This article presents a comprehensive subpixel water mapping algorithm to automatically produce routinely open water fraction maps in the Tibetan Plateau (TP) with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). A multi-index threshold endmember extraction method was applied to select the endmembers from MODIS images. To incorporate endmember variability, an endmember selection strategy

The similarity of mesoscale and submesoscale features observed in different ocean scalars indicates that they undergo some common non-linear processes. As a result of quasi-2D turbulence, complicated patterns of filaments, meanders, and eddies are recognized in remote sensing images. A data fusion method used to improve the quality of one ocean variable using another variable as a template is used

This paper presents a new method for rapid assessment of the extent of annual croplands in Brazil. The proposed method applies a linear spectral mixing model (LSMM) to PROBA-V time series images to derive vegetation, soil, and shade fraction images for regional analysis. We used S10-TOC (10 days synthesis, 1 km spatial resolution, and top-of-canopy) products for Brazil and S5-TOC (five days synthesis

With the speedy growth of economic development, the imbalance of energy supply and demand pose a critical challenge for the energy security of our country. Meanwhile, the increasing and excessive energy consumption lead to the greenhouse effect and atmospheric pollution, greatly threatening the survival and development of human beings. This study integrated two nighttime light remote sensing datasets

Passive detection of a moving aerial target is critical for intelligent surveillance. Its implementation can use signals transmitted from satellites. Nowadays, various types of satellites co-exist which can be used for passive detection. As a result, a satellite signal receiver may receive signals from multiple heterogeneous satellites, causing difficult in echo signal detection. In this paper, a passive

Wind disturbances are significant phenomena in forest spatial structure and succession dynamics. They cause changes in biodiversity, impact on forest ecosystems at different spatial scales, and have a strong influence on economics and human beings. The reliable recognition and mapping of windthrow areas are of high importance from the perspective of forest management and nature conservation. Recent

Classifying hyperspectral images (HSIs) with limited samples is a challenging issue. The generative adversarial network (GAN) is a promising technique to mitigate the small sample size problem. GAN can generate samples by the competition between a generator and a discriminator. However, it is difficult to generate high-quality samples for HSIs with complex spatial–spectral distribution, which may further

The spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is quite powerful in worldwide ocean observation, especially for ship monitoring, as a hot topic in ocean surveillance. The launched Gaofen-3 (GF3) satellite of China can provide C-band and multi-polarization SAR data, and one of its scientific applications is ocean ship detection. Compared with the single polarization system, polarimetric systems can be

The Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) mounted on the Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite can provide both temperature and humidity information for a weather prediction model. Based on the rapid-refresh multi-scale analysis and prediction system－short-term (RMAPS-ST), we investigated the impact of ATMS radiance data assimilation on strong rainfall forecasts. Two groups

Forests reduce snow accumulation on the ground through canopy interception and subsequent evaporative losses. To understand snow interception and associated hydrological processes, studies have typically relied on resource-intensive point scale measurements derived from weighed trees or indirect measurements that compared snow accumulation between forested sites and nearby clearings. Weighed trees

Open spaces are essential for promoting quality of life in cities. However, accelerated urban growth, in particular in cities of the global South, is reducing the often already limited amount of open spaces with access to citizens. The importance of open spaces is promoted by SDG indicator 11.7.1; however, data on this indicator are not readily available, neither globally nor at the metropolitan scale

The HY-1C satellite, as part of China’s optical satellite constellation for global ocean monitoring, monitors the ocean and coastal environment by the three broad visible bands of the Coastal Zone Imager (CZI) instrument. However, as a result of the sensor instrument noise, the atmospheric environment during imaging, and the shooting angle, the satellite images often show uneven illumination and inconsistent

To provide a realistic environment for remote sensing applications, point clouds are used to realize a three-dimensional (3D) digital world for the user. Motion recognition of objects, e.g., humans, is required to provide realistic experiences in the 3D digital world. To recognize a user's motions, 3D landmarks are provided by analyzing a 3D point cloud collected through a light detection and ranging

Coastal wetlands play a vital role in protecting coastlines, which makes the loss of forested and emergent wetlands devastating for vulnerable coastal communities. Tidal creeks are relatively small hydrologic areas that feed into larger estuaries, are on the front lines of the interface between saltwater and freshwater ecosystems, and are potentially the first areas to experience changes in sea level

The coastal ocean is one of the most important environments on our planet, home to some of the most bio-diverse and productive ecosystems and providing key input to the livelihood of the majority of human society. It is also a highly dynamic and sensitive environment, particularly susceptible to damage from anthropogenic influences such as pollution and over-exploitation as well as the effects of climate

The classification of plant associations and their mapping play a key role in defining habitat biodiversity management, monitoring, and conservation strategies. In this work we present a methodological framework to map Mediterranean forest plant associations and habitats that relies on the application of the Functional Principal Component Analysis (FPCA) to the remotely sensed Normalized Difference

Sensor fusion is one of the main challenges in self driving and robotics applications. In this paper we propose an automatic, online and target-less camera-Lidar extrinsic calibration approach. We adopt a structure from motion (SfM) method to generate 3D point clouds from the camera data which can be matched to the Lidar point clouds; thus, we address the extrinsic calibration problem as a registration

Nitrogen (N) is one of the most essential nutrients that can significantly affect crop grain yield and quality. The implementation of proximal and remote sensing technologies in precision agriculture has provided new opportunities for non-destructive and real-time diagnosis of crop N status and precision N management. Notably, leaf fluorescence sensors have shown high potential in the accurate estimation

Large scale forest disturbances are becoming more frequent across the world, and remote sensing must play a role in informing and prioritizing immediate, short-term and long-term disaster response and recovery. However, such evaluations from remote sensing are currently limited (e.g., burned area severity and change NDVI) and do not always explicitly relate to change in resources of interest. Herein

The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), has been increasingly used to capture spatiotemporal variations in cover factor (C) determination for erosion prediction on a larger landscape scale. However, NDVI-based C factor (Cndvi) estimation per se is sensitive to various biophysical variables, such as soil condition, topographic features, and vegetation phenology. As a result, Cndvi often results

Rapid and uncontrolled population growth along with economic and industrial development, especially in developing countries during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, have increased the rate of land-use/land-cover (LULC) change many times. Since quantitative assessment of changes in LULC is one of the most efficient means to understand and manage the land transformation, there is a

Based on the theories of structure–function correlation in Geography, and landscape pattern-ecological function correlation in Landscape Ecology, the correlation between land use fragmentation and vegetation activity was quantified. Effective mesh size (meff) was calculated to represent landscape fragmentation for land use, and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) was used to reflect vegetation

In the context of global warming, the land surface temperature (LST) from remote sensing data is one of the most useful indicators to directly quantify the degree of climate warming in high-altitude mountainous areas where meteorological observations are sparse. Using the daily Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) LST product (MOD11A1 V6) after eliminating pixels that might be contaminated

The lack of urban sustainability is a widespread deficiency in urban agglomerations. To achieve adequate land use, we present a methodology that allows for: 1) the identification of the impacts caused by urban expansion since 1956 to the present in Salamanca (Spain); and 2) the promotion of a more sustainable future in urban development. A multi-temporal assessment of land use was made by remote sensing

The natural environment is essential for human survival and development since it provides water resources, land resources, biological resources and climate resources etc. As a developing country, China has witnessed a significant change in the natural environment in recent decades; and therefore, monitoring and mastering the status of the environment is of great significance. Due to the characteristics

In recent years, the study of microwave radiation from the Moon’s surface has been of interest to the astronomy and remote sensing communities. Due to the stable geophysical properties of the Moon’s surface, microwave lunar radiation is highly predictable and can be accurately modeled, given sufficient observations from reliable instruments. Specifically, for microwave remote sensing study, if International

Tree species classification is important for the management and sustainable development of forest resources. Traditional object-oriented tree species classification methods, such as support vector machines, require manual feature selection and generally low accuracy, whereas deep learning technology can automatically extract image features to achieve end-to-end classification. Therefore, a tree classification

Registration of point clouds is a central problem in many mapping and monitoring applications, such as outdoor and indoor mapping, high-speed railway track inspection, heritage documentation, building information modeling, and others. However, ensuring the global consistency of the registration is still a challenging task when there are multiple point clouds because the different scans should be transformed

Quantifying land-use and land-cover change (LULCC) effects on carbon sources and sinks has been very challenging because of the availability and quality of LULCC data. As the largest estuary in the United States, Chesapeake Bay is a rapidly changing region and is affected by human activities. A new annual land-use and land-cover (LULC) data product developed by the U.S. Geological Survey Land Change

The importance of three-dimensional (3D) point cloud technologies in the field of agriculture environmental research has increased in recent years. Obtaining dense and accurate 3D reconstructions of plants and urban areas provide useful information for remote sensing. In this paper, we propose a novel strategy for the enhancement of 3D point clouds from a single 4D light field (LF) image. Using a light

The climate in Svalbard has been warming dramatically compared with the global average for the last few decades. Seasonal snow cover, which is sensitive to temperature and precipitation changes, is therefore expected to undergo both spatial and temporal changes in response to the changing climate in Svalbard. This will in turn have implications for timing of terrestrial productivity, which is closely

Leaf photosynthetic parameters are important in understanding the role of photosynthesis in the carbon cycle. Conventional approaches to obtain information on the parameters usually involve long-term field work, even for one leaf sample, and are, thus, only applicable to a small area. The utilization of hyperspectral remote sensing especially of various vegetation indices is a promising approach that

Many solutions about the teleoperation of unmanned robotic excavators have been studied continuously. However, if excavators that are remotely controlled were employed, the probability of an accident would be higher. For this reason, there have been many ways proposed to attempt to reduce accidents in these dangerous situations. In this paper, a novel methodology will be introduced with a focus on

Temporally continuous daily actual evapotranspiration (ET) data play a critical role in water resource management in arid areas. As a typical remotely sensed land surface temperature (LST)-based ET model, the surface temperature-vegetation index (Ts-VI) triangle model provides direct monitoring of ET, but these estimates are temporally discontinuous due to cloud contamination. In this work, we present

This paper proposes a novel method to estimate the lateral displacement of high-rise structures under wind loads. The coefficient β(x) is firstly derived, reflecting the relation between the structural lateral dynamic displacement and the inclination angle at the height x of a structure. If the angle is small, it is the ratio between the structural fundamental mode shape and its first-order derivative

ESA CCI SM products have provided remotely-sensed surface soil moisture (SSM) content with the best spatial and temporal coverage thus far, although its output spatial resolution of 25 km is too coarse for many regional and local applications. The downscaling methodology presented in this paper improves ESA CCI SM spatial resolution to 1 km using two-step approach. The first step is used as a data

High-density polyethylene (HDPE) is commonly the material of choice for covered anaerobic lagoons (CAL) at wastewater treatment plants. The membrane floats on the wastewater, and hence is called a “floating cover”, and is used for odour control and to harvest the methane-rich biogas as a renewable resource to generate electricity. The floating cover is an expensive and high-value asset that demands

X-band marine radar is an effective tool for sea wave remote sensing. Conventional physical-based methods for acquiring wave parameters from radar sea clutter images use three-dimensional Fourier transform and spectral analysis. They are limited by some assumptions, empirical formulas and the calibration process while obtaining the modulation transfer function (MTF) and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR)

Precision agriculture aims to optimize field management to increase agronomic yield, reduce environmental impact, and potentially foster soil carbon sequestration. In 2015, the Copernicus mission, with Sentinel-1 and -2, opened a new era by providing freely available high spatial and temporal resolution satellite data. Since then, many studies have been conducted to understand, monitor and improve

Forest ecosystems play an important role in regional carbon and nitrogen cycling. Accurate and effective monitoring of their soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil total nitrogen (STN) stocks provides important information for soil quality assessment, sustainable forestry management and climate change policy making. In this study, a geographical weighted regression (GWR) model, a multiple stepwise regression

Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) provides a state-of-the-art technique for measuring forest canopy height. Nevertheless, it may miss some forests due to its spatial separation of individual spots. A number of efforts have been made to overcome the limitation of global LiDAR datasets to generate wall-to-wall canopy height products, among which a global satellite product produced by Simard et al.

Accurate assessment of vegetation dynamics provides important information for ecosystem management. Anthropogenic activities and climate variations are the major factors that primarily influence vegetation ecosystems. This study investigates the spatiotemporal impacts of climate factors and human activities on vegetation productivity changes in China from 1985 to 2015. Actual net primary productivity

Urbanization is a global phenomenon, but its negative effects are most pronounced in developing countries. While much urbanization in the global South is unplanned, there have been occasional attempts at strategic, large-scale urban planning. One example is Abuja, Nigeria, a new city with origins in a 1970s Master Plan. Here, we use multi-temporal remote sensing to investigate four decades of urbanization

Satellite sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) has emerged as a promising tool for monitoring growing conditions and productivity of vegetation. However, it still remains unclear the ability of satellite SIF data to predict crop yields at the regional scale, comparing to widely used satellite vegetation index (VI), such as the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) from the Moderate Resolution Imaging

Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest results in reduced biodiversity, habitat loss, climate change, and other destructive impacts. Hence obtaining location information on human activities is essential for scientists and governments working to protect the Amazon rainforest. We propose a novel remote sensing image classification framework that provides us with the key data needed to more effectively

Evapotranspiration ( E T ) provides a strong connection between surface energy and hydrological cycles. Advancements in remote sensing techniques have increased our understanding of energy and terrestrial water balances as well as the interaction between surface and atmosphere over large areas. In this study, we computed surface energy fluxes using the Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL)

Lapse rate tropopause (LRT) heights in the extratropics have been shown to display a bimodal distribution, with one modal maxima above 15 km (typical of the tropical tropopause) and the other below 13 km (typical of the extratropical tropopause). The climatology of the tropopause is studied by characterizing tropopause bimodality and how it relates to the occurrence of double tropopauses (DTs). LRT

Remote sensing of river discharge (RSQ) is a burgeoning field rife with innovation. This innovation has resulted in a highly non-cohesive subfield of hydrology advancing at a rapid pace, and as a result misconceptions, mis-citations, and confusion are apparent among authors, readers, editors, and reviewers. While the intellectually diverse subfield of RSQ practitioners can parse this confusion, the

3D plant structure observation and characterization to get a comprehensive knowledge about the plant status still poses a challenge in Precision Agriculture (PA). The complex branching and self-hidden geometry in the plant canopy are some of the existing problems for the 3D reconstruction of vegetation. In this paper, we propose a novel application for the fusion of multispectral images and high-resolution

The Global Human Settlement Population Grid (GHS-POP) the latest released global gridded population dataset based on remotely sensed data and developed by the EU Joint Research Centre, depicts the distribution and density of the total population as the number of people per grid cell. This study aims to assess the GHS-POP data accuracy based on root mean square error (RMSE), mean absolute error (MAE)

The classification of hyperspectral remote sensing images is difficult due to the curse of dimensionality. Therefore, it is necessary to find an effective way to reduce the dimensions of such images. The Relief-F method has been introduced for supervising dimensionality reduction, but the band subset obtained by this method has a large number of continuous bands, resulting in a reduction in the classification

The contribution of biodiversity to the global economy, human survival, and welfare has been increasing significantly, but the anthropogenic pressure as a threat to the pristine habitat has followed. This study aims to identify habitat suitability, analyze the change in habitat quality from 1988 to 2018, and to investigate the correlation between impact factors and habitat quality. The InVEST habitat

Current reported spatiotemporal solutions for fusing multisensor aerosol optical depth (AOD) products used to recover gaps either suffer from unacceptable accuracy levels, i.e., fixed rank smooth (FRS), or high time costs, i.e., Bayesian maximum entropy (BME). This problem is generally more serious when dealing with multiple AOD products in a long time series or over large geographic areas. This study

Species-rich subtropical forests have high carbon sequestration capacity and play important roles in regional and global carbon regulation and climate changes. A timely investigation of the spatial distribution characteristics of subtropical forest aboveground biomass (AGB) is essential to assess forest carbon stocks. Lidar (light detection and ranging) is regarded as the most reliable data source

Change detection (CD) networks based on supervised learning have been used in diverse CD tasks. However, such supervised CD networks require a large amount of data and only use information from current images. In addition, it is time consuming to manually acquire the ground truth data for newly obtained images. Here, we proposed a novel method for CD in case of a lack of training data in an area near

Note: In lieu of an abstract, this is an excerpt from the first page. Soil moisture is a key parameter when it comes to understanding the processes related to the water cycle on continental surfaces (infiltration, evapotranspiration, runoff, etc [...]

The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) meteorology contribution to the comprehension of the Earth’s atmosphere’s global and regional variations is essential. In GNSS processing, the zenith wet delay is obtained using the difference between the zenith total delay and the zenith hydrostatic delay. The zenith wet delay can also be converted into precipitable water vapor by knowing the atmospheric

This study compares some different types of spectral domain transformations for convolutional neural network (CNN)-based land cover classification. A novel approach was proposed, which transforms one-dimensional (1-D) spectral vectors into two-dimensional (2-D) features: Polygon graph images (CNN-Polygon) and 2-D matrices (CNN-Matrix). The motivations of this study are that (1) the shape of the converted

Modeling the relationship between precipitation and water level is of great significance in the prevention of flood disaster. In recent years, the use of machine learning algorithms for precipitation–water level prediction has attracted wide attention in flood forecasting and other fields; however, a clear method to model the relationship of precipitation and water level using grid precipitation products

Understanding the spatial distribution of soil organic carbon (SOC) content over different climatic regions will enhance our knowledge of carbon gains and losses due to climatic change. However, little is known about the SOC content in the contrasting arid and sub-humid regions of Iran, whose complex SOC–landscape relationships pose a challenge to spatial analysis. Machine learning (ML) models with