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At least 37 records · Page 2

Analysis of urban area land cover using SEASAT Synthetic Aperture Radar data

Digitally processed SEASAT synthetic aperture raar (SAR) imagery of the Denver, Colorado urban area was examined to explore the potential of SAR data for mapping urban land cover and the compatability of SAR derived land cover classes with the United States Geological Survey classification system. The imagery is examined at three different scales to determine the effect of image enlargement on accuracy and level of detail extractable. At each scale the value of employing a simplistic preprocessing smoothing algorithm to improve image interpretation is addressed. A visual interpretation approach and an automated machine/visual approach are employed to evaluate the feasibility of producing a semiautomated land cover classification from SAR data. Confusion matrices of omission and commission errors are employed to define classification accuracies for each interpretation approach and image scale.

Henderson, F. M.↗

The use of Landsat-3 thermal data to help differentiate land covers

Landsat-3 Multispectral Scanner Subsystem (MSS) digital data of the Baltimore, Maryland area gathered on May 24, 1978, are examined to show the usefulness of thermal data in providing better discrimination between agricultural and residential areas, certain types of urban/industrial areas and water, cloud shadows and water, and bare-extractive areas and bright urban cover types. High altitude aircraft imagery taken on May 3, 1978, provides ground truth and training site verification. Two classifications are made for each training site: the initial one using bands 4, 5, and 7 and a second in which the thermal data are included with the visible and near infrared data. This permits a direct comparison of areas spectrally similar with and without the inclusion of the thermal data. Commission errors determined from selected subsets of the data show reductions of 95% for the urban/industrial versus water themes, 84% for the residential versus agriculture themes, 64.0% for the bare-extractive versus bright urban themes, and 24% for the cloud shadow versus water themes when the thermal data are included in the signature.

Ormsby, J. P.↗

Area estimation of forestlands in southwestern Michigan from LANDSAT imagery

The accuracy of mapping and estimating the area of forestlands in southwestern Michigan from winter and fall LANDSAT images was evaluated. All omission and commission errors in the LANDSAT forest maps were identified and mapped through comparison with an existing detailed forest cover type map. Accuracies ranged from 74.0% to 98.5% and were higher for the winter imagery. Most errors (85%) occurred along the perimeter of forestlands and were less than 4 hectares (10 acres) and size. Other factors affecting interpretation are reported as well as time and image availability considerations.

Karteris, M. A.↗

On the design of classifiers for crop inventories

Crop proportion estimators that use classifications of satellite data to correct, in an additive way, a given estimate acquired from ground observations are discussed. A linear version of these estimators is optimal, in terms of minimum variance, when the regression of the ground observations onto the satellite observations in linear. When this regression is not linear, but the reverse regression (satellite observations onto ground observations) is linear, the estimator is suboptimal but still has certain appealing variance properties. In this paper expressions are derived for those regressions which relate the intercepts and slopes to conditional classification probabilities. These expressions are then used to discuss the question of classifier designs that can lead to low-variance crop proportion estimates. Variance expressions for these estimates in terms of classifier omission and commission errors are also derived.

Heydorn, R. P.↗

Characterization and detection of Anopheles vestitipennis and Anopheles punctimacula (Diptera: Culicidae) larval habitats in Belize with field survey and SPOT satellite imagery

Surveys of larval habitats of Anopheles vestitipennis and Anopheles punctimacula were conducted in Belize, Central America. Habitat analysis and classification resulted in delineation of eight habitat types defined by dominant life forms and hydrology. Percent cover of tall dense macrophytes, shrubs, open water, and pH were significantly different between sites with and without An. vestitipennis. For An. punctimacula, percent cover of tall dense macrophytes, trees, detritus, open water, and water depth were significantly different between larvae positive and negative sites. The discriminant function for An. vestitipennis correctly predicted the presence of larvae in 65% of sites and correctly predicted the absence of larvae in 88% of sites. The discriminant function for An. punctimacula correctly predicted 81% of sites for the presence of larvae and 45% for the absence of larvae. Canonical discriminant analysis of the three groups of habitats (An. vestitipennis positive; An. punctimacula positive; all negative) confirmed that while larval habitats of An. punctimacula are clustered in the tree dominated area, larval habitats of An. vestitipennis were found in both tree dominated and tall dense macrophyte dominated environments. The forest larval habitats of An. vestitipennis and An. punctimacula seem to be randomly distributed among different forest types. Both species tend to occur in denser forests with more detritus, shallower water, and slightly higher pH. Classification of dry season (February) SPOT multispectral satellite imagery produced 10 land cover types with the swamp forest and tall dense marsh classes being of particular interest. The accuracy assessment showed that commission errors for the tall, dense marsh and swamp forest appeared to be minor; but omission errors were significant, especially for the swamp forest (perhaps because no swamp forests are flooded in February). This means that where the classification indicates there are An. vestitipennis breeding sites, they probably do exist; but breeding sites in many locations are not identified and could be more abundant than indicated.

NASA Discipline General Space Life Sciences↗

Mapping Impervious Surface Expansion using Medium-resolution Satellite Image Time Series: A Case Study in the Yangtze River Delta, China

Cities have been expanding rapidly worldwide, especially over the past few decades. Mapping the dynamic expansion of impervious surface in both space and time is essential for an improved understanding of the urbanization process, land-cover and land-use change, and their impacts on the environment. Landsat and other medium-resolution satellites provide the necessary spatial details and temporal frequency for mapping impervious surface expansion over the past four decades. Since the US Geological Survey opened the historical record of the Landsat image archive for free access in 2008, the decades-old bottleneck of data limitation has gone. Remote-sensing scientists are now rich with data, and the challenge is how to make best use of this precious resource. In this article, we develop an efficient algorithm to map the continuous expansion of impervious surface using a time series of four decades of medium-resolution satellite images. The algorithm is based on a supervised classification of the time-series image stack using a decision tree. Each imerpervious class represents urbanization starting in a different image. The algorithm also allows us to remove inconsistent training samples because impervious expansion is not reversible during the study period. The objective is to extract a time series of complete and consistent impervious surface maps from a corresponding times series of images collected from multiple sensors, and with a minimal amount of image preprocessing effort. The approach was tested in the lower Yangtze River Delta region, one of the fastest urban growth areas in China. Results from nearly four decades of medium-resolution satellite data from the Landsat Multispectral Scanner (MSS), Thematic Mapper (TM), Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+) and China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite (CBERS) show a consistent urbanization process that is consistent with economic development plans and policies. The time-series impervious spatial extent maps derived from this study agree well with an existing urban extent polygon data set that was previously developed independently. The overall mapping accuracy was estimated at about 92.5% with 3% commission error and 12% omission error for the impervious type from all images regardless of image quality and initial spatial resolution.

Gao, Feng↗

Comparison of Cloud Detection Algorithms for Sentinel-2 Imagery

Accurate, automated cloud and cloud shadow detection is a key component of the processing needed to prepare optical satellite imagery for scientific analysis. Many existing cloud detection algorithms rely on temperature information to identify clouds, making detection difficult for imagers that lack a thermal band, like Sentinel-2. To get maximum benefit from Sentinel-2 products it is critical to understand which algorithms best identify clouds and their shadows in images. We examined the relative performance of five different cloud-masking algorithms (Sen2Cor, MAJA, LaSRC, Fmask and Tmask) in 6 Sentinel-2 scenes (28 total images) distributed across the Eastern Hemisphere. Expanding on these comparisons, we tested ensemble approaches to improve results. We tested three ensemble approaches to cloud and shadow classification based on the outputs of the five initial algorithms using the cloud masks in: (1) a majority prediction model; (2) a random forests model; and (3) a conditional logic model. Accuracy assessments show a trade-off between omission and commission errors in cloud detection for individual algorithms across all sites, and some algorithms are better at detecting either clouds or cloud shadows. No single algorithm outperforms the others for both clouds and shadows. Aggregating the results from multiple algorithms produces fewer undetected clouds and higher overall accuracy than any single algorithm, with as high as 2.7% improvement over the top-performing algorithm, suggesting an ensemble approach may be the most useful for processing of Sentinel-2 data.

Sentinel-2↗

The Role of Fire in Global Forest Loss Dynamics

Fires, among other forms of natural and anthropogenic disturbance, play a central role in regulating the location, composition and biomass of forests. Understanding the role of fire in global forest loss is crucial in constraining land-use change emissions and the global carbon cycle. We analysed the relationship between forest loss and fire at 500 m resolution based on satellite-derived data for the 2003–2018 period. Satellite fire data included burned area and active fire detections, to best account for large and small fires, respectively. We found that, on average, 38 ± 9% (± range) of global forest loss was associated with fire, and this fraction remained relatively stable throughout the study period. However, the fraction of fire-related forest loss varied substantially on a regional basis, and showed statistically significant trends in key tropical forest areas. Decreases in the fraction of fire-related forest loss were found where deforestation peaked early in our study period, including the Amazon and Indonesia while increases were found for tropical forests in Africa. The inclusion of active fire detections accounted for 41%, on average, of the total fire-related forest loss, with larger contributions in small clearings in interior tropical forests and human-dominated landscapes. Comparison to higher-resolution fire data with resolutions of 375 and 20 m indicated that commission errors due to coarse resolution fire data largely balanced out omission errors due to missed small fire detections for regional to continental-scale estimates of fire-related forest loss. Besides an improved understanding of forest dynamics, these findings may help to refine and separate fire-related and non-fire-related land-use change emissions in forested ecosystems.

Dan van Wees↗

Improved Snow Mapping Accuracy with Revised MODIS Snow Algorithm

The MODIS snow cover products have been used in over 225 published studies. From those reports, and our ongoing analysis, we have learned about the accuracy and errors in the snow products. Revisions have been made in the algorithms to improve the accuracy of snow cover detection in Collection 6 (C6), the next processing/reprocessing of the MODIS data archive planned to start in September 2012. Our objective in the C6 revision of the MODIS snow-cover algorithms and products is to maximize the capability to detect snow cover while minimizing snow detection errors of commission and omission. While the basic snow detection algorithm will not change, new screens will be applied to alleviate snow detection commission and omission errors, and only the fractional snow cover (FSC) will be output (the binary snow cover area (SCA) map will no longer be included).

Riggs, George↗

Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) Mission Commissioning Phase Orbit Determination Error Analysis

The Magnetospheric MultiScale (MMS) mission commissioning phase starts in a 185 km altitude x 12 Earth radii (RE) injection orbit and lasts until the Phase 1 mission orbits and orientation to the Earth-Sun li ne are achieved. During a limited time period in the early part of co mmissioning, five maneuvers are performed to raise the perigee radius to 1.2 R E, with a maneuver every other apogee. The current baseline is for the Goddard Space Flight Center Flight Dynamics Facility to p rovide MMS orbit determination support during the early commissioning phase using all available two-way range and Doppler tracking from bo th the Deep Space Network and Space Network. This paper summarizes th e results from a linear covariance analysis to determine the type and amount of tracking data required to accurately estimate the spacecraf t state, plan each perigee raising maneuver, and support thruster cal ibration during this phase. The primary focus of this study is the na vigation accuracy required to plan the first and the final perigee ra ising maneuvers. Absolute and relative position and velocity error hi stories are generated for all cases and summarized in terms of the ma ximum root-sum-square consider and measurement noise error contributi ons over the definitive and predictive arcs and at discrete times inc luding the maneuver planning and execution times. Details of the meth odology, orbital characteristics, maneuver timeline, error models, and error sensitivities are provided.

Chung, Lauren R.↗

Sustained attention performance during sleep deprivation: evidence of state instability

Nathaniel Kleitman was the first to observe that sleep deprivation in humans did not eliminate the ability to perform neurobehavioral functions, but it did make it difficult to maintain stable performance for more than a few minutes. To investigate variability in performance as a function of sleep deprivation, n = 13 subjects were tested every 2 hours on a 10-minute, sustained-attention, psychomotor vigilance task (PVT) throughout 88 hours of total sleep deprivation (TSD condition), and compared to a control group of n = 15 subjects who were permitted a 2-hour nap every 12 hours (NAP condition) throughout the 88-hour period. PVT reaction time means and standard deviations increased markedly among subjects and within each individual subject in the TSD condition relative to the NAP condition. TSD subjects also had increasingly greater performance variability as a function of time on task after 18 hours of wakefulness. During sleep deprivation, variability in PVT performance reflected a combination of normal timely responses, errors of omission (i.e., lapses), and errors of commission (i.e., responding when no stimulus was present). Errors of omission and errors of commission were highly intercorrelated across deprivation in the TSD condition (r = 0.85, p = 0.0001), suggesting that performance instability is more likely to include compensatory effort than a lack of motivation. The marked increases in PVT performance variability as sleep loss continued supports the "state instability" hypothesis, which posits that performance during sleep deprivation is increasingly variable due to the influence of sleep initiating mechanisms on the endogenous capacity to maintain attention and alertness, thereby creating an unstable state that fluctuates within seconds and that cannot be characterized as either fully awake or asleep.

Non-NASA Center↗

Continental-Scale Mapping of Adelie Penguin Colonies from Landsat Imagery

Breeding distribution of the Adlie penguin, Pygoscelis adeliae, was surveyed with Landsat-7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) data in an area covering approximately 330 of longitude along the coastline of Antarctica.An algorithm was designed to minimize radiometric noise and to retrieve Adlie penguin colony location and spatial extent from the ETM+data. In all, 9143 individual pixels were classified as belonging to an Adlie penguin colony class out of the entire dataset of 195 ETM+ scenes, where the dimension of each pixel is 30 m by 30 m,and each scene is approximately 180 km by 180 km. Pixel clustering identified a total of 187 individual Adlie penguin colonies, ranging in size from a single pixel (900 sq m) to a maximum of 875 pixels (0.788 sq km). Colony retrievals have a very low error of commission, on the order of 1% or less, and the error of omission was estimated to be 3% to 4% by population based on comparisons with direct observations from surveys across east Antarctica. Thus, the Landsat retrievals successfully located Adlie penguin colonies that accounted for 96 to 97% of the regional population used as ground truth. Geographic coordinates and the spatial extent of each colony retrieved from the Landsat data are available publically. Regional analysis found several areas where the Landsat retrievals suggest populations that are significantly larger than published estimates. Six Adlie penguin colonies were found that are believed to be previously unreported in the literature.

radiometric noise↗

Comparative Analysis of Daytime Fire Detection Algorithms, Using AVHRR Data for the 1995 Fire Season in Canda: Perspective for MODIS

Two fixed-threshold Canada Centre for Remote Sensing and European Space Agency (CCRS and ESA) and three contextual GIGLIO, International Geosphere and Biosphere Project, and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (GIGLIO, IGBP, and MODIS) algorithms were used for fire detection with Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data acquired over Canada during the 1995 fire season. The CCRS algorithm was developed for the boreal ecosystem, while the other four are for global application. The MODIS algorithm, although developed specifically for use with the MODIS sensor data, was applied to AVHRR in this study for comparative purposes. Fire detection accuracy assessment for the algorithms was based on comparisons with available 1995 burned area ground survey maps covering five Canadian provinces. Overall accuracy estimations in terms of omission (CCRS=46%, ESA=81%, GIGLIO=75%, IGBP=51%, MODIS=81%) and commission (CCRS=0.35%, ESA=0.08%, GIGLIO=0.56%, IGBP=0.75%, MODIS=0.08%) errors over forested areas revealed large differences in performance between the algorithms, with no relevance to type (fixed-threshold or contextual). CCRS performed best in detecting real forest fires, with the least omission error, while ESA and MODIS produced the highest omission error, probably because of their relatively high threshold values designed for global application. The commission error values appear small because the area of pixels falsely identified by each algorithm was expressed as a ratio of the vast unburned forest area. More detailed study shows that most commission errors in all the algorithms were incurred in nonforest agricultural areas, especially on days with very high surface temperatures. The advantage of the high thresholds in ESA and MODIS was that they incurred the least commission errors.

Ichoku, Charles↗

TPSAS-NF1676L-35283-DND

In this talk, we present a long-term burned area database that has been developed using Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) Global Area Coverage (GAC) data from 1979-2000. Burned area has been verified using Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer data and validated using available Landsat imagery (160 scenes thus far representing 5.6 Mha of burned area, 219 fire events, and 11% of the total burned area in the AVHRR database). Visually the burned scar data compare well. Validation is in ongoing, though initial analyses show an intersection of 42% with commission and omission errors of 31% and 25%, respectively. Most commission and omission errors are related to spatial inconsistencies using imagery with significantly different spatial resolutions. Of the fire events missed by AVHRR (omissions), 86% are related to fires <10,000 ha (6 GAC pixels) and 44% are related to fires <3,000ha (2 GAC pixels). Total burned area compares well, with the AVHRR database under-representing burned area by 10% compared to the Landsat data analyzed. Correlation in burned scar area between the AVHRR and Landsat data is 0.98 for all fires and 0.68 for fires that are < 0.1 Mha.

Amber Soja↗

Evaluation of spatial filtering on the accuracy of wheat area estimate

A 3 x 3 pixel spatial filter for postclassification was used for wheat classification to evaluate the effects of this procedure on the accuracy of area estimation using LANDSAT digital data obtained from a single pass. Quantitative analyses were carried out in five test sites (approx 40 sq km each) and t tests showed that filtering with threshold values significantly decreased errors of commission and omission. In area estimation filtering improved the overestimate of 4.5% to 2.7% and the root-mean-square error decreased from 126.18 ha to 107.02 ha. Extrapolating the same procedure of automatic classification using spatial filtering for postclassification to the whole study area, the accuracy in area estimate was improved from the overestimate of 10.9% to 9.7%. It is concluded that when single pass LANDSAT data is used for crop identification and area estimation the postclassification procedure using a spatial filter provides a more accurate area estimate by reducing classification errors.

Dejesusparada, N.↗

The GEM-T2 gravitational model

The GEM-T2 is the latest in a series of Goddard Earth Models of the terrestrial field. It was designed to bring modeling capabilities one step closer towards ultimately determining the TOPEX/Poseidon satellite's radial position to an accuracy of 10-cm RMS (root mean square). It also improves models of the long wavelength geoid to support many oceanographic and geophysical applications. The GEM-T2 extends the spherical harmonic field to include more than 600 coefficients above degree 36 (which was the limit for its predecessor, GEM-T1). Like GEM-T1, it was produced entirely from satellite tracking data, but it now uses nearly twice as many satellites (31 vs. 17), contains four times the number of observations (2.4 million), has twice the number of data arcs (1132), and utilizes precise laser tracking from 11 satellites. The estimation technique for the solution has been augmented to include an optimum data weighting procedure with automatic error calibration for the gravitational parameters. Results for the GEM-T2 error calibration indicate significant improvement over previous satellite-only models. The error of commission in determining the geoid has been reduced from 155 cm in GEM-T1 to 105 cm for GEM-T2 for the 36 x 36 portion of the field, and 141 cm for the entire model. The orbital accuracies achieved using GEM-T2 are likewise improved. Also, the projected radial error on the TOPEX satellite orbit indicates 9.4 cm RMS for GEM-T2, compared to 24.1 cm for GEM-T1.

Marsh, J. G.↗

The GEM-T2 gravitational model

The GEM-T2 is the latest in a series of Goddard Earth Models of the terrestrial field. It was designed to bring modeling capabilities one step closer towards ultimately determining the TOPEX/Poseidon satellite's radial position to an accuracy of 10-cm RMS (root mean square). It also improves models of the long wavelength geoid to support many oceanographic and geophysical applications. The GEM-T2 extends the spherical harmonic field to include more than 600 coefficients above degree 36 (which was the limit for its predecessor, GEM-T1). Like GEM-T1, it was produced entirely from satellite tracking data, but it now uses nearly twice as many satellites (31 vs. 17), contains four times the number of observations (2.4 million), has twice the number of data arcs (1132), and utilizes precise laser tracking from 11 satellites. The estimation technique for the solution has been augmented to include an optimum data weighting procedure with automatic error calibration for the gravitational parameters. Results for the GEM-T2 error calibration indicate significant improvement over previous satellite-only models. The error of commission in determining the geoid has been reduced from 155 cm in GEM-T1 to 105 cm for GEM-T2 for the 36 x 36 portion of the field, and 141 cm for the entire model. The orbital accuracies achieved using GEM-T2 are likewise improved. Also, the projected radial error on the TOPEX satellite orbit indicates 9.4 cm RMS for GEM-T2, compared to 24.1 cm for GEM-T1.

Marsh, J. G.↗

A Review of Human Reliability Needs in the U.S. Nuclear Industry

In this survey, 34 subject matter experts from the U.S. nuclear industry were interviewed to determine specific needs for human reliability analysis (HRA). Conclusions from the interviews are detailed in this article. A summary of the findings includes: (1) The need for improved guidance on the use of HRA methods generally and for specific applications. (2) The need for additional training in HRA to provide more hands-on experience in the application of HRA methods. (3) Thedevelopment of HRA approaches suitable for advanced reactors, severe accident situations, and low-power and shutdown applications. (4) The refinement of HRA methods to account forfactors such as crew variability, latent errors, more sophisticated dependency modeling, and errors of commission. (5) The continued need for simplified HRA methods appropriate for field applications. (6) The need for tighter coupling of HRA and human factors. (7) The need for improvements in the quantitative basis of HRA methods. These findings suggest the field of HRA is mature but still benefits from refinements.

human reliability analysis↗