Search results for "021101 geological & geomatics engineering"
showing 10 items of 476 documents
Introducing libeemd: a program package for performing the ensemble empirical mode decomposition
2016
The ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) and its complete variant (CEEMDAN) are adaptive, noise-assisted data analysis methods that improve on the ordinary empirical mode decomposition (EMD). All these methods decompose possibly nonlinear and/or nonstationary time series data into a finite amount of components separated by instantaneous frequencies. This decomposition provides a powerful method to look into the different processes behind a given time series data, and provides a way to separate short time-scale events from a general trend. We present a free software implementation of EMD, EEMD and CEEMDAN and give an overview of the EMD methodology and the algorithms used in the deco…
Shear strength of a compacted scaly clay in variable saturation conditions
2015
Scaly clays are stiff and highly fissured clays often used as construction materials. This paper presents the results of triaxial compression tests carried out on saturated and unsaturated samples of a compacted scaly clay. Complementary investigation on the microstructural features and their evolution with the amount of water stored into the material are also presented in order to shed light on the evolution of the micro- and macroporosity with suction. The water retention behaviour of the compacted scaly clay is also addressed. The results from the controlled suction triaxial tests are used to discuss the applicability of a single-shear strength criterion to compacted double-structured cl…
Hydraulic Characterization of a Pervious Concrete for Deep Draining Trenches
2018
Reduction in pore water pressure is an useful strategy to improve the stability of slopes. Deep draining trenches can be used for this purpose. For the realization of deep trenches, the usual conventional construction techniques are not adequate and the use of adjacent vertical panels, built by means of the methods well-established for diaphragm walls, is necessary. However, unbonded materials (i.e., gravels) cannot be used, because the excavation of a panel adjacent to one already built will cause instability. For this scope a bonded material such as pervious concrete can be used. It must have high permeability; filtering capacity, in order to prevent internal erosion of the soil in which …
Anisotropic volumetric behaviour of Opalinus clay shale upon suction variation
2016
Opalinus clay shale is under consideration to serve as the host geomaterial for the underground storage of nuclear waste in Switzerland. Water retention behaviour and anisotropic behaviour represent two main features of this geomaterial; however, a comprehensive understanding of the interaction between these two features is still lacking. This paper aims to provide a detailed experimental analysis of the coupling between the water retention capacity and the anisotropic behaviour of two facies (shaly and sandy) of the Opalinus clay shale. The response of the tested geomaterials is characterised by an unequal swelling and shrinkage response in directions parallel and perpendicular to the bed…
The Role of Anisotropy on the Volumetric Behaviour of Opalinus Clay upon Suction Change
2017
An experimental investigation to analyse the anisotropic volumetric response of shaly and sandy facies of Opalinus Clay upon suction variations is presented. Obtained results demonstrate the different behaviour of the tested facies to a wetting-drying cycle. The shaly facies exhibits higher water retention capacity and stronger volumetric response than the sandy facies. Anisotropic response is experienced by both facies with the strain perpendicular to bedding higher than in the parallel direction. The sandy facies exhibits a more pronounced anisotropic behaviour in particular during the drying phase. A detailed analysis of the response in the two directions with respect to the bedding orie…
Estimating the difference between brightness and surface temperatures for a vegetal canopy
1995
Abstract The difference between the surface temperature T S and the brightness temperature T b , which can be measured with a thermal infrared radiometer, has been calculated for different surface emissivity values and different atmospheric conditions. These calculations show that T s − T b is often significant even for high surface emissivities and that the spectral band in which the measurements are performed is a key factor in the interpretation of T s − T b . In particular, it is not a simple matter to use the characterisation of the whole spectrum atmospheric radiation to derive T s from T b when the measurements are performed in the 8–14 μm atmospheric window.
Deep Gaussian Processes for Geophysical Parameter Retrieval
2018
This paper introduces deep Gaussian processes (DGPs) for geophysical parameter retrieval. Unlike the standard full GP model, the DGP accounts for complicated (modular, hierarchical) processes, provides an efficient solution that scales well to large datasets, and improves prediction accuracy over standard full and sparse GP models. We give empirical evidence of performance for estimation of surface dew point temperature from infrared sounding data.
Europe's offshore winds assessed with synthetic aperture radar, ASCAT and WRF
2020
Europe's offshore wind resource mapping is part of the New European Wind Atlas (NEWA) international consortium effort. This study presents the results of analysis of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) ocean wind maps based on Envisat and Sentinel-1 with a brief description of the wind retrieval process and Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) ocean wind maps. The wind statistics at 10 and 100 m above mean sea level (a.m.s.l.) height using an extrapolation procedure involving simulated long-term stability over oceans are presented for both SAR and ASCAT. Furthermore, the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) offshore wind atlas of NEWA is presented. This has 3 km grid spacing with data …
Relationship between vegetation microwave optical depth and cross-polarized backscatter from multiyear Aquarius observations
2017
Soil moisture retrieval algorithms based on passive microwave remote sensing observations need to account for vegetation attenuation and emission, which is generally parameterized as vegetation optical depth (VOD). This multisensor study tests a new method to retrieve VOD from cross-polarized radar backscattering coefficients. Three years of Aquarius/SAC-D data were used to establish a relationship between the cross-polarized backscattering coefficient σ HV and VOD derived from a multitemporal passive dual-channel algorithm (VODMT). The dependence of the correspondence is analyzed for different land use classes. There are no systematic differences in the slope for woody versus nonwoody vege…
Surface Soil Moisture Retrieval Using the L-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar Onboard the Soil Moisture Active–Passive Satellite and Evaluation at Core V…
2017
This paper evaluates the retrieval of soil moisture in the top 5-cm layer at 3-km spatial resolution using L-band dual-copolarized Soil Moisture Active–Passive (SMAP) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data that mapped the globe every three days from mid-April to early July, 2015. Surface soil moisture retrievals using radar observations have been challenging in the past due to complicating factors of surface roughness and vegetation scattering. Here, physically based forward models of radar scattering for individual vegetation types are inverted using a time-series approach to retrieve soil moisture while correcting for the effects of static roughness and dynamic vegetation. Compared with the …