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Remote Sens., Volume 9, Issue 1 (January 2017) – 98 articles

Cover Story (view full-size image): Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) or drones feature increasing popularity due to their ability to acquire high quality imagery of hardly accessible areas precisely, fast, and at any time. Equipped with a hyperspectral sensor, UAS are able to deliver characteristic spectral information for each recorded pixel, which may provide indications about type and composition of outcropping material. However, unpredictable movements of the drone as well as complex viewing geometry and illumination of the Earth’s surface require careful geometric and radiometric corrections of the acquired data. These corrections are crucial, especially in geological applications. MEPHySTo is a new dedicated Python-based open-source toolbox for the processing of drone-borne hyperspectral data. The created accurately corrected datasets are specifically designed for the challenges of geological surveys such as mineral exploration and [...] Read more.
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6899 KiB  
Article
Modeling the Effects of the Urban Built-Up Environment on Plant Phenology Using Fused Satellite Data
by Norman Gervais, Alexander Buyantuev and Feng Gao
Remote Sens. 2017, 9(1), 99; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9010099 - 23 Jan 2017
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 9109
Abstract
Understanding the effects that the Urban Heat Island (UHI) has on plant phenology is important in predicting ecological impacts of expanding cities and the impacts of the projected global warming. However, the underlying methods to monitor phenological events often limit this understanding. Generally, [...] Read more.
Understanding the effects that the Urban Heat Island (UHI) has on plant phenology is important in predicting ecological impacts of expanding cities and the impacts of the projected global warming. However, the underlying methods to monitor phenological events often limit this understanding. Generally, one can either have a small sample of in situ measurements or use satellite data to observe large areas of land surface phenology (LSP). In the latter, a tradeoff exists among platforms with some allowing better temporal resolution to pick up discrete events and others possessing the spatial resolution appropriate for observing heterogeneous landscapes, such as urban areas. To overcome these limitations, we applied the Spatial and Temporal Adaptive Reflectance Model (STARFM) to fuse Landsat surface reflectance and MODIS nadir BRDF-adjusted reflectance (NBAR) data with three separate selection conditions for input data across two versions of the software. From the fused images, we derived a time-series of high temporal and high spatial resolution synthetic Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) imagery to identify the dates of the start of the growing season (SOS), end of the season (EOS), and the length of the season (LOS). The results were compared between the urban and exurban developed areas within the vicinity of Ogden, UT and across all three data scenarios. The results generally show an earlier urban SOS, later urban EOS, and longer urban LOS, with variation across the results suggesting that phenological parameters are sensitive to input changes. Although there was strong evidence that STARFM has the potential to produce images capable of capturing the UHI effect on phenology, we recommend that future work refine the proposed methods and compare the results against ground events. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multi-Sensor and Multi-Data Integration in Remote Sensing)
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1089 KiB  
Article
Gross Primary Production of a Wheat Canopy Relates Stronger to Far Red Than to Red Solar-Induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence
by Yves Goulas, Antoine Fournier, Fabrice Daumard, Sébastien Champagne, Abderrahmane Ounis, Olivier Marloie and Ismael Moya
Remote Sens. 2017, 9(1), 97; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9010097 - 22 Jan 2017
Cited by 89 | Viewed by 9126
Abstract
Sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) is a radiation flux emitted by chlorophyll molecules in the red (RSIF) and far red region (FRSIF), and is considered as a potential indicator of the functional state of photosynthesis in remote sensing applications. Recently, ground studies and space [...] Read more.
Sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) is a radiation flux emitted by chlorophyll molecules in the red (RSIF) and far red region (FRSIF), and is considered as a potential indicator of the functional state of photosynthesis in remote sensing applications. Recently, ground studies and space observations have demonstrated a strong empirical linear relationship between FRSIF and carbon uptake through photosynthesis (GPP, gross primary production). In this study, we investigated the potential of RSIF and FRSIF to represent the functional status of photosynthesis at canopy level on a wheat crop. RSIF and FRSIF were continuously measured in the O2-B (SIF687) and O2-A bands (SIF760) at a high frequency rate from a nadir view at a height of 21 m, simultaneously with carbon uptake using eddy covariance (EC) techniques. The relative fluorescence yield (Fyield) and the photochemical yield were acquired at leaf level using active fluorescence measurements. SIF was normalized with photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) to derive apparent spectral fluorescence yields (ASFY687, ASFY760). At the diurnal scale, we found limited variations of ASFY687 and ASFY760 during sunny days. We also did not find any link between Fyield and light use efficiency (LUE) derived from EC, which would prevent SIF from indicating LUE changes. The coefficient of determination ( r 2 ) of the linear regression between SIF and GPP is found to be highly variable, depending on the emission wavelength, the time scale of observation, sky conditions, and the phenological stage. Despite its photosystem II (PSII) origin, SIF687 correlates less than SIF760 with GPP in any cases. The strongest SIF–GPP relationship was found for SIF760 during canopy growth. When canopy is in a steady state, SIF687 and SIF760 are almost as effective as PAR in predicting GPP. Our results imply some constraints in the use of simple linear relationships to infer GPP from SIF, as they are expected to be better predictive with far red SIF for canopies with a high dynamic range of green biomass and a low LUE variation range. Full article
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13392 KiB  
Article
Hierarchical Terrain Classification Based on Multilayer Bayesian Network and Conditional Random Field
by Chu He, Xinlong Liu, Di Feng, Bo Shi, Bin Luo and Mingsheng Liao
Remote Sens. 2017, 9(1), 96; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9010096 - 22 Jan 2017
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 5983
Abstract
This paper presents a hierarchical classification approach for Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images. The Conditional Random Field (CRF) and Bayesian Network (BN) are employed to incorporate prior knowledge into this approach for facilitating SAR image classification. (1) A multilayer region pyramid is constructed [...] Read more.
This paper presents a hierarchical classification approach for Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images. The Conditional Random Field (CRF) and Bayesian Network (BN) are employed to incorporate prior knowledge into this approach for facilitating SAR image classification. (1) A multilayer region pyramid is constructed based on multiscale oversegmentation, and then, CRF is used to model the spatial relationships among those extracted regions within each layer of the region pyramid; the boundary prior knowledge is exploited and integrated into the CRF model as a strengthened constraint to improve classification performance near the boundaries. (2) Multilayer BN is applied to establish the causal connections between adjacent layers of the constructed region pyramid, where the classification probabilities of those sub-regions in the lower layer, conditioned on their parents’ regions in the upper layer, are used as adjacent links. More contextual information is taken into account in this framework, which is a benefit to the performance improvement. Several experiments are conducted on real ESAR and TerraSAR data, and the results show that the proposed method achieves better classification accuracy. Full article
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66049 KiB  
Article
Operational High Resolution Land Cover Map Production at the Country Scale Using Satellite Image Time Series
by Jordi Inglada, Arthur Vincent, Marcela Arias, Benjamin Tardy, David Morin and Isabel Rodes
Remote Sens. 2017, 9(1), 95; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9010095 - 22 Jan 2017
Cited by 307 | Viewed by 33070
Abstract
A detailed and accurate knowledge of land cover is crucial for many scientific and operational applications, and as such, it has been identified as an Essential Climate Variable. This accurate knowledge needs frequent updates. This paper presents a methodology for the fully automatic [...] Read more.
A detailed and accurate knowledge of land cover is crucial for many scientific and operational applications, and as such, it has been identified as an Essential Climate Variable. This accurate knowledge needs frequent updates. This paper presents a methodology for the fully automatic production of land cover maps at country scale using high resolution optical image time series which is based on supervised classification and uses existing databases as reference data for training and validation. The originality of the approach resides in the use of all available image data, a simple pre-processing step leading to a homogeneous set of acquisition dates over the whole area and the use of a supervised classifier which is robust to errors in the reference data. The produced maps have a kappa coefficient of 0.86 with 17 land cover classes. The processing is efficient, allowing a fast delivery of the maps after the acquisition of the image data, does not need expensive field surveys for model calibration and validation, nor human operators for decision making, and uses open and freely available imagery. The land cover maps are provided with a confidence map which gives information at the pixel level about the expected quality of the result. Full article
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1296 KiB  
Article
Fusion of Ultrasonic and Spectral Sensor Data for Improving the Estimation of Biomass in Grasslands with Heterogeneous Sward Structure
by Thomas Moeckel, Hanieh Safari, Björn Reddersen, Thomas Fricke and Michael Wachendorf
Remote Sens. 2017, 9(1), 98; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9010098 - 21 Jan 2017
Cited by 66 | Viewed by 9135
Abstract
An accurate estimation of biomass is needed to understand the spatio-temporal changes of forage resources in pasture ecosystems and to support grazing management decisions. A timely evaluation of biomass is challenging, as it requires efficient means such as technical sensing methods to assess [...] Read more.
An accurate estimation of biomass is needed to understand the spatio-temporal changes of forage resources in pasture ecosystems and to support grazing management decisions. A timely evaluation of biomass is challenging, as it requires efficient means such as technical sensing methods to assess numerous data and create continuous maps. In order to calibrate ultrasonic and spectral sensors, a field experiment with heterogeneous pastures continuously stocked by cows at three grazing intensities was conducted. Sensor data fusion by combining ultrasonic sward height (USH) with narrow band normalized difference spectral index (NDSI) (R2CV = 0.52) or simulated WorldView2 (WV2) (R2CV = 0.48) satellite broad bands increased the prediction accuracy significantly, compared to the exclusive use of USH or spectral measurements. Some combinations were even better than the use of the full hyperspectral information (R2CV = 0.48). Spectral regions related to plant water content were found to be of particular importance (996–1225 nm). Fusion of ultrasonic and spectral sensors is a promising approach to assess biomass even in heterogeneous pastures. However, the suggested technique may have limited usefulness in the second half of the growing season, due to an increasing abundance of senesced material. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remote Sensing of Above Ground Biomass)
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10465 KiB  
Article
Multi-Staged NDVI Dependent Snow-Free Land-Surface Shortwave Albedo Narrowband-to-Broadband (NTB) Coefficients and Their Sensitivity Analysis
by Shi Peng, Jianguang Wen, Qing Xiao, Dongqin You, Baocheng Dou, Qiang Liu and Yong Tang
Remote Sens. 2017, 9(1), 93; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9010093 - 20 Jan 2017
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 6136
Abstract
Narrowband-to-broadband conversion is a critical procedure for mapping land-surface broadband albedo using multi-spectral narrowband remote-sensing observations. Due to the significant difference in optical characteristics between soil and vegetation, NTB conversion is influenced by the variation in vegetation coverage on different surface types. To [...] Read more.
Narrowband-to-broadband conversion is a critical procedure for mapping land-surface broadband albedo using multi-spectral narrowband remote-sensing observations. Due to the significant difference in optical characteristics between soil and vegetation, NTB conversion is influenced by the variation in vegetation coverage on different surface types. To reduce this influence, this paper applies an approach that couples NTB coefficient with the NDVI. Multi-staged NDVI dependent NTB coefficient look-up tables (LUT) for Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), Polarization and Directionality of Earth’s Reflectance (POLDER) and Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) were calculated using 6000 spectra samples collected from two typical spectral databases. Sensitivity analysis shows that NTB conversion is affected more by the NDVI for sensors with fewer band numbers, such as POLDER and AVHRR. Analysis of the validation results based on simulations, in situ measurements and global albedo products indicates that by using the multi-staged NDVI dependent NTB method, the conversion accuracies of these two sensors could be improved by 2%–13% on different NDVI classes compared with the general method. This improvement could be as high as 15%, on average, and 35% on dense vegetative surface compared with the global broadband albedo product of POLDER. This paper shows that it is necessary to consider surface reflectance characteristics associated with the NDVI on albedo-NTB conversion for remote sensors with fewer than five bands. Full article
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13422 KiB  
Article
A Graph-Based Approach for 3D Building Model Reconstruction from Airborne LiDAR Point Clouds
by Bin Wu, Bailang Yu, Qiusheng Wu, Shenjun Yao, Feng Zhao, Weiqing Mao and Jianping Wu
Remote Sens. 2017, 9(1), 92; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9010092 - 20 Jan 2017
Cited by 76 | Viewed by 13245
Abstract
3D building model reconstruction is of great importance for environmental and urban applications. Airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) is a very useful data source for acquiring detailed geometric and topological information of building objects. In this study, we employed a graph-based method [...] Read more.
3D building model reconstruction is of great importance for environmental and urban applications. Airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) is a very useful data source for acquiring detailed geometric and topological information of building objects. In this study, we employed a graph-based method based on hierarchical structure analysis of building contours derived from LiDAR data to reconstruct urban building models. The proposed approach first uses a graph theory-based localized contour tree method to represent the topological structure of buildings, then separates the buildings into different parts by analyzing their topological relationships, and finally reconstructs the building model by integrating all the individual models established through the bipartite graph matching process. Our approach provides a more complete topological and geometrical description of building contours than existing approaches. We evaluated the proposed method by applying it to the Lujiazui region in Shanghai, China, a complex and large urban scene with various types of buildings. The results revealed that complex buildings could be reconstructed successfully with a mean modeling error of 0.32 m. Our proposed method offers a promising solution for 3D building model reconstruction from airborne LiDAR point clouds. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remote Sensing for 3D Urban Morphology)
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145 KiB  
Comment
Comment on Hicham Bahi, et al. Effects of Urbanization and Seasonal Cycle on the Surface Urban Heat Island Patterns in the Coastal Growing Cities: A Case Study of Casablanca, Morocco. Remote Sens. 2016, 8, 829
by Brent M. Lofgren
Remote Sens. 2017, 9(1), 91; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9010091 - 20 Jan 2017
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 4250
Abstract
A statement in this recently published paper makes a point that is largely at odds with the main point of the paper that is cited. Stating that higher air temperatures lead to greater evapotranspiration is an oversimplification; the true story is more complex. [...] Read more.
A statement in this recently published paper makes a point that is largely at odds with the main point of the paper that is cited. Stating that higher air temperatures lead to greater evapotranspiration is an oversimplification; the true story is more complex. Although this is by no means central to the conclusions of the paper being commented on, we have demonstrated the danger in taking too literally the idea that air temperature determines potential evapotranspiration. Full article
7004 KiB  
Article
Satellite Attitude Determination and Map Projection Based on Robust Image Matching
by Toru Kouyama, Atsunori Kanemura, Soushi Kato, Nevrez Imamoglu, Tetsuya Fukuhara and Ryosuke Nakamura
Remote Sens. 2017, 9(1), 90; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9010090 - 20 Jan 2017
Cited by 31 | Viewed by 12672
Abstract
Small satellites have limited payload and their attitudes are sometimes difficult to determine from the limited onboard sensors alone. Wrong attitudes lead to inaccurate map projections and measurements that require post-processing correction. In this study, we propose an automated and robust scheme that [...] Read more.
Small satellites have limited payload and their attitudes are sometimes difficult to determine from the limited onboard sensors alone. Wrong attitudes lead to inaccurate map projections and measurements that require post-processing correction. In this study, we propose an automated and robust scheme that derives the satellite attitude from its observation images and known satellite position by matching land features from an observed image and from well-registered base-map images. The scheme combines computer vision algorithms (i.e., feature detection, and robust optimization) and geometrical constraints of the satellite observation. Applying the proposed method to UNIFORM-1 observations, which is a 50 kg class small satellite, satellite attitudes were determined with an accuracy of 0.02°, comparable to that of star trackers, if the satellite position is accurately determined. Map-projected images can be generated based on the accurate attitudes. Errors in the satellite position can add systematic errors to derived attitudes. The proposed scheme focuses on determining satellite attitude with feature detection algorithms applying to raw satellite images, unlike image registration studies which register already map-projected images. By delivering accurate attitude determination and map projection, the proposed method can improve the image geometries of small satellites, and thus reveal fine-scale information about the Earth. Full article
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8194 KiB  
Article
High Resolution Aerosol Optical Depth Retrieval Using Gaofen-1 WFV Camera Data
by Kun Sun, Xiaoling Chen, Zhongmin Zhu and Tianhao Zhang
Remote Sens. 2017, 9(1), 89; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9010089 - 19 Jan 2017
Cited by 32 | Viewed by 8891
Abstract
Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) is crucial for urban air quality assessment. However, the frequently used moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) AOD product at 10 km resolution is too coarse to be applied in a regional-scale study. Gaofen-1 (GF-1) wide-field-of-view (WFV) camera data, with high [...] Read more.
Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) is crucial for urban air quality assessment. However, the frequently used moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) AOD product at 10 km resolution is too coarse to be applied in a regional-scale study. Gaofen-1 (GF-1) wide-field-of-view (WFV) camera data, with high spatial and temporal resolution, has great potential in estimation of AOD. Due to the lack of shortwave infrared (SWIR) band and complex surface reflectivity brought from high spatial resolution, it is difficult to retrieve AOD from GF-1 WFV data with traditional methods. In this paper, we propose an improved AOD retrieval algorithm for GF-1 WFV data. The retrieved AOD has a spatial resolution of 160 m and covers all land surface types. Significant improvements in the algorithm include: (1) adopting an improved clear sky composite method by using the MODIS AOD product to identify the clearest days and correct the background atmospheric effect; and (2) obtaining local aerosol models from long-term CIMEL sun-photometer measurements. Validation against MODIS AOD and ground measurements showed that the GF-1 WFV AOD has a good relationship with MODIS AOD (R2 = 0.66; RMSE = 0.27) and ground measurements (R2 = 0.80; RMSE = 0.25). Nevertheless, the proposed algorithm was found to overestimate AOD in some cases, which will need to be improved upon in future research. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remote Sensing of Atmospheric Pollution)
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3055 KiB  
Article
Citizen Science and Crowdsourcing for Earth Observations: An Analysis of Stakeholder Opinions on the Present and Future
by Suvodeep Mazumdar, Stuart Wrigley and Fabio Ciravegna
Remote Sens. 2017, 9(1), 87; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9010087 - 19 Jan 2017
Cited by 23 | Viewed by 12602
Abstract
The impact of Crowdsourcing and citizen science activities on academia, businesses, governance and society has been enormous. This is more prevalent today with citizens and communities collaborating with organizations, businesses and authorities to contribute in a variety of manners, starting from mere data [...] Read more.
The impact of Crowdsourcing and citizen science activities on academia, businesses, governance and society has been enormous. This is more prevalent today with citizens and communities collaborating with organizations, businesses and authorities to contribute in a variety of manners, starting from mere data providers to being key stakeholders in various decision-making processes. The “Crowdsourcing for observations from Satellites” project is a recently concluded study supported by demonstration projects funded by European Space Agency (ESA). The objective of the project was to investigate the different facets of how crowdsourcing and citizen science impact upon the validation, use and enhancement of Observations from Satellites (OS) products and services. This paper presents our findings in a stakeholder analysis activity involving participants who are experts in crowdsourcing, citizen science for Earth Observations. The activity identified three critical areas that needs attention by the community as well as provides suggestions to potentially help in addressing some of the challenges identified. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Citizen Science and Earth Observation)
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19605 KiB  
Article
The Need for Accurate Geometric and Radiometric Corrections of Drone-Borne Hyperspectral Data for Mineral Exploration: MEPHySTo—A Toolbox for Pre-Processing Drone-Borne Hyperspectral Data
by Sandra Jakob, Robert Zimmermann and Richard Gloaguen
Remote Sens. 2017, 9(1), 88; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9010088 - 18 Jan 2017
Cited by 164 | Viewed by 20943
Abstract
Drone-borne hyperspectral imaging is a new and promising technique for fast and precise acquisition, as well as delivery of high-resolution hyperspectral data to a large variety of end-users. Drones can overcome the scale gap between field and air-borne remote sensing, thus providing high-resolution [...] Read more.
Drone-borne hyperspectral imaging is a new and promising technique for fast and precise acquisition, as well as delivery of high-resolution hyperspectral data to a large variety of end-users. Drones can overcome the scale gap between field and air-borne remote sensing, thus providing high-resolution and multi-temporal data. They are easy to use, flexible and deliver data within cm-scale resolution. So far, however, drone-borne imagery has prominently and successfully been almost solely used in precision agriculture and photogrammetry. Drone technology currently mainly relies on structure-from-motion photogrammetry, aerial photography and agricultural monitoring. Recently, a few hyperspectral sensors became available for drones, but complex geometric and radiometric effects complicate their use for geology-related studies. Using two examples, we first show that precise corrections are required for any geological mapping. We then present a processing toolbox for frame-based hyperspectral imaging systems adapted for the complex correction of drone-borne hyperspectral imagery. The toolbox performs sensor- and platform-specific geometric distortion corrections. Furthermore, a topographic correction step is implemented to correct for rough terrain surfaces. We recommend the c-factor-algorithm for geological applications. To our knowledge, we demonstrate for the first time the applicability of the corrected dataset for lithological mapping and mineral exploration. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Use of UAVs in the Raw Material Sector, from Mineral Exploration to Post-Mining Monitoring)
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9138 KiB  
Article
A Self-Calibrating Runoff and Streamflow Remote Sensing Model for Ungauged Basins Using Open-Access Earth Observation Data
by Ate Poortinga, Wim Bastiaanssen, Gijs Simons, David Saah, Gabriel Senay, Mark Fenn, Brian Bean and John Kadyszewski
Remote Sens. 2017, 9(1), 86; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9010086 - 18 Jan 2017
Cited by 33 | Viewed by 8686
Abstract
Due to increasing pressures on water resources, there is a need to monitor regional water resource availability in a spatially and temporally explicit manner. However, for many parts of the world, there is insufficient data to quantify stream flow or ground water infiltration [...] Read more.
Due to increasing pressures on water resources, there is a need to monitor regional water resource availability in a spatially and temporally explicit manner. However, for many parts of the world, there is insufficient data to quantify stream flow or ground water infiltration rates. We present the results of a pixel-based water balance formulation to partition rainfall into evapotranspiration, surface water runoff and potential ground water infiltration. The method leverages remote sensing derived estimates of precipitation, evapotranspiration, soil moisture, Leaf Area Index, and a single F coefficient to distinguish between runoff and storage changes. The study produced significant correlations between the remote sensing method and field based measurements of river flow in two Vietnamese river basins. For the Ca basin, we found R2 values ranging from 0.88–0.97 and Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) values varying between 0.44–0.88. The R2 for the Red River varied between 0.87–0.93 and NSE values between 0.61 and 0.79. Based on these findings, we conclude that the method allows for a fast and cost-effective way to map water resource availability in basins with no gauges or monitoring infrastructure, without the need for application of sophisticated hydrological models or resource-intensive data. Full article
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Article
Remote Sensing-Based Assessment of the 2005–2011 Bamboo Reproductive Event in the Arakan Mountain Range and Its Relation with Wildfires
by Francesco Fava and Roberto Colombo
Remote Sens. 2017, 9(1), 85; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9010085 - 18 Jan 2017
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 8244
Abstract
Pulse ecological events have major impacts on regional and global biogeochemical cycles, potentially inducing a vast set of cascading ecological effects. This study analyzes the widespread reproductive event of bamboo (Melocanna baccifera) that occurred in the Arakan Mountains (Southeast Asia) from [...] Read more.
Pulse ecological events have major impacts on regional and global biogeochemical cycles, potentially inducing a vast set of cascading ecological effects. This study analyzes the widespread reproductive event of bamboo (Melocanna baccifera) that occurred in the Arakan Mountains (Southeast Asia) from 2005 to 2011, and investigates the possible relationship between massive fuel loading due to bamboo synchronous mortality over large areas and wildfire regime. Multiple remote sensing data products are used to map the areal extent of the bamboo-dominated forest. MODIS NDVI time series are then analyzed to detect the spatiotemporal patterns of the reproductive event. Finally, MODIS Active Fire and Burned Area Products are used to investigate the distribution and extension of wildfires before and after the reproductive event. Bamboo dominates about 62,000 km2 of forest in Arakan. Over 65% of the region shows evidence of synchronous bamboo flowering, fruiting, and mortality over large areas, with wave-like spatiotemporal dynamics. A significant change in the regime of wildfires is observed, with total burned area doubling in the bamboo-dominated forest area and reaching almost 16,000 km2. Wildfires also severely affect the remnant patches of the evergreen forest adjacent to the bamboo forest. These results demonstrate a clear interconnection between the 2005–2011 bamboo reproductive event and the wildfires spreading in the region, with potential relevant socio-economic and environmental impacts. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mapping, Monitoring and Impact Assessment of Land Cover/Land Use Changes in South and South East Asia)
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22756 KiB  
Article
Characterization of Active Layer Thickening Rate over the Northern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau Permafrost Region Using ALOS Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar Data, 2007–2009
by Yuanyuan Jia, Jin-Woo Kim, C. K. Shum, Zhong Lu, Xiaoli Ding, Lei Zhang, Kamil Erkan, Chung-Yen Kuo, Kun Shang, Kuo-Hsin Tseng and Yuchan Yi
Remote Sens. 2017, 9(1), 84; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9010084 - 17 Jan 2017
Cited by 46 | Viewed by 6275
Abstract
The Qinghai-Tibetan plateau (QTP), also known as the Third Pole and the World Water Tower, is the largest and highest plateau with distinct and competing surface and subsurface processes. It is covered by a large layer of discontinuous and sporadic alpine permafrost which [...] Read more.
The Qinghai-Tibetan plateau (QTP), also known as the Third Pole and the World Water Tower, is the largest and highest plateau with distinct and competing surface and subsurface processes. It is covered by a large layer of discontinuous and sporadic alpine permafrost which has degraded 10% during the past few decades. The average active layer thickness (ALT) increase rate is approximately 7.5 cm·yr−1 from 1995 to 2007, based on soil temperature measurements from 10 borehole sites along Qinghai-Tibetan Highway, and approximately 6.3 cm·yr−1, 2006–2010, using soil temperature profiles for 27 monitoring sites along Qinghai-Tibetan railway. In this study, we estimated the ALT and its AL thickening rate in the northern QTP near the railway using ALOS PALSAR L-band small baseline subset interferometric synthetic aperture radar (SBAS-InSAR) data observed land subsidence and the corresponding ALT modeling. The InSAR estimated ALT and AL thickening rate were validated with ground-based observations from the borehole site WD4 within our study region, indicating excellent agreement. We concluded that we have generated high spatial resolution (30 m) and spatially-varying ALT and AL thickening rates, 2007–2009, over approximately an area of 150 km2 of permafrost-covered region in the northern QTP. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remote Sensing in Tibet and Siberia)
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33574 KiB  
Article
DInSAR-Based Detection of Land Subsidence and Correlation with Groundwater Depletion in Konya Plain, Turkey
by Fabiana Caló, Davide Notti, Jorge Pedro Galve, Saygin Abdikan, Tolga Görüm, Antonio Pepe and Füsun Balik Şanli
Remote Sens. 2017, 9(1), 83; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9010083 - 17 Jan 2017
Cited by 68 | Viewed by 15550
Abstract
In areas where groundwater overexploitation occurs, land subsidence triggered by aquifer compaction is observed, resulting in high socio-economic impacts for the affected communities. In this paper, we focus on the Konya region, one of the leading economic centers in the agricultural and industrial [...] Read more.
In areas where groundwater overexploitation occurs, land subsidence triggered by aquifer compaction is observed, resulting in high socio-economic impacts for the affected communities. In this paper, we focus on the Konya region, one of the leading economic centers in the agricultural and industrial sectors in Turkey. We present a multi-source data approach aimed at investigating the complex and fragile environment of this area which is heavily affected by groundwater drawdown and ground subsidence. In particular, in order to analyze the spatial and temporal pattern of the subsidence process we use the Small BAseline Subset DInSAR technique to process two datasets of ENVISAT SAR images spanning the 2002–2010 period. The produced ground deformation maps and associated time-series allow us to detect a wide land subsidence extending for about 1200 km2 and measure vertical displacements reaching up to 10 cm in the observed time interval. DInSAR results, complemented with climatic, stratigraphic and piezometric data as well as with land-cover changes information, allow us to give more insights on the impact of climate changes and human activities on groundwater resources depletion and land subsidence. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Earth Observations for Geohazards)
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6011 KiB  
Article
Mapping Extent Dynamics of Small Lakes Using Downscaling MODIS Surface Reflectance
by Xianghong Che, Yaping Yang, Min Feng, Tong Xiao, Shengli Huang, Yang Xiang and Zugang Chen
Remote Sens. 2017, 9(1), 82; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9010082 - 17 Jan 2017
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 6306
Abstract
Lake extent is an indicator of water capacity as well as the aquatic ecological and environmental conditions. Due to the small sizes and rapid water dynamics, monitoring the extent of small lakes fluctuating between 2.5 and 30 km2 require observations with both [...] Read more.
Lake extent is an indicator of water capacity as well as the aquatic ecological and environmental conditions. Due to the small sizes and rapid water dynamics, monitoring the extent of small lakes fluctuating between 2.5 and 30 km2 require observations with both high spatial and temporal resolutions. The paper applied an improved surface reflectance (SR) downscaling method (i.e., IMAR (Improved Modified Adaptive Regression model)) to downscale the daily SR acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Terra platform to a consistent 250-m resolution, and derived monthly water extent of four small lakes in the Tibetan Plateau (Longre Co, Ayonggongma Co, Ayonggama Co, and Ayongwama Co)) from 2000 to 2014. Using Landsat ETM+ acquired on the same date, the downscaled MODIS SR and identified water extent were compared to the original MODIS, observations downscaled using an early SR downscaling method (MAR (Modified Adaptive Regression model)) and Wavelet fusion. The results showed IMAR achieved the highest correlation coefficients (R2) (0.89–0.957 for SR and 0.79–0.933 for water extent). The errors in the derived water extents were significantly decreased comparing to the results of MAR and Wavelet fusion, and lakes morphometry of IMAR is more comparable to Landsat results. The detected lake extents dynamic between 2000 and 2014 were analyzed using the trend and season decomposition model (BFAST), indicating an increasing trend after 2005, and it likely had higher correlations with temperature and precipitation variation in the Tibetan region (R2: 0.598–0.728 and 0.61–0.735, respectively). Full article
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7594 KiB  
Article
Is Spatial Resolution Critical in Urbanization Velocity Analysis? Investigations in the Pearl River Delta
by Chunzhu Wei, Thomas Blaschke, Pavlos Kazakopoulos, Hannes Taubenböck and Dirk Tiede
Remote Sens. 2017, 9(1), 80; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9010080 - 17 Jan 2017
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 9191
Abstract
Grid-based urbanization velocity analysis of remote sensing imagery is used to measure urban growth rates. However, it remains unclear how critical the spatial resolution of the imagery is to such grid-based approaches. This research therefore investigated how urbanization velocity estimates respond to different [...] Read more.
Grid-based urbanization velocity analysis of remote sensing imagery is used to measure urban growth rates. However, it remains unclear how critical the spatial resolution of the imagery is to such grid-based approaches. This research therefore investigated how urbanization velocity estimates respond to different spatial resolutions, as determined by the grid sizes used. Landsat satellite images of the Pearl River Delta (PRD) in China from the years 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015 were hierarchically aggregated using different grid sizes. Statistical analyses of urbanization velocity derived using different spatial resolutions (or grid sizes) were used to investigate the relationships between socio-economic indicators and the velocity of urbanization for 27 large cities in PRD. The results revealed that those cities with above-average urbanization velocities remain unaffected by the spatial resolution (or grid-size), and the relationships between urbanization velocities and socio-economic indicators are independent of spatial resolution (or grid sizes) used. Moreover, empirical variogram models, the local variance model, and the geographical variance model all indicated that coarse resolution version (480 m) of Landsat images based on aggregated pixel yielded more appropriate results than the original fine resolution version (30 m), when identifying the characteristics of spatial autocorrelation and spatial structure variability of urbanization patterns and processes. The results conclude that the most appropriate spatial resolution for investigations into urbanization velocities is not always the highest resolution. The resulting patterns of urbanization velocities at different spatial resolutions can be used as a basis for studying the spatial heterogeneity of other datasets with variable spatial resolutions, especially for evaluating the capability of a multi-resolution dataset in reflecting spatial structure and spatial autocorrelation features in an urban environment. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Societal and Economic Benefits of Earth Observation Technologies)
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Article
Distinguishing Intensity Levels of Grassland Fertilization Using Vegetation Indices
by Jens L. Hollberg and Jürgen Schellberg
Remote Sens. 2017, 9(1), 81; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9010081 - 16 Jan 2017
Cited by 21 | Viewed by 6824
Abstract
Monitoring the reaction of grassland canopies on fertilizer application is of major importance to enable a well-adjusted management supporting a sustainable production of the grass crop. Up to date, grassland managers estimate the nutrient status and growth dynamics of grasslands by costly and [...] Read more.
Monitoring the reaction of grassland canopies on fertilizer application is of major importance to enable a well-adjusted management supporting a sustainable production of the grass crop. Up to date, grassland managers estimate the nutrient status and growth dynamics of grasslands by costly and time-consuming field surveys, which only provide low temporal and spatial data density. Grassland mapping using remotely-sensed Vegetation Indices (VIs) has the potential to contribute to solving these problems. In this study, we explored the potential of VIs for distinguishing five differently-fertilized grassland communities. Therefore, we collected spectral signatures of these communities in a long-term fertilization experiment (since 1941) in Germany throughout the growing seasons 2012–2014. Fifteen VIs were calculated and their seasonal developments investigated. Welch tests revealed that the accuracy of VIs for distinguishing these grassland communities varies throughout the growing season. Thus, the selection of the most promising single VI for grassland mapping was dependent on the date of the spectra acquisition. A random forests classification using all calculated VIs reduced variations in classification accuracy within the growing season and provided a higher overall precision of classification. Thus, we recommend a careful selection of VIs for grassland mapping or the utilization of temporally-stable methods, i.e., including a set of VIs in the random forests algorithm. Full article
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19396 KiB  
Article
Near Real-Time Browsable Landsat-8 Imagery
by Cheng-Chien Liu, Ryosuke Nakamura, Ming-Hsun Ko, Tomoya Matsuo, Soushi Kato, Hsiao-Yuan Yin and Chung-Shiou Huang
Remote Sens. 2017, 9(1), 79; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9010079 - 16 Jan 2017
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 7717
Abstract
The successful launch and operation of Landsat-8 extends the remarkable 40-year acquisition of space-based land remote-sensing data. To respond quickly to emergency needs, real-time data are directly downlinked to 17 ground stations across the world on a routine basis. With a size of [...] Read more.
The successful launch and operation of Landsat-8 extends the remarkable 40-year acquisition of space-based land remote-sensing data. To respond quickly to emergency needs, real-time data are directly downlinked to 17 ground stations across the world on a routine basis. With a size of approximately 1 Gb per scene, however, the standard level-1 product provided by these stations is not able to serve the general public. Users would like to browse the most up-to-date and historical images of their regions of interest (ROI) at full-resolution from all kinds of devices without the need for tedious data downloading, decompressing, and processing. This paper reports on the Landsat-8 automatic image processing system (L-8 AIPS) that incorporates the function of mask developed by United States Geological Survey (USGS), the pan-sharpening technique of spectral summation intensity modulation, the adaptive contrast enhancement technique, as well as the Openlayers and Google Maps/Earth compatible superoverlay technique. Operation of L-8 AIPS enables the most up-to-date Landsat-8 images of Taiwan to be browsed with a clear contrast enhancement regardless of the cloud condition, and in only one hour’s time after receiving the raw data from the USGS Level 1 Product Generation System (LPGS). For any ROI in Taiwan, all historical Landsat-8 images can also be quickly viewed in time series at full resolution (15 m). The debris flow triggered by Typhoon Soudelor (8 August 2015), as well as the barrier lake formed and the large-scale destruction of vegetation after Typhoon Nepartak (7 July 2016), are given as three examples of successful applications to demonstrate that the gap between the user’s needs and the existing Level-1 product from LPGS can be bridged by providing browsable images in near real-time. Full article
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Article
Assessing the Potential of Sentinel-2 and Pléiades Data for the Detection of Prosopis and Vachellia spp. in Kenya
by Wai-Tim Ng, Purity Rima, Kathrin Einzmann, Markus Immitzer, Clement Atzberger and Sandra Eckert
Remote Sens. 2017, 9(1), 74; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9010074 - 16 Jan 2017
Cited by 87 | Viewed by 13742
Abstract
Prosopis was introduced to Baringo, Kenya in the early 1980s for provision of fuelwood and for controlling desertification through the Fuelwood Afforestation Extension Project (FAEP). Since then, Prosopis has hybridized and spread throughout the region. Prosopis has negative ecological impacts on biodiversity and [...] Read more.
Prosopis was introduced to Baringo, Kenya in the early 1980s for provision of fuelwood and for controlling desertification through the Fuelwood Afforestation Extension Project (FAEP). Since then, Prosopis has hybridized and spread throughout the region. Prosopis has negative ecological impacts on biodiversity and socio-economic effects on livelihoods. Vachellia tortilis, on the other hand, is the dominant indigenous tree species in Baringo and is an important natural resource, mostly preferred for wood, fodder and charcoal production. High utilization due to anthropogenic pressure is affecting the Vachellia populations, whereas the well adapted Prosopis—competing for nutrients and water—has the potential to replace the native Vachellia vegetation. It is vital that both species are mapped in detail to inform stakeholders and for designing management strategies for controlling the Prosopis invasion. For the Baringo area, few remote sensing studies have been carried out. We propose a detailed and robust object-based Random Forest (RF) classification on high spatial resolution Sentinel-2 (ten meter) and Pléiades (two meter) data to detect Prosopis and Vachellia spp. for Marigat sub-county, Baringo, Kenya. In situ reference data were collected to train a RF classifier. Classification results were validated by comparing the outputs to independent reference data of test sites from the “Woody Weeds” project and the Out-Of-Bag (OOB) confusion matrix generated in RF. Our results indicate that both datasets are suitable for object-based Prosopis and Vachellia classification. Higher accuracies were obtained by using the higher spatial resolution Pléiades data (OOB accuracy 0.83 and independent reference accuracy 0.87–0.91) compared to the Sentinel-2 data (OOB accuracy 0.79 and independent reference accuracy 0.80–0.96). We conclude that it is possible to separate Prosopis and Vachellia with good accuracy using the Random Forest classifier. Given the cost of Pléiades, the free of charge Sentinel-2 data provide a viable alternative as the increased spectral resolution compensates for the lack of spatial resolution. With global revisit times of five days from next year onwards, Sentinel-2 based classifications can probably be further improved by using temporal information in addition to the spectral signatures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue First Experiences with European Sentinel-2 Multi-Spectral Imager (MSI))
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5089 KiB  
Article
Refinement of Hyperspectral Image Classification with Segment-Tree Filtering
by Lu Li, Chengyi Wang, Jingbo Chen and Jianglin Ma
Remote Sens. 2017, 9(1), 69; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9010069 - 16 Jan 2017
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 6666
Abstract
This paper proposes a novel method of segment-tree filtering to improve the classification accuracy of hyperspectral image (HSI). Segment-tree filtering is a versatile method that incorporates spatial information and has been widely applied in image preprocessing. However, to use this powerful framework in [...] Read more.
This paper proposes a novel method of segment-tree filtering to improve the classification accuracy of hyperspectral image (HSI). Segment-tree filtering is a versatile method that incorporates spatial information and has been widely applied in image preprocessing. However, to use this powerful framework in hyperspectral image classification, we must reduce the original feature dimensionality to avoid the Hughes problem; otherwise, the computational costs are high and the classification accuracy by original bands in the HSI is unsatisfactory. Therefore, feature extraction is adopted to produce new salient features. In this paper, the Semi-supervised Local Fisher (SELF) method of discriminant analysis is used to reduce HSI dimensionality. Then, a tree-structure filter that adaptively incorporates contextual information is constructed. Additionally, an initial classification map is generated using multi-class support vector machines (SVMs), and segment-tree filtering is conducted using this map. Finally, a simple Winner-Take-All (WTA) rule is applied to determine the class of each pixel in an HSI based on the maximum probability. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can improve HSI classification accuracy significantly. Furthermore, a comparison between the proposed method and the current state-of-the-art methods, such as Extended Morphological Profiles (EMPs), Guided Filtering (GF), and Markov Random Fields (MRFs), suggests that our method is both competitive and robust. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Learning to Understand Remote Sensing Images)
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8067 KiB  
Article
Automated Extraction of Inundated Areas from Multi-Temporal Dual-Polarization RADARSAT-2 Images of the 2011 Central Thailand Flood
by Pisut Nakmuenwai, Fumio Yamazaki and Wen Liu
Remote Sens. 2017, 9(1), 78; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9010078 - 15 Jan 2017
Cited by 53 | Viewed by 8525
Abstract
This study examines a novel extraction method for SAR imagery data of widespread flooding, particularly in the Chao Phraya river basin of central Thailand, where flooding occurs almost every year. Because the 2011 flood was among the largest events and of a long [...] Read more.
This study examines a novel extraction method for SAR imagery data of widespread flooding, particularly in the Chao Phraya river basin of central Thailand, where flooding occurs almost every year. Because the 2011 flood was among the largest events and of a long duration, a large number of satellites observed it, and imagery data are available. At that time, RADARSAT-2 data were mainly used to extract the affected areas by the Thai government, whereas ThaiChote-1 imagery data were also used as optical supporting data. In this study, the same data were also employed in a somewhat different and more detailed manner. Multi-temporal dual-polarized RADARSAT-2 images were used to classify water areas using a clustering-based thresholding technique, neighboring valley-emphasis, to establish an automated extraction system. The novel technique has been proposed to improve classification speed and efficiency. This technique selects specific water references throughout the study area to estimate local threshold values and then averages them by an area weight to obtain the threshold value for the entire area. The extracted results were validated using high-resolution optical images from the GeoEye-1 and ThaiChote-1 satellites and water elevation data from gaging stations. Full article
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Article
Examining Multi-Legend Change Detection in Amazon with Pixel and Region Based Methods
by Mariane S. Reis, Luciano V. Dutra, Sidnei J. S. Sant’Anna and Maria Isabel S. Escada
Remote Sens. 2017, 9(1), 77; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9010077 - 15 Jan 2017
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 7779
Abstract
Post-classification comparison is one of the most widely used change detection methods. However, it presents several operational problems that are often ignored, such as the occurrence of impossible transitions, difficulties in accuracy assessment and results not accurate enough for the purpose. This work [...] Read more.
Post-classification comparison is one of the most widely used change detection methods. However, it presents several operational problems that are often ignored, such as the occurrence of impossible transitions, difficulties in accuracy assessment and results not accurate enough for the purpose. This work aims to evaluate post-classification comparison change detection results obtained from LANDSAT5/TM data in a region of the Brazilian Amazon, using three legends in different levels of detail and both pixel wise and region based classifiers. A distinctive characteristic of the used approach is that each change mapping is the result of the combination of 100 land cover classifications for each date, obtained using varied training samples. This approach allowed to account for the training samples choice into the methodology, as well as the construction of confidence mappings. We presented and discussed different approaches for evaluating change results, such as the likelihood of land cover transitions occurring within the study area and time gap, the use of rectangular matrices to incorporate the occurrence of impossible or non evaluable changes and classification uncertainty. In general, change mappings obtained from region based classifications showed better results than the ones obtained from pixel based classifications. Globally, the use of region based approaches, in contrast to pixel based ones, led to an increase in accuracy of 15.5% for the change mapping from the most detailed legend, 7.8% for the one with the legend with intermediate level of detail and 3.6% for the less detailed one. In addition, individual transitions between land cover classes were better identified using region based approaches, with the exception of transitions from a non agriculture class to an agricultural one. The proposed quality mappings are useful to help to evaluate the change mappings, mainly in legend levels with higher level of detail and if reference samples are unreliable or unavailable. It was possible to access, in a spatially explicit way, that at least 29.0% of the pixel based change mapping and 21.9% of the region based one from the most detailed legend were erroneous classified, without ground truth information on the evaluated date. These values decreased to 0.5% and 1.4% (respectively the pixel and region based approaches) for results with the legend with the intermediate level of detail and are non existent in the results from the less detailed legend. The more generalized the legend (lower number of classes), the most similar are the accuracy of region and pixel based change mappings. These accuracy values also increase as fewer classes are considered in the legend, since similar classes are assembled during clustering, which reduces the overlap between groups. However, this accuracy is still low for operational purposes in areas with few changes, even considering the very high accuracy of the land cover classifications used to generate the change mappings (land cover classification with Overall Accuracy higher than 0.98 resulted in change mappings with Overall Accuracy around 0.83). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Digital Forest Resource Monitoring and Uncertainty Analysis)
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8384 KiB  
Article
Stochastic Spatio-Temporal Models for Analysing NDVI Distribution of GIMMS NDVI3g Images
by Ana F. Militino, Maria Dolores Ugarte and Unai Pérez-Goya
Remote Sens. 2017, 9(1), 76; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9010076 - 15 Jan 2017
Cited by 27 | Viewed by 6869
Abstract
The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is an important indicator for evaluating vegetation change, monitoring land surface fluxes or predicting crop models. Due to the great availability of images provided by different satellites in recent years, much attention has been devoted to testing [...] Read more.
The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is an important indicator for evaluating vegetation change, monitoring land surface fluxes or predicting crop models. Due to the great availability of images provided by different satellites in recent years, much attention has been devoted to testing trend changes with a time series of NDVI individual pixels. However, the spatial dependence inherent in these data is usually lost unless global scales are analyzed. In this paper, we propose incorporating both the spatial and the temporal dependence among pixels using a stochastic spatio-temporal model for estimating the NDVI distribution thoroughly. The stochastic model is a state-space model that uses meteorological data of the Climatic Research Unit (CRU TS3.10) as auxiliary information. The model will be estimated with the Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm. The result is a set of smoothed images providing an overall analysis of the NDVI distribution across space and time, where fluctuations generated by atmospheric disturbances, fire events, land-use/cover changes or engineering problems from image capture are treated as random fluctuations. The illustration is carried out with the third generation of NDVI images, termed NDVI3g, of the Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies (GIMMS) in continental Spain. This data are taken in bymonthly periods from January 2011 to December 2013, but the model can be applied to many other variables, countries or regions with different resolutions. Full article
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8021 KiB  
Article
Decline of Geladandong Glacier Elevation in Yangtze River’s Source Region: Detection by ICESat and Assessment by Hydroclimatic Data
by Nengfang Chao, Zhengtao Wang, Cheinway Hwang, Taoyong Jin and Yung-Sheng Cheng
Remote Sens. 2017, 9(1), 75; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9010075 - 14 Jan 2017
Cited by 22 | Viewed by 7425
Abstract
Several studies have indicated that glaciers in the Qinghai-Tibet plateau are thinning, resulting in reduced water supplies to major rivers such as the Yangtze, Yellow, Lancang, Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra in China, and south Asia. Three rivers in the upstream of Yangtze River originate [...] Read more.
Several studies have indicated that glaciers in the Qinghai-Tibet plateau are thinning, resulting in reduced water supplies to major rivers such as the Yangtze, Yellow, Lancang, Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra in China, and south Asia. Three rivers in the upstream of Yangtze River originate from glaciers around the Geladandong snow mountain group in central Tibet. Here we used elevation observations from Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) and reference elevations from a 3-arc-second digital elevation model (DEM) of Shuttle Radar Terrestrial Mission (SRTM), assisted with Landsat-7 images, to detect glacier elevation changes in the western (A), central (B), and eastern (C) regions of Geladandong. Robust fitting was used to determine rates of glacier elevation changes in regions with dense ICESat data, whereas a new method called rate averaging was employed to find rates in regions of low data density. The rate of elevation change was −0.158 ± 0.066 m·a−1 over 2003–2009 in the entire Geladandong and it was −0.176 ± 0.102 m·a−1 over 2003–2008 in Region C (by robust fitting). The rates in Regions A, B, and C were −0.418 ± 0.322 m·a−1 (2000–2009), −0.432 ± 0.020 m·a−1 (2000–2003), and −0.321 ± 0.139 m·a−1 (2000–2008) (by rate averaging). We used in situ hydroclimatic dataset to assess these negative rates: the glacier thinning was caused by temperature rises around Geladandong, based on the temperature records over 1979–2009, 1957–2013, and 1966–2013 at stations Tuotuohe, Wudaoliang, and Anduo. The thinning Geladandong glaciers led to increased discharges recorded at the river gauge stations Tuotuohe and Chumda over 1956–2012. An unabated Geladandong glacier melting will reduce its long-term water supply to the Yangtze River Basin, causing irreversible socioeconomic consequences and seriously degrading the ecological system of the Yangtze River Basin. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Earth Observations for a Better Future Earth)
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3618 KiB  
Article
MODIS Time Series to Detect Anthropogenic Interventions and Degradation Processes in Tropical Pasture
by Daniel Alves Aguiar, Marcio Pupin Mello, Sandra Furlan Nogueira, Fabio Guimarães Gonçalves, Marcos Adami and Bernardo Friedrich Theodor Rudorff
Remote Sens. 2017, 9(1), 73; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9010073 - 14 Jan 2017
Cited by 22 | Viewed by 6949
Abstract
The unavoidable diet change in emerging countries, projected for the coming years, will significantly increase the global consumption of animal protein. It is expected that Brazilian livestock production, responsible for close to 15% of global production, be prepared to answer to the increasing [...] Read more.
The unavoidable diet change in emerging countries, projected for the coming years, will significantly increase the global consumption of animal protein. It is expected that Brazilian livestock production, responsible for close to 15% of global production, be prepared to answer to the increasing demand of beef. Consequently, the evaluation of pasture quality at regional scale is important to inform public policies towards a rational land use strategy directed to improve livestock productivity in the country. Our hypothesis is that MODIS images can be used to evaluate the processes of degradation, restoration and renovation of tropical pastures. To test this hypothesis, two field campaigns were performed covering a route of approximately 40,000 km through nine Brazilian states. To characterize the sampled pastures, biophysical parameters were measured and observations about the pastures, the adopted management and the landscape were collected. Each sampled pasture was evaluated using a time series of MODIS EVI2 images from 2000–2012, according to a new protocol based on seven phenological metrics, 14 Boolean criteria and two numerical criteria. The theoretical basis of this protocol was derived from interviews with producers and livestock experts during a third field campaign. The analysis of the MODIS EVI2 time series provided valuable historical information on the type of intervention and on the biological degradation process of the sampled pastures. Of the 782 pastures sampled, 26.6% experienced some type of intervention, 19.1% were under biological degradation, and 54.3% presented neither intervention nor trend of biomass decrease during the period analyzed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remote Sensing of Land Degradation and Drivers of Change)
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5761 KiB  
Article
Assessment of Mono- and Split-Window Approaches for Time Series Processing of LST from AVHRR—A TIMELINE Round Robin
by Corinne Myrtha Frey, Claudia Kuenzer and Stefan Dech
Remote Sens. 2017, 9(1), 72; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9010072 - 13 Jan 2017
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 6529
Abstract
Processing of land surface temperature from long time series of AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) requires stable algorithms, which are well characterized in terms of accuracy, precision and sensitivity. This assessment presents a comparison of four mono-window (Price 1983, Qin et al., [...] Read more.
Processing of land surface temperature from long time series of AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) requires stable algorithms, which are well characterized in terms of accuracy, precision and sensitivity. This assessment presents a comparison of four mono-window (Price 1983, Qin et al., 2001, Jiménez-Muñoz and Sobrino 2003, linear approach) and six split-window algorithms (Price 1984, Becker and Li 1990, Ulivieri et al., 1994, Wan and Dozier 1996, Yu 2008, Jiménez-Muñoz and Sobrino 2008) to estimate LST from top of atmosphere brightness temperatures, emissivity and columnar water vapour. Where possible, new coefficients were estimated matching the spectral response curves of the different AVHRR sensors of the past and present. The consideration of unique spectral response curves is necessary to avoid artificial anomalies and wrong trends when processing time series data. Using simulated data on the base of a large atmospheric profile database covering many different states of the atmosphere, biomes and geographical regions, it was assessed (a) to what accuracy and precision LST can be estimated using before mentioned algorithms and (b) how sensitive the algorithms are to errors in their input variables. It was found, that the split-window algorithms performed almost equally well, differences were found mainly in their sensitivity to input bands, resulting in the Becker and Li 1990 and Price 1984 split-window algorithm to perform best. Amongst the mono-window algorithms, larger deviations occurred in terms of accuracy, precision and sensitivity. The Qin et al., 2001 algorithm was found to be the best performing mono-window algorithm. A short comparison of the application of the Becker and Li 1990 coefficients to AVHRR with the MODIS LST product confirmed the approach to be physically sound. Full article
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Article
Monitoring Annual Urban Changes in a Rapidly Growing Portion of Northwest Arkansas with a 20-Year Landsat Record
by Ryan Reynolds, Lu Liang, XueCao Li and John Dennis
Remote Sens. 2017, 9(1), 71; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9010071 - 13 Jan 2017
Cited by 28 | Viewed by 7842
Abstract
Northwest Arkansas has undergone a significant urban transformation in the past several decades and is considered to be one of the fastest growing regions in the United States. The urban area expansion and the associated demographic increases bring unprecedented pressure to the environment [...] Read more.
Northwest Arkansas has undergone a significant urban transformation in the past several decades and is considered to be one of the fastest growing regions in the United States. The urban area expansion and the associated demographic increases bring unprecedented pressure to the environment and natural resources. To better understand the consequences of urbanization, accurate and long-term depiction on urban dynamics is critical. Although urban mapping activities using remote sensing have been widely conducted, long-term urban growth mapping at an annual pace is rare and the low accuracy of change detection remains a challenge. In this study, a time series Landsat stack covering the period from 1995 to 2015 was employed to detect the urban dynamics in Northwest Arkansas via a two-stage classification approach. A set of spectral indices that have been proven to be useful in urban area extraction together with the original Landsat spectral bands were used in the maximum likelihood classifier and random forest classifier to distinguish urban from non-urban pixels for each year. A temporal trajectory polishing method, involving temporal filtering and heuristic reasoning, was then applied to the sequence of classified urban maps for further improvement. Based on a set of validation samples selected for five distinct years, the average overall accuracy of the final polished maps was 91%, which improved the preliminary classifications by over 10%. Moreover, results from this study also indicated that the temporal trajectory polishing method was most effective with initial low accuracy classifications. The resulting urban dynamic map is expected to provide unprecedented details about the area, spatial configuration, and growing trends of urban land-cover in Northwest Arkansas. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remote Sensing of Human-Environment Interactions along the Urban-Rural Gradient)
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7892 KiB  
Article
IceMap250—Automatic 250 m Sea Ice Extent Mapping Using MODIS Data
by Charles Gignac, Monique Bernier, Karem Chokmani and Jimmy Poulin
Remote Sens. 2017, 9(1), 70; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9010070 - 13 Jan 2017
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 8172
Abstract
The sea ice cover in the North evolves at a rapid rate. To adequately monitor this evolution, tools with high temporal and spatial resolution are needed. This paper presents IceMap250, an automatic sea ice extent mapping algorithm using MODIS reflective/emissive bands. Hybrid cloud-masking [...] Read more.
The sea ice cover in the North evolves at a rapid rate. To adequately monitor this evolution, tools with high temporal and spatial resolution are needed. This paper presents IceMap250, an automatic sea ice extent mapping algorithm using MODIS reflective/emissive bands. Hybrid cloud-masking using both the MOD35 mask and a visibility mask, combined with downscaling of Bands 3–7 to 250 m, are utilized to delineate sea ice extent using a decision tree approach. IceMap250 was tested on scenes from the freeze-up, stable cover, and melt seasons in the Hudson Bay complex, in Northeastern Canada. IceMap250 first product is a daily composite sea ice presence map at 250 m. Validation based on comparisons with photo-interpreted ground-truth show the ability of the algorithm to achieve high classification accuracy, with kappa values systematically over 90%. IceMap250 second product is a weekly clear sky map that provides a synthesis of 7 days of daily composite maps. This map, produced using a majority filter, makes the sea ice presence map even more accurate by filtering out the effects of isolated classification errors. The synthesis maps show spatial consistency through time when compared to passive microwave and national ice services maps. Full article
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