Irrigated grassland monitoring using a time series of terraSAR-X and COSMO-skyMed X-Band SAR Data

[Departement_IRSTEA]Territoires [TR1_IRSTEA]SYNERGIE [Axe_IRSTEA]TETIS-ATTOSInternational audienceThe objective of this study was to analyze the sensitivity of radar signals in the X-band in irrigated grassland conditions. The backscattered radar signals were analyzed according to soil moisture and vegetation parameters using linear regression models. A time series of radar (TerraSAR-X and COSMO-SkyMed) and optical (SPOT and LANDSAT) images was acquired at a high temporal frequency in 2013 over a small agricultural region in southeastern France. Ground measurements were conducted simultaneously with the satellite data acquisitions during several grassland growing cycles to monitor the evolution of the soil and vegetation characteristics. The comparison between the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) computed from optical images and the in situ Leaf Area Index (LAI) showed a logarithmic relationship with a greater scattering for the dates corresponding to vegetation well developed before the harvest. The correlation between the NDVI and the vegetation parameters (LAI, vegetation height, biomass, and vegetation water content) was high at the beginning of the growth cycle. This correlation became insensitive at a certain threshold corresponding to high vegetation (LAI ~2.5 m2/m2). Results showed that the radar signal depends on variations in soil moisture, with a higher sensitivity to soil moisture for biomass lower than 1 kg/m². HH and HV polarizations had approximately similar sensitivities to soil moisture. The penetration depth of the radar wave in the X-band was high, even for dense and high vegetation; flooded areas were visible in the images with higher detection potential in HH polarization than in HV polarization, even for vegetation heights reaching 1 m. Lower sensitivity was observed at the X-band between the radar signal and the vegetation parameters with very limited potential of the X-band to monitor grassland growth. These results showed that it is possible to track gravity irrigation and soil moisture variations from SAR X-band images acquired at high spatial resolution (an incidence angle near 30°)

Study of the stability of egg white protein-based foams : effect of heating protein solution

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Contribution de la télédétection à l'évaluation des effets de la sécheresse sur les écosystèmes forestiers

International audienceDue to their synoptic and monitoring capacities, Earth observation satellites could prove useful for the assessment and evaluation of drought effects in forest ecosystems. The objectives of this article are: to briefly review the existing sources of remote sensing data and their potential to detect drought damage; to review the remote sensing applications and studies carried out during the last two decades aiming at detecting and quantifying disturbances caused by various stress factors, and especially those causing effects similar to drought; to explore the possibility to use some of the different available systems for setting up a strategy more adapted to monitoring of drought effects in forests.Grâce à leurs capacités de surveillance continue, les satellites d'observation de la Terre pourraient s'avérer utiles pour l'évaluation des effets de la sécheresse sur les écosystèmes forestiers. Les objectifs de cet article sont : de passer en revue rapidement les sources actuelles de données de télédétection et leur potentiel pour la détection des dommages dus à la sécheresse ; de passer en revue les études et applications de télédétection conduites pendant les 2 dernières décennies et visant à détecter et quantifier les perturbations induites par différents facteurs de stress, et en particulier ceux causant des effets semblables à ceux de la sécheresse ; d'explorer la possibilité d'utiliser certains des systèmes disponibles pour définir une stratégie adaptée au suivi continu des effets de la sécheresse sur les forêts

Quality assessment of the MAJA atmospheric correction processor over a farmland area with a new operational in-situ ROSAS station

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Estimation de l'humidité du sol à l'aide de radar et d'images optiques sur les zones de prairies

International audienceThe purpose of this study was to develop an inversion approach to estimate soil moisture over Grassland areas by coupling SAR and optical data. A time series of radar (TerraSAR-X and COSMO-SkyMed) and optical (SPOT 4/5, LANDSAT 7/8) images were acquired over an agriculture region in southeastern France. In most cases, the optical and radar images were not separated by more than four days. Ground-truth measurements of volumetric soil moisture and vegetation descriptors were performed simultaneously with image acquisitions

Quality assessment of the MAJA atmospheric correction processor over a farmland area with a new operational in-situ ROSAS station

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Assessment of daily MODIS snow cover products to monitor snow cover dynamics over the Moroccan Atlas mountain range

In semi-arid Mediterranean areas, the snow in the mountains represents an important source of water supply for many people living downstream. This study assessed the daily MODIS fractional snow-covered area (FSC) products over seven catchments with a mixed snow-rain hydrological regime, covering the Atlas chain in Morocco. For this purpose, more than 4760 daily MODIS tiles (MOD10A1 version 5) from September 2000 to June 2013 were processed, based on a spatio-temporal filtering algorithm aiming at reducing cloud coverage and the problem of discrimination between snow and cloud. The number of pixels identified as cloudy was reduced by 96% from 22.6% to 0.8%. In situ data from five snow stations were used to investigate the relative accuracy of MODE snow products. The overall accuracy is equal to 89% (with a 0.1 m. threshold for snow depth). The timing of the seasonal snow was also correctly detected with 11.4 days and 9.4 days of average errors with almost no bias for onset and ablation dates, respectively. The comparison of the FSC products to a series of 15 clear sky FORMOSAT-2 images at 8 m resolution in the Rheraya sub-basin near to Marrakech showed a good correlation of the two datasets (r = 0.97) and a reasonable negative bias of -27 km(2). Finally, the FSC products were analyzed through seasonal indicators including onset and melt-out dates, the Snow Cover Duration (SCD) and the maximum snow cover extent (SCAmax) at the catchment level: (1) the dynamic of the snow cover area is characterized by a very strong inter-annual signal with a variation coefficient of the SCAmax reaching 77%; (2) there is no evidence of a statistically significant long-term trend although results have pointed out that the SCD increased in February-March and, to a lesser extent, decreased in April-May for the 2000-2013 period. The study concludes that the daily MODIS product can be used with reasonable confidence to map snow cover in the South Mediterranean area despite difficult detection conditions

Assessing the potentialities of FORMOSAT-2 data for water and crop monitoring at small regional scale in South-Eastern France

International audienceWater monitoring at the scale of a small agricultural region is a key point to insure a good crop development particularly in South-Eastern France, where extreme climatic conditions result in long dry periods in spring and summer with very sparse precipitation events, corresponding to a crucial period of crop development. Remote sensing with the increasing imagery resolution is a useful tool to provide information on plant water status over various temporal and spatial scales. The current study focussed on assessing the potentialities of FORMOSAT-2 data, characterized by high spatial (8m pixel) and temporal resolutions (1-3 day/time revisit), to improve crop modeling and spatial estimation of the main land properties. Thirty cloud free images were acquired from March to October 2006 over a small region called Crau-Camargue in SE France, while numerous ground measurements were performed simultaneously over various crop types. We have compared two models simulating energy transfers between soil, vegetation and atmosphere: SEBAL and PBLs. Maps of evapotranspiration were analyzed according to the agricultural practices at field scale. These practices were well identified from FORMOSAT-2 images, which provided accurate input surface parameters to the SVAT models

The Theia Land Data Centre

International audienceThis paper describes the Theia Land Data Centre, its service and data infrastructure, network of scientific expertise centres, product portfolio and main activities. The paper emphasizes in its conclusion the connection between Theia and the Copernicus programme at European level, and the forthcoming Remote Sensing Data Infrastructure network at international level.Ce document décrit le Centre de données Théia, son service et son infrastructure de données, le réseau des centres d'expertise scientifique, les produits et les activités principales . Ce document souligne dans sa conclusion la connexion entre Théia et le programme Copernic au niveau européen, et le futur réseau Infrastructure de données en télédétection au niveau international

Theia Land Data Centre

International audienceTHEIA is a national structure funded jointly by 9 public institutions.Its objectives are to address the needs of the national scientific community in terms of products, methods and training linked to the observation from space of land surfaces to facilitate access and use of space data for a large user community to make national efforts visible at European and international level