Hyperspectral Analysis of Oil and Oil-Impacted Soils for Remote Sensing Purposes

While conventional multispectral sensors record the radiometric signal only at a handful of wavelengths, hyperspectral sensors measure the reflected solar signal at hundreds contiguous and narrow wavelength bands, spanning from the visible to the infrared. Hyperspectral images provide ample spectral information to identify and distinguish between spectrally similar (but unique) materials, providing the ability to make proper distinctions among materials with only subtle signature differences. Hyperspectral images show hence potentiality for proper discrimination between oil slicks and other natural phenomena (look-alike); and even for proper distinctions between oil types. Additionally they can give indications on oil volume. At present, many airborne hyperspectral sensors are available to collect data, but only two civil spaceborn hyperspectral sensors exist as technology demonstrator: the Hyperion sensor on NASA’s EO-1 satellite and the CHRIS sensor on the European Space Agency’s PROBA satellite. Consequently, the concrete opportunity to use spaceborn hyperspectral remote sensing for operational oil spill monitoring is yet not available. Nevertheless, it is clear that the future of satellite hyperspectral remote sensing of oil pollution in the marine/coastal environment is very promising. In order to correctly interpret the hyperspectral data, the retrieved spectral signatures must be correlated to specific materials. Therefore specific spectral libraries, containing the spectral signature of the materials to be detected, must be built up. This requires that highly accurate reflected light measurements of samples of the investigated material must be performed in the lab or in the field. Accurate measurements of the spectral reflectance of several samples of oil-contaminated soils have been performed in the laboratory, in the 400-2500 nm wavelength range. Samples of the oils spilt from the Erika and the Prestige tankers during the major accidents of 1999 and 2002 were also collected and analyzed in the same spectral range, using a portable spectrophotometer. All measurements showed the typical absorption features of hydrocarbon-bearing substances: the two absorption peaks centered at 1732 and 2310 nm.JRC.G.3-Agricultur

Analysis of adjacency effects for Copernicus Ocean Colour Missions

The Copernicus Programme was established by the European Union (Regulation EU No377/2014) to develop European information services based on satellite Earth Observation (EO) and in situ data. Among the six Copernicus Services, the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS) and the marine component of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) both rely on EO data delivered by satellite ocean color (OC) sensors, i.e., primary OC radiometric products (such as the radiance Lw leaving the water body) and Chlorophyll-a concentrations (Chla, a proxy for phytoplankton biomass). These variables, able to provide unique monitoring capabilities of the green marine environment, have been identified by the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) as Essential Ocean Variables (EOV) to monitor the health of the oceans, and by the Global Climate Observation System (GCOS) as Essential Climate Variable (ECV) to support the work of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). ECV contributing to the creation of Climate Data Records (CDRs) needs to accomplish high accuracy requirements. This is particularly demanding in coastal water, where the simultaneous presence of non-covarying in-water optically active components (i.e., pigments, colored dissolved organic matter and suspended sediments) and potential contributions from sea-bottom and nearby land leads to rather complex bio-optical properties. As such, while the determination of the optical properties of the open ocean from satellite measurements is nowadays largely established, the remote sensing of coastal waters still represents an open challenge. Nonetheless, the economical and environmental importance of coastal zones is widely acknowledged: a large portion of the global population lives in coastal areas, whereas coastal marine habitats are extremely sensitive to the impacts of climate variability and change. A specific action for the coordination of enhanced shelf and coastal observations for climate has been indeed designed by the GCOS Implementation Plan (GCOS, 2016) with the aim to define detailed specific observational requirements for an improved understanding, assessment and prediction of the impact of climate in the coastal environment. ECV high accuracy requirements imply a thorough evaluation of the uncertainties affecting satellite and in situ data, and the procedures applied for the retrieval of OC products from the satellite observations. Within such a framework, the present report focuses on the uncertainties induced by nearby land in OC observations of coastal regions, summarizing most recent quantifications and analyses. Standard algorithms for the processing of satellite data generally assume an infinite water surface, and hence neglect the presence of the nearby land. As a consequence, the radiance reflected by the land and then scattered by the atmosphere in the field of view of a satellite sensor observing a water target represents a source of perturbations leading to uncertainties in OC products. This phenomenon is called adjacency effects (AE), and always occurs in the presence of a scattering medium overlaying a surface of non-homogeneous reflecting properties. Specific attention is given to AE affecting marine observations by two EO-dedicated satellite sensors of the Copernicus Space component: i) the Ocean and Land Colour Instrument (OLCI) on board Sentinel-3, specifically developed to deliver OC observations of the sea; and ii) the MultiSpectral Imagery (MSI) on board Sentinel-2, which, aims at providing high-resolution optical land imagery, but also acquires data up to 20 km offshore. AE are quantified and analyzed for a wide range of typical mid-latitude coastal environments and for specific case studies, i.e., the Aqua Alta Oceanographic Tower (AAOT) validation site located in the Northern Adriatic Sea, included in the Ocean Color component of the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET-OC), also considered for vicarious calibrations of marine MSI data; and the marine region surrounding the Lampedusa Island located in the Southern Mediterranean Sea, hosting a validation site, and considered for long-term vicarious calibrations of OLCI data. The study analyzes the relevance of AE in the signal at the sensor with regard to standardized signal-to-noise ratios (SNR). Considerations are also drawn on perturbations induced by AE in satellite radiometric products. The content of this Report builds on the long-standing experience of the JRC on the modeling of OC satellite and in situ observations. This experience counts on the development and decadal utilization of highly accurate radiative transfer models (RTM) for the propagation of the solar radiation in the atmosphere-ocean system. These in-house modeling capabilities (the Advanced Radiative Transfer Models for In-situ and Satellite Ocean color data, ARTEMIS-OC) comprise a plane-parallel numerical RTM based on the finite element method and a three-dimensional (3D) MonteCarlo (MC) code. Overall, this Report summarizes a number of recent investigations led by the JRC on AE in satellite observations of coastal waters. The final objective is to consolidate in a single document theoretical findings and considerations about adjacency perturbations from nearby land in the coastal remote sensing observations performed within the Copernicus Programme. Briefly, the various Chapters summarize: • The general definition and description of the AE, while briefly illustrating the applied modeling technique; • The theoretical quantification of AE for a wide range of typical mid-latitude coastal environments. • The theoretical evaluation of AE at the AAOT and Lampedusa validation sites.JRC.D.2-Water and Marine Resource

Ocean Colour Calibration and Validation: The JRC contribution to Copernicus

Copernicus Sentinel-3 missions, including the ongoing Sentinel-3A and -3B and the future Sentinel-3C and -3D, offer an unprecedented opportunity for long-term ocean colour observations to support global environmental and climate investigations. Nevertheless, any ocean colour mission incorporates calibration and validation activities essential for the indirect calibration of the space sensor and the validation of data products. These calibration and validation activities are largely centered on the production of highly accurate in situ reference measurements relying on state of the art measurement methods and instrumentation. Since the start of the operational ocean colour missions in 1997, the JRC sustained the required calibration and validation activities by developing unique expertise and setting up specific measurement programs and infrastructures. This expertise, measurement programs and infrastructures, currently support the Copernicus ocean colour calibration and validation tasks through the delivery and exploitation of in situ reference data essential for the quality control of satellite data products. This Technical Report aims at providing: i. a general introduction to the ocean colour paradigm; ii. an extended synopsis of requirements and strategies for satellite ocean colour missions with a detailed focus on the JRC experimental activities carried out during the last decades; and finally iii. a discussion supporting the need for a sustained support of the JRC laboratory and field measurement programs assisting the production and exploitation of in situ reference data for the validation of Sentinel-3 ocean colour products. The Report, mostly through section 2, should naturally satisfy readers interested in appraising the specific JRC activities performed to support ocean colour calibration and validation. The same Report through sections 1 and 3, should also satisfy the need for more essential information supporting the need for sustaining the JRC ocean colour validation activities currently embedded in the Copernicus Earth Observation program of major relevance for global marine and climate investigations.JRC.D.2-Water and Marine Resource

Toward an assessment of the fitness-for-purpose of Copernicus ocean colour data

The Copernicus Program has been established through the Regulation EU No377/2014 with the objective to ensure long-term and sustained provision of accurate and reliable data on environment and security through dedicated services. Among these, the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service and the marine component of the Climate Change Service, both rely on satellite ocean colour observations delivering data on water quality and climate relevant quantities such as chlorophyll-a concentration used as a proxy for phytoplankton biomass. This Report, building on the long-standing experience of the JRC on ocean colour, summarizes a number of recent investigations essential to assess the fitness-for-purpose of Copernicus ocean colour data products. These investigations embrace: i. The accuracy of radiometry data from the Ocean and Land Colour Instrument (OLCI) on board Sentinel-3a. The assessment is performed relying on geographically distributed in situ reference measurements from autonomous systems and dedicated oceanographic campaigns. ii. Uncertainty analysis of ocean colours radiometry data from a number of international missions. The analysis aims at assessing the potentials for the construction of Climate Data Records (CDRs) from independent missions. iii. The impact of adjacency effects in coastal data limiting the accuracy of ocean colour radiometry products. The study relies on state-of-the-art radiative transfer simulations and aims at quantifying adjacency effects in space data from sensors exhibiting different signal-to-noise ratios. iv. Uncertainties affecting in situ radiometry data as a result of the lack of comprehensive characterizations of field instruments. This is an attempt to illustrate the fundamental importance of comprehensive radiometric calibrations and characterizations for in situ instruments supporting validation activities. v. Reproducibility of the experimental determination of pigments concentrations for the validation of satellite data products. The analysis documents the differences affecting the quantification of pigments concentrations through the applicationJRC.D.2-Water and Marine Resource

Assessment of Copernicus OLCI Ocean Colour Data

The Copernicus Program has been established through the Regulation EU No377/2014 with the objective to ensure long-term and sustained provision of accurate and reliable data on environment and security through dedicated services. Among these, the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service and the marine component of the Climate Change Service, both rely on satellite ocean colour observations delivering data on water quality and climate relevant quantities such as chlorophyll-a concentration used as a proxy for phytoplankton biomass. This report summarizes results from activities carried out at the Joint Research Centre (JRC) to assess Copernicus Sentinel-3A and Sentinel-3B Ocean Land Colour Instrument (OLCI) radiometric data products in view of ensuring their confident use in environmental and climate applications.JRC.D.2-Water and Marine Resource

Dendritic cell vaccination in metastatic melanoma turns \u201cnon-T cell inflamed\u201d into \u201cT-cell inflamed\u201d tumors

Dendritic cell (DC)-based vaccination effectively induces anti-tumor immunity, although in the majority of cases this does not translate into a durable clinical response. However, DC vaccination is characterized by a robust safety profile, making this treatment a potential candidate for effective combination cancer immunotherapy. To explore this possibility, understanding changes occurring in the tumor microenvironment (TME) upon DC vaccination is required. In this line, quantitative and qualitative changes in tumor-infiltrating T lymphocytes (TILs) induced by vaccination with autologous tumor lysate/homogenate loaded DCs were investigated in a series of 16 patients with metastatic melanoma. Immunohistochemistry for CD4, CD8, Foxp3, Granzyme B (GZMB), PDL1, and HLA class I was performed in tumor biopsies collected before and after DC vaccination. The density of each marker was quantified by automated digital pathology analysis on whole slide images. Co-expression of markers defining functional phenotypes, i.e., Foxp3+ regulatory CD4+ T cells (Treg) and GZMB+ cytotoxic CD8+ T cells, was assessed with sequential immunohistochemistry. A significant increase of CD8+ TILs was found in post-vaccine biopsies of patients who were not previously treated with immune-modulating cytokines or Ipilimumab. Interestingly, along with a maintained tumoral HLA class I expression, after DC vaccination we observed a significant increase of PDL1+ tumor cells, which significantly correlated with intratumoral CD8+ T cell density. This observation might explain the lack of a significant concurrent cytotoxic reactivation of CD8+ T cell, as measured by the numbers of GZMB+ T cells. Altogether these findings indicate that DC vaccination exerts an important role in sustaining or de novo inducing a T cell inflamed TME. However, the strength of the intratumoral T cell activation detected in post-DC therapy lesions is lessened by an occurring phenomenon of adaptive immune resistance, yet the concomitant PDL1 up-regulation. Overall, this study sheds light on DC immunotherapy-induced TME changes, lending the rationale for the design of smarter immune-combination therapies

RTE numerical solution methods: Finite element

The finite element method (FEM, for example, Bulgarelli B et al 1999) is a discretization technique of the radiative transfer equation (RTE), like the discrete ordinate method (DOM) and the spherical-harmonics method (SHM).JRC.DG.G.4-Maritime affair

Reflection of Light from a Rough Water Surface in Numerical Methods for Solving the Radiative Transfer Equation.

Abstract not availableJRC.H-Institute for environment and sustainability (Ispra

Seasonal Impact of Adjacency Effects in Ocean Color Radiometry at the AAOT Validation Site

The seasonal impact of adjacency effects (AE) on satellite ocean color data at visible and near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths by the Sea-Viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer onboard the Aqua platform (MODISA), the Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer, the Ocean and Land Color Instrument, the Opera- tional Land Imager (OLI), and the MultiSpectral Imagery (MSI) was theoretically evaluated at a validation site in the northern Adriatic Sea. The analysis made use of comprehensive simula- tions accounting for multiple scattering, sea surface roughness, sensor viewing geometry, actual coastline, typical and extreme atmospheric conditions, and the seasonal variability of solar illumination and, land and water optical properties. Results, obtained by relying on the normalization of the radiometric sensitivity of each sensor to the same input radiance, show that the spectral and seasonal impacts of AE considerably vary among sensors. AE significantly exceed the radiometric sensitivity of MSI at its sole blue band in winter, whereas they significantly outdo the noise threshold of OLI and MODISA high- resolution data exclusively in the NIR in summer. Conversely, for all other sensors and for MODISA low-resolution data, AE are particularly significant at NIR bands between March and October and at the blue–green bands in winter.JRC.D.2-Water and Marine Resource