From M-ary Query to Bit Query: a new strategy for efficient large-scale RFID identification

The tag collision avoidance has been viewed as one of the most important research problems in RFID communications and bit tracking technology has been widely embedded in query tree (QT) based algorithms to tackle such challenge. Existing solutions show further opportunity to greatly improve the reading performance because collision queries and empty queries are not fully explored. In this paper, a bit query (BQ) strategy based Mary query tree protocol (BQMT) is presented, which can not only eliminate idle queries but also separate collided tags into many small subsets and make full use of the collided bits. To further optimize the reading performance, a modified dual prefixes matching (MDPM) mechanism is presented to allow multiple tags to respond in the same slot and thus significantly reduce the number of queries. Theoretical analysis and simulations are supplemented to validate the effectiveness of the proposed BQMT and MDPM, which outperform the existing QT-based algorithms. Also, the BQMT and MDPM can be combined to BQMDPM to improve the reading performance in system efficiency, total identification time, communication complexity and average energy cost

ECTACI: European Climatology and Trend Atlas of Climate Indices (1979–2017)

A fundamental key to understanding climate change and its implications is the availability of databases with wide spatial coverage, over a long period of time, with constant updates and high spatial resolution. This study describes a newly gridded data set and its map viewer “European Climatology and Trend Atlas of Climate Indices” (ECTACI), which contains four statistical parameters (climatology, coefficient of variation, slope, and significant trend) from 125 standard climate indices for the whole Europe at 0.25° grid intervals from 1979 to 2017 at various temporal scales (monthly, seasonal, and annual). In addition, this study shows, for the first time, the general trends of a wide variety of updated standard climate indices at seasonal and annual scales for the whole of Europe, which could be a useful tool for climate analysis and its impact on different sectors and socioeconomic activities. The data set and ECTACI map viewer are available for free (http://ECTACI.csic.es/)

Aerosol meteorology of Maritime Continent for the 2012 7SEAS southwest monsoon intensive study - Part 2: Philippine receptor observations of fine-scale aerosol behavior

Abstract. The largest 7 Southeast Asian Studies (7SEAS) operations period within the Maritime Continent (MC) occurred in the August–September 2012 biomass burning season. Data included were observations aboard the M/Y Vasco, dispatched to the Palawan Archipelago and Sulu Sea of the Philippines for September 2012. At these locations, the Vasco observed MC smoke and pollution entering the southwest monsoon (SWM) monsoonal trough. Here we describe the research cruise findings and the finer-scale aerosol meteorology of this convectively active region. This 2012 cruise complemented a 2-week cruise in 2011 and was generally consistent with previous findings in terms of how smoke emission and transport related to monsoonal flows, tropical cyclones (TC), and the covariance between smoke transport events and the atmosphere's thermodynamic structure. Biomass burning plumes were usually mixed with significant amounts of anthropogenic pollution. Also key to aerosol behavior were squall lines and cold pools propagating across the South China Sea (SCS) and scavenging aerosol particles in their path. However, the 2012 cruise showed much higher modulation in aerosol frequency than its 2011 counterpart. Whereas in 2011 large synoptic-scale aerosol events transported high concentrations of smoke into the Philippines over days, in 2012 measured aerosol events exhibited a much shorter-term variation, sometimes only 3–12 h. Strong monsoonal flow reversals were also experienced in 2012. Nucleation events in cleaner and polluted conditions, as well as in urban plumes, were observed. Perhaps most interestingly, several cases of squall lines preceding major aerosol events were observed, as opposed to 2011 observations where these lines largely scavenged aerosol particles from the marine boundary layer. Combined, these observations indicate pockets of high and low particle counts that are not uncommon in the region. These perturbations are difficult to observe by satellite and very difficult to model. Indeed, the Navy Aerosol Analysis and Prediction System (NAAPS) simulations captured longer period aerosol events quite well but largely failed to capture the timing of high-frequency phenomena. Ultimately, the research findings of these cruises demonstrate the real world challenges of satellite-based missions, significant aerosol life cycle questions such as those the future Aerosol/Clouds/Ecosystems (ACE) will investigate, and the importance of small-scale phenomena such as sea breezes, squall lines, and nucleation events embedded within SWM patterns in dominating aerosol life cycle and potential relationships to clouds

Experiments on Visual Acuity and the Visibility of Markings on the Ground in Long-duration Earth-Orbital Space Flight

Visual acuity and visibility of markings on ground in long duration earth orbital space fligh

Mapping of biophysical and biochemical properties of coastal tidal wetland habitats with Landsat 8

Coastal tidal wetlands are significant and vulnerable aquatic ecosystems. Quantitative remote sensing of biophysical and biochemical properties in coastal tidal wetland habitats through the inversion of physical models has vital practical significance for monitoring ecosystem function, environmental restoration, the global carbon, and nitrogen cycles. The objectives of this research were to map leaf area index (LAI), chlorophyll content, as well as the sensible heat flux, latent heat flux, and productivity in Chongming Dongtan coastal tidal wetland habitats of China and to provide a mapping protocol of biophysical and biochemical properties in Chongming Dongtan wetland for environmental protection and restoration as well as assessment and monitoring. In order to obtain significant information for biodiversity protection and management, a method based on the Soil Canopy Observation of Photosynthesis and Energy fluxes model and lookup table approach has been developed. The results derived from our study contain the reflectance values of Scirpus mariqueter and Phragmites australis spectra are lower than those commonly found for vegetated areas. This may be caused by the dark soil background and low LAI. Moreover, as for the values of latent heat flux (between 120 and 190 W m - 2) and productivity (between 3 and 14 μmol m - 2 s - 1), mudflats are lower than vegetation. However, the values of sensible heat flux (between 140 and 170 W m - 2) of mudflats are higher than that of vegetation. </p

The variability of urban aerosol size distributions and optical properties in São Paulo – Brazil: new particle formation events occur at the site

Non peer reviewe

Improving winter wheat yield estimation by assimilation of the leaf area index from Landsat TM and MODIS data into the WOFOST model

To predict regional-scale winter wheat yield, we developed a crop model and data assimilation framework that assimilated leaf area index (LAI) derived from Landsat TM and MODIS data into the WOFOST crop growth model. We measured LAI during seven phenological phases in two agricultural cities in China’s Hebei Province. To reduce cloud contamination, we applied Savitzky–Golay (S–G) filtering to the MODIS LAI products to obtain a filtered LAI. We then regressed field-measured LAI on Landsat TM vegetation indices to derive multi-temporal TM LAIs. We developed a nonlinear method to adjust LAI by accounting for the scale mismatch between the remotely sensed data and the model’s state variables. The TM LAI and scale-adjusted LAI datasets were assimilated into the WOFOST model to allow evaluation of the yield estimation accuracy. We constructed a four-dimensional variational data assimilation (4DVar) cost function to account for the observations and model errors during key phenological stages. We used the shuffled complex evolution–University of Arizona algorithm to minimize the 4DVar cost function between the remotely sensed and modeled LAI and to optimize two important WOFOST parameters. Finally, we simulated winter wheat yield in a 1-km grid for cells with at least 50% of their area occupied by winter wheat using the optimized WOFOST, and aggregated the results at a regional scale. The scale adjustment substantially improved the accuracy of regional wheat yield predictions (R2 = 0.48; RMSE= 151.92 kg ha−1) compared with the unassimilated results (R2 = 0.23;RMSE= 373.6 kg ha−1) and the TM LAI results (R2 = 0.27; RMSE= 191.6 kg ha−1). Thus, the assimilation performance depends strongly on the LAI retrieval accuracy and the scaling correction. Our research provides a scheme to employ remotely sensed data, ground-measured data, and a crop growth model to improve regional crop yield estimates

SAT-hadoop-processor: a distributed remote sensing big data processing software for earth observation applications

Nowadays, several environmental applications take advantage of remote sensing techniques. A considerable volume of this remote sensing data occurs in near real-time. Such data are diverse and are provided with high velocity and variety, their pre-processing requires large computing capacities, and a fast execution time is critical. This paper proposes a new distributed software for remote sensing data pre-processing and ingestion using cloud computing technology, specifically OpenStack. The developed software discarded 86% of the unneeded daily files and removed around 20% of the erroneous and inaccurate datasets. The parallel processing optimized the total execution time by 90%. Finally, the software efficiently processed and integrated data into the Hadoop storage system, notably the HDFS, HBase, and Hive.This research was funded by Erasmus+ KA 107 program, and the UPC funded the APC. This work has received funding from the Spanish Government under contracts PID2019-106774RBC21, PCI2019-111851-2 (LeadingEdge CHIST-ERA), PCI2019-111850-2 (DiPET CHIST-ERA).Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Rainfall-runoff estimation of Bojiang lake watershed using SCS-CN model coupled with GIS for watershed management

A proper understanding of watershed spatio-temporal hydrological characteristics is critical to the management of a watershed and its natural resources such as water and vegetation. Rainfall runoff estimation plays an important role as an integral part of watershed management. Runoff volume and distribution data provides valuable information for water management strategies such as selection of artificial water abstraction sites, water storage facilities, and soil erosion control strategies. In the present study Bojiang lake watershed was used to indicate the application of Soil Conservation Service Curve Number method (SCS-CN) coupled with Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) techniques. The watershed falls within Erdos Larus Relictus National Nature Reserve (ELRNNR) which was listed under the wetlands of international importance in 2002. Rainfall runoff is influenced by a variety of factors within a watershed such as soil and land use/cover types, soil moisture content, rainfall, drainage density, and shape and size of the watershed. The SCS Curve number is the most popular and widely applied method for runoff estimation. GIS and Remote Sensing play an important role in estimating surface runoff by SCS-CN method. ArcGIS 10.2 software was used to overlay different thematic layers and develop an attribute table and calculate a weighted curve number. The weighted curve number was applied to the SCS-CN equations to estimate daily, monthly, and yearly runoff. Correlation coefficient (r) was used to test for the relationship between rainfall and runoff, and verify the computation of the method. The results show an average runoff of 17.78 mm which is about 7.18% of the annual average rainfall for the years 2001-2016. The derived output maps can assist in identifying suitable areas for water recharge/abstraction. The study demonstrates that SCS-CN in conjunction with GIS and RS can be used to calculate runoff for ungagged watersheds and assist in watershed management strategies