Advanced study of coastal zone oceanographic requirements for ERTS E and F

Earth Resources Technology Satellites E and F orbits and remote sensor instruments for coastal oceanographic data collectio

NASA Earth Resources Survey Symposium. Volume 3: Summary reports

This document contains the proceedings and summaries of the earth resources survey symposium, sponsored by the NASA Headquarters Office of Applications and held in Houston, Texas, June 9 to 12, 1975. Topics include the use of remote sensing techniques in agriculture, in geology, for environmental monitoring, for land use planning, and for management of water resources and coastal zones. Details are provided about services available to various users. Significant applications, conclusions, and future needs are also discussed

Current measurements in the Salton Sea using ERTS multispectral imagery

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

California coastal processes study, LANDSAT 2

The authors have identified the following significant results. By using suspended sediments as tracers, objectives were met by qualitative definition of the nearshore circulation along the entire coast of California with special study sites at Humboldt Bay, the mouth of the Russian River, San Francisco Bay, Monterey Bay, and the Santa Barbara Channel. Although LANDSAT primarily imaged fines and silts in the surface waters, the distribution of sediments allowed an examination of upwelling, convergences and coastal erosion and deposition. In Monterey Bay and Humboldt Bay, these coastal phenomena were used to trace seasonal trends in surface currents

The utility of Skylab photo-interpreted earth resources data in studies of marine geology and coastal processes in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands

The author has identified the following significant results. Three Skylab earth resources passes over Puerto Rico and St. Croix on 6 June and 30 November 1973 and 18 January 1974 resulted in color photography and multispectral photography and scanner imagery. Bathymetric and turbid water features are differentiable by use of the multispectral data. Photography allows mapping of coral reefs, offshore sand deposits, areas of coastal erosion, and patterns of sediment transport. Bottom sediment types could not be differentiated. Patterns of bottom dwelling biologic communities are well portrayed but are difficult to differentiate from bathymetric detail. Effluent discharges and oil slicks are readily detected and are differentiated from other phenomena by the persistence of their images into the longer wavelength multispectral bands

Feasibility of remote sensing for detecting thermal pollution. Part 1: Feasibility study. Part 2: Implementation plan

A feasibility study for the development of a three-dimensional generalized, predictive, analytical model involving remote sensing, in-situ measurements, and an active system to remotely measure turbidity is presented. An implementation plan for the development of the three-dimensional model and for the application of remote sensing of temperature and turbidity measurements is outlined

Quarterly literature review of the remote sensing of natural resources

The Technology Application Center reviewed abstracted literature sources, and selected document data and data gathering techniques which were performed or obtained remotely from space, aircraft or groundbased stations. All of the documentation was related to remote sensing sensors or the remote sensing of the natural resources. Sensors were primarily those operating within the 10 to the minus 8 power to 1 meter wavelength band. Included are NASA Tech Briefs, ARAC Industrial Applications Reports, U.S. Navy Technical Reports, U.S. Patent reports, and other technical articles and reports

Mapping Untreated and Semi-treated Wastewater Effluent off the Coast of Gaza with Sentinel-1 Time Series Data

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the most contested and complicated conflicts in the world. As one of the occupied Palestinian Territories recognized by the United Nations, the social and environmental conditions in Gaza are impossible to understand without reference to the occupation of Gaza by its neighbor Israel. Hostilities have led to the damage of wastewater infrastructure, including sewage pipe systems and wastewater treatment plants, while Israel’s blockade on Gaza has prevented resources for building and repairing wastewater infrastructure. Because of the damaged or insufficient wastewater infrastructure, tens of thousands of liters of untreated and semi-treated wastewater is discharged into the Mediterranean Sea from Gaza on a daily basis. Despite international recognition of the wastewater pollution, Gazans still live with inadequate access to drinking water and sanitation. Organizations in the region like EcoPeace, who promote environmental peacebuilding, have supported the construction of additional wastewater infrastructure in Gaza, but there is often still a lack of political incentive to fully invest in these improvements. In an effort to document the protracted but sometimes hidden effects of this conflict on the environment and, by extension, the people of Gaza, Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) time series data were used to map apparent wastewater plumes flowing directly into the Mediterranean Sea from known wastewater outfalls in Gaza from January 2017 to December 2019. A Random Forest classification of 97 Sentinel-1 images was used to identify 698 apparent wastewater plumes at 11 outfalls. Data on plume area and frequency were paired with field-based wastewater data to test for relationships between the spatial and temporal patterns of apparent wastewater plumes and the spatial and temporal patterns of wastewater effluent and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) from wastewater discharged from outfalls on Gaza. Results show that SAR successfully detected apparent wastewater plumes derived from untreated and semi-treated wastewater, and that plumes were frequently detected at outfalls discharging semi-treated wastewater although plumes also varied in area between different dates and among different outfalls. Correlations between the plume areas and wastewater effluent volume and BOD were generally low and not statistically significant. Various reasons for the weak correlation between SAR and field data were examined, and suggestions for future work to overcome study limitations are presented. The accurate and reliable data from satellite remote sensing data highlighting the environmental detriment of untreated wastewater discharged into Mediterranean Sea offers a new and objective view into the indirect effects of protracted conflict. As such, these data may help to incentivize Israel and other bordering nations to provide additional resources and materials to Gaza for the rapid improvement of wastewater treatment and ultimately better access to water and sanitation in spite of the political conflict

Evaluation of ERTS-1 data for certain hydrological uses

The author has identified the following significant results. ERTS-1 MSS data have been used in a variety of hydrologic research including snow-extent mapping; studies of snowmelt, snowmelt runoff, spectral reflectance of snow for assessing snowpack conditions, and snow albedo; lake ice formation, breakup, and migration; lake current measurements; multispectral studies of lake ice; and flood studies. MSS sensing of soil moisture over a well-vegetated test site was unsuccessfully attempted. Although a powerful research tool, ERTS-1 has very limited use as an operational system for hydrologic communities because of its 18-day revisit cycle and its lack of a quick look capability

Fourth Annual Earth Resources Program Review. Volume 4: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration programs and US Naval Research Laboratory programs

Conference of Earth Resources Program with emphasis on analysis of data obtained by aircraf