Use of ERTS data for mapping snow cover in the western United States

The purpose of this investigation is to evaluate the application of ERTS data for mapping snow cover, primarily in the mountainous areas of the western United States. The specific objectives are to determine the spectral interval most suitable for snow detection, to determine the accuracy with which snow lines can be mapped in comparison with the accuracies attainable from other types of measurements, and to develop techniques to differentiate reliably between snow and clouds and to understand the effects of terrain and forest cover on snow detection

The application of ERTS imagery to monitoring Arctic sea ice

The author has identified the following significant results. Because of the effect of sea ice on the heat balance of the Arctic and because of the expanding economic interest in arctic oil and minerals, extensive monitoring and further study of sea ice is required. The application of ERTS data for mapping ice is evaluated for several arctic areas, including the Bering Sea, the eastern Beaufort Sea, parts of the Canadian Archipelago, and the Greenland Sea. Interpretive techniques are discussed, and the scales and types of ice features that can be detected are described. For the Bering Sea, a sample of ERTS-1 imagery is compared with visual ice reports and aerial photography from the NASA CV-990 aircraft. The results of the investigation demonstrate that ERTS-1 imagery has substantial practical application for monitoring arctic sea ice. Ice features as small as 80-100 m in width can be detected, and the combined use of the visible and near-IR imagery is a powerful tool for identifying ice types. Sequential ERTS-1 observations at high latitudes enable ice deformations and movements to be mapped. Ice conditions in the Bering Sea during early March depicted in ERTS-1 images are in close agreement with aerial ice observations and photographs

Sparsity and `Something Else': An Approach to Encrypted Image Folding

A property of sparse representations in relation to their capacity for information storage is discussed. It is shown that this feature can be used for an application that we term Encrypted Image Folding. The proposed procedure is realizable through any suitable transformation. In particular, in this paper we illustrate the approach by recourse to the Discrete Cosine Transform and a combination of redundant Cosine and Dirac dictionaries. The main advantage of the proposed technique is that both storage and encryption can be achieved simultaneously using simple processing steps.Comment: Revised manuscript- Software for implementing the Encrypted Image Folding proposed in this paper is available on http://www.nonlinear-approx.info

The Committee on Lands of the Conservation Commission, Canada, 1909-1921: Romantic Agrarianism in Ontario in an Age of Agricultural Realism

The Conservation Commission of Canada (CCC) was formed in 1909 as an advisory body to Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier. It was divided into eight committees, each of which dealt with the management of a specific natural resource. The Committee on Lands (CL) was composed of members who were unable to accept or understand the changes in contemporary agriculture as it moved into the twentieth century. Dr. James Robertson, chair of the CL, was a staunch agrarian romantic, who believed that the most important attribute of agriculture was the moral, individual and spiritual benefit which it conveyed to the individual. The recommendations and projects of the CL were inappropriate and often outdated and redundant. Their endeavours were noted and appreciated by farmers, but their work had no lasting effect on agriculture in Ontario. The official concept of 'conservation', defined by the CCC, was based on efficient management of Canadian natural resources, including the soil. In reality, the CL interpreted conservation to mean the preservation of a vanishing rural lifestyle.La Commission de Conservation du Canada (CCC) a été créée en 1909 pour agir comme organe aviseur auprès du premier ministre libéral Wilfrid Laurier. Au nombre de ses huit comités chargés chacun de la gestion d’une ressource naturelle spécifique, le Comité sur les terres (CT) était composé de membres incapables d’accepter ou de comprendre les changements auxquels était confrontée l’agriculture à l’aube du vingtième siècle. Le Dr. James Robertson, président du CT, était un romantique fidèle aux valeurs de la terre, convaincu des bénéfices moraux, individuels et spirituels qu’elle apportait. Les recommandations et projets du CT étaient souvent inappropriés, mal adaptés à leur époque ou redondants. Les efforts de ses membres furent appréciés par les fermiers, mais leur travail n’a eu aucun effet durable sur l’agriculture ontarienne. Le concept officiel de « conservation », tel que défini par la CCC, se fondait sur la gestion efficace des ressources naturelles canadiennes, incluant la terre, mais fut en fait interprété par le CT comme un moyen de préserver le mode de vie agricole en voie de disparition

A study to develop improved spacecraft show survey methods using Skylab/EREP data: Demonstration of the utility of the S190 and S192 data

The author has identified the following significant results. This interim report provides a demonstration of the utility of spacecraft acquired Skylab S190A and S190B photography and S192 imagery for mapping areal extent of snow cover in western United States test site areas. The data sample is from the SL-2 mission flown in June 1973. Results of the investigation indicate that areal snow cover extent can be mapped more accurately from the S190A and S190B photography than from any other spacecraft system, including ERTS. The results of a qualitative analysis of the S192 imagery indicate considerable potential for the utility of multispectral snow cover analysis; the potential for distinguishing snow from clouds automatically is particularly significant

The evolution of satellite snow mapping with emphasis on the use of LANDSAT in the snow ASUT study areas

There are no author-identified significant results in this report