This study aims at understanding how architectonical variables relate to, and can even determine, user comfort perception.  Thus, one-year continuous monitoring in several floors at four office buildings was performed and seasonal surveys were completed.  Survey participants were asked a series of questions regarding spatial orientation and comfort perception in their workspace.The data from the comfort survey and onsite measurements such as season of the year, case study, type of workspace and possibility of an outdoor view from the workstation were contrasted with the components obtained by a Principal Component Analysis (PCA. Three components were selected from the PCA, and three Maps of Perception (MP were produced. These maps were then analyzed and interpreted so as to obtain information on the general perception of thermal and lighting comfort at workspaces within several office buildings in Santiago.

Large Scale Crop Mapping in Ukraine Using Google Earth Engine

Science.gov (United States)

Shelestov, A.; Lavreniuk, M. S.; Kussul, N.

2016-12-01

There are no globally available high resolution satellite-derived crop specific maps at present. Only coarse-resolution imagery (> 250 m spatial resolution) has been utilized to derive global cropland extent. In 2016 we are going to carry out a country level demonstration of Sentinel-2 use for crop classification in Ukraine within the ESA Sen2-Agri project. But optical imagery can be contaminated by cloud cover that makes it difficult to acquire imagery in an optimal time range to discriminate certain crops. Due to the Copernicus program since 2015, a lot of Sentinel-1 SAR data at high spatial resolution is available for free for Ukraine. It allows us to use the time series of SAR data for crop classification. Our experiment for one administrative region in 2015 showed much higher crop classification accuracy with SAR data than with optical only time series [1, 2]. Therefore, in 2016 within the Google Earth Engine Research Award we use SAR data together with optical ones for large area crop mapping (entire territory of Ukraine) using cloud computing capabilities available at Google Earth Engine (GEE). This study compares different classification methods for crop mapping for the whole territory of Ukraine using data and algorithms from GEE. Classification performance assessed using overall classification accuracy, Kappa coefficients, and user's and producer's accuracies. Also, crop areas from derived classification maps compared to the official statistics [3]. S. Skakun et al., "Efficiency assessment of multitemporal C-band Radarsat-2 intensity and Landsat-8 surface reflectance satellite imagery for crop classification in Ukraine," IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observ. and Rem. Sens., 2015, DOI: 10.1109/JSTARS.2015.2454297. N. Kussul, S. Skakun, A. Shelestov, O. Kussul, "The use of satellite SAR imagery to crop classification in Ukraine within JECAM project," IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), pp.1497-1500, 13

Using satellite remote sensing to model and map the distribution of Bicknell's thrush (Catharus bicknelli) in the White Mountains of New Hampshire

Science.gov (United States)

Hale, Stephen Roy

Landsat-7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper satellite imagery was used to model Bicknell's Thrush (Catharus bicknelli) distribution in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The proof-of-concept was established for using satellite imagery in species-habitat modeling, where for the first time imagery spectral features were used to estimate a species-habitat model variable. The model predicted rising probabilities of thrush presence with decreasing dominant vegetation height, increasing elevation, and decreasing distance to nearest Fir Sapling cover type. To solve the model at all locations required regressor estimates at every pixel, which were not available for the dominant vegetation height and elevation variables. Topographically normalized imagery features Normalized Difference Vegetation Index and Band 1 (blue) were used to estimate dominant vegetation height using multiple linear regression; and a Digital Elevation Model was used to estimate elevation. Distance to nearest Fir Sapling cover type was obtained for each pixel from a land cover map specifically constructed for this project. The Bicknell's Thrush habitat model was derived using logistic regression, which produced the probability of detecting a singing male based on the pattern of model covariates. Model validation using Bicknell's Thrush data not used in model calibration, revealed that the model accurately estimated thrush presence at probabilities ranging from 0 to account for more total individuals and reproductive output than higher density less abundant land area. Efforts to conserve areas of highest individual density under the assumption that density reflects habitat quality could target the smallest fraction of the total population.

Molecular Cytogenetic Mapping of Satellite DNA Sequences in Aegilops geniculata and Wheat

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Koo, D.H.; Tiwari, V.K.; Hřibová, Eva; Doležel, Jaroslav; Friebe, B.; Gill, B.S.

2016-01-01

Roč. 148, č. 4 (2016), s. 314-321 ISSN 1424-8581 R&D Projects: GA MŠk(CZ) LO1204 Institutional support: RVO:61389030 Keywords : in-situ hybridization * chromosome addition lines * resistance genes lr57 * repetitive dna * triticum-ovatum * powdery mildew * plant genome * bread wheat * leaf rust * identification * Aegilops geniculata * Chromosome identification * Fluorescence in situ hybridization * Satellite DNA * Wheat Subject RIV: EB - Genetics ; Molecular Biology Impact factor: 1.354, year: 2016

Korea Earth Observation Satellite Program

Science.gov (United States)

Baek, Myung-Jin; Kim, Zeen-Chul

via Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) as the prime contractor in the area of Korea earth observation satellite program to enhance Korea's space program development capability. In this paper, Korea's on-going and future earth observation satellite programs are introduced: KOMPSAT- 1 (Korea Multi Purpose Satellite-1), KOMPSAT-2 and Communication, Broadcasting and Meteorological Satellite (CBMS) program. KOMPSAT-1 satellite successfully launched in December 1999 with Taurus launch vehicle. Since launch, KOMPSAT-1 is downlinking images of Korea Peninsular every day. Until now, KOMPSAT-1 has been operated more than 2 and half years without any major hardware malfunction for the mission operation. KOMPSAT-1 payload has 6.6m panchromatic spatial resolution at 685 km on-orbit and the spacecraft bus had NASA TOMS-EP (Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer-Earth Probe) spacecraft bus heritage designed and built by TRW, U.S.A.KOMPSAT-1 program was international co-development program between KARI and TRW funded by Korean Government. be launched in 2004. Main mission objective is to provide geo-information products based on the multi-spectral high resolution sensor called Multi-Spectral Camera (MSC) which will provide 1m panchromatic and 4m multi-spectral high resolution images. ELOP of Israel is the prime contractor of the MSC payload system and KARI is the total system prime contractor including spacecraft bus development and ground segment. KARI also has the contract with Astrium of Europe for the purpose of technical consultation and hardware procurement. Based on the experience throughout KOMPSAT-1 and KOMPSAT-2 space system development, Korea is expecting to establish the infrastructure of developing satellite system. Currently, KOMPSAT-2 program is in the critical design stage. are scheduled to launch in 2008 and in 2014, respectively. The mission of CBMS consists of two areas. One is of space technology test for the communications mission, and the other is of a real

Aerosol Extinction Profile Mapping with Lognormal Distribution Based on MPL Data

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, T. H.; Lee, T. T.; Chang, K. E.; Lien, W. H.; Liu, G. R.; Liu, C. Y.

2017-12-01

This study intends to challenge the profile mapping of aerosol vertical distribution by mathematical function. With the similarity in distribution pattern, lognormal distribution is examined for mapping the aerosol extinction profile based on MPL (Micro Pulse LiDAR) in situ measurements. The variables of lognormal distribution are log mean (μ) and log standard deviation (σ), which will be correlated with the parameters of aerosol optical depht (AOD) and planetary boundary layer height (PBLH) associated with the altitude of extinction peak (Mode) defined in this study. On the base of 10 years MPL data with single peak, the mapping results showed that the mean error of Mode and σ retrievals are 16.1% and 25.3%, respectively. The mean error of σ retrieval can be reduced to 16.5% under the cases of larger distance between PBLH and Mode. The proposed method is further applied to MODIS AOD product in mapping extinction profile for the retrieval of PM2.5 in terms of satellite observations. The results indicated well agreement between retrievals and ground measurements when aerosols under 525 meters are well-mixed. The feasibility of proposed method to satellite remote sensing is also suggested by the case study. Keyword: Aerosol extinction profile, Lognormal distribution, MPL, Planetary boundary layer height (PBLH), Aerosol optical depth (AOD), Mode

Engineering a responsive, low cost, tactical satellite, TACSAT-1

Science.gov (United States)

Hurley, M.; Duffey, T.; Huffine, Christopher; Weldy, Ken; Clevland, Jeff; Hauser, Joe

2004-11-01

The Secretary of Defense's Office of Force Transformation (OFT) is currently undertaking an initiative to develop a low-cost, responsive, operationally relevant space capability using small satellites. The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is tasked to be program manger for this initiative, which seeks to make space assets and capabilities available to operational users. TacSat-1 is the first in a series of small satellites that will result in rapid, tailored, and operationally relevant experimental space capabilities for tactical forces. Components of the resulting tactical architecture include a highly automated small satellite bus, modular payloads, common launch and payload interfaces, tasking and data dissemination using the SIPRNET (Secret Internet Protocol Routing Network), and low cost, rapid response launches. The overall goal of TacSat-1 is to demonstrate the utility of a broader complementary business model and provide a catalyst for energizing DoD and industry in the operational space area. This paper first provides a brief overview of the TacSat- 1 experiment and then discusses the engineering designs and practices used to achieve the aggressive cost and schedule goals. Non-standard approaches and engineering philosophies that allowed the TacSat-1 spacecraft to be finished in twelve months are detailed and compared with "normal" satellite programs where applicable. Specific subsystem design, integration and test techniques, which contributed to the successful completion of the TacSat-1 spacecraft, are reviewed. Finally, lessons learned are discussed.

Satellite-derived land covers for runoff estimation using SCS-CN method in Chen-You-Lan Watershed, Taiwan

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Wen-Yan; Lin, Chao-Yuan

2017-04-01

The Soil Conservation Service Curve Number (SCS-CN) method, which was originally developed by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, is widely used to estimate direct runoff volume from rainfall. The runoff Curve Number (CN) parameter is based on the hydrologic soil group and land use factors. In Taiwan, the national land use maps were interpreted from aerial photos in 1995 and 2008. Rapid updating of post-disaster land use map is limited due to the high cost of production, so the classification of satellite images is the alternative method to obtain the land use map. In this study, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) in Chen-You-Lan Watershed was derived from dry and wet season of Landsat imageries during 2003 - 2008. Land covers were interpreted from mean value and standard deviation of NDVI and were categorized into 4 groups i.e. forest, grassland, agriculture and bare land. Then, the runoff volume of typhoon events during 2005 - 2009 were estimated using SCS-CN method and verified with the measured runoff data. The result showed that the model efficiency coefficient is 90.77%. Therefore, estimating runoff by using the land cover map classified from satellite images is practicable.

GEOSPATIAL INFORMATION FROM SATELLITE IMAGERY FOR GEOVISUALISATION OF SMART CITIES IN INDIA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Mohan

2016-06-01

Full Text Available In the recent past, there have been large emphasis on extraction of geospatial information from satellite imagery. The Geospatial information are being processed through geospatial technologies which are playing important roles in developing of smart cities, particularly in developing countries of the world like India. The study is based on the latest geospatial satellite imagery available for the multi-date, multi-stage, multi-sensor, and multi-resolution. In addition to this, the latest geospatial technologies have been used for digital image processing of remote sensing satellite imagery and the latest geographic information systems as 3-D GeoVisualisation, geospatial digital mapping and geospatial analysis for developing of smart cities in India. The Geospatial information obtained from RS and GPS systems have complex structure involving space, time and presentation. Such information helps in 3-Dimensional digital modelling for smart cities which involves of spatial and non-spatial information integration for geographic visualisation of smart cites in context to the real world. In other words, the geospatial database provides platform for the information visualisation which is also known as geovisualisation. So, as a result there have been an increasing research interest which are being directed to geospatial analysis, digital mapping, geovisualisation, monitoring and developing of smart cities using geospatial technologies. However, the present research has made an attempt for development of cities in real world scenario particulary to help local, regional and state level planners and policy makers to better understand and address issues attributed to cities using the geospatial information from satellite imagery for geovisualisation of Smart Cities in emerging and developing country, India.

Validating gap-filling of Landsat ETM+ satellite images in the Golestan Province, Iran

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mohammdy, M.; Moradi, H.R.; Zeinivand, H.; Temme, A.J.A.M.; Pourghasemi, H.R.; Alizadeh, H.

2014-01-01

The Landsat series of satellites provides a valuable data source for land surface mapping and monitoring. Unfortunately, the scan line corrector (SLC) of the Landsat7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+) sensor failed on May 13, 2003. This problem resulted in about 22 % of the pixels per scene not

Flood occurrence mapping of the middle Mahakam lowland area using satellite radar

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

H. Hidayat

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Floodplain lakes and peatlands in the middle Mahakam lowland area are considered as ecologically important wetland in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. However, due to a lack of data, the hydrological functioning of the region is still poorly understood. Among remote sensing techniques that can increase data availability, radar is well-suitable for the identification, mapping, and measurement of tropical wetlands, for its cloud unimpeded sensing and night and day operation. Here we aim to extract flood extent and flood occurrence information from a series of radar images of the middle Mahakam lowland area. We explore the use of Phased Array L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR imagery for observing flood inundation dynamics by incorporating field water level measurements. Water level measurements were carried out along the river, in lakes and in peatlands, using pressure transducers. For validation of the open water flood occurrence map, bathymetry measurements were carried out in the main lakes. A series of PALSAR images covering the middle and lower Mahakam area in the years 2007 through 2010 were collected. A fully inundated region can be easily recognized on radar images from a dark signature. Open water flood occurrence was mapped using a threshold value taken from radar backscatter of the permanently inundated river and lakes areas. Radar backscatter intensity analysis of the vegetated floodplain area revealed consistently high backscatter values, indicating flood inundation under forest canopy. We used those values as the threshold for flood occurrence mapping in the vegetated area.

A design proposal of a certain missile tactical command system based on Beidou satellite communication and GPS positioning techniques

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Jian; Hao, Yongsheng; Miao, Jian; Zhang, Jianmao

2007-11-01

This paper introduced a design proposal of tactical command system that applied to a kind of anti-tank missile carriers. The tactical command system was made up of embedded computer system based on PC104 bus, Linux operating system, digital military map, Beidou satellite communication equipments and GPS positioning equipments. The geographic coordinates was measured by the GPS receiver, the positioning data, commands and information were transmitted real-time between tactical command systems, tactical command systems and command center, by the Beidou satellite communication systems. The Beidou satellite communication equipments and GPS positioning equipments were integrated to an independent module, exchanging data with embedded computer through RS232 serial ports and USB ports. The decision support system software based on information fusion, calculates positioning data, geography information and battle field information synthetically, shows the position of allies and the position of enemy on the military map, and assesses the various threats of different enemy objects, educes a situation assessment and threat assessment.

Region 9 Tribal Grant Program - Project Officer and Tribal Contact Information Map Service

Science.gov (United States)

This compilation of geospatial data is for the purpose of managing and communicating information about current EPA project officers, tribal contacts, and tribal grants, both internally and with external stakeholders.

GeoCF - Smart Power Maps - Final Technical Report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Holcomb, Chris [GeoCF LLC, Austin, TX (United States)

2017-12-21

GeoCF has greatly enhanced the utility-scale solar siting platform, Smart Power Maps, through the help of the DOE Solar Energy Technologies Office. It is now available for the entire country and includes an improved user interface and additional layers such as topology, soils, comprehensive floodplains, parcels, imagery, wells, pipelines, and more. As well, users can now draw and save maps and perform drastically improved and more relevant hydrological, transmission, and financial analyzes. Smart Power Maps has played a pivotal role in supporting the development of otherwise unknown or hard to locate ideal locations for large solar farms in the United States.

Mapping the Distribution of Cloud Forests Using MODIS Imagery

Science.gov (United States)

Douglas, M. W.; Mejia, J.; Murillo, J.; Orozco, R.

2007-05-01

Tropical cloud forests - those forests that are frequently immersed in clouds or otherwise very humid, are extremely difficult to map from the ground, and are not easily distinguished in satellite imagery from other forest types, but they have a very different flora and fauna than lowland rainforest. Cloud forests, although found in many parts of the tropics, have a very restricted vertical extent and thus are also restricted horizontally. As a result, they are subject to both human disturbance (coffee growing for example) and the effects of possible climate change. Motivated by a desire to seek meteorological explanations for the distribution of cloud forests, we have begun to map cloudiness using MODIS Terra and Aqua visible imagery. This imagery, at ~1030 LT and 1330 LT, is an approximation for mid-day cloudiness. In tropical regions the amount of mid-day cloudiness strongly controls the shortwave radiation and thus the potential for evaporation (and aridity). We have mapped cloudiness using a simple algorithm that distinguishes between the cloud-free background brightness and the generally more reflective clouds to separate clouds from the underlying background. A major advantage of MODIS imagery over many other sources of satellite imagery is its high spatial resolution (~250m). This, coupled with precisely navigated images, means that detailed maps of cloudiness can be produced. The cloudiness maps can then be related to the underlying topography to further refine the location of the cloud forests. An advantage of this technique is that we are mapping the potential cloud forest, based on cloudiness, rather than the actual cloud forest, which are commonly based on forest estimates from satellite and digital elevation data. We do not derive precipitation, only estimates of daytime cloudiness. Although only a few years of MODIS imagery has been used in our studies, we will show that this is sufficient to describe the climatology of cloudiness with acceptable

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.

THE USE OF MULTIPLE DATA SOURCES IN THE PROCESS OF TOPOGRAPHIC MAPS UPDATING

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Cantemir

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The methods used in the process of updating maps have evolved and become more complex, especially upon the development of the digital technology. At the same time, the development of technology has led to an abundance of available data that can be used in the updating process. The data sources came in a great variety of forms and formats from different acquisition sensors. Satellite images provided by certain satellite missions are now available on space agencies portals. Images stored in archives of satellite missions such us Sentinel, Landsat and other can be downloaded free of charge.The main advantages are represented by the large coverage area and rather good spatial resolution that enables the use of these images for the map updating at an appropriate scale. In our study we focused our research of these images on 1: 50.000 scale map. DEM that are globally available could represent an appropriate input for watershed delineation and stream network generation, that can be used as support for hydrography thematic layer update. If, in addition to remote sensing aerial photogrametry and LiDAR data are ussed, the accuracy of data sources is enhanced. Ortophotoimages and Digital Terrain Models are the main products that can be used for feature extraction and update. On the other side, the use of georeferenced analogical basemaps represent a significant addition to the process. Concerning the thematic maps, the classic representation of the terrain by contour lines derived from DTM, remains the best method of surfacing the earth on a map, nevertheless the correlation with other layers such as Hidrography are mandatory. In the context of the current national coverage of the Digital Terrain Model, one of the main concerns of the National Center of Cartography, through the Cartography and Photogrammetry Department, is represented by the exploitation of the available data in order to update the layers of the Topographic Reference Map 1:5000, known as

A New Synthetic Global Biomass Carbon Map for the year 2010

Science.gov (United States)

Spawn, S.; Lark, T.; Gibbs, H.

2017-12-01

Satellite technologies have facilitated a recent boom in high resolution, large-scale biomass estimation and mapping. These data are the input into a wide range of global models and are becoming the gold standard for required national carbon (C) emissions reporting. Yet their geographical and/or thematic scope may exclude some or all parts of a given country or region. Most datasets tend to focus exclusively on forest biomass. Grasslands and shrublands generally store less C than forests but cover nearly twice as much global land area and may represent a significant portion of a given country's biomass C stock. To address these shortcomings, we set out to create synthetic, global above- and below-ground biomass maps that combine recently-released satellite based data of standing forest biomass with novel estimates for non-forest biomass stocks that are typically neglected. For forests we integrated existing publicly available regional, global and biome-specific biomass maps and modeled below ground biomass using empirical relationships described in the literature. For grasslands, we developed models for both above- and below-ground biomass based on NPP, mean annual temperature and precipitation to extrapolate field measurements across the globe. Shrubland biomass was extrapolated from existing regional biomass maps using environmental factors to generate the first global estimate of shrub biomass. Our new synthetic map of global biomass carbon circa 2010 represents an update to the IPCC Tier-1 Global Biomass Carbon Map for the Year 2000 (Ruesch and Gibbs, 2008) using the best data currently available. In the absence of a single seamless remotely sensed map of global biomass, our synthetic map provides the only globally-consistent source of comprehensive biomass C data and is valuable for land change analyses, carbon accounting, and emissions modeling.

Intro to Google Maps and Google Earth

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jim Clifford

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Google My Maps and Google Earth provide an easy way to start creating digital maps. With a Google Account you can create and edit personal maps by clicking on My Places. In My Maps you can choose between several different base maps (including the standard satellite, terrain, or standard maps and add points, lines and polygons. It is also possible to import data from a spreadsheet, if you have columns with geographical information (i.e. longitudes and latitudes or place names. This automates a formerly complex task known as geocoding. Not only is this one of the easiest ways to begin plotting your historical data on a map, but it also has the power of Google’s search engine. As you read about unfamiliar places in historical documents, journal articles or books, you can search for them using Google Maps. It is then possible to mark numerous locations and explore how they relate to each other geographically. Your personal maps are saved by Google (in their cloud, meaning you can access them from any computer with an internet connection. You can keep them private or embed them in your website or blog. Finally, you can export your points, lines, and polygons as KML files and open them in Google Earth or Quantum GIS.

The Satellite based Monitoring Initiative for Regional Air quality (SAMIRA): Project summary and first results

Science.gov (United States)

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

2017-04-01

We present a summary and some first results of 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 satellite instruments, 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. The primary goal of SAMIRA is to demonstrate the usefulness of existing and future satellite products of air quality for improving monitoring and mapping of air pollution at the regional scale. A total of six core activities are being carried out in order to achieve this goal: Firstly, the project is developing and optimizing algorithms for the retrieval of hourly aerosol optical depth (AOD) maps from the Spinning Enhanced Visible and InfraRed Imager (SEVIRI) onboard of Meteosat Second Generation. As a second activity, SAMIRA aims to derive particulate matter (PM2.5) estimates from AOD data by developing robust algorithms for AOD-to-PM conversion with the support from model- and Lidar data. In a third activity, we evaluate the added value of satellite products of atmospheric composition for operational European-scale air quality mapping using geostatistics and auxiliary datasets. The additional benefit of satellite-based monitoring over existing monitoring techniques (in situ, models) is tested by combining these datasets using geostatistical methods and demonstrated for nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulphur dioxide (SO2), and aerosol optical depth/particulate matter. As a fourth activity, the project is developing novel algorithms for downscaling coarse

Mapping Infected Area after a Flash-Flooding Storm Using Multi Criteria Analysis and Spectral Indices

Science.gov (United States)

Al-Akad, S.; Akensous, Y.; Hakdaoui, M.

2017-11-01

This research article is summarize the applications of remote sensing and GIS to study the urban floods risk in Al Mukalla. Satellite acquisition of a flood event on October 2015 in Al Mukalla (Yemen) by using flood risk mapping techniques illustrate the potential risk present in this city. Satellite images (The Landsat and DEM images data were atmospherically corrected, radiometric corrected, and geometric and topographic distortions rectified.) are used for flood risk mapping to afford a hazard (vulnerability) map. This map is provided by applying image-processing techniques and using geographic information system (GIS) environment also the application of NDVI, NDWI index, and a method to estimate the flood-hazard areas. Four factors were considered in order to estimate the spatial distribution of the hazardous areas: flow accumulation, slope, land use, geology and elevation. The multi-criteria analysis, allowing to deal with vulnerability to flooding, as well as mapping areas at the risk of flooding of the city Al Mukalla. The main object of this research is to provide a simple and rapid method to reduce and manage the risks caused by flood in Yemen by take as example the city of Al Mukalla.

Geologic mapping of Kentucky; a history and evaluation of the Kentucky Geological Survey--U.S. Geological Survey Mapping Program, 1960-1978

Science.gov (United States)

Cressman, Earle Rupert; Noger, Martin C.

1981-01-01

In 1960, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Kentucky Geological Survey began a program to map the State geologically at a scale of 1:24,000 and to publish the maps as 707 U.S. Geological Survey Geologic Quadrangle Maps. Fieldwork was completed by the spring of 1977, and all maps were published by December 1978. Geologic mapping of the State was proposed by the Kentucky Society of Professional Engineers in 1959. Wallace W. Hagan, Director and State Geologist of the Kentucky Geological Survey, and Preston McGrain, Assistant State Geologist, promoted support for the proposal among organizations such as Chambers of Commerce, industrial associations, professional societies, and among members of the State government. It was also arranged for the U.S. Geological Survey to supply mapping personnel and to publish the maps; the cost would be shared equally by the two organizations. Members of the U.S. Geological Survey assigned to the program were organized as the Branch of Kentucky Geology. Branch headquarters, including an editorial staff, was at Lexington, Ky., but actual mapping was conducted from 18 field offices distributed throughout the State. The Publications Division of the U.S. Geological Survey established a cartographic office at Lexington to prepare the maps for publication. About 260 people, including more than 200 professionals, were assigned to the Branch of Kentucky Geology by the U.S. Geological Survey at one time or another. The most geologists assigned any one year was 61. To complete the mapping and ancillary studies, 661 professional man-years were required, compared with an original estimate of 600 man-years. A wide variety of field methods were used, but most geologists relied on the surveying altimeter to obtain elevations. Surface data were supplemented by drill-hole records, and several dozen shallow diamond-drill holes were drilled to aid the mapping. Geologists generally scribed their own maps, with a consequent saving of publication costs