Engineering topics

Hall, Forrest

Publications and source records attributed to Hall, Forrest.

3 records

NASA NTRS2007

Assessing North American Forest Disturbance from the Landsat Archive

Forest disturbances are thought to play a major role in controlling land-atmosphere fluxes of carbon. Under the auspices of the North American Carbon Program, the LEDAPS (Landsat Ecosystem Disturbance Adaptive Processing System) and NACP-FIA projects have been analyzing the Landsat satellite record to assess rates of forest disturbance across North America. In the LEDAPS project, wall-to-wall Landsat imagery for the period 1975-2000 has been converted to surface reflectance and analyzed for decadal losses (disturbance) or gains (regrowth) in biomass using a spectral "disturbance index". The NACP-FIA project relies on a geographic sample of dense Landsat image time series, allowing both disturbance rates and recovery trends to be characterized. Preliminary results for the 1990's indicate high rates of harvest within the southeastern US, Eastern Canada, and the Pacific Northwest, with spatially averaged (approx.50x50 km) turnover periods as low as 25-40 years. Lower rates of disturbance are found in the Rockies and Northeastern US.

Masek, Jeffrey G.↗

NASA NTRS2003

Low/Medium Density Biomass, Coastal and Ocean Carbon: A Carbon Cycle Mission

As part of the Global Carbon Cycle research effort, an agency-wide planning initiative was organized between October 2000 and June 2001 by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) at the behest of the Associate Administrator for Earth Science. The goal was to define future research and technology development activities needed for implementing a cohesive scientific observation plan. A timeline for development of missions necessary to acquire the selected new measurements was laid out, and included missions for low - medium density terrestrial biomass / coastal ocean / and ocean carbon. This paper will begin with the scientific justification and measurement requirements for these specific activities, explore the options for having separate or combined missions, and follow-up with an implementation study centered on a hyperspectral imager at geosynchronous altitudes.

Esper, Jaime↗

NASA NTRS1986

Ideas for a future earth observing system from geosynchronous orbit

Uses for the proposed geosynchronous platform are described. The geosynchronous satellite could provide good spatial and temporal resolution, a large field-of-view, easier calibration, stereography, and data relay. The limitations of the platform are discussed. The applications of the geosynchronous platform to meteorology, earth surveying, and oceanography are examined.

Shenk, William E.↗