Search results for " sensing"
showing 10 items of 1517 documents
Vegetation index retrieval by coupling optical and SAR images
2012
Monitoring spatial and temporal variability of Vegetation Indices (VIs) is important to manage land and water resources, with significant impact on the sustainability of modern agriculture Although algorithms based on optical data give accurate products, cloud cover dramatically reduces the temporal resolution of these outputs. The launch of new Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) constellations such as COSMO-Skymed opened new opportunities to develop agro-hydrological applications. Indeed, these satellites may represent a suitable source of data for operational applications due to their high spatial and temporal resolutions (10 m in StripMap PingPong acquisition mode, best revisit time with 4 s…
Investigating the Relationship between X-Band SAR Data from COSMO-SkyMed Satellite and NDVI for LAI Detection
2013
Monitoring spatial and temporal variability of vegetation is important to manage land and water resources, with significant impact on the sustainability of modern agriculture. Cloud cover noticeably reduces the temporal resolution of retrievals based on optical data. COSMO-SkyMed (the new Italian Synthetic Aperture RADAR-SAR) opened new opportunities to develop agro-hydrological applications. Indeed, it represents a valuable source of data for operational use, due to the high spatial and temporal resolutions. Although X-band is not the most suitable to model agricultural and hydrological processes, an assessment of vegetation development can be achieved combing optical vegetation indices (V…
A RADARSAT-2 Quad-Polarized Time Series for Monitoring Crop and Soil Conditions in Barrax, Spain
2012
An analysis of the sensitivity of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) backscatter (σo) to crop and soil conditions was conducted using 57 RADARSAT-2 C-band quad-polarized SAR images acquired from April to September 2009 for large fields of wheat, barley, oat, corn, onion, and alfalfa in Barrax, Spain. Preliminary results showed that the cross-polarized σHVo was particularly useful for monitoring both crop and soil conditions and was the least sensitive to differences in beam incidence angle. The greatest separability of barley, corn, and onion occurred in spring after the barley had been harvested or in the narrow time window associated with grain crop heading when corn and onion were still imma…
Time series of Cosmo-SkyMed data for landcover classification and surface parameter retrieval over agricultural sites
2012
This paper reports on the results of an Italian project aimed at investigating the use of X-band COSMO-SkyMed (CSK) SAR data for applications in agriculture and hydrology. Existing classification and retrieval algorithms have been tailored to CSK data and time series of crop, leaf area index and soil moisture maps have been retrieved and assessed through the comparison with in situ data collected over three agricultural sites. In addition, the CSK-derived surface parameters have been integrated into crop growth and hydrologic models and the resulting improvements have been assessed. Results indicate that multi-temporal dual-polarized CSK data are very well-suited for agricultural crop class…
Power sensitivity analysis of multi-frequency, multi-polarized, multi-temporal SAR data for soil-vegetation system variables characterization
2017
Abstract: The knowledge of spatial and temporal variability of soil water content and others soil-vegetation variables (leaf area index, fractional cover) assumes high importance in crop management. Where and when the cloudiness limits the use of optical and thermal remote sensing techniques, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery has proven to have several advantages (cloud penetration, day/night acquisitions and high spatial resolution). However, measured backscattering is controlled by several factors including SAR configuration (acquisition geometry, frequency and polarization), and target dielectric and geometric properties. Thus, uncertainties arise about the more suitable configurati…
Monitoring Water Surface and Level of a Reservoir Using Different Remote Sensing Approaches and Comparison with Dam Displacements Evaluated via GNSS
2018
Remote sensing allowed monitoring the reservoir water level by estimating its surface extension. Surface extension has been estimated using different approaches, employing both optical (Landsat 5 TM, Landsat 7 ETM+ SLC-Off, Landsat 8 OLI-TIRS and ASTER images) and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images (Cosmo SkyMed and TerraSAR-X). Images were characterized by different acquisition modes, geometric and spectral resolutions, allowing the evaluation of alternative and/or complementary techniques. For each kind of image, two techniques have been tested: The first based on an unsupervised classification and suitable to automate the process, the second based on visual matching with contour lines…
FLEX: ESA's Earth Explorer 8 candidate mission
2012
In this paper we present the scientific objectives of the FLEX mission and the underlying rationale. It sketches the basic ideas of the new measurement concept, which is making use of the tandem configuration of FLEX with GMES/Sentinel-3, and outlines the most important instrument and system requirements. We will describe the envisaged instrument configuration that is in line with the measurement objectives, and which is supported by the latest results of the scientific investigations.
Evaluation of the MOD16A2 evapotranspiration product in an agricultural area of Argentina, the Pampas region
2021
The Pampas Region is a big plain of approximately 520,000 km2 in Argentina. It is essential to estimate evapotranspiration (ET) in this region since the primary productivity is directly linked to water availability. Information provided by satellite missions allows monitoring the spatial and temporal variability of ET. In the current study, we evaluated the version 006 of MOD16A2 product (MOD16A2.006) of Potential Evapotranspiration (ETp) and Actual Evapotranspiration (ETa) in Argentinian Pampas Region (APR). MOD16A2.006 product was compared with Crop Evapotranspiration (ETc), calculated with local measurements from the Oficina de Riesgo Agropecuario (ORA), and Crop Coefficient (Kc) data (f…
Emissivity errors in the vegetation cover method caused by the lack of atmospheric correction
2008
The influence of the lack of atmospheric correction of the optical images used to calculate land surface emissivity (LSE) was assessed. When thermal emissivity is determined by the vegetation cover method (VCM), information from the solar spectrum is required to calculate the vegetation cover fraction. The atmospheric correction was obtained in this study by using a combination of the dark dense vegetation (DDV) method and the Second Simulation of the Satellite Signal in the Solar Spectrum (6S) code. The methodology was applied to a Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) image of Tomelloso, Spain. We determined that the emissivity between 10 and 12 µm only increases by 0.4% (which represents a system…
Direct assessment of the sensitivity drift of SQM sensors installed outdoors
2021
Long-term monitoring of the evolution of the artificial night sky brightness is a key tool for developing science-informed public policies and assessing the efficacy of light pollution mitigation measures. Detecting the underlying artificial brightness trend is a challenging task, since the typical night sky brightness signal shows a large variability with characteristic time scales ranging from seconds to years. In order to effectively isolate the weak signature of the effect of interest, determining the potential long term drifts of the radiance sensing systems is crucial. If these drifts can be adequately characterized, the raw measurements could be easily corrected for them and transfor…