Airborne laser sensors and integrated systems

The underlying principles and technologies enabling the design and operation of airborne laser sensors are introduced and a detailed review of state-of-the-art avionic systems for civil and military applications is presented. Airborne lasers including Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR), Laser Range Finders (LRF), and Laser Weapon Systems (LWS) are extensively used today and new promising technologies are being explored. Most laser systems are active devices that operate in a manner very similar to microwave radars but at much higher frequencies (e.g., LIDAR and LRF). Other devices (e.g., laser target designators and beam-riders) are used to precisely direct Laser Guided Weapons (LGW) against ground targets. The integration of both functions is often encountered in modern military avionics navigation-attack systems. The beneficial effects of airborne lasers including the use of smaller components and remarkable angular resolution have resulted in a host of manned and unmanned aircraft applications. On the other hand, laser sensors performance are much more sensitive to the vagaries of the atmosphere and are thus generally restricted to shorter ranges than microwave systems. Hence it is of paramount importance to analyse the performance of laser sensors and systems in various weather and environmental conditions. Additionally, it is important to define airborne laser safety criteria, since several systems currently in service operate in the near infrared with considerable risk for the naked human eye. Therefore, appropriate methods for predicting and evaluating the performance of infrared laser sensors/systems are presented, taking into account laser safety issues. For aircraft experimental activities with laser systems, it is essential to define test requirements taking into account the specific conditions for operational employment of the systems in the intended scenarios and to verify the performance in realistic environments at the test ranges. To support the development of such requirements, useful guidelines are provided for test and evaluation of airborne laser systems including laboratory, ground and flight test activities

Earth resources: A continuing bibliography with indexes

This bibliography lists 579 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system. Emphasis is placed on the use of remote sensing and geophysical instrumentation in spacecraft and aircraft to survey and inventory natural resources and urban areas. Subject matter is grouped according to agriculture and forestry, environmental changes and cultural resources, geodesy and cartography, geology and mineral resources, hydrology and water management, data processing and distribution systems, instrumentation and sensors, and economical analysis

Earth Resources: A continuing bibliography with indexes, issue 36

This bibliography lists 576 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information System between October 1 and December 31, 1982. Emphasis is placed on the use of remote sensing and geophysical instrumentation in spacecraft and aircraft to survey and inventory natural resources and urban areas. Subject matter is grouped according to agriculture and forestry, environmental changes and cultural resources, geodesy and cartography, geology and mineral resources, hydrology and water management, data processing and distribution systems, instrumentation and sensors, and economic analysis

Earth Resources: A continuing bibliography with indexes, issue 1

This bibliography lists 616 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system between January 1974 and March 1974. Emphasis is placed on the use of remote sensing and geophysical instrumentation in spacecraft and aircraft to survey and inventory, natural resources and urban areas. Subject matter is grouped according to agriculture and forestry, environmental changes and cultural resources, geodesy and cartography, geology and mineral resources, oceanography and marine resources, hydrology and water management, data processing and distribution systems, instrumentation and sensors, and economic analysis

Applications of ISES for vegetation and land use

Remote sensing relative to applications involving vegetation cover and land use is reviewed to consider the potential benefits to the Earth Observing System (Eos) of a proposed Information Sciences Experiment System (ISES). The ISES concept has been proposed as an onboard experiment and computational resource to support advanced experiments and demonstrations in the information and earth sciences. Embedded in the concept is potential for relieving the data glut problem, enhancing capabilities to meet real-time needs of data users and in-situ researchers, and introducing emerging technology to Eos as the technology matures. These potential benefits are examined in the context of state-of-the-art research activities in image/data processing and management

Airborne S-Band SAR for forest biophysical retrieval in temperate mixed forests of the UK

Radar backscatter from forest canopies is related to forest cover, canopy structure and aboveground biomass (AGB). The S-band frequency (3.1–3.3 GHz) lies between the longer L-band (1–2 GHz) and the shorter C-band (5–6 GHz) and has been insufficiently studied for forest applications due to limited data availability. In anticipation of the British built NovaSAR-S satellite mission, this study evaluates the benefits of polarimetric S-band SAR for forest biophysical properties. To understand the scattering mechanisms in forest canopies at S-band the Michigan Microwave Canopy Scattering (MIMICS-I) radiative transfer model was used. S-band backscatter was found to have high sensitivity to the forest canopy characteristics across all polarisations and incidence angles. This sensitivity originates from ground/trunk interaction as the dominant scattering mechanism related to broadleaved species for co-polarised mode and specific incidence angles. The study was carried out in the temperate mixed forest at Savernake Forest and Wytham Woods in southern England, where airborne S-band SAR imagery and field data are available from the recent AirSAR campaign. Field data from the test sites revealed wide ranges of forest parameters, including average canopy height (6–23 m), diameter at breast-height (7–42 cm), basal area (0.2–56 m2/ha), stem density (20–350 trees/ha) and woody biomass density (31–520 t/ha). S-band backscatter-biomass relationships suggest increasing backscatter sensitivity to forest AGB with least error between 90.63 and 99.39 t/ha and coefficient of determination (r2) between 0.42 and 0.47 for the co-polarised channel at 0.25 ha resolution. The conclusion is that S-band SAR data such as from NovaSAR-S is suitable for monitoring forest aboveground biomass less than 100 t/ha at 25 m resolution in low to medium incidence angle rang

Linear mixing model applied to coarse resolution satellite data

A linear mixing model typically applied to high resolution data such as Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer, Thematic Mapper, and Multispectral Scanner System is applied to the NOAA Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer coarse resolution satellite data. The reflective portion extracted from the middle IR channel 3 (3.55 - 3.93 microns) is used with channels 1 (0.58 - 0.68 microns) and 2 (0.725 - 1.1 microns) to run the Constrained Least Squares model to generate fraction images for an area in the west central region of Brazil. The derived fraction images are compared with an unsupervised classification and the fraction images derived from Landsat TM data acquired in the same day. In addition, the relationship betweeen these fraction images and the well known NDVI images are presented. The results show the great potential of the unmixing techniques for applying to coarse resolution data for global studies

Literature review of the remote sensing of natural resources

Abstracts of 596 documents related to remote sensors or the remote sensing of natural resources by satellite, aircraft, or ground-based stations are presented. Topics covered include general theory, geology and hydrology, agriculture and forestry, marine sciences, urban land use, and instrumentation. Recent documents not yet cited in any of the seven information sources used for the compilation are summarized. An author/key word index is provided

Aboveground Forest Biomass Estimation with Landsat and LiDAR Data and Uncertainty Analysis of the Estimates

Landsat Thematic mapper (TM) image has long been the dominate data source, and recently LiDAR has offered an important new structural data stream for forest biomass estimations. On the other hand, forest biomass uncertainty analysis research has only recently obtained sufficient attention due to the difficulty in collecting reference data. This paper provides a brief overview of current forest biomass estimation methods using both TM and LiDAR data. A case study is then presented that demonstrates the forest biomass estimation methods and uncertainty analysis. Results indicate that Landsat TM data can provide adequate biomass estimates for secondary succession but are not suitable for mature forest biomass estimates due to data saturation problems. LiDAR can overcome TM’s shortcoming providing better biomass estimation performance but has not been extensively applied in practice due to data availability constraints. The uncertainty analysis indicates that various sources affect the performance of forest biomass/carbon estimation. With that said, the clear dominate sources of uncertainty are the variation of input sample plot data and data saturation problem related to optical sensors. A possible solution to increasing the confidence in forest biomass estimates is to integrate the strengths of multisensor data