0000000000222055
AUTHOR
Cristian Mattar
Temporal analysis of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and land surface temperature (LST) parameters to detect changes in the Iberian land cover between 1981 and 2001
In past decades, the Iberian Peninsula has been shown to have suffered vegetation changes such as desertification and reforestation. Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and land surface temperature (LST) parameters, estimated from data acquired by the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) sensor onboard the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite series, are particularly adapted to assess these changes. This work presents an application of the yearly land-cover dynamics (YLCD) methodology to analyse the behaviour of the vegetation, which consists of a combined multitemporal study of the NDVI and LST parameters on a yearly basis. Throughout the 1…
Using NASA'S Long Term Data Record version 3 for the monitoring of land surface vegetation
Numerous datasets have been made available for the observation of our planet from space. The aim of this work is the observation of changes in vegetation, through the use of a recent remote sensing dataset, NASA's Long Term Data Record (LTDR). Several authors have pointed out that vegetation monitoring benefits of the simultaneous use of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and land surface temperature (LST). Therefore, this work presents the procedure developed to monitor vegetation with the LTDR dataset, using both NDVI and LST parameters. This procedure includes data preprocessing (estimation of NDVI and LST, orbital drift correction, atmospherically contaminated data reconstruc…
LAI, FAPAR and FCOVER ground-truth map creation from FASat-C satellite imagery and in-situ measurements in Chimbarongo, Chile, for satellite products validation
[EN] In remote sensing, validation exercises are essential to ensure the quality of the products originated from satellite Earth observations. To assess the measurement uncertainty derived from satellite products, several ground field data from different ecosystems must be available for use. In the same order of importance, it is necessary to define data sampling and up-scaling methodologies to allow a suitable comparison between the ground data and the pixel size of the product. This paper shows the applied methodology used in the FP7 ImagineS project (Implementing Multi-scale Agricultural Indicators Exploiting Sentinels) to validate 10-days global LAI, FAPAR and vegetation cover products …
Temperature and Emissivity Separation From MSG/SEVIRI Data
In this paper, we analyze the feasibility of applying the temperature and emissivity separation (TES) algorithm to thermal-infrared data acquired with three bands of the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) onboard the Meteosat Second Generation platform (SEVTES). The performance of the SEVTES algorithm was tested using data simulated over different atmospheric conditions and surface emissivities, with errors around 1.5% for emissivity and 1.5 K for temperature when atmospheric correction is accurate enough. In contrast, errors on land-leaving radiances higher than 2% or uncertainties on total atmospheric water vapor amount higher than 5% lead to errors on emissivity highe…
Multi-temporal analysis of MODIS Land Products over the Amazon region
In a global warming scenario there is an increase interest in examining climate trends at specific biomes such as the tropical rainforest biome. The Amazonian region is the largest carbon sink, so changes in this area are expected to have a direct impact over the climate change. In this work we analyse the temporal evolution (trends and anomalies) of different land parameters from 2001 to 2010 over the Amazonian forest. For this purpose, we used Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Land Products at 0.05° latitude/longitude Climate Modeling Grid (CMG), namely, combined Terra/Aqua 16-day Albedo (MCD43C3), Terra monthly Land Surface Temperature & Emissivity (MOD11C3), Terra mo…
A method to estimate soil moisture from Airborne Hyperspectral Scanner (AHS) and ASTER data: Application to SEN2FLEX and SEN3EXP campaigns
Abstract In this paper the soil moisture is estimated at airborne level and at satellite level by combining remotely sensed images with in situ measurements. At airborne level we process high-resolution images acquired with the Airborne Hyperspectral Scanner (AHS) sensor, and at satellite level we compute images acquired with the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER). The study has been accomplished in the framework of two field campaigns in the Barrax region (Spain): the SEN2FLEX (SENtinel-2 and FLuorescence EXperiment) campaign which was developed in July of 2005 and the SEN3EXP (Sentinel-3 Experiment) campaign which was carried out in June of 2009. The me…
A combined optical-microwave method to retrieve soil moisture over vegetated areas
A simple approach for correcting for the effect of vegetation in the estimation of the surface soil moisture (wS) from L-band passive microwave observations is presented in this study. The approach is based on semi-empirical relationships between soil moisture and the polarized reflectivity including the effect of the vegetation optical depth which is parameterized as a function of the normalized vegetation difference index (NDVI). The method was tested against in situ measurements collected over a grass site from 2004 to 2007 (SMOSREX experiment). Two polarizations (horizontal/vertical) and five incidence angles (20◦, 30◦, 40◦, 50◦, and 60◦) were considered in the analysis. The best wS est…
Sentinel 2 and 3 for Temperature Monitoring Over the Amazon
In this work we present results of an early assessment of the performance of the Land Surface Temperature (LST) product retrieved from the Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR) on board the Sentinel-3 satellite (S3/SLSTR) over the Amazon basin. Results are validated from comparison of S3/SLSTR retrievals against in situ measurements of surface temperature collected over one instrumented site in the Peruvian Amazon. The validation exercise was performed on the standard S3/SLSTR Level-2 LST product as well as on a dedicated LST split-window algorithm with an explicit dependence on surface emissivity. Surface emissivity maps obtained from the high spatial resolution of S2/MSI are…
A database for the monitoring of thermal anomalies over the Amazon forest and adjacent intertropical oceans
AbstractAdvances in information technologies and accessibility to climate and satellite data in recent years have favored the development of web-based tools with user-friendly interfaces in order to facilitate the dissemination of geo/biophysical products. These products are useful for the analysis of the impact of global warming over different biomes. In particular, the study of the Amazon forest responses to drought have recently received attention by the scientific community due to the occurrence of two extreme droughts and sustained warming over the last decade. Thermal Amazoni@ is a web-based platform for the visualization and download of surface thermal anomalies products over the Ama…
Trends in column integrated water vapour over Europe from 1973 to 2003
The spatial and temporal variations of atmospheric precipitable water (PW) content anomalies were analysed over Europe from 1973 to 2003 using daily data (0000 and 1200 UTC) from National Center of Environmental Prediction and National Center of Atmospheric Research Reanalysis project (NCEP-1) and in situ radiosonde data. Mann–Kendall trend tests were applied to long-term PW time series. Technology changes influence PW radiosonde trends, although these are in agreement with NCEP-1 trends. Over the south of the Iberian Peninsula, trends are negative and statistically significant ( 0.04 mm year−1; p < 0.05). Seasonal trends revealed negative and significant trends over the Iberian Peninsula f…
Has the Northern Hemisphere been warming or cooling during the boreal winter of the last few decades?
Abstract The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported a significant rise of the global mean surface temperature over the last 100 years, with a rate of warming over the last few decades almost double that over the last 100 years. The rate of warming is higher at land surfaces over the Northern Hemisphere (NH), and particularly extreme warming is occurring over the Arctic. In spite of the global warming trend, some asymmetries have been observed. In a recent study, a widespread cooling over the NH during the boreal winter season was reported, although other previous studies observed a warming during this season. In this paper we report trends in winter air temperatures over …
Atmospheric correction of optical imagery from MODIS and Reanalysis atmospheric products
article i nfo In this paper we analyze the differences obtained in the atmospheric correction of optical imagery covering bands located in the Visible and Near Infra-Red (VNIR), Short-Wave Infra-Red (SWIR) and Themal-Infrared (TIR) spectral regions when atmospheric profiles extracted from different sources are used. In particular, three sensors were used, Compact High Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (CHRIS), Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection radiometer (ASTER) and Landsat5 Thematic Mapper (TM), whereas four atmospheric profiles sources were considered: i) local soundings launched near the sensor overpass time, ii) Moderate Resolution Radiometer (MODIS) atmospheric profiles…
Thermal remote sensing from Airborne Hyperspectral Scanner data in the framework of the SPARC and SEN2FLEX projects: an overview
Abstract. The AHS (Airborne Hyperspectral Scanner) instrument has 80 spectral bands covering the visible and near infrared (VNIR), short wave infrared (SWIR), mid infrared (MIR) and thermal infrared (TIR) spectral range. The instrument is operated by Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aerospacial (INTA), and it has been involved in several field campaigns since 2004. This paper presents an overview of the work performed with the AHS thermal imagery provided in the framework of the SPARC and SEN2FLEX campaigns, carried out respectively in 2004 and 2005 over an agricultural area in Spain. The data collected in both campaigns allowed for the first time the development and testing of algorithms for …
Thermal remote sensing in the framework of the SEN2FLEX project: field measurements, airborne data and applications
A description of thermal radiometric field measurements carried out in the framework of the European project SENtinel-2 and Fluorescence Experiment (SEN2FLEX) is presented. The field campaign was developed in the region of Barrax (Spain) during June and July 2005. The purpose of the thermal measurements was to retrieve biogeophysical parameters such as land surface emissivity (LSE) and temperature (LST) to validate airborne-based methodologies and to characterize different surfaces. Thermal measurements were carried out using two multiband field radiometers and several broadband field radiometers, pointing at different targets. High-resolution images acquired with the Airborne Hyperspectral…
Evaluation of the DART 3D model in the thermal domain using satellite/airborne imagery and ground-based measurements
This work provides an evaluation of the discrete anisotropy radiative transfer (DART) three-dimensional (3D) model in assessing the simulation of directional brightness temperatures (Tb) at both sensor and surface levels. Satellite imagery acquired with the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER), airborne imagery acquired with the Airborne Hyperspectral Scanner (AHS) sensor and ground-based measurements collected over an agricultural area were used to evaluate the DART model at nadir views. Directional radiometric temperatures measured with a goniometric system at ground level were also used to evaluate modelling results at different view angles. The DART mod…
Examining the Effects of Dust Aerosols on Satellite Sea Surface Temperatures in the Mediterranean Sea Using the Medspiration Matchup Database
Abstract Dust aerosol plumes from the Sahara cover the Mediterranean Sea regularly during the summer months (June–August) and occasionally during other seasons. Dust can absorb infrared longwave radiation, thus causing a drop in sea surface temperature (SST) retrievals from satellite. To quantify the magnitude of this absorption and to understand the sources of the biases that might be introduced when trying to validate SST algorithms with in situ bulk temperatures, the effects of the dust absorption are studied using the Medspiration Match-up Database. This database provides in situ and satellite SSTs derived from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and the Advanced Along-…
Global Atmospheric Profiles from Reanalysis Information (GAPRI): a new database for earth surface temperature retrieval
This paper presents the Global Atmospheric Profiles derived from Reanalysis Information GAPRI database, which was designed for earth surface temperature retrieval. GAPRI is a comprehensive compilation of selected atmospheric vertical profiles at global scale which can be used for radiative transfer simulation in order to obtain generalized algorithms to estimate land surface temperature LST. GAPRI includes information on geopotential height, atmospheric pressure, air temperature, and relative humidity derived from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Re-Analysis data from year 2011. The atmospheric profiles are structured for 29 vertical levels and extracted from a global …
Soil emissivity and reflectance spectra measurements
We present an analysis of the laboratory reflectance and emissivity spectra of 11 soil samples collected on different field campaigns carried out over a diverse suite of test sites in Europe, North Africa, and South America from 2002 to 2008. Hemispherical reflectance spectra were measured from 2.0 to 14 microm with a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer, and x-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) was used to determine the mineralogical phases of the soil samples. Emissivity spectra were obtained from the hemispherical reflectance measurements using Kirchhoff's law and compared with in situ radiance measurements obtained with a CIMEL Electronique CE312-2 thermal radiometer and converted to emi…
Emissivity mapping over urban areas using a classification-based approach: Application to the Dual-use European Security IR Experiment (DESIREX)
Abstract In this work a methodology to provide an emissivity map of an urban area is presented. The methodology is applied to the city of Madrid (Spain) using data provided by the Airborne Hyperspectral Scanner (AHS) in 2008. From the data a classification map with twelve different urban materials was created. Each material was then characterized by a different emissivity, whose values were obtained from the application of the TES algorithm to in situ measurements and values extracted from the ASTER spectral library. This new emissivity map could be used as a basis for determining the temperature of the city and to understand the urban heat island effect in terms of spatial distribution and…
Mapping sub-pixel burnt percentage using AVHRR data. Application to the Alcalaten area in Spain
The purpose of this work is to estimate at sub-pixel scale the percentage of burnt land using the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer AVHRR through a simple approach. This methodology is based on multi-temporal spectral mixture analysis MSMA, which uses a normalized difference vegetation index NDVI and a land-surface temperature LST image as input bands. The area of study is located in the Alcalaten region in Castellon Spain, a typical semi-arid Mediterranean region. The results have shown an extension of approximately 55 km2 affected by fire, which is only 5% lower than the statistic reports provided by the Environmental Ministry of Spain. Finally, we include a map of the area showing…
Digital thermal monitoring of the Amazon forest: an intercomparison of satellite and reanalysis products
Remote sensing and climate digital products have become increasingly available in recent years. Access to these products has favored a variety of Digital Earth studies, such as the analysis of the impact of global warming over different biomes. The study of the Amazon forest response to drought has recently received particular attention from the scientific community due to the occurrence of extreme droughts and anomalous warming over the last decade. This paper focuses on the differences observed between surface thermal anomalies obtained from remote sensing moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) and climatic (ERA-Interim) monthly products over the Amazon forest. With a few e…
Fluorescence estimation in the framework of the CEFLES2 campaign
International audience; Chlorophyll fluorescence (ChF) is a relevant indicator of the actual plant physiological status. In this article different methods to measure ChF from remote sensing are evaluated: The Fraunhofer Line Discrimination (FLD), theFluorescence Radiative Method (FRM) and the improved Fraunhofer Line Discrimination (iFLD). The three methods have been applied to data acquired in the framework of the CarboEurope, FLEX and Sentinel-2 (CEFLES2) campaign in Les Landes, France in September 2007. Comparing with in situ measurements, the results indicate that the methods that provide the best results are the FLD and the iFLD with root mean square errors (RMSEs) of 0.4 and 0.5 mW m-…
Land Surface Temperature Retrieval Methods From Landsat-8 Thermal Infrared Sensor Data
The importance of land surface temperature (LST) retrieved from high to medium spatial resolution remote sensing data for many environmental studies, particularly the applications related to water resources management over agricultural sites, was a key factor for the final decision of including a thermal infrared (TIR) instrument on board the Landsat Data Continuity Mission or Landsat-8. This new TIR sensor (TIRS) includes two TIR bands in the atmospheric window between 10 and 12 $\mu\hbox{m}$ , thus allowing the application of split-window (SW) algorithms in addition to single-channel (SC) algorithms or direct inversions of the radiative transfer equation used in previous sensors on board …
Evaluation of Terra/MODIS atmospheric profiles product (MOD07) over the Iberian Peninsula: a comparison with radiosonde stations
Remote sensing techniques are a useful tool for continuous observation of the Earth at global scale. However, products derived from remote sensing data require a rigorous validation using in situ data. Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is not really a sounding instrument, but it does have 16 infrared bands (bands 20–36 covering the spectral range from 3 µm to 14 µm) that allow the retrieval of temperature and moisture profiles as well as total column integrated magnitudes. In this paper we show the results obtained in the evaluation of MOD07 daytime and nighttime products over the Iberian Peninsula during the decade from 2000 to 2010 using nine radiosonde stations. Altho…
Record-breaking warming and extreme drought in the Amazon rainforest during the course of El Niño 2015–2016
AbstractThe El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is the main driver of interannual climate extremes in Amazonia and other tropical regions. The current 2015/2016 EN event was expected to be as strong as the EN of the century in 1997/98, with extreme heat and drought over most of Amazonian rainforests. Here we show that this protracted EN event, combined with the regional warming trend, was associated with unprecedented warming and a larger extent of extreme drought in Amazonia compared to the earlier strong EN events in 1982/83 and 1997/98. Typical EN-like drought conditions were observed only in eastern Amazonia, whilst in western Amazonia there was an unusual wetting. We attribute this wet…
Soil Moisture Retrieved From a Combined Optical and Passive Microwave Approach
Abstract With the current remote sensing technology developments, and in particular those at L-band (1.2–1.4 GHz) frequencies such as the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity and the Soil Moisture Active and Passive missions, new approaches concerning passive microwave and its combination with existing optical technologies have become of special interest for the estimation of surface soil moisture. One of these new approaches is the combination of optical and passive microwave data based on a semiempirical approach derived from the general radiative transfer equation. The objective of this chapter is to present some applications of the combined optical-passive microwave approaches over several …
Near-Real-Time Estimation of Water Vapor Column From MSG-SEVIRI Thermal Infrared Bands: Implications for Land Surface Temperature Retrieval
The Meteosat Second Generation-Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (MSG-SEVIRI) instrument provides observations of half the globe every 15 min, at low spatial resolution. These data are an invaluable tool to observe daily to yearly cycle of land surface temperature (LST), as well as for various early warning systems. However, advanced algorithms for LST estimation requires a previous estimation of the water vapor (WV) column above the observed pixel, for which no instantaneous retrieval methods are yet available, and therefore hinders their implementation in a near-real-time processing chain for MSG-SEVIRI data. This work analyzes three different formulations for such WV retrieva…
Supplementary Figures from Spatio-temporal patterns of thermal anomalies and drought over tropical forests driven by recent extreme climatic anomalies
The recent 2015–2016 El Niño (EN) event was considered as strong as the EN in 1997–1998. Given such magnitude, it was expected to result in extreme warming and moisture anomalies in the tropical land. Here we characterize the spatial patterns of temperature anomalies and drought over tropical forests, including tropical South America (Amazonia), Africa and Asia/Indonesia during the 2015–2016 EN event. These spatial patterns of warming and drought are compared with those observed in previous strong EN events (1982–1983 and 1997–1998) and other moderate to strong EN events (e.g. 2005–05 and 2009–10). The link between the spatial patterns of drought and sea surface temperature anomalies in the…
Recent trends in solar exergy and net radiation at global scale
Abstract The availability during the last decades of remotely sensed images and global climatic data allow us to analyse the “Earth system” as a whole in order to develop concepts for global environmental management. This system can be considered a complex, dissipative, dynamic entity, far from thermodynamic equilibrium ( Schellnhuber, 1999 ). Energy balance has been considered for many decades to understand the functioning of ecosystems, the biosphere or the Earth planet as a whole, but it is also possible to study our planet from a thermodynamic point of view. In this letter we analyse recent trends in solar exergy and net radiation at global scale during the period 1980–2010, distinguish…
Spatio-temporal patterns of thermal anomalies and drought over tropical forests driven by recent extreme climatic anomalies
The recent 2015–2016 El Niño (EN) event was considered as strong as the EN in 1997–1998. Given such magnitude, it was expected to result in extreme warming and moisture anomalies in tropical areas. Here we characterize the spatial patterns of temperature anomalies and drought over tropical forests, including tropical South America (Amazonia), Africa and Asia/Indonesia during the 2015–2016 EN event. These spatial patterns of warming and drought are compared with those observed in previous strong EN events (1982–1983 and 1997–1998) and other moderate to strong EN events (e.g. 2004–2005 and 2009–2010). The link between the spatial patterns of drought and sea surface temperature anomalies in th…