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Remote Sens., Volume 11, Issue 3 (February-1 2019) – 158 articles

Cover Story (view full-size image): The Stepped Frequency Microwave Radiometer (SFMR) is an important scientific instrument for assessing the intensity of tropical cyclones. NOAA and U.S. Air Force Reserve airplanes are deployed with SFMRs into tropical cyclones in the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific basins and report ocean-surface wind-speed and column-integrated rain-rate retrievals from the instrument to the National Hurricane Center. SFMR measurements are some of the only high-wind measurements available to the research community for validation of other sensors, so ensuring their high quality is of significant importance for the scientific community and emergency management officials. This paper presents the development of an improved wind-speed retrieval algorithm in the tropical cyclone environment while minimizing changes to rain-rate retrievals. View this paper.
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16 pages, 3294 KiB  
Article
Addressing Challenges for Mapping Irrigated Fields in Subhumid Temperate Regions by Integrating Remote Sensing and Hydroclimatic Data
by Tianfang Xu, Jillian M. Deines, Anthony D. Kendall, Bruno Basso and David W. Hyndman
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(3), 370; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030370 - 12 Feb 2019
Cited by 25 | Viewed by 4782
Abstract
High-resolution mapping of irrigated fields is needed to better estimate water and nutrient fluxes in the landscape, food production, and local to regional climate. However, this remains a challenge in humid to subhumid regions, where irrigation has been expanding into what was largely [...] Read more.
High-resolution mapping of irrigated fields is needed to better estimate water and nutrient fluxes in the landscape, food production, and local to regional climate. However, this remains a challenge in humid to subhumid regions, where irrigation has been expanding into what was largely rainfed agriculture due to trends in climate, crop prices, technologies and practices. One such region is southwestern Michigan, USA, where groundwater is the main source of irrigation water for row crops (primarily corn and soybeans). Remote sensing of irrigated areas can be difficult in these regions as rainfed areas have similar characteristics. We present methods to address this challenge and enhance the contrast between neighboring rainfed and irrigated areas, including weather-sensitive scene selection, applying recently developed composite indices and calculating spatial anomalies. We create annual, 30m-resolution maps of irrigated corn and soybeans for southwestern Michigan from 2001 to 2016 using a machine learning method (random forest). The irrigation maps reasonably capture the spatial and temporal pattern of irrigation, with accuracies that exceed available products. Analysis of the irrigation maps showed that the irrigated area in southwestern Michigan tripled in the last 16 years. We also discuss the remaining challenges for irrigation mapping in humid to subhumid areas. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remote Sensing of the Terrestrial Hydrologic Cycle)
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13 pages, 5382 KiB  
Article
Long-Term Satellite Monitoring of the Slumgullion Landslide Using Space-Borne Synthetic Aperture Radar Sub-Pixel Offset Tracking
by Donato Amitrano, Raffaella Guida, Domenico Dell’Aglio, Gerardo Di Martino, Diego Di Martire, Antonio Iodice, Mario Costantini, Fabio Malvarosa and Federico Minati
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(3), 369; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030369 - 12 Feb 2019
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 4335
Abstract
Kinematic characterization of a landslide at large, small, and detailed scale is today still rare and challenging, especially for long periods, due to the difficulty in implementing demanding ground surveys with adequate spatiotemporal coverage. In this work, the suitability of space-borne synthetic aperture [...] Read more.
Kinematic characterization of a landslide at large, small, and detailed scale is today still rare and challenging, especially for long periods, due to the difficulty in implementing demanding ground surveys with adequate spatiotemporal coverage. In this work, the suitability of space-borne synthetic aperture radar sub-pixel offset tracking for the long-term monitoring of the Slumgullion landslide in Colorado (US) is investigated. This landslide is classified as a debris slide and has so far been monitored through ground surveys and, more recently, airborne remote sensing, while satellite images are scarcely exploited. The peculiarity of this landslide is that it is subject to displacements of several meters per year. Therefore, it cannot be monitored with traditional synthetic aperture radar differential interferometry, as this technique has limitations related to the loss of interferometric coherence and to the maximum observable displacement gradient/rate. In order to overcome these limitations, space-borne synthetic aperture radar sub-pixel offset tracking is applied to pairs of images acquired with a time span of one year between August 2011 and August 2013. The obtained results are compared with those available in the literature, both at landslide scale, retrieved through field surveys, and at point scale, using airborne synthetic aperture radar imaging and GPS. The comparison showed full congruence with the past literature. A consistency check covering the full observation period is also implemented to confirm the reliability of the technique, which results in a cheap and effective methodology for the long-term monitoring of large landslide-induced movements. Full article
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21 pages, 4484 KiB  
Article
Use of SMAP Soil Moisture and Fitting Methods in Improving GPM Estimation in Near Real Time
by Zhi Zhang, Dagang Wang, Guiling Wang, Jianxiu Qiu and Weilin Liao
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(3), 368; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030368 - 12 Feb 2019
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 5182
Abstract
Satellite-based precipitation products have been widely used in a variety of fields. However, near real time products still contain substantial biases compared with the ground data. Recent studies showed that surface soil moisture can be utilized in improving rainfall estimation as it reflects [...] Read more.
Satellite-based precipitation products have been widely used in a variety of fields. However, near real time products still contain substantial biases compared with the ground data. Recent studies showed that surface soil moisture can be utilized in improving rainfall estimation as it reflects recent precipitation. In this study, soil moisture data from Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite and observation-based fitting are used to correct near real time satellite-based precipitation product Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) in mainland China. The particle filter is adopted to assimilate the SMAP soil moisture into a simple hydrological model, the antecedent precipitation index (API) model; three fitting methods—i.e., linear, nonlinear, and cumulative distribution function (CDF) fitting corrections—both separately and in combination with the SMAP soil moisture data, are then used to correct GPM. The results show that the soil moisture-based correction significantly reduces the root mean square error (RMSE) and mean absolute errors (BIAS) of the original GPM product in most areas of China. The median RMSE value for daily precipitation over China is decreased by approximately 18% from 5.25 mm/day for the GPM estimates to 4.32 mm/day for the soil moisture corrected estimates, and the median BIAS value is decreased by approximately 13% from 2.03 mm/day to 1.76 mm/day. The fitting correction method alone also improves GPM, although to a lesser extent. The best performance is found when the SMAP soil moisture assimilation is combined with the linear fitting of observed precipitation, with a median RMSE of 4.00 mm/day and a BIAS of 1.69 mm/day. Despite significant reductions to the biases of the satellite precipitation product, none of these methods is effective in improving the correlation between the satellite product and observational reference. Leaf area index and the frequency of the SMAP overpasses are among the potential factors influencing the correction effect. This study highlights that combining soil moisture and historical precipitation information can effectively improve satellite-based precipitation products in near real time. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Remote Sensing in Geology, Geomorphology and Hydrology)
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17 pages, 10036 KiB  
Article
Mapping the Mangrove Forest Canopy Using Spectral Unmixing of Very High Spatial Resolution Satellite Images
by Florent Taureau, Marc Robin, Christophe Proisy, François Fromard, Daniel Imbert and Françoise Debaine
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(3), 367; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030367 - 12 Feb 2019
Cited by 26 | Viewed by 8078
Abstract
Despite the low tree diversity and scarcity of the understory vegetation, the high morphological plasticity of mangrove trees induces, at the stand level, a very large variability of forest structures that need to be mapped for assessing the functioning of such complex ecosystems. [...] Read more.
Despite the low tree diversity and scarcity of the understory vegetation, the high morphological plasticity of mangrove trees induces, at the stand level, a very large variability of forest structures that need to be mapped for assessing the functioning of such complex ecosystems. Fully constrained linear spectral unmixing (FCLSU) of very high spatial resolution (VHSR) multispectral images was tested to fine-scale map mangrove zonations in terms of horizontal variation of forest structure. The study was carried out on three Pleiades-1A satellite images covering French island territories located in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans, namely Guadeloupe, Mayotte, and New Caledonia archipelagos. In each image, FCLSU was trained from the delineation of areas exclusively related to four components including either pure vegetation, soil (ferns included), water, or shadows. It was then applied to the whole mangrove cover imaged for each island and yielded the respective contributions of those four components for each image pixel. On the forest stand scale, the results interestingly indicated a close correlation between FCLSU-derived vegetation fractions and canopy closure estimated from hemispherical photographs (R2 = 0.95) and a weak relation with the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (R2 = 0.29). Classification of these fractions also offered the opportunity to detect and map horizontal patterns of mangrove structure in a given site. K-means classifications of fraction indeed showed a global view of mangrove structure organization in the three sites, complementary to the outputs obtained from spectral data analysis. Our findings suggest that the pixel intensity decomposition applied to VHSR multispectral satellite images can be a simple but valuable approach for (i) mangrove canopy monitoring and (ii) mangrove forest structure analysis in the perspective of assessing mangrove dynamics and productivity. As with Lidar-based surveys, these potential new mapping capabilities deserve further physically based interpretation of sunlight scattering mechanisms within forest canopy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remote Sensing of Mangroves)
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17 pages, 2221 KiB  
Article
Soil Moisture Retrieval Model for Remote Sensing Using Reflected Hyperspectral Information
by Jing Yuan, Xin Wang, Chang-xiang Yan, Shu-rong Wang, Xue-ping Ju and Yi Li
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(3), 366; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030366 - 12 Feb 2019
Cited by 39 | Viewed by 4872
Abstract
The variation and the spatial–temporal distribution of soil water content have significant effects on heat balance, agricultural moisture, etc. A soil moisture (SM) retrieval model can provide a theoretical basis for realizing a rapid test and revealing the spatial–temporal variation of the surface [...] Read more.
The variation and the spatial–temporal distribution of soil water content have significant effects on heat balance, agricultural moisture, etc. A soil moisture (SM) retrieval model can provide a theoretical basis for realizing a rapid test and revealing the spatial–temporal variation of the surface water. However, remote sensors do not measure soil water content directly. Therefore, it is of great importance to establish a SM retrieval model. In this paper, the relationship between SM and diffuse reflectance was first derived using the absorption coefficient and scattering coefficient related to SM. Then, based on Kubelka–Munk (KM) theory, the SM retrieval model using reflectance information was further derived, which is a semi-empirical model with an unknown parameter obtained either from fitting or from experimental measurements. The validity and reliability of the model were confirmed with the validation set. The results showed that the root mean square errors of prediction (RMSEPs) of four soils were generally less than 0.017, while the coefficients of determination (R2s) of four soils were generally more than 0.85, and the ratios of the performance to deviation (RPDs) of four soils were greater than 2.5 (470–2400 nm). Therefore, the model has high prediction accuracy, and can be well applied to the prediction of water content in different sorts of soils. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Spectroscopy in Agriculture and Vegetation Research)
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27 pages, 6577 KiB  
Article
An Application Oriented Scan-to-BIM Framework
by Qian Wang, Jingjing Guo and Min-Koo Kim
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(3), 365; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030365 - 12 Feb 2019
Cited by 77 | Viewed by 9728
Abstract
Building information modelling (BIM) has been adopted in the construction industry. The success of BIM implementation relies on the accurate building information stored in BIM models. However, building information in BIM models can be inaccurate, out-of-date, or missing in real-world projects. 3D laser [...] Read more.
Building information modelling (BIM) has been adopted in the construction industry. The success of BIM implementation relies on the accurate building information stored in BIM models. However, building information in BIM models can be inaccurate, out-of-date, or missing in real-world projects. 3D laser scanning has been leveraged to capture the accurate as-is conditions of buildings and create as-is BIM models of buildings; this is known as the scan-to-BIM process. Although industry practitioners and researchers have implemented and studied the scan-to-BIM process, there is no framework that systematically defines and discusses the key steps and considerations in the process. This study proposes an application-oriented framework for scan-to-BIM, which describes the four major steps of a scan-to-BIM process and their relationships. The framework is oriented towards the specific BIM application to be implemented using the created as-is BIM, and includes four steps: (1) identification of information requirements, (2) determination of required scan data quality, (3) scan data acquisition, and (4) as-is BIM reconstruction. Two illustrative examples are provided to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed scan-to-BIM framework. Furthermore, future research directions within the scan-to-BIM framework are suggested. Full article
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3 pages, 160 KiB  
Editorial
Ten Years of TerraSAR-X—Scientific Results
by Michael Eineder, Alberto Moreira and Achim Roth
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(3), 364; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030364 - 11 Feb 2019
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3162
Abstract
This special issue is a collection of papers addressing the scientific utilization of data acquired in the course of the TerraSAR-X mission. The articles deal with the mission itself, the accuracy of the products, with differential interferometry, and with applications in the domains [...] Read more.
This special issue is a collection of papers addressing the scientific utilization of data acquired in the course of the TerraSAR-X mission. The articles deal with the mission itself, the accuracy of the products, with differential interferometry, and with applications in the domains cryosphere, oceans, wetlands, and urban areas. This editorial summarizes the content. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ten Years of TerraSAR-X—Scientific Results)
28 pages, 21128 KiB  
Article
Theory and Statistical Description of the Enhanced Multi-Temporal InSAR (E-MTInSAR) Noise-Filtering Algorithm
by Antonio Pepe
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(3), 363; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030363 - 11 Feb 2019
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 3525
Abstract
In this work, the statistical fundaments of the recently proposed enhanced, multi-temporal interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) noise-filtering (E-MTInSAR) technique is addressed. The adopted noise-filtering algorithm is incorporated into the improved extended Minimum Cost Flow (EMCF) Small Baseline Subset (SBAS) differential interferometric SAR [...] Read more.
In this work, the statistical fundaments of the recently proposed enhanced, multi-temporal interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) noise-filtering (E-MTInSAR) technique is addressed. The adopted noise-filtering algorithm is incorporated into the improved extended Minimum Cost Flow (EMCF) Small Baseline Subset (SBAS) differential interferometric SAR (InSAR) processing chain, which has extensively been used for the generation of Earth’s surface displacement time-series in several different contexts. Originally, the input of the InSAR EMCF-SBAS processing toolbox consisted of a sequence of multi-looked, small baseline interferograms, which were unwrapped using the space-time EMCF phase unwrapping algorithm. Subsequently, the unwrapped interferograms were inverted through the SBAS algorithm to retrieve the expected InSAR deformation products. The improved processing chain has complemented the original codes with two additional steps. In particular, a new multi-temporal noise-filtering algorithm for sequences of time-redundant multi-looked DInSAR interferograms, followed by a proper interferogram selection step, has been proposed. This research study is aimed at primarily assessing the performance of the E-MTInSAR noise-filtering algorithm from a theoretical perspective. To this aim, the principles of directional statistics and errors propagation are exploited. Experimental results, carried out by applying the E-MTInSAR algorithm to a sequence of SAR data collected over the Los Angeles bay area, have been used to corroborate the academic outcome of this research. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Radar Imaging Theory, Techniques, and Applications)
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22 pages, 4535 KiB  
Article
Satellite Soil Moisture for Agricultural Drought Monitoring: Assessment of SMAP-Derived Soil Water Deficit Index in Xiang River Basin, China
by Qian Zhu, Yulin Luo, Yue-Ping Xu, Ye Tian and Tiantian Yang
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(3), 362; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030362 - 11 Feb 2019
Cited by 46 | Viewed by 7289
Abstract
Agricultural drought can have long-lasting and harmful impacts on both the ecosystem and economy. Therefore, it is important to monitor and predict agricultural drought accurately. Soil moisture is the key variable to define the agricultural drought index. However, in situ soil moisture observations [...] Read more.
Agricultural drought can have long-lasting and harmful impacts on both the ecosystem and economy. Therefore, it is important to monitor and predict agricultural drought accurately. Soil moisture is the key variable to define the agricultural drought index. However, in situ soil moisture observations are inaccessible in many areas of the world. Remote sensing techniques enrich the surface soil moisture observations at different tempo-spatial resolutions. In this study, the Level 2 L-band radiometer soil moisture dataset was used to estimate the Soil Water Deficit Index (SWDI). The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) dataset was evaluated with the soil moisture dataset obtained from the China Land Soil Moisture Data Assimilation System (CLSMDAS). The SMAP-derived SWDI (SMAP_SWDI) was compared with the atmospheric water deficit (AWD) calculated with precipitation and evapotranspiration from meteorological stations. Drought monitoring and comparison were accomplished at a weekly scale for the growing season (April to November) from 2015 to 2017. The results were as follows: (1) in terms of Pearson correlation coefficients (R-value) between SMAP and CLSMDAS, around 70% performed well and only 10% performed poorly at the grid scale, and the R-value was 0.62 for the whole basin; (2) severe droughts mainly occurred from mid-June to the end of September from 2015 to 2017; (3) severe droughts were detected in the southern and northeastern Xiang River Basin in mid-May of 2015, and in the northern basin in early August of 2016 and end of November 2017; (4) the values of percentage of drought weeks gradually decreased from 2015 to 2017, and increased from the northeast to the southwest of the basin in 2015 and 2016; and (5) the average value of R and probability of detection between SMAP_SWDI and AWD were 0.6 and 0.79, respectively. These results show SMAP has acceptable accuracy and good performance for drought monitoring in the Xiang River Basin. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microwave Remote Sensing for Hydrology)
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18 pages, 11011 KiB  
Article
Effects of Growth Stage Development on Paddy Rice Leaf Area Index Prediction Models
by Li Wang, Qingrui Chang, Fenling Li, Lin Yan, Yong Huang, Qi Wang and Lili Luo
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(3), 361; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030361 - 11 Feb 2019
Cited by 25 | Viewed by 4914
Abstract
A in situ hyperspectral dataset containing multiple growth stages over multiple growing seasons was used to build paddy rice leaf area index (LAI) estimation models with a special focus on the effects of paddy rice growth stage development. The univariate regression method applied [...] Read more.
A in situ hyperspectral dataset containing multiple growth stages over multiple growing seasons was used to build paddy rice leaf area index (LAI) estimation models with a special focus on the effects of paddy rice growth stage development. The univariate regression method applied to the vegetation index (VI), the traditional multivariate calibration method of partial least squares regression (PLSR), and modern machine learning methods such as support vector regression (SVR), random forests (RF), and artificial neural networks (ANN) based on the original and first-derivative hyperspectral data were evaluated in this study for paddy rice LAI estimation. All the models were built on the whole growing season and on each separate vegetative, reproductive and ripening growth stage of paddy rice separately. To ensure a fair comparison, the models of the whole growing season were also validated on data for each separate growth stage of the standalone validation dataset. Moreover, the optimal band pairs for calculating narrowband difference vegetative index (DVI), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and simple ratio vegetation index (SR) were determined for the whole growing season and for each separate growth stage separately. The results showed that for both the whole growing season and for each single growth stage, the red-edge and near-infrared band pairs are optimal for formulating the narrowband DVI, NDVI and SR. Among the four multivariate calibration methods, SVR and RF yielded more accurate results than the other two methods. The SVR and RF models built on first-derivative spectra provided more accurate results than the corresponding models on the original spectra for both whole growing season models and separate growth stage models. Comparing the prediction accuracy based on the whole growing season revealed that the RF and SVR models showed an advantage over the VI models. However, comparing the prediction accuracy based on each growth stage separately showed that the VI models provided more accurate results for the vegetative growth stages. The SVR and RF models provided more accurate results for the ripening growth stage. However, the whole growing season RF model on first-derivative spectra could provide reasonable accuracy for each single growth stage. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Leaf Area Index (LAI) Retrieval using Remote Sensing)
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22 pages, 3663 KiB  
Article
Temporal Variability of Precipitation and Biomass of Alpine Grasslands on the Northern Tibetan Plateau
by Meng Li, Jianshuang Wu, Chunqiao Song, Yongtao He, Ben Niu, Gang Fu, Paolo Tarolli, Britta Tietjen and Xianzhou Zhang
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(3), 360; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030360 - 11 Feb 2019
Cited by 36 | Viewed by 4619
Abstract
The timing regimes of precipitation can exert profound impacts on grassland ecosystems. However, it is still unclear how the peak aboveground biomass (AGBpeak) of alpine grasslands responds to the temporal variability of growing season precipitation (GSP) on the northern Tibetan Plateau. [...] Read more.
The timing regimes of precipitation can exert profound impacts on grassland ecosystems. However, it is still unclear how the peak aboveground biomass (AGBpeak) of alpine grasslands responds to the temporal variability of growing season precipitation (GSP) on the northern Tibetan Plateau. Here, the temporal variability of precipitation was defined as the number and intensity of precipitation events as well as the time interval between consecutive precipitation events. We conducted annual field measurements of AGBpeak between 2009 and 2016 at four sites that were representative of alpine meadow, meadow-steppe, alpine steppe, and desert-steppe. Thus, an empirical model was established with the time series of the field-measured AGBpeak and the corresponding enhanced vegetation index (EVI) (R2 = 0.78), which was used to estimate grassland AGBpeak at the regional scale. The relative importance of the three indices of the temporal variability of precipitation, events, intensity, and time interval on grassland AGBpeak was quantified by principal component regression and shown in a red–green–blue (RGB) composition map. The standardized importance values were used to calculate the vegetation sensitivity index to the temporal variability of precipitation (VSIP). Our results showed that the standardized VSIP was larger than 60 for only 15% of alpine grassland pixels and that AGBpeak did not change significantly for more than 60% of alpine grassland pixels over the past decades, which was likely due to the nonsignificant changes in the temporal variability of precipitation in most pixels. However, a U-shaped relationship was found between VSIP and GSP across the four representative grassland types, indicating that the sensitivity of grassland AGBpeak to precipitation was dependent on the types of grassland communities. Moreover, we found that the temporal variability of precipitation explained more of the field-measured AGBpeak variance than did the total amount of precipitation alone at the site scale, which implies that the mechanisms underlying how the temporal variability of precipitation controls the AGBpeak of alpine grasslands should be better understood at the local scale. We hypothesize that alpine grassland plants promptly respond to the temporal variability of precipitation to keep community biomass production more stable over time, but this conclusion should be further tested. Finally, we call for a long-term experimental study that includes multiple natural and anthropogenic factors together, such as warming, nitrogen deposition, and grazing and fencing, to better understand the mechanisms of alpine grassland stability on the Tibetan Plateau. Full article
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17 pages, 4258 KiB  
Article
Object-Based Change Detection Using Multiple Classifiers and Multi-Scale Uncertainty Analysis
by Kun Tan, Yusha Zhang, Xue Wang and Yu Chen
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(3), 359; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030359 - 11 Feb 2019
Cited by 50 | Viewed by 5370
Abstract
The drawback of pixel-based change detection is that it neglects the spatial correlation with neighboring pixels and has a high commission ratio. In contrast, object-based change detection (OBCD) depends on the accuracy of the segmentation scale, which is of great significance in image [...] Read more.
The drawback of pixel-based change detection is that it neglects the spatial correlation with neighboring pixels and has a high commission ratio. In contrast, object-based change detection (OBCD) depends on the accuracy of the segmentation scale, which is of great significance in image analysis. Accordingly, an object-based approach for automatic change detection using multiple classifiers and multi-scale uncertainty analysis (OB-MMUA) in high-resolution (HR) remote sensing images is proposed in this paper. In this algorithm, the gray-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM), morphological, and Gabor filter texture features are extracted to construct the input data, along with the spectral features, to utilize the respective advantages of the features and to compensate for the insufficient spectral information. In addition, random forest is used to select the features and determine the optimal feature vectors for the change detection. Change vector analysis (CVA) based on uncertainty analysis is then implemented to select the initial training samples. According to the diversity, support vector machine (SVM), k-nearest neighbor (KNN), and extra-trees (ExT) classifiers are then chosen as the base classifiers for Dempster-Shafer (D-S) evidence theory fusion, and unlabeled samples are selected using an active learning method with spatial information. Finally, multi-scale object-based D-S evidence theory fusion and uncertainty analysis is used to classify the difference image. To validate the proposed approach, we conducted experiments using multispectral images collected by the ZY-3 and GF-2 satellites. The experimental results confirmed the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed approach, which integrates the respective advantages of the pixel-based and object-based methods. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Change Detection Using Multi-Source Remotely Sensed Imagery)
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28 pages, 7367 KiB  
Article
Did Ecological Restoration Hit Its Mark? Monitoring and Assessing Ecological Changes in the Grain for Green Program Region Using Multi-source Satellite Images
by Yuzhi Tang, Quanqin Shao, Jiyuan Liu, Haiyang Zhang, Fan Yang, Wei Cao, Dan Wu and Guoli Gong
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(3), 358; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030358 - 11 Feb 2019
Cited by 22 | Viewed by 4516
Abstract
Ecological restoration programs are expected to control environmental deterioration and enhance ecosystem functions under a scenario of increasing human disturbance. The largest ecological restoration program ever implemented in China, the first round of the countrywide Grain for Green Program (GGP), finished in 2010. [...] Read more.
Ecological restoration programs are expected to control environmental deterioration and enhance ecosystem functions under a scenario of increasing human disturbance. The largest ecological restoration program ever implemented in China, the first round of the countrywide Grain for Green Program (GGP), finished in 2010. However, it is not known whether the ecological changes that resulted from the GGP met the restoration goal across the whole implementation region. In this study, we monitored and assessed the ecological changes in the whole GGP region in China over the lifetime of the first round of implementation (2000–2010), by establishing a comprehensive assessment indicator system composed of ecosystem pattern, ecosystem quality (EQ), and key ecosystem services (ESs). Remote sensing interpretation, ecological model simulations based on multi-source images, and trend analysis were used to generate land use and land cover (LULC) datasets and estimate ES and ESs indicators. Results showed that while forest increased by 0.77%, artificial land increased more intensely by 22.38%, and cropland and grassland decreased by 1.81% and 0.68%, respectively. The interconversion of cropland and forest played a primary role in ecosystem pattern change. The increase in ecosystem quality measures, including fractional vegetation cover (0.1459% yr−1), leaf area index (0.0121 yr−1), and net primary productivity (2.6958 gC m−2 yr−1), and the mitigation of ecosystem services deterioration in soil water loss (−0.0841 t ha yr−1) and soil wind loss (−1.0071 t ha yr−1) in the GGP region, indicated the positive ecological change in the GGP region to some extent, while southern GGP subregions improved more than the those in the north on the whole. The GGP implementation other than climate change impacted ecological change, with contributions of 14.23%, 9.94%, 8.23%, 30.45%, and 18.05% in the ecological outputs mentioned above, respectively. However, the water regulation did not improve (−2283 t km−2 yr−1), revealing trade-offs between ecosystem services and inappropriate afforestation in ecological restoration programs. Future GGP implementation should change the practice of large-scale afforestation, and focus more on the restoration of existing forest and cultivation of young plantings, formulating rational and specific plans and designs for afforestation areas through the establishment of near-natural vegetation communities, instead of single-species plantations, guided by regional climate and geographical characteristics. Full article
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17 pages, 19213 KiB  
Article
Assessment of Coastal Aquaculture for India from Sentinel-1 SAR Time Series
by Kumar Arun Prasad, Marco Ottinger, Chunzhu Wei and Patrick Leinenkugel
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(3), 357; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030357 - 11 Feb 2019
Cited by 58 | Viewed by 10459
Abstract
Aquaculture is one of the fastest growing primary food production sectors in India and ranks second behind China. Due to its growing economic value and global demand, India’s aquaculture industry experienced exponential growth for more than one decade. In this study, we extract [...] Read more.
Aquaculture is one of the fastest growing primary food production sectors in India and ranks second behind China. Due to its growing economic value and global demand, India’s aquaculture industry experienced exponential growth for more than one decade. In this study, we extract land-based aquaculture at the pond level for the entire coastal zone of India using large-volume time series Sentinel-1 synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) data at 10-m spatial resolution. Elevation and slope from Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission digital elevation model (SRTM DEM) data were used for masking inappropriate areas, whereas a coastline dataset was used to create a land/ocean mask. The pixel-wise temporal median was calculated from all available Sentinel-1 data to significantly reduce the amount of noise in the SAR data and to reduce confusions with temporary inundated rice fields. More than 3000 aquaculture pond vector samples were collected from high-resolution Google Earth imagery and used in an object-based image classification approach to exploit the characteristic shape information of aquaculture ponds. An open-source connected component segmentation algorithm was used for the extraction of the ponds based on the difference in backscatter intensity of inundated surfaces and shape metrics calculated from aquaculture samples as input parameters. This study, for the first time, provides spatial explicit information on aquaculture distribution at the pond level for the entire coastal zone of India. Quantitative spatial analyses were performed to identify the provincial dominance in aquaculture production, such as that revealed in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat provinces. For accuracy assessment, 2000 random samples were generated based on a stratified random sampling method. The study demonstrates, with an overall accuracy of 0.89, the spatio-temporal transferability of the methodological framework and the high potential for a global-scale application. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remote Sensing for Fisheries and Aquaculture)
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19 pages, 5528 KiB  
Article
New Approaches for Robust and Efficient Detection of Persistent Scatterers in SAR Tomography
by Xiaoxiang Zhu, Zhen Dong, Anxi Yu, Manqing Wu, Dexin Li and Yongsheng Zhang
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(3), 356; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030356 - 11 Feb 2019
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 3219
Abstract
Persistent scatterer interferometry (PSI) has the ability to acquire submeter-scale digital elevation model (DEM) and millimeter-scale deformation. A limitation to the application of PSI is that only single persistent scatterers (SPSs) are detected, and pixels with multiple dominant scatterers from different sources are [...] Read more.
Persistent scatterer interferometry (PSI) has the ability to acquire submeter-scale digital elevation model (DEM) and millimeter-scale deformation. A limitation to the application of PSI is that only single persistent scatterers (SPSs) are detected, and pixels with multiple dominant scatterers from different sources are discarded in PSI processing. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) tomography is a promising technique capable of resolving layovers. In this paper, new approaches based on a novel two-tier network aimed at robust and efficient detection of persistent scatterers (PSs) are presented. The calibration of atmospheric phase screen (APS) and the detection of PSs can be jointly implemented in the novel two-tier network. A residue-to-signal ratio (RSR) estimator is proposed to evaluate whether the APS is effectively calibrated and to select reliable PSs with accurate estimation. In the first-tier network, a Delaunay triangulation network is constructed for APS calibration and SPS detection. RSR thresholding is used to adjust the first-tier network by discarding arcs and SPS candidates (SPSCs) with inaccurate estimation, yielding more than one main network in the first-tier network. After network adjustment, we attempt to establish reliable SPS arcs to connect the main isolated networks, and the expanded largest connected network is then formed with more manual structure information subtracted. Furthermore, rather than the weighted least square (WLS) estimator, a network decomposition WLS (ND-WLS) estimator is proposed to accelerate the retrieval of absolute parameters from the expanded largest connected network, which is quite useful for large network inversion. In the second-tier network, the remaining SPSs and all the double PSs (DPSs) are detected and estimated with reference to the expanded largest connected network. Compared with traditional two-tier network-based methods, more PSs can be robustly and efficiently detected by the proposed new approaches. Experiments on interferometric high resolution TerraSAR-X SAR images are given to demonstrate the merits of the new approaches. Full article
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16 pages, 2636 KiB  
Article
Atmospheric Correction for Tower-Based Solar-Induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence Observations at O2-A Band
by Xinjie Liu, Jian Guo, Jiaochan Hu and Liangyun Liu
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(3), 355; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030355 - 11 Feb 2019
Cited by 26 | Viewed by 4686
Abstract
Solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) has been proven to be an efficient indicator of vegetation photosynthesis. To investigate the relationship between SIF and Gross Primary Productivity (GPP), tower-based continuous spectral observations coordinated with eddy covariance (EC) measurements are needed. As the strong absorption effect [...] Read more.
Solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) has been proven to be an efficient indicator of vegetation photosynthesis. To investigate the relationship between SIF and Gross Primary Productivity (GPP), tower-based continuous spectral observations coordinated with eddy covariance (EC) measurements are needed. As the strong absorption effect at the O2-A absorption bands has an obvious influence on SIF retrieval based on the Fraunhofer Line Discrimination (FLD) principle, atmospheric correction is required even for tower-based SIF observations made with a sensor tens of meters above the canopy. In this study, an operational and simple solution for atmospheric correction of tower-based SIF observations at the O2-A band is proposed. The aerosol optical depth (AOD) and radiative transfer path length (RTPL) are found to be the dominant factors influencing the upward and downward transmittances at the oxygen absorption band. Look-up tables (LUTs) are established to estimate the atmosphere transmittance using AOD and RTPL based on the MODerate resolution atmospheric TRANsmission 5 (MODTRAN 5) model simulations, and the AOD is estimated using the ratio of the downwelling irradiance at 790 nm to that at 660 nm (E790/E660). The influences of the temperature and pressure on the atmospheric transmittance are also compensated for using a corrector factor of RTPL based on an empirical equation. A series of field measurements were carried out to evaluate the performance of the atmospheric correction method for tower-based SIF observations. The difference between the SIF retrieved from tower-based and from ground-based observations decreased obviously after the atmospheric correction. The results indicate that the atmospheric correction method based on a LUT is efficient and also necessary for more accurate tower-based SIF retrieval, especially at the O2-A band. Full article
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15 pages, 3010 KiB  
Article
Improving Ecotope Segmentation by Combining Topographic and Spectral Data
by Julien Radoux, Axel Bourdouxhe, William Coos, Marc Dufrêne and Pierre Defourny
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(3), 354; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030354 - 11 Feb 2019
Cited by 21 | Viewed by 5268
Abstract
Ecotopes are the smallest ecologically distinct landscape features in a landscape mapping and classification system. Mapping ecotopes therefore enables the measurement of ecological patterns, process and change. In this study, a multi-source GEOBIA workflow is used to improve the automated delineation and descriptions [...] Read more.
Ecotopes are the smallest ecologically distinct landscape features in a landscape mapping and classification system. Mapping ecotopes therefore enables the measurement of ecological patterns, process and change. In this study, a multi-source GEOBIA workflow is used to improve the automated delineation and descriptions of ecotopes. Aerial photographs and LIDAR data provide input for landscape segmentation based on spectral signature, height structure and topography. Each segment is then characterized based on the proportion of land cover features identified at 2 m pixel-based classification. The results show that the use of hillshade bands simultaneously with spectral bands increases the consistency of the ecotope delineation. These results are promising to further describe biotopes of high ecological conservation value, as suggested by a successful test on ravine forest biotope. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Image Segmentation for Environmental Monitoring)
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16 pages, 1420 KiB  
Article
Maritime Vessel Classification to Monitor Fisheries with SAR: Demonstration in the North Sea
by Boris Snapir, Toby W. Waine and Lauren Biermann
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(3), 353; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030353 - 11 Feb 2019
Cited by 35 | Viewed by 6352
Abstract
Integration of methods based on satellite remote sensing into current maritime monitoring strategies could help tackle the problem of global overfishing. Operational software is now available to perform vessel detection on satellite imagery, but research on vessel classification has mainly focused on bulk [...] Read more.
Integration of methods based on satellite remote sensing into current maritime monitoring strategies could help tackle the problem of global overfishing. Operational software is now available to perform vessel detection on satellite imagery, but research on vessel classification has mainly focused on bulk carriers, container ships, and oil tankers, using high-resolution commercial Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery. Here, we present a method based on Random Forest (RF) to distinguish fishing and non-fishing vessels, and apply it to an area in the North Sea. The RF classifier takes as input the vessel’s length, longitude, and latitude, its distance to the nearest shore, and the time of the measurement (am or pm). The classifier is trained and tested on data from the Automatic Identification System (AIS). The overall classification accuracy is 91%, but the precision for the fishing class is only 58% because of specific regions in the study area where activities of fishing and non-fishing vessels overlap. We then apply the classifier to a collection of vessel detections obtained by applying the Search for Unidentified Maritime Objects (SUMO) vessel detector to the 2017 Sentinel-1 SAR images of the North Sea. The trend in our monthly fishing-vessel count agrees with data from Global Fishing Watch on fishing-vessel presence. These initial results suggest that our approach could help monitor intensification or reduction of fishing activity, which is critical in the context of the global overfishing problem. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remote Sensing of Target Detection in Marine Environment)
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25 pages, 866 KiB  
Article
Entropy-Mediated Decision Fusion for Remotely Sensed Image Classification
by Baofeng Guo
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(3), 352; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030352 - 10 Feb 2019
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3574
Abstract
To better classify remotely sensed hyperspectral imagery, we study hyperspectral signatures from a different view, in which the discriminatory information is divided as reflectance features and absorption features, respectively. Based on this categorization, we put forward an information fusion approach, where the reflectance [...] Read more.
To better classify remotely sensed hyperspectral imagery, we study hyperspectral signatures from a different view, in which the discriminatory information is divided as reflectance features and absorption features, respectively. Based on this categorization, we put forward an information fusion approach, where the reflectance features and the absorption features are processed by different algorithms. Their outputs are considered as initial decisions, and then fused by a decision-level algorithm, where the entropy of the classification output is used to balance between the two decisions. The final decision is reached by modifying the decision of the reflectance features via the results of the absorption features. Simulations are carried out to assess the classification performance based on two AVIRIS (Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer) hyperspectral datasets. The results show that the proposed method increases the classification accuracy against the state-of-the-art methods. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pattern Analysis and Recognition in Remote Sensing)
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19 pages, 10083 KiB  
Article
High-Resolution Mapping of Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) Distributions in Three Californian Forests
by Emily J. Francis and Gregory P. Asner
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(3), 351; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030351 - 10 Feb 2019
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 5311
Abstract
High-resolution maps of redwood distributions could enable strategic land management to satisfy diverse conservation goals, but the currently-available maps of redwood distributions are low in spatial resolution and biotic detail. Classification of airborne imaging spectroscopy data provides a potential avenue for mapping redwoods [...] Read more.
High-resolution maps of redwood distributions could enable strategic land management to satisfy diverse conservation goals, but the currently-available maps of redwood distributions are low in spatial resolution and biotic detail. Classification of airborne imaging spectroscopy data provides a potential avenue for mapping redwoods over large areas and with high confidence. We used airborne imaging spectroscopy data collected over three redwood forests by the Carnegie Airborne Observatory, in combination with field training data and application of a gradient boosted regression tree (GBRT) machine learning algorithm, to map the distribution of redwoods at 2-m spatial resolution. Training data collected from the three sites showed that redwoods have spectral signatures distinct from the other common tree species found in redwood forests. We optimized a gradient boosted regression model for high performance and computational efficiency, and the resulting model was demonstrably accurate (81–98% true positive rate and 90–98% overall accuracy) in mapping redwoods in each of the study sites. The resulting maps showed marked variation in redwood abundance (0–70%) within a 1 square kilometer aggregation block, which match the spatial resolution of currently-available redwood distribution maps. Our resulting high-resolution mapping approach will facilitate improved research, conservation, and management of redwood trees in California. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remote Sensing for Biodiversity, Ecology and Conservation)
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12 pages, 490 KiB  
Letter
An Efficient Clustering Method for Hyperspectral Optimal Band Selection via Shared Nearest Neighbor
by Qiang Li, Qi Wang and Xuelong Li
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(3), 350; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030350 - 10 Feb 2019
Cited by 29 | Viewed by 2975
Abstract
A hyperspectral image (HSI) has many bands, which leads to high correlation between adjacent bands, so it is necessary to find representative subsets before further analysis. To address this issue, band selection is considered as an effective approach that removes redundant bands for [...] Read more.
A hyperspectral image (HSI) has many bands, which leads to high correlation between adjacent bands, so it is necessary to find representative subsets before further analysis. To address this issue, band selection is considered as an effective approach that removes redundant bands for HSI. Recently, many band selection methods have been proposed, but the majority of them have extremely poor accuracy in a small number of bands and require multiple iterations, which does not meet the purpose of band selection. Therefore, we propose an efficient clustering method based on shared nearest neighbor (SNNC) for hyperspectral optimal band selection, claiming the following contributions: (1) the local density of each band is obtained by shared nearest neighbor, which can more accurately reflect the local distribution characteristics; (2) in order to acquire a band subset containing a large amount of information, the information entropy is taken as one of the weight factors; (3) a method for automatically selecting the optimal band subset is designed by the slope change. The experimental results reveal that compared with other methods, the proposed method has competitive computational time and the selected bands achieve higher overall classification accuracy on different data sets, especially when the number of bands is small. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Remote Sensing Image Processing)
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17 pages, 11985 KiB  
Article
An Improved Approach for Soil Moisture Estimation in Gully Fields of the Loess Plateau Using Sentinel-1A Radar Images
by Shanchuan Guo, Xuyu Bai, Yu Chen, Shaoliang Zhang, Huping Hou, Qianlin Zhu and Peijun Du
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(3), 349; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030349 - 10 Feb 2019
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 3605
Abstract
As an essential ecological parameter, soil moisture is important for understanding the water exchange between the land surface and the atmosphere, especially in the Loess Plateau (China). Although Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images can be used for soil moisture retrieval, it is still [...] Read more.
As an essential ecological parameter, soil moisture is important for understanding the water exchange between the land surface and the atmosphere, especially in the Loess Plateau (China). Although Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images can be used for soil moisture retrieval, it is still a challenge to mitigate the impacts of complex terrain over hilly areas. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to propose an improved approach for soil moisture estimation in gully fields based on the joint use of the Advanced Integral Equation Model (AIEM) and the Incidence Angle Correction Model (IACM) from Sentinel-1A observations. AIEM is utilized to build a simulation database of microwave backscattering coefficients from various radar parameters and surface parameters, which is the data basis for the retrieval modeling. IACM is proposed to correct the deviation between the local incidence angle at the scatterer and the radar viewing angle. The study area is located in the Loess Plateau of China, where the main land cover is mostly bare land and the terrain is complex. The Sentinel-1A SAR data in C-band with dual polarization acquired on October 19th, 2017 was adopted to extract the VV&VH polarimetric backscattering coefficients. The in situ measurements of soil moisture were collected on the same day of the SAR acquisition, for evaluating the accuracy of the SAR-derived soil moisture. The results showed that, firstly, the estimated soil moisture with volumetric content between 0% and 20% was in the majority. Subsequently, both the RMSE of estimation values (0.963%) and the standard deviation of absolute errors (0.957%) demonstrated a good accuracy of the improved approach. Moreover, the evaluation of IACM confirmed that the improved approach coupling IACM and AIEM was more efficient than employing AIEM solely. In conclusion, the proposed approach has a strong ability to estimate the soil moisture in the gully fields of the Loess Plateau from Sentinel-1A data. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microwave Remote Sensing for Hydrology)
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30 pages, 30402 KiB  
Article
PS-InSAR Analysis of Sentinel-1 Data for Detecting Ground Motion in Temperate Oceanic Climate Zones: A Case Study in the Republic of Ireland
by Simone Fiaschi, Eoghan P. Holohan, Michael Sheehy and Mario Floris
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(3), 348; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030348 - 10 Feb 2019
Cited by 23 | Viewed by 8580
Abstract
Regions of temperate oceanic climate have historically represented a challenge for the application of satellite-based multi-temporal SAR interferometry. The landscapes of such regions are commonly characterized by extensive, seasonally-variable vegetation coverage that can cause low temporal coherence and limit the detection capabilities of [...] Read more.
Regions of temperate oceanic climate have historically represented a challenge for the application of satellite-based multi-temporal SAR interferometry. The landscapes of such regions are commonly characterized by extensive, seasonally-variable vegetation coverage that can cause low temporal coherence and limit the detection capabilities of SAR imagery as acquired, for instance, by previous ERS-1/2 and ENVISAT missions. In this work, we exploited the enhanced resolution in space and time of the recently deployed Sentinel-1A/B SAR satellites to detect and monitor ground motions occurring in two study areas in the Republic of Ireland. The first, is a ~1800 km2 area spanning the upland karst of the Clare Burren and the adjacent mantled lowland karst of east Galway. The second, is an area of 100 km2 in Co. Meath spanning an active mine site. The available datasets, consisting of more than 100 images acquired in both ascending and descending orbits from April 2015 to March 2018, were processed by using the Permanent Scatterer approach. The obtained results highlight the presence of small-scale ground motions in both urban and natural environments with displacement rates along the satellite line of sight up to −17 mm/year. Localized subsidence was detected in recently built areas, along the infrastructure (both roads and railways), and over the mine site, while zones of subsidence, uplift, or both, have been recorded in a number of peatland areas. Furthermore, several measured target points indicate the presence of unstable areas along the coastline. Many of the detected movements were previously unknown. These results demonstrate the feasibility of adopting multi-temporal interferometry based on Sentinel-1 data for the detection and monitoring of mm-scale ground movements even over small areas (<100 m2) in environments influenced by temperate oceanic climate. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue SAR for Natural Hazard )
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21 pages, 5326 KiB  
Article
Performance of Multi-GNSS Precise Point Positioning Time and Frequency Transfer with Clock Modeling
by Yulong Ge, Peipei Dai, Weijin Qin, Xuhai Yang, Feng Zhou, Shengli Wang and Xingwang Zhao
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(3), 347; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030347 - 10 Feb 2019
Cited by 36 | Viewed by 3762
Abstract
Thanks to the international GNSS service (IGS), which has provided multi-GNSS precise products, multi-GNSS precise point positioning (PPP) time and frequency transfer has of great interest in the timing community. Currently, multi-GNSS PPP time transfer is not investigated with different precise products. In [...] Read more.
Thanks to the international GNSS service (IGS), which has provided multi-GNSS precise products, multi-GNSS precise point positioning (PPP) time and frequency transfer has of great interest in the timing community. Currently, multi-GNSS PPP time transfer is not investigated with different precise products. In addition, the correlation of the receiver clock offsets between adjacent epochs has not been studied in multi-GNSS PPP. In this work, multi-GNSS PPP time and frequency with different precise products is first compared in detail. A receiver clock offset model, considering the correlation of the receiver clock offsets between adjacent epochs using an a priori value, is then employed to improve multi-GNSS PPP time and frequency (scheme2). Our numerical analysis clarify how the approach performs for multi-GNSS PPP time and frequency transfer. Based on two commonly used multi-GNSS products and six GNSS stations, three conclusions are obtained straightforwardly. First, the GPS-only, Galileo-only, and multi-GNSS PPP solutions show similar performances using GBM and COD products, while BDS-only PPP using GBM products is better than that using COD products. Second, multi-GNSS time transfer outperforms single GNSS by increasing the number of available satellites and improving the time dilution of precision. For single-system and multi-GNSS PPP with GBM products, the maximum improvement in root mean square (RMS) values for multi-GNSS solutions are up to 7.4%, 94.0%, and 57.3% compared to GPS-only, BDS-only, and Galileo-only solutions, respectively. For stability, the maximum improvement of multi-GNSS is 20.3%, 84%, and 45.4% compared to GPS-only, BDS-only and Galileo-only solutions. Third, our approach contains less noise compared to the solutions with the white noise model, both for the single-system model and the multi-GNSS model. The RMS values of our approach are improved by 37.8–91.9%, 10.5–65.8%, 2.7–43.1%, and 26.6–86.0% for GPS-only, BDS-only, Galileo-only, and multi-GNSS solutions. For frequency stability, the improvement of scheme2 ranges from 0.2 to 51.6%, from 3 to 80.0%, from 0.2 to 70.8%, and from 0.1 to 51.5% for GPS-only, BDS-only, Galileo-only, and multi-GNSS PPP solutions compared to the solutions with the white noise model in the Eurasia links. Full article
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18 pages, 4951 KiB  
Article
Modeling and Precise Processing for Spaceborne Transmitter/Missile-Borne Receiver SAR Signals
by Shiyang Tang, Ping Guo, Linrang Zhang and Chunhui Lin
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(3), 346; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030346 - 10 Feb 2019
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3628
Abstract
The spaceborne transmitter/missile-borne receiver (ST/MR) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) could provide several unique advantages, such as wide coverage, unrestricted geography, a small detection probability of the missile, and forward-looking imaging. However, it is also accompanied by problems in imaging, including geometric model establishment [...] Read more.
The spaceborne transmitter/missile-borne receiver (ST/MR) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) could provide several unique advantages, such as wide coverage, unrestricted geography, a small detection probability of the missile, and forward-looking imaging. However, it is also accompanied by problems in imaging, including geometric model establishment and focusing algorithm design. In this paper, an ST/MR SAR model is first presented and then the flight-path constraint, characterized by geometric configurations, is derived. Considering the impacts brought about by the maneuvers of the missile, a non-‘Stop-Go’ mathematical model is devised and it can avoid the large errors introduced by the acceleration, which is neglected in the traditional model. Finally, a two-dimensional (2-D) scaling algorithm is developed to focus the ST/MR data. Without introducing any extra operations, it can greatly remove the spatial variations of the range, azimuth, and cross-coupling phases simultaneously and entirely in the 2-D hybrid domain. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed model and focusing approach. Full article
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24 pages, 14771 KiB  
Article
Separating Built-Up Areas from Bare Land in Mediterranean Cities Using Sentinel-2A Imagery
by Paria Ettehadi Osgouei, Sinasi Kaya, Elif Sertel and Ugur Alganci
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(3), 345; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030345 - 10 Feb 2019
Cited by 87 | Viewed by 17399
Abstract
In this research work, a multi-index-based support vector machine (SVM) classification approach has been proposed to determine the complex and morphologically heterogeneous land cover/use (LCU) patterns of cities, with a special focus on separating bare lands and built-up regions, using Istanbul, Turkey as [...] Read more.
In this research work, a multi-index-based support vector machine (SVM) classification approach has been proposed to determine the complex and morphologically heterogeneous land cover/use (LCU) patterns of cities, with a special focus on separating bare lands and built-up regions, using Istanbul, Turkey as the main study region, and Ankara and Konya (in Turkey) as the independent test regions. The multi-index approach was constructed using three-band combinations of spectral indices, where each index represents one of the three major land cover categories, green areas, water bodies, and built-up regions. Additionally, a shortwave infrared-based index, the Normalized Difference Tillage Index (NDTI), was proposed as an alternative to existing built-up indices. All possible index combinations and the original ten-band Sentinel-2A image were classified with the SVM algorithm, to map seven LCU classes, and an accuracy assessment was performed to determine the multi-index combination that provided the highest performance. The SVM classification results revealed that the multi-index combination of the normalized difference tillage index (NDTI), the red-edge-based normalized vegetation index (NDVIre), and the modified normalized difference water index (MNDWI) improved the mapping accuracy of the heterogeneous urban areas and provided an effective separation of bare land from built-up areas. This combination showed an outstanding overall performance with a 93% accuracy and a 0.91 kappa value for all LCU classes. The results of the test regions provided similar findings and the same index combination clearly outperformed the other approaches, with 92% accuracy and a 0.90 kappa value for Ankara, and an 84% accuracy and a 0.79 kappa value for Konya. The multi-index combination of the normalized difference built-up index (NDBI), the NDVIre, and the MNDWI, ranked second in the assessment, with similar accuracies to that of the ten-band image classification. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remote Sensing based Urban Development and Climate Change Research)
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12 pages, 5731 KiB  
Technical Note
Estimation of Leaf Inclination Angle in Three-Dimensional Plant Images Obtained from Lidar
by Kenta Itakura and Fumiki Hosoi
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(3), 344; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030344 - 09 Feb 2019
Cited by 30 | Viewed by 6239
Abstract
The leaf inclination angle is a fundamental variable for determining the plant profile. In this study, the leaf inclination angle was estimated automatically from voxel-based three-dimensional (3D) images obtained from lidar (light detection and ranging). The distribution of the leaf inclination angle within [...] Read more.
The leaf inclination angle is a fundamental variable for determining the plant profile. In this study, the leaf inclination angle was estimated automatically from voxel-based three-dimensional (3D) images obtained from lidar (light detection and ranging). The distribution of the leaf inclination angle within a tree was then calculated. The 3D images were first converted into voxel coordinates. Then, a plane was fitted to some voxels surrounding the point (voxel) of interest. The inclination angle and azimuth angle were obtained from the normal. The measured leaf inclination angle and its actual value were correlated and indicated a high correlation (R2 = 0.95). The absolute error of the leaf inclination angle estimation was 2.5°. Furthermore, the leaf inclination angle can be estimated even when the distance between the lidar and leaves is about 20 m. This suggests that the inclination angle estimation of leaves in a top part is reliable. Then, the leaf inclination angle distribution within a tree was calculated. The difference in the leaf inclination angle distribution between different parts within a tree was observed, and a detailed tree structural analysis was conducted. We found that this method enables accurate and efficient leaf inclination angle distribution. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Remote Sensing in Agriculture and Vegetation)
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21 pages, 10826 KiB  
Article
Monitoring 40-Year Lake Area Changes of the Qaidam Basin, Tibetan Plateau, Using Landsat Time Series
by Huiying Li, Dehua Mao, Xiaoyan Li, Zongming Wang and Cuizhen Wang
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(3), 343; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030343 - 09 Feb 2019
Cited by 27 | Viewed by 4916
Abstract
Areal changes of high-altitude inland lakes on the Qaidam Basin (QB) of the Tibetan Plateau are reliable indicators of climate change and anthropogenic disturbance. Due to the physical difficulties to access, our knowledge of the spatial patterns and processes of climatic and human [...] Read more.
Areal changes of high-altitude inland lakes on the Qaidam Basin (QB) of the Tibetan Plateau are reliable indicators of climate change and anthropogenic disturbance. Due to the physical difficulties to access, our knowledge of the spatial patterns and processes of climatic and human impacts on the Basin has been limited. Focusing on lake area changes, this study used long-term Landsat images to map the patterns of lakes and glaciers in 1977, 1990, 2000, and 2015, and to monitor the spatially explicit changes of lakes between 1977 and 2015. Results revealed that the total number of lakes (area > 0.5 km2) increased by 18, while their total area expanded by 29.8%, from 1761.5 ± 88.1 km2 to 2285.9 ± 91.4 km2. Meanwhile, glaciers have decreased in area by 259.16 km2 in the past four decades. The structural equation model (SEM) was applied to examine the integrative effects of natural and anthropogenic factors on lake area. Precipitation change exhibited the most significant influence on lake area in the QB from 1977 to 2000, while human activities also played an important role in the expansion of lakes in the QB in the period 2000–2015. In particular, extensive exploitation of salt lakes as mining resources resulted in severe changes in lake area and landscape. The continuously expanding salt lakes inundated the road infrastructure nearby, posing great threats to road safety. This study shed new light on the impacts of recent environmental changes and human interventions on lakes in the Qaidam Basin, which could assist policy-making for protecting the lakes and for strengthening the ecological improvement of this vast, arid basin. Full article
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19 pages, 6657 KiB  
Article
Content-Sensitive Multilevel Point Cluster Construction for ALS Point Cloud Classification
by Zongxia Xu, Zhenxin Zhang, Ruofei Zhong, Dong Chen, Taochun Sun, Xin Deng, Zhen Li and Cheng-Zhi Qin
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(3), 342; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030342 - 09 Feb 2019
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3516
Abstract
Airborne laser scanning (ALS) point cloud classification is a challenge due to factors including complex scene structure, various densities, surface morphology, and the number of ground objects. A point cloud classification method is presented in this paper, based on content-sensitive multilevel objects (point [...] Read more.
Airborne laser scanning (ALS) point cloud classification is a challenge due to factors including complex scene structure, various densities, surface morphology, and the number of ground objects. A point cloud classification method is presented in this paper, based on content-sensitive multilevel objects (point clusters) in consideration of the density distribution of ground objects. The space projection method is first used to convert the three-dimensional point cloud into a two-dimensional (2D) image. The image is then mapped to the 2D manifold space, and restricted centroidal Voronoi tessellation is built for initial segmentation of content-sensitive point clusters. Thus, the segmentation results take the entity content (density distribution) into account, and the initial classification unit is adapted to the density of ground objects. The normalized cut is then used to segment the initial point clusters to construct content-sensitive multilevel point clusters. Following this, the point-based hierarchical features of each point cluster are extracted, and the multilevel point-cluster feature is constructed by sparse coding and latent Dirichlet allocation models. Finally, the hierarchical classification framework is created based on multilevel point-cluster features, and the AdaBoost classifiers in each level are trained. The recognition results of different levels are combined to effectively improve the classification accuracy of the ALS point cloud in the test process. Two scenes are used to experimentally test the method, and it is compared with three other state-of-the-art techniques. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Future Trends and Applications for Airborne Laser Scanning)
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16 pages, 2001 KiB  
Article
Improving the Performance of Galileo Uncombined Precise Point Positioning Ambiguity Resolution Using Triple-Frequency Observations
by Gen Liu, Xiaohong Zhang and Pan Li
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(3), 341; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030341 - 08 Feb 2019
Cited by 20 | Viewed by 3536
Abstract
Compared with the traditional ionospheric-free linear combination precise point positioning (PPP) model, the un-differenced and uncombined (UDUC) PPP model using original observations can keep all the information of the observations and be easily extended to any number of frequencies. However, the current studies [...] Read more.
Compared with the traditional ionospheric-free linear combination precise point positioning (PPP) model, the un-differenced and uncombined (UDUC) PPP model using original observations can keep all the information of the observations and be easily extended to any number of frequencies. However, the current studies about the multi-frequency UDUC-PPP ambiguity resolution (AR) were mainly based on the triple-frequency BeiDou navigation satellite system (BDS) observations or simulated data. Limited by many factors, for example the accuracy of BDS precise orbit and clock products, the advantages of triple-frequency signals to UDUC-PPP AR were not fully exploited. As Galileo constellations have been upgraded by increasing the number of 19 useable satellites, it makes using Galileo satellites to further study the triple-frequency UDUC-PPP ambiguity resolution (AR) possible. In this contribution, we proposed the method of multi-frequency step-by-step ambiguity resolution based on the UDUC-PPP model and gave the reason why the performance of PPP AR can be improved using triple-frequency observations. We used triple-frequency Galileo observations on day of year (DOY) 201, 2018 provided by 166 Multi-GNSS Experiment (MGEX) stations to estimate original uncalibrated phase delays (UPD) on each frequency and to conduct both dual- and triple-frequency UDUC-PPP AR. The performance of UDUC-PPP AR based on post-processing mode was assessed in terms of the time-to-first-fix (TTFF) as well as positioning accuracy with 2-h observations. It was found that triple-frequency observations were helpful to reduce TTFF and improve the positioning accuracy. The current statistic results showed that triple-frequency PPP-AR reduced the averaged TTFF by 19.6% and also improved the positioning accuracy by 40.9%, 31.2% and 23.6% in the east, north and up directions respectively, compared with dual-frequency PPP-AR. With an increasing number of Galileo satellites, it is expected that the robustness and accuracy of the triple-frequency UCUD-PPP AR can be improved further. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue GPS/GNSS Contemporary Applications)
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