7 research outputs found
Multi-sensor remote sensing for drought characterization: current status, opportunities and a roadmap for the future
Satellite based remote sensing offers one of the few approaches able to monitor the spatial and temporal development of regional to continental scale droughts. A unique element of remote sensing platforms is their multi-sensor capability, which enhances the capacity for characterizing drought from a variety of perspectives. Such aspects include monitoring drought influences on vegetation and hydrological responses, as well as assessing sectoral impacts (e.g., agriculture). With advances in remote sensing systems along with an increasing range of platforms available for analysis, this contribution provides a timely and systematic review of multi-sensor remote sensing drought studies, with a particular focus on drought related datasets, drought related phenomena and mechanisms, and drought modeling. To explore this topic, we first present a comprehensive summary of large-scale remote sensing datasets that can be used for multi-sensor drought studies. We then review the role of multi-sensor remote sensing for exploring key drought related phenomena and mechanisms, including vegetation responses to drought, land-atmospheric feedbacks during drought, drought-induced tree mortality, drought-related ecosystem fires, post-drought recovery and legacy effects, flash drought, as well as drought trends under climate change. A summary of recent modeling advances towards developing integrated multi-sensor remote sensing drought indices is also provided. We conclude that leveraging multi-sensor remote sensing provides unique benefits for regional to global drought studies, particularly in: 1) revealing the complex drought impact mechanisms on ecosystem components; 2) providing continuous long-term drought related information at large scales; 3) presenting real-time drought information with high spatiotemporal resolution; 4) providing multiple lines of evidence of drought monitoring to improve modeling and prediction robustness; and 5) improving the accuracy of drought monitoring and assessment efforts. We specifically highlight that more mechanism-oriented drought studies that leverage a combination of sensors and techniques (e.g., optical, microwave, hyperspectral, LiDAR, and constellations) across a range of spatiotemporal scales are needed in order to progress and advance our understanding, characterization and description of drought in the future
Examining Ecosystem Drought Responses Using Remote Sensing and Flux Tower Observations
Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)Water is fundamental for plant growth, and vegetation response to water availability influences water, carbon, and energy exchanges between land and atmosphere. Vegetation plays the most active role in water and carbon cycle of various ecosystems. Therefore, comprehensive evaluation of drought impact on vegetation productivity will play a critical role for better understanding the global water cycle under future climate conditions.
In-situ meteorological measurements and the eddy covariance flux tower network, which provide meteorological data, and estimates of ecosystem productivity and respiration are remarkable tools to assess the impacts of drought on ecosystem carbon and water cycles. In regions with limited in-situ observations, remote sensing can be a very useful tool to monitor ecosystem drought status since it provides continuous observations of relevant variables linked to ecosystem function and the hydrologic cycle. However, the detailed understanding of ecosystem responses to drought is still lacking and it is challenging to quantify the impacts of drought on ecosystem carbon balance and several factors hinder our explicit understanding of the complex drought impacts. This dissertation addressed drought monitoring, ecosystem drought responses, trends of vegetation water constraint based on in-situ metrological observations, flux tower and multi-sensor remote sensing observations. This dissertation first developed a new integrated drought index applicable across diverse climate regions based on in-situ meteorological observations and multi-sensor remote sensing data, and another integrated drought index applicable across diverse climate regions only based on multi-sensor remote sensing data. The dissertation also evaluated the applicability of new satellite dataset (e.g., solar induced fluorescence, SIF) for responding to meteorological drought. Results show that satellite SIF data could have the potential to reflect meteorological drought, but the application should be limited to dry regions. The work in this dissertation also accessed changes in water constraint on global vegetation productivity, and quantified different drought dimensions on ecosystem productivity and respiration. Results indicate that a significant increase in vegetation water constraint over the last 30 years. The results highlighted the need for a more explicit consideration of the influence of water constraints on regional and global vegetation under a warming climate
High Resolution Temperature and Spectral Emissivity Mapping (HITESEM)
The “High resolution temperature and spectral emissivity mapping” (HiTeSEM) initiative aims at developing a conceptual instrument design for a hyperspectral thermal satellite to find answers for the most pressing research and data requirements within the scope of Food Security and Human Health. The satellite is proposed to consist of two long-wave infrared (LWIR) sensors, (1) a hyperspectral system with ~ 75 bands at 7.2 - 12.5 μm (NEΔT of <; 0.05 K) and a ground sampling distance (GSD) of 60 m and (2) a panchromatic (PAN) LWIR high resolution imager with two bands (8.0 - 10.25 μm and 10.25 - 12.5 μm, NEΔT of ~0.06 K) but a three times higher GSD of 20 m to extend the system to regional applications where higher spatial accuracy is required. For an accurate water vapor content (CWV) estimation, which is needed for accurate atmospheric correction and temperature-emissivity separation (TES), three wavelengths within the range 7.2-7.3 μm are used. Based on the science case, key regions of interest were identified in India, Asia, Andes mountains, Mediterranean ecosystems and densely-populated as well as growing regions
HiTeSEM: A Satellite sensor concept for Hyperspectral Thermal Remote Sensing
HiTeSEM (High-resolution Temperature and Spectral Emissivity Mapping) is a preparatory study, funded by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) that aims preparing the floor for a future spaceborn hyperspectral thermal mission. Thermal remote sensing is poised to become a major source of information on land surface processes. HiTeSEM aims at closing the research gap still hampering
utilization of the thermal infrared data at reasonable spectral and spatial resolution and focusses on surface-solid Earth interactions to assess natural and human-induced changes. Land surface temperature (LST) and spectral emissivity (LSE) of the Earth are the basis
for the extraction of sensitive variables in geology, pedology, and vegetation monitoring. Towards this end, HiTeSEM will enable the research community to evaluate the potential of emissive spectroscopy methodologies in Earth observation to answer a series of key science questions related to global change, human health, and food security. Relevant target variables include soil mineral
composition, soil organic matter (SOM), surface moisture availability, evapotranspiration and stomatal/surface conductance. These are key indicators for soil productivity and plant stress in sensitive regions and can be used to govern and adapt land use practices under challenging ecological and climatic conditions. In urban remote sensing HiTeSEM is expected to furnish important information to define thermal models, which implies knowledge of the surface material composition by means of spectral emissivity retrieval. The methodological challenge of HiTeSEM lies in the development of a robust high performance temperature emissivity separation (TES) technique to allow optimum pre-processing of the measured thermal radiance signal at the sensor level. From these scientific goals a series of mission and instrument requirements has been derived that can be summarized as follows
High-resolution temperature and emissivity mapping (HiTeSEM): A satellite sensor concept for hyperspectral thermal remote sensing
HiTeSEM (High-resolution Temperature and Spectral Emissivity Mapping) is a preparatory study, funded by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) that aims at preparing the floor for a future spaceborne hyperspectral thermal mission. Up to now this spectral region in Earth observation is mainly used to measure surface temperature. Nevertheless, the spectrally dispersed signal between 8ÎĽm and 12 ÎĽm can provide information about abundances of key rock and soil forming minerals as well as the status of vegetation. HiTeSEM aims at closing the research gap still hampering utilization of the thermal infrared data at reasonable spectral and spatial resolution and focusses on surface-solid Earth interactions to assess natural and human-induced changes. Land surface temperature (LST) and spectral emissivity (LSE) of the Earth are the basis for the extraction of sensitive variables in geology, pedology, vegetation monitoring, and biosphere-pedosphere interaction. Towards this end, HiTeSEM will enable the research community to evaluate the potential of emissive spectroscopy methodologies in Earth observation to answer a series of key science questions related to global change, human health, and food security. Relevant target variables include soil mineral composition, soil organic matter (SOM), surface moisture availability, evapotranspiration and stomatal/surface conductance. These are key indicators for soil productivity and plant stress in sensitive regions and can be used to govern and adapt land use practices under challenging ecological and climatic conditions. In urban remote sensing HiTeSEM is expected to furnish important information to define thermal models, which implies knowledge of the surface material composition by means of spectral emissivity retrieval. The methodological challenge of HiTeSEM lies in the development of a robust high performance temperature emissivity separation (TES) technique to allow optimum pre-processing of the measured thermal radiance signal at the sensor level.
The above science goals define the technical baseline for the proposed mission, namely a system composed of a thermal infrared spectrometer covering the spectral region of 8 – 12.5 µm with ~75 spectral channels, a swath width of 50 km - 100 km, and a ground IFOV of 60 x 60 m2 (TIR, hyperspectral) and 20 x20 m2 (TIR, broadband). The retrieval of emissivity spectra requires low noise equivalent temperatures, in the order of 0.05 K @ 300 K
A Satellite-Based Imaging Instrumentation Concept for Hyperspectral Thermal Remote Sensing
This paper describes the concept of the hyperspectral Earth-observing thermal infrared (TIR) satellite mission HiTeSEM (High-resolution Temperature and Spectral Emissivity Mapping). The scientific goal is to measure specific key variables from the biosphere, hydrosphere, pedosphere, and geosphere related to two global problems of significant societal relevance: food security and human health. The key variables comprise land and sea surface radiation temperature and emissivity, surface moisture, thermal inertia, evapotranspiration, soil minerals and grain size components, soil organic carbon, plant physiological variables, and heat fluxes. The retrieval of this information requires a TIR imaging system with adequate spatial and spectral resolutions and with day-night following observation capability. Another challenge is the monitoring of temporally high dynamic features like energy fluxes, which require adequate revisit time. The suggested solution is a sensor pointing concept to allow high revisit times for selected target regions (1–5 days at off-nadir). At the same time, global observations in the nadir direction are guaranteed with a lower temporal repeat cycle (>1 month). To account for the demand of a high spatial resolution for complex targets, it is suggested to combine in one optic (1) a hyperspectral TIR system with ~75 bands at 7.2–12.5 µm (instrument NEDT 0.05 K–0.1 K) and a ground sampling distance (GSD) of 60 m, and (2) a panchromatic high-resolution TIR-imager with two channels (8.0–10.25 µm and 10.25–12.5 µm) and a GSD of 20 m. The identified science case requires a good correlation of the instrument orbit with Sentinel-2 (maximum delay of 1–3 days) to combine data from the visible and near infrared (VNIR), the shortwave infrared (SWIR) and TIR spectral regions and to refine parameter retrieval
A Satellite-Based Imaging Instrumentation Concept for Hyperspectral Thermal Remote Sensing
This paper describes the concept of the hyperspectral Earth-observing thermal infrared (TIR) satellite mission HiTeSEM (High-resolution Temperature and Spectral Emissivity Mapping). The scientific goal is to measure specific key variables from the biosphere, hydrosphere, pedosphere, and geosphere related to two global problems of significant societal relevance: food security and human health. The key variables comprise land and sea surface radiation temperature and emissivity, surface moisture, thermal inertia, evapotranspiration, soil minerals and grain size components, soil organic carbon, plant physiological variables, and heat fluxes. The retrieval of this information requires a TIR imaging system with adequate spatial and spectral resolutions and with day-night following observation capability. Another challenge is the monitoring of temporally high dynamic features like energy fluxes, which require adequate revisit time. The suggested solution is a sensor pointing concept to allow high revisit times for selected target regions (1–5 days at off-nadir). At the same time, global observations in the nadir direction are guaranteed with a lower temporal repeat cycle (>1 month). To account for the demand of a high spatial resolution for complex targets, it is suggested to combine in one optic (1) a hyperspectral TIR system with ~75 bands at 7.2–12.5 µm (instrument NEDT 0.05 K–0.1 K) and a ground sampling distance (GSD) of 60 m, and (2) a panchromatic high-resolution TIR-imager with two channels (8.0–10.25 µm and 10.25–12.5 µm) and a GSD of 20 m. The identified science case requires a good correlation of the instrument orbit with Sentinel-2 (maximum delay of 1–3 days) to combine data from the visible and near infrared (VNIR), the shortwave infrared (SWIR) and TIR spectral regions and to refine parameter retrieval