Search results for "Remote sensing"
showing 10 items of 1262 documents
A innovative semi-immergible USV (SI-USV) drone for marine and lakes operations with instrumental telemetry and acoustic data acquisition capability
2015
The proposed project shows the results obtained in the implementation and testing in lacustrine and marine environment of a nautical remote controlled vehicle with surface navigation and innovative features Semi-Immersible (SI-USV). This vehicle is based on a pending patent belonging to Palermo University (Patent Pending RM2012A000209 and RM2012A000209) concerning innovative semi-immersible vehicles (SI-Drone), that can be remotely controlled from the ground, air, satellite and sea also during the semi-immersible operation. The vehicle with electric power is coupled with a jet propulsion, given the low draft, makes it possible to navigate in shallow waters or coastal shipping or sandbars. T…
Design of a sun tracker for the automatic measurement of spectral irradiance and construction of an irradiance database in the 330-1100 nm range
2007
Abstract An automatic global and direct solar spectral irradiance system has been designed based on two LICOR spectroradiometers equipped with fibre optics and remote cosine sensors. To measure direct irradiance a sun tracker based on step motors has been developed. The whole system is autonomous and works continuously. From the measurements provided by this system a spectral irradiance database in the 330–1100 nm range has been created. This database contains normal direct and global horizontal irradiances as well as diffuse irradiance on a horizontal plane, together with total atmospheric optical thickness and aerosol optical depth.
Spectral optical layer properties of cirrus from collocated airborne measurements – a feasibility study
2015
Abstract. Spectral optical layer properties of cirrus are derived from simultaneous and vertically collocated measurements of spectral upward and downward solar irradiance above and below the cloud layer and concurrent in situ microphysical sampling. From the irradiance data spectral transmissivity, absorptivity, reflectivity, and cloud top albedo of the observed cirrus layer are obtained. At the same time microphysical properties of the cirrus were sampled. The close collocation of the radiative and microphysical measurements, above, beneath and inside the cirrus, is obtained by using a research aircraft (Learjet 35A) in tandem with a towed platform called AIRTOSS (AIRcraft TOwed Sensor Sh…
AMADEUS-The acoustic neutrino detection test system of the ANTARES deep-sea neutrino telescope
2011
The AMADEUS (ANTARES Modules for the Acoustic Detection Under the Sea) system which is described in this article aims at the investigation of techniques for acoustic detection of neutrinos in the deep sea. It is integrated into the ANTARES neutrino telescope in the Mediterranean Sea. Its acoustic sensors, installed at water depths between 2050 and 2300 m, employ piezo-electric elements for the broad-band recording of signals with frequencies ranging up to 125 kHz. The typical sensitivity of the sensors is around - 145 dB re 1 V/mu Pa (including preamplifier). Completed in May 2008, AMADEUS consists of six "acoustic clusters", each comprising six acoustic sensors that are arranged at distanc…
Scene-based spectral calibration assessment of high spectral resolution imaging spectrometers
2009
An accurate knowledge of the spectral calibration of imaging spectrometers is required for optimum data processing and interpretation. The scene-based spectral characterization of imaging spectrometers is frequently necessary to update or replace the pre-flight laboratory-based spectral characterization supplied by the data provider. An automatic method for the estimation of spectral calibration parameters (channel position and bandwidth) at atmospheric absorption regions from high spectral resolution imaging spectrometers (spectral sampling interval below 5 nm) is presented in this contribution. The method has been tested on two commercial instruments with spectral sampling intervals below…
Fluorescence explorer (FLEX): An optimised payload to map vegetation photosynthesis from space
2006
The FLuorescence EXplorer (FLEX) mission proposes to launch a satellite for the global monitoring of steady-state chlorophyll fluorescence in terrestrial vegetation. Fluorescence is a sensitive probe of photosynthetic function in both healthy and physiologically perturbed vegetation, and a powerful non-invasive tool to track the status, resilience, and recovery of photochemical processes and moreover provides important information on overall photosynthetic performance with implications for related carbon sequestration. The early responsiveness of fluorescence to atmospheric, soil and plant water balance, as well as to atmospheric chemistry and human intervention in land usage makes it an ob…
Sprectroradiometric characteristics of inland water bodies infestated by Oscillatoria rubescens algae
2010
In December 2006 blooms of Oscillatoria rubescens were found in the reservoir Prizzi in Sicily. Oscillatoria is a genus of filamentous alga comprising approximately 6 species, between these the O. rubescens is sadly famous since this organism produces microcystins which are powerful hepatotoxins. Firstly found in Europe in 1825 on Geneva lake, recently (2006) those algae has been find out in Pozzillo, Nicoletti e Ancipa reservoirs (Enna Province), as well as in Prizzi (Palermo Province) and Garcia reservoirs (Trapani Province). Toxins produced by those bacteria (usually called microcystine LR-1 and LR-2) are highly toxic since they can activate oncogenes cells causing cancer pathologies on …
Measurements of total ozone amount over Badajoz (Southwestern Spain) by means of a GUV multiband radiometer
2012
This paper presents the first measurements of total ozone amount performed at the radiometric station of Badajoz (Spain) by means of a multichannel radiometer GUV-2511. The retrieval of total ozone amount from GUV measurements of solar ultraviolet irradiance is performed with the support of look-up tables calculated using the SBDART radiation transfer code. This methodology is based on the different absorption by ozone suffered by the radiation at two certain near wavelengths. In this case the pair 305, 340 nm was chosen because of its better performance than the pair 305, 320 nm. The look-up table contains the ratio between irradiances at the mentioned wavelengths calculated under differen…
Assessing Non-Photosynthetic Cropland Biomass from Spaceborne Hyperspectral Imagery
2021
Non-photosynthetic vegetation (NPV) biomass has been identified as a priority variable for upcoming spaceborne imaging spectroscopy missions, calling for a quantitative estimation of lignocellulosic plant material as opposed to the sole indication of surface coverage. Therefore, we propose a hybrid model for the retrieval of non-photosynthetic cropland biomass. The workflow included coupling the leaf optical model PROSPECT-PRO with the canopy reflectance model 4SAIL, which allowed us to simulate NPV biomass from carbon-based constituents (CBC) and leaf area index (LAI). PROSAIL-PRO provided a training database for a Gaussian process regression (GPR) algorithm, simulating a wide range of non…
Multiple Cost Functions and Regularization Options for Improved Retrieval of Leaf Chlorophyll Content and LAI through Inversion of the PROSAIL Model
2013
Abstract: Lookup-table (LUT)-based radiative transfer model inversion is considered a physically-sound and robust method to retrieve biophysical parameters from Earth observation data but regularization strategies are needed to mitigate the drawback of ill-posedness. We systematically evaluated various regularization options to improve leaf chlorophyll content (LCC) and leaf area index (LAI) retrievals over agricultural lands, including the role of (1) cost functions (CFs); (2) added noise; and (3) multiple solutions in LUT-based inversion. Three families of CFs were compared: information measures, M-estimates and minimum contrast methods. We have only selected CFs without additional parame…