ALOS-2/PALSAR-2 Calibration, Validation, Science and Applications

Twelve edited original papers on the latest and state-of-art results of topics ranging from calibration, validation, and science to a wide range of applications using ALOS-2/PALSAR-2. We hope you will find them useful for your future research

Monitoring wetlands and water bodies in semi-arid Sub-Saharan regions

Surface water in wetlands is a critical resource in semi-arid West-African regions that are frequently exposed to droughts. Wetlands are of utmost importance for the population as well as the environment, and are subject to rapidly changing seasonal fluctuations. Dynamics of wetlands in the study area are still poorly understood, and the potential of remote sensing-derived information as a large-scale, multi-temporal, comparable and independent measurement source is not exploited. This work shows successful wetland monitoring with remote sensing in savannah and Sahel regions in Burkina Faso, focusing on the main study site Lac Bam (Lake Bam). Long-term optical time series from MODIS with medium spatial resolution (MR), and short-term synthetic aperture radar (SAR) time series from TerraSAR-X and RADARSAT-2 with high spatial resolution (HR) successfully demonstrate the classification and dynamic monitoring of relevant wetland features, e.g. open water, flooded vegetation and irrigated cultivation. Methodological highlights are time series analysis, e.g. spatio-temporal dynamics or multitemporal-classification, as well as polarimetric SAR (polSAR) processing, i.e. the Kennaugh elements, enabling physical interpretation of SAR scattering mechanisms for dual-polarized data. A multi-sensor and multi-frequency SAR data combination provides added value, and reveals that dual-co-pol SAR data is most recommended for monitoring wetlands of this type. The interpretation of environmental or man-made processes such as water areas spreading out further but retreating or evaporating faster, co-occurrence of droughts with surface water and vegetation anomalies, expansion of irrigated agriculture or new dam building, can be detected with MR optical and HR SAR time series. To capture long-term impacts of water extraction, sedimentation and climate change on wetlands, remote sensing solutions are available, and would have great potential to contribute to water management in Africa

Crop monitoring and yield estimation using polarimetric SAR and optical satellite data in southwestern Ontario

Optical satellite data have been proven as an efficient source to extract crop information and monitor crop growth conditions over large areas. In local- to subfield-scale crop monitoring studies, both high spatial resolution and high temporal resolution of the image data are important. However, the acquisition of optical data is limited by the constant contamination of clouds in cloudy areas. This thesis explores the potential of polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite data and the spatio-temporal data fusion approach in crop monitoring and yield estimation applications in southwestern Ontario. Firstly, the sensitivity of 16 parameters derived from C-band Radarsat-2 polarimetric SAR data to crop height and fractional vegetation cover (FVC) was investigated. The results show that the SAR backscatters are affected by many factors unrelated to the crop canopy such as the incidence angle and the soil background and the degree of sensitivity varies with the crop types, growing stages, and the polarimetric SAR parameters. Secondly, the Minimum Noise Fraction (MNF) transformation, for the first time, was applied to multitemporal Radarsat-2 polarimetric SAR data in cropland area mapping based on the random forest classifier. An overall classification accuracy of 95.89% was achieved using the MNF transformation of the multi-temporal coherency matrix acquired from July to November. Then, a spatio-temporal data fusion method was developed to generate Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) time series with both high spatial and high temporal resolution in heterogeneous regions using Landsat and MODIS imagery. The proposed method outperforms two other widely used methods. Finally, an improved crop phenology detection method was proposed, and the phenology information was then forced into the Simple Algorithm for Yield Estimation (SAFY) model to estimate crop biomass and yield. Compared with the SAFY model without forcing the remotely sensed phenology and a simple light use efficiency (LUE) model, the SAFY incorporating the remotely sensed phenology can improve the accuracy of biomass estimation by about 4% in relative Root Mean Square Error (RRMSE). The studies in this thesis improve the ability to monitor crop growth status and production at subfield scale

Remote Sensing of Environmental Changes in Cold Regions

This Special Issue gathers papers reporting recent advances in the remote sensing of cold regions. It includes contributions presenting improvements in modeling microwave emissions from snow, assessment of satellite-based sea ice concentration products, satellite monitoring of ice jam and glacier lake outburst floods, satellite mapping of snow depth and soil freeze/thaw states, near-nadir interferometric imaging of surface water bodies, and remote sensing-based assessment of high arctic lake environment and vegetation recovery from wildfire disturbances in Alaska. A comprehensive review is presented to summarize the achievements, challenges, and opportunities of cold land remote sensing

Impacts of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill on Microbial-Mediated Cellulose Decomposition in Mississippi Gulf Coast Salt Marshes

Field studies were conducted to examine the effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on rates of marsh organic matter decomposition. Decomposition in surface and subsurface marsh sediments was assessed in stands of Spartina alterniflora and Juncus roemerianus in 9 Mississippi Gulf Coast marshes exposed to differing oiling intensities. The cotton strip bioassay technique was used as a proxy for cellulose decomposition. In addition, rates of microbial respiration, fungal biomass (ergosterol) and nutrients (C:N, C:P) of surface sediment cotton strips were also quantified. Subsurface cotton strip decay, as determined by losses in tensile strength, were significantly different among marsh sites, with higher overall rates being observed in oiled versus unoiled S. alterniflora plant zones (pJ. roemerianus plant zones (p\u3e0.05). In contrast to subsurface sediments, cotton strip decay in surface sediments displayed an opposite pattern, with significantly (p\u3e0.05) higher rates of decay in unoiled versus oiled S. alterniflora and J. roemerianus plant zones. Cotton strip C:N and C:P ratios were negatively correlated with losses in cotton strip tensile strength. In addition, both fungal ergosterol concentrations and microbial respiration rates were positively correlated with cotton strip decay and negatively correlated with C:N and C:P ratios, providing evidence that N and P availabilities in marsh sediments may have limited the activity of microbial communities. Although conducted ~1.5 years after the Deep Water Horizon oil spill, this study suggests that both subsurface and surface microbial processes may still be affected by oil

Remediation Potential of Humic Acids

V předložené práci byly testovány modifikované lignitické huminové kyseliny za účelem zjištění jejich schopnosti remediace zemědělské půdy. Před samotnou extrakcí jednotlivých huminových kyselin byl lignit modifikován jednou ze série deseti organických kyselin. Cílem modifikace byla simulace procesů vyskytujících se v rizosféře, tj. procesů, kdy malé organické molekuly způsobují změny ve struktuře půdní organické hmoty, během nichž dochází k produkci biologicky aktivních agregátů/molekul podílejících se na růstu rostlin. Prvním krokem této práce bylo zkoumání fyzikálně chemických vlastností vyprodukovaných huminových kyselin a jejich molekulové struktury prostřednictvím elementární analýzy, infračervené spektroskopie s Fourierovou transformací (FTIR), vysokoúčinné gelové chromatografie (HPSEC), metodou měření povrchového napětí a plynovou chromatografií s hmotnostní spektrometrií (GC-MS). Dalším krokem bylo studium parametrů biologické aktivity, získaných z experimentů zaměřených jak na vyšší rostliny, tak na remediaci mikrobiologické aktivity zemědělské půdy. Biologická aktivita vůči vyšším rostlinám byla zkoumána na základě experimentu s kukuřicí, byla měřena délka a hmotnost kořenů, rozvětvení jejich laterálních kořenů a obsah sacharidů a proteinů. Z experimentů cílených na půdu se jednalo o měření množství uvolněného CO2 při laboratorní inkubaci ošetřené půdy a půdní hydrofobicitu (metoda měření kontaktního úhlu). Na závěr byly výsledky podrobeny statistické analýze s využitím Pearsonova korelačního koeficientu s cílem nalézt vztahy mezi fyzikálně chemickými vlastnostmi a biologickou a povrchovou aktivitou studovaných huminových kyselin. Korelace byly zjištěny mezi biologickou aktivitou a fyzikálně chemickými vlastnostmi huminových kyselin. Naopak, nebyly zjištěny mezi povrchovými a fyzikálně chemickými vlastnostmi. Nejefektivnějším modifikačním činidlem z pohledu biologické aktivity byla 20% kyselina mravenčí, nejméně efektivním 20% kyselina propionová.In this work, we tested the modified lignite humic acids for their remediation capability of agricultural soils. Prior to the extraction of humic acids, the parental raw lignite was modified by ten organic acids. The pre-treatment was aimed to simulate similar processes that occur in rhizosphere, i.e. small-chain organic acids induce the reconformation of soil organic matter thereby releasing biologically active aggregates/molecules promoting the plant growth. In the first step, the produced modified humic acids (MHA) were characterised for their physico-chemical properties and molecular structure of by using elemental analysis (EA), Fourier-transformed infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, high-pressure size exclusion chromatography (HPSEC), surface tension measurement and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. In the second step, the parameters of biological activity were obtained from experiments oriented to both higher plants and remediation of microbiological activity in used soil. The biological activity towards higher plants was conducted on maize seeds and represented by total mass and length increments of roots, root division and sugars and protein contents. The influence on used soil was determined by laboratory soil incubation (CO2 production) and soil water repellency measurement (contact angle). All results were subjected to statistical analysis using Pearson´s correlation coefficient to find relationship between physico-chemical properties and biological activity of studied HAs samples. The results showed correlations between biological activity and physico-chemical properties of humic acids. On the contrary, the surface properties did not show any correlations with physical-chemical properties of studied HAs. The most efficient modifier in terms of biological activity was 20% formic acid and the less efficient was 20% propionic acid.

Remote Sensing in Agriculture: State-of-the-Art

The Special Issue on “Remote Sensing in Agriculture: State-of-the-Art” gives an exhaustive overview of the ongoing remote sensing technology transfer into the agricultural sector. It consists of 10 high-quality papers focusing on a wide range of remote sensing models and techniques to forecast crop production and yield, to map agricultural landscape and to evaluate plant and soil biophysical features. Satellite, RPAS, and SAR data were involved. This preface describes shortly each contribution published in such Special Issue

Proceedings Of The 18th Annual Meeting Of The Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (Aogs 2021)

The 18th Annual Meeting of the Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS 2021) was held from 1st to 6th August 2021. This proceedings volume includes selected extended abstracts from a challenging array of presentations at this conference. The AOGS Annual Meeting is a leading venue for professional interaction among researchers and practitioners, covering diverse disciplines of geosciences