Use of optical and radar remote sensing satellites for identifying and monitoring active/inactive landforms in the driest desert in Saudi Arabia

doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2020.107197

Geomorphology

Volume 362, 1 August 2020, 107197

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2020.107197 Get rights and content

Highlights

•
InSAR quantified the land surface changes in spatio-temporal scale.
•
L-band ALOS/PALSAR obscured the buried paleohydrologic systems.
•
High image resolution of Sentinel-1&2 and Google Earth well successfully defined the dynamic of sand dunes.

Abstract

Observing Earth from the space is key for monitoring land-surface dynamics and probing near-surface geomorphic and geological features, including those obscured by sand sheets/dunes and human activity. The hyper-arid area of the Arabian Peninsula was selected for detecting and extracting obscure paleohydrological systems and modeling the spatio-temporal dynamics of sand dunes using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and optical high-resolution remote sensing images. Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) coherence change detection (CCD) using Sentinel-1 imagery was performed, revealing subtle changes in the surficial landforms of the study area. These images also discriminated between active and inactive geomorphic features. In addition, low-frequency L-band Advanced Land Observing Satellite/Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (ALOS/PALSAR) and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) data revealed the details of paleochannels in the basins that drain into the Arabian Gulf. These ephemeral rivers are the source of sand that was later reshaped into dunes by aeolian processes. The results also revealed that the morphology and extension of dunes were clearly influenced by topography, slope, and wind velocity and direction, rather than human activities. Knowledge gained by exploring desert features is essential for planning settlements and development, and integrated approaches using a variety of remote sensing datasets are key for enhancing Earth observation across a range of spatial and temporal scales.

Section snippets

Background

Earth observations from space using optical, thermal, and radar remote sensing sensors have helped resolve significant geomorphological and geological problems across a range of spatial and temporal scales (Abdelkareem et al., 2018). Active synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites that operate continuously in all weather conditions emit and receive electromagnetic (EM) radiation and record backscattered pulses that characterize the geometry of the target (Roth & Elachi, 1975; Schaber et al.,

Study area

The study area is in the eastern part of Saudi Arabia and covers a large area that ends at the Arabian Gulf to the east. One of the driest regions of the Arabian Peninsula, with a mean yearly precipitation of 70 mm (Hoetzl, 1995), the area extends from longitude 42° 32′ 56′′ E and 52° 56′ 29′′ E and latitude 21°25′ 35′′ N and 25° 21′ 22′′ E (Fig. 1). The investigated area belongs to the Arabian Shelf platform, comprising a sedimentary sequence of Paleozoic to Cenozoic rocks dipping NE and E

Data and methods

Electromagnetic radiation, particularly low-frequency microwaves, was used to characterize surface roughness, moisture, structure, and geomorphic features; reveal paleodrainage systems based on near-surface forms and structures; and detect extremely small changes at the land surface. The penetration capability of low-frequency radar was used to image and map hidden features under the dry loose sand of the study area with a high degree of certainty. Rather than optical sensors that have limited

Paleohydrological systems

Investigation and clarification of microwave EM data (i.e., the ALOS/PALSAR, Sentinel-1 and SRTM DEM, and VNIR/SWIR data of Landsat-8, Sentinel-2, and Google Earth images) revealed several past and present geomorphic and structural features in the study area. The SRTM DEM data (Fig. 1c) revealed that the area is characterized by wide variations in topography between 0 and 1453 m above sea level (a.s.l.), and most of the downstream areas are covered by mobile sand dunes. This topographic

Discussion

The analysis and interpretation of a wide array of space-borne remote sensing data provide spatially and temporally repeatable observations and enabled us to identify paleohydrological systems, observe sand dune dynamics and human activity in arid land environments.

In this study, the low-frequency SAR data were used to characterize several buried drainage systems under sand sheets and thick sand dunes (Fig. 3); because the low attenuation (high penetration capability) of the long wavelengths of

Conclusions

Recent advances in Earth observation from space enable the detection of buried features under sand sheets and dunes in a fast and cost-effective manner. Such features are difficult to observe by using other techniques. The processing and interpretation of a wide array of optical and radar remote sensing data including Landsat OLI, SRTM, ALOS/PALSAR, and Sentinel-1/2 revealed surface and near-surface features in the eastern part of Saudi Arabia. We used several approaches incorporating a wide

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to express their gratitude to the editor and the reviewers. The authors also would like to extend their sincere appreciation to the Deanship of Scientific Research, King Saud University, for funding this research (RG-1437-012), and RSSU at King Saud University for their technical support.

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Use of optical and radar remote sensing satellites for identifying and monitoring active/inactive landforms in the driest desert in Saudi Arabia

Highlights

Abstract

Section snippets

Background

Study area

Data and methods

Paleohydrological systems

Discussion

Conclusions

Declaration of competing interest

Acknowledgments

Int. J. Appl. Earth Obs. Geoinf.

Quat. Int.

ISPRS J. Photogramm. Remote Sens.

Appl. Geogr.

Remote Sens. Environ.

Earth Sci. Rev.

J. Arid Environ.

Remote Sens. Environ.

Comput. Vis. Graphics Image Process.

Earth Planet. Sci. Lett.

J. Afr. Earth Sci.

J. Afr. Earth Sci.

Impacts of human activities on destruction of the archeological sites in southern Egypt using remote sensing and field data

J. Environ. Sci. Manag.

Analyses of optical images and radar data reveal structural features and predict groundwater accumulations in the Central Eastern Desert of Egypt

Arab. J. Geosci.

Mode of formation of the Nile Gorge in Northern Egypt by DEM-SRTM Data and GIS analysis

Geol. J.

Remote sensing of paleodrainage systems West of the Nile River, Egypt

Geocarto Int.

Mapping paleohydrologic features in the arid areas of Saudi Arabia using remote sensing data

Water

Applications of remote sensing and geographic information systems for urban land-cover changes studies

Geocarto Int.

Effectiveness of high-resolution SAR for water resource management in low-income semi-arid countries

Int. J. Remote Sens.

Sentinel-1 mission overview

IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium

InSAR phase filtering via joint subspace projection method: application in change detection

IEEE Geosci. Remote Sens. Lett.

Mine action—the research experience of the Royal Military Academy of Belgium, chapter 6

IntechOpen

Coherent change detection of vehicle movements

IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing

Synthetic Aperture Radar Systems and Signal Processing

Automatic extraction of dunes from Google Earth Images new approach to study the dunes migration in the Laâyoune City of Morocco

Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote. Sens. Spat. Inf. Sci.

Kuwait as an Alluvial Fan of a Palaeo-River

Zeitsch. der Geom. N.F. Suppl