On the De-Ramping of SLC-IW Tops SAR Data and Ocean Circulation Parameters Estimation

The spectral characteristics of single-look complex - inter-ferometric wide (SLC-IW) swath, terrain observation by progressive scan (TOPS), are significantly different from those of strip-map (SM). Due to the burst mode and series of sub-swaths, the target area is scanned for a short period of time. Therefore, swath width comes at the expense of azimuth resolution. To eliminate quadratic phase drift and achieve SLC baseband, significant processing is required. De-ramping is a necessary step to compute ocean circulation parameters. In this work, we extract ocean parameters from the complex echo signal based on data driven Doppler centroid (fDC) regardless of the OCN product information and geophysical fDC image. The radial surface velocity (RSV) is retrieved from Doppler history, and the significant wave height (SWH) is estimated with an empirical relationship of RSV. The results of ocean circulation parameters are promising when compared with benchmark and in-situ data. This work demonstrates the efficacy and necessity of de-ramping the TOPS data for subsequent use in a variety of ocean remote sensing applications

Data Vaults: a Database Welcome to Scientific File Repositories

Efficient management and exploration of high-volume scientific file repositories have become pivotal for advancement in science. We propose to demonstrate the Data Vault, an extension of the database system architecture that transparently opens scientific file repositories for efficient in-database processing and exploration. The Data Vault facilitates science data analysis using high-level declarative languages, such as the traditional SQL and the novel array-oriented SciQL. Data of interest are loaded from the attached repository in a just-in-time manner without need for up-front data ingestion. The demo is built around concrete implementations of the Data Vault for two scientific use cases: seismic time series and Earth observation images. The seismic Data Vault uses the queries submitted by the audience to illustrate the internals of Data Vault functioning by revealing the mechanisms of dynamic query plan generation and on-demand external data ingestion. The image Data Vault shows an application view from the perspective of data mining researchers

Improving knowledge discovery from synthetic aperture radar images using the linked open data cloud and Sextant

In the last few years, thanks to projects like TELEIOS, the linked open data cloud has been rapidly populated with geospatial data some of it describing Earth Observation products (e.g., CORINE Land Cover, Urban Atlas). The abundance of this data can prove very useful to the new missions (e.g., Sentinels) as a means to increase the usability of the millions of images and EO products that are expected to be produced by these missions. In this paper, we explain the relevant opportunities by demonstrating how the process of knowledge discovery from TerraSAR-X images can be improved using linked open data and Sextant, a tool for browsing and exploration of linked geospatial data, as well as the creation of thematic maps

Building Virtual Earth Observatories using Ontologies and Linked Geospatial Data

TELEIOS is a European project that addresses the need for scalable access to petabytes of Earth Observation data and the discovery of knowledge that can be used in applications. To achieve this, TELEIOS builds on scientific database technologies (array databases, SciQL, data vaults), Semantic Web technologies (stRDF and stSPARQL) and linked geospatial data. In this technical communication we outline the TELEIOS advancements to the state of the art and give an overview of its technical contributions up to today

Probabilistic downscaling of remote sensing data with applications for multi-scale biogeochemical flux modeling

Upscaling ecological information to larger scales in space and downscaling remote sensing observations or model simulations to finer scales remain grand challenges in Earth system science. Downscaling often involves inferring subgrid information from coarse-scale data, and such ill-posed problems are classically addressed using regularization. Here, we apply two-dimensional Tikhonov Regularization (2DTR) to simulate subgrid surface patterns for ecological applications. Specifically, we test the ability of 2DTR to simulate the spatial statistics of high-resolution (4 m) remote sensing observations of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) in a tundra landscape. We find that the 2DTR approach as applied here can capture the major mode of spatial variability of the high-resolution information, but not multiple modes of spatial variability, and that the Lagrange multiplier (γ) used to impose the condition of smoothness across space is related to the range of the experimental semivariogram. We used observed and 2DTR-simulated maps of NDVI to estimate landscape-level leaf area index (LAI) and gross primary productivity (GPP). NDVI maps simulated using a γ value that approximates the range of observed NDVI result in a landscape-level GPP estimate that differs by ca 2% from those created using observed NDVI. Following findings that GPP per unit LAI is lower near vegetation patch edges, we simulated vegetation patch edges using multiple approaches and found that simulated GPP declined by up to 12% as a result. 2DTR can generate random landscapes rapidly and can be applied to disaggregate ecological information and compare of spatial observations against simulated landscapes

Baseline characteristics of patients in the reduction of events with darbepoetin alfa in heart failure trial (RED-HF)

<p>Aims: This report describes the baseline characteristics of patients in the Reduction of Events with Darbepoetin alfa in Heart Failure trial (RED-HF) which is testing the hypothesis that anaemia correction with darbepoetin alfa will reduce the composite endpoint of death from any cause or hospital admission for worsening heart failure, and improve other outcomes.</p> <p>Methods and results: Key demographic, clinical, and laboratory findings, along with baseline treatment, are reported and compared with those of patients in other recent clinical trials in heart failure. Compared with other recent trials, RED-HF enrolled more elderly [mean age 70 (SD 11.4) years], female (41%), and black (9%) patients. RED-HF patients more often had diabetes (46%) and renal impairment (72% had an estimated glomerular filtration rate <60 mL/min/1.73 m2). Patients in RED-HF had heart failure of longer duration [5.3 (5.4) years], worse NYHA class (35% II, 63% III, and 2% IV), and more signs of congestion. Mean EF was 30% (6.8%). RED-HF patients were well treated at randomization, and pharmacological therapy at baseline was broadly similar to that of other recent trials, taking account of study-specific inclusion/exclusion criteria. Median (interquartile range) haemoglobin at baseline was 112 (106–117) g/L.</p> <p>Conclusion: The anaemic patients enrolled in RED-HF were older, moderately to markedly symptomatic, and had extensive co-morbidity.</p&gt