Receiver Design, Performance Analysis, and Evaluation for Space-Borne Laser Altimeters and Space-to-Space Laser Ranging Systems

This progress report consists of two separate reports. The first one describes our work on the use of variable gain amplifiers to increase the receiver dynamic range of space borne laser altimeters such as NASA's Geoscience Laser Altimeter Systems (GLAS). The requirement of the receiver dynamic range was first calculated. A breadboard variable gain amplifier circuit was made and the performance was fully characterized. The circuit will also be tested in flight on board the Shuttle Laser Altimeter (SLA-02) next year. The second report describes our research on the master clock oscillator frequency calibration for space borne laser altimeter systems using global positioning system (GPS) receivers

Receiver design, performance analysis, and evaluation for space-borne laser altimeters and space-to-space laser ranging systems

This Interim report consists of a manuscript, 'Receiver Design for Satellite to Satellite Laser Ranging Instrument,' and copies of two papers we co-authored, 'Demonstration of High Sensitivity Laser Ranging System' and 'Semiconductor Laser-Based Ranging Instrument for Earth Gravity Measurements. ' These two papers were presented at the conference Semiconductor Lasers, Advanced Devices and Applications, August 21 -23, 1995, Keystone Colorado. The manuscript is a draft in the preparation for publication, which summarizes the theory we developed on space-borne laser ranging instrument for gravity measurements

Receiver design, performance analysis, and evaluation for space-borne laser altimeters and space-to-space laser ranging systems

This interim report consists of two reports: 'Space Radiation Effects on Si APDs for GLAS' and 'Computer Simulation of Avalanche Photodiode and Preamplifier Output for Laser Altimeters.' The former contains a detailed description of our proton radiation test of Si APD's performed at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. The latter documents the computer program subroutines which were written for the upgrade of NASA's GLAS simulator

Receiver design, performance analysis, and evaluation for space-borne laser altimeters and space-to-space laser ranging systems

We report here the design and the performance measurements of the breadboard receiver of the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS). The measured ranging accuracy was better than 2 cm and 10 cm for 5 ns and 30 ns wide received laser pulses under the expected received signal level, which agreed well with the theoretical analysis. The measured receiver sensitivity or the link margin was also consistent with the theory. The effects of the waveform digitizer sample rate and resolution were also measured

Receiver design, performance analysis, and evaluation for space-borne laser altimeters and space-to-space laser ranging systems

Laser altimeters measure the time of flight of the laser pulses to determine the range of the target. The simplest altimeter receiver consists of a photodetector followed by a leading edge detector. A time interval unit (TIU) measures the time from the transmitted laser pulse to the leading edge of the received pulse as it crosses a preset threshold. However, the ranging error of this simple detection scheme depends on the received, pulse amplitude, pulse shape, and the threshold. In practice, the pulse shape and the amplitude are determined by the target target characteristics which has to be assumed unknown prior to the measurement. The ranging error can be improved if one also measures the pulse width and use the average of the leading and trailing edges (half pulse width) as the pulse arrival time. The ranging error becomes independent of the received pulse amplitude and the pulse width as long as the pulse shape is symmetric. The pulse width also gives the slope of the target. The ultimate detection scheme is to digitize the received waveform and calculate the centroid as the pulse arrival time. The centroid detection always gives unbiased measurement even for asymmetric pulses. In this report, we analyze the laser altimeter ranging errors for these three detection schemes using the Mars Orbital Laser Altimeter (MOLA) as an example

Change in net primary production and heterotrophic respiration: How much is necessary to sustain the terrestrial carbon sink?

In recent years, the chief approaches used to describe the terrestrial carbon sink have been either (1) inferential, based on changes in the carbon content of the atmosphere and other elements of the global carbon cycle, or (2) mechanistic, applying our knowledge of terrestrial ecology to ecosystem scale processes. In this study, the two approaches are integrated by determining the change in terrestrial properties necessary to match inferred change in terrestrial carbon storage. In addition, a useful mathematical framework is developed for understanding the important features of the terrestrial carbon sink. The Carnegie‐Ames‐Stanford Approach (CASA) biosphere model, a terrestrial carbon cycle model that uses a calibrated, semimechanistic net primary production model and a mechanistic plant and soil carbon turnover model, is employed to explore carbon turnover dynamics in terms of the specific features of terrestrial ecosystems that are most important for the potential development of a carbon sink and to determine the variation in net primary production (NPP) necessary to satisfy various carbon sink estimates. Given the existence of a stimulatory mechanism acting on terrestrial NPP, net ecosystem uptake is expected to be largest where NPP is high and the turnover of carbon through plants and the soil is slow. In addition, it was found that (1) long‐term, climate‐induced change in heterotrophic respiration is not as important in determining long‐term carbon exchange as is change in NPP and (2) the terrestrial carbon sink rate is determined not by the cumulative increase in production over some pre‐industrial baseline, but rather by the rate of increase in production over the industrial period

Scrubbing up: multi-scale investigation of woody encroachment in a southern African savannah

Changes in the extent of woody vegetation represent a major conservation question in many savannah systems around the globe. To address the problem of the current lack of broad-scale cost-effective tools for land cover monitoring in complex savannah environments, we use a multi-scale approach to quantifying vegetation change in Kruger National Park (KNP), South Africa. We test whether medium spatial resolution satellite data (Landsat, existing back to the 1970s), which have pixel sizes larger than typical vegetation patches, can nevertheless capture the thematic detail required to detect woody encroachment in savannahs. We quantify vegetation change over a 13-year period in KNP, examine the changes that have occurred, assess the drivers of these changes, and compare appropriate remote sensing data sources for monitoring change. We generate land cover maps for three areas of southern KNP using very high resolution (VHR) and medium resolution satellite sensor imagery from February 2001 to 2014. Considerable land cover change has occurred, with large increases in shrubs replacing both trees and grassland. Examination of exclosure areas and potential environmental driver data suggests two mechanisms: elephant herbivory removing trees and at least one separate mechanism responsible for conversion of grassland to shrubs, theorised to be increasing atmospheric CO2. Thus, the combination of these mechanisms causes the novel two-directional shrub encroachment that we observe (tree loss and grassland conversion). Multi-scale comparison of classifications indicates that although spatial detail is lost when using medium resolution rather than VHR imagery for land cover classification (e.g., Landsat imagery cannot readily distinguish between tree and shrub classes, while VHR imagery can), the thematic detail contained within both VHR and medium resolution classifications is remarkably congruent. This suggests that medium resolution imagery contains sufficient thematic information for most broad-scale land cover monitoring requirements in heterogeneous savannahs, while having the benefits of being cost-free and providing a longer historical archive of data than VHR sources. We conclude that monitoring of broad-scale land cover change using remote sensing has considerable potential as a cost-effective tool for both better informing land management practitioners, and for monitoring the future landscape-scale impacts of management policies in savannahs

Terrestrial ecosystem production: A process model based on global satellite and surface data

This paper presents a modeling approach aimed at seasonal resolution of global climatic and edaphic controls on patterns of terrestrial ecosystem production and soil microbial respiration. We use satellite imagery (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer and International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project solar radiation), along with historical climate (monthly temperature and precipitation) and soil attributes (texture, C and N contents) from global (1°) data sets as model inputs. The Carnegie‐Ames‐Stanford approach (CASA) Biosphere model runs on a monthly time interval to simulate seasonal patterns in net plant carbon fixation, biomass and nutrient allocation, litterfall, soil nitrogen mineralization, and microbial CO2 production. The model estimate of global terrestrial net primary production is 48 Pg C yr^(−1) with a maximum light use efficiency of 0.39 g C MJ^(−1) PAR. Over 70% of terrestrial net production takes place between 30°N and 30°S latitude. Steady state pools of standing litter represent global storage of around 174 Pg C (94 and 80 Pg C in nonwoody and woody pools, respectively), whereas the pool of soil C in the top 0.3 m that is turning over on decadal time scales comprises 300 Pg C. Seasonal variations in atmospheric CO_2 concentrations from three stations in the Geophysical Monitoring for Climate Change Flask Sampling Network correlate significantly with estimated net ecosystem production values averaged over 50°–80° N, 10°–30° N, and 0°–10° N

Substrate limitations for heterotrophs: Implications for models that estimate the seasonal cycle of atmospheric CO_2

We examine the sensitivity of the seasonal cycle of heterotrophic respiration to model estimates of litterfall seasonality, herbivory, plant allocation, tissue chemistry, and land use. As a part of this analysis, we compare heterotrophic respiration models based solely on temperature and soil moisture controls (zero‐order models) with models that depend on available substrate as well (first‐order models). As indicators of regional and global CO_2 exchange, we use maps of monthly global net ecosystem production, growing season net flux (GSNF), and simulated atmospheric CO_2 concentrations from an atmospheric tracer transport model. In one first‐order model, CASA, variations on the representation of the seasonal flow of organic matter from plants to heterotrophs can increase global GSNF as much as 60% (5.7 Pg C yr^(−1)) above estimates obtained from a zero‐order model. Under a new first‐order scheme that includes separate seasonal dynamics for leaf litterfall, fine root mortality, coarse woody debris, and herbivory, we observe an increase in GSNF of 8% (0.7 Pg C yr^(−1)) over that predicted by the zero‐order model. The increase in seasonality of CO2 exchange in first‐order models reflects the dynamics of labile litter fractions; specifically, the rapid decomposition of a pulse of labile leaf and fine root litter that enters the heterotrophic community primarily from the middle to the end of the growing season shifts respiration outside the growing season. From the perspective of a first‐order model, we then explore the consequences of land use change and winter temperature anomalies on the amplitude of the seasonal cycle of atmospheric CO_2. Agricultural practices that accelerate decomposition may drive a long‐term increase in the amplitude, independent of human impacts on plant production. Consideration of first‐order litter decomposition dynamics may also help explain year‐to‐year variation in the amplitude