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At least 631 records · Page 35

Improvement of water resources management through the use of satellites flood plain delineation

The delineation of flood-prone areas is an important activity in several parts of the world. Conventional methods map the topography surrounding the river via ground surveys and supplementary aerophotography. The conventional method costs approximately $2,000 per river-kilometer, is laborious and time-consuming. ERTS information can supplement this method by two complementary techniques: (1) the dynamic method images the floods as they occur, exploiting the fact that visible evidence of inundation remains for a substantial period after the high waters have receded; (2) the static method utilizes the fact that several flood plains have been found recognizable on ERTS imagery from distinctive, permanent indicators left by previous floods. For areas whose full development is still in the future, the dynamic method allows the gradual buildup with time of a flood plain map, by simply correlating existing ERTS imagery. The static method allows in several areas, a first-cut indication, of proneness to floods.

Castruccio, P. A.↗

The census cities project: A status report for 1971

Work done by the Census Cities Project during 1971 is outlined. The project is designed to detect urban changes in land resource utilization from remote high altitude aircraft and earth orbiting satellite sensors, aid metropolitan regional planners, and provide urban land use maps for various areas. Land use maps are given of several areas observed during 1971.

Wray, J. R.↗

Application of ecological, geological and oceanographic ERTS-1 imagery to Delaware's coastal resources planning

The author has identified the following significant results. Coastal vegetation species appearing in the ERTS-1 images taken of Delaware Bay have been correlated with ground truth vegetation maps and imagery obtained from high altitude overflights. Multispectral analysis of the high altitude photographs indicated that four major vegetation communities could be clearly discriminated from 60,000 feet altitude including: (1) salt marsh cord grass; (2) salt marsh hay and spike grass; (3) reed grass; and (4) high tide bush and sea myrtle. In addition, human impact can be detected in the form of fresh water impoundments built to attract water fowl, dredge-fill operations and other alterations of the coastal environment. Overlay maps matching the USGS topographic map size of 1:24,000 have been prepared showing the four wetland vegetation communities, fresh water impoundments, and alteration of wetlands by mosquito control ditching and dredge-fill operations. Using these maps, ERTS-1 images were examined by human interpreters and automated multispectral analyzers. Major plant communities of (1) Spartina alterniflora, (2) Spartina patens and Distichlis spicata, and (3) Iva frutescens and Baccharis halimifolia can be distinguished from each other and from surrounding uplands in ERTS-1 scanner bands 6 and 7.

Klemas, V.↗

A study of the utilization of ERTS-1 data from the Wabash River Basin

The author has identified the following significant results. In soil association mapping, computerized analysis of ERTS-1 MSS data has yielded images which will prove useful in the ongoing Cooperative Soil Survey program, involving the Soil Conservation Service of USDA and other state and local agencies. In the present mode of operation, a soil survey for a county may take up to 5 years to be completed. Results indicate that a great deal of soils information can be extracted from ERTS-1 data by computer analysis. This information is expected to be very valuable in the premapping conference phase of a soil survey, resulting in more efficient field operations during the actual mapping. In the earth surface features mapping effort it was found that temporal data improved the classification accuracy of forest classification in Tippecanoe County, Indiana. In water resources study a severe scanner look angle effect was observed in the aircraft scanner data of a test lake which was not present in ERTS-1 data of the same site. This effect was greatly accentuated by surface roughness caused by strong winds. Quantitative evaluation of urban features classification in ERTS-1 data was obtained. An 87.1% test accuracy was obtained for eight categories in Marion County, Indiana.

Landgrebe, D. A.↗

Large scale 20mm photography for range resources analysis in the Western United States

Large scale 70mm aerial photography is a valuable supplementary tool for rangeland studies. A wide assortment of applications were developed varying from vegetation mapping to assessing environmental impact on rangelands. Color and color infrared stereo pairs are useful for effectively sampling sites limited by ground accessibility. They allow an increased sample size at similar or lower cost than ground sampling techniques and provide a permanent record.

Tueller, P. T.↗

Analysis of the quality of image data acquired by the LANDSAT-4 thematic mapper and multispectral scanners

Image products and numeric data were extracted from both TM and MSS data in an effort to evaluate the quality of these data for interpreting major agricultural resources and conditions in California's Central Valley. The utility of TM data appears excellent for meeting most of the inventory objectives of the agricultural resource specialist. These data should be extremely valuable for crop type and area proportion estimation, for updating agricultural land use survey maps at 1:24,000-scale and smaller, for field boundary definition, and for determining the size and location of individual farmsteads.

Colwell, R. N.↗

Indexes of maps of the planets and satellites, 1992

More than 1,600 maps of the surfaces of planets and satellites of the solar system have been produced by the U.S. geological survey and by the defense mapping agency. This collection of maps is a unique research that has been derived from maps and data returned by a series of remarkably successful space missions. These indexes have been compiled to provide a comprehensive listing of all published maps. Many maps are out of print but copies reside in many libraries and regional planetary imaging facilities. These indexes are a valuable resource for studies of the planets and satellites, and are an important starting point for the acquisition of cartographic data.

Inge, J. L.↗

Urban Dynamics: Analyzing Land Use Change in Urban Environments

In FY99, the Earth Resource Observation System (EROS) staff at Ames continued managing the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) Urban Dynamics Research program, which has mapping and analysis activities at five USGS mapping centers. Historic land use reconstruction work continued while activities in geographic analysis and modeling were expanded. Retrospective geographic information system (GIS) development - the spatial reconstruction of a region's urban land-use history - focused on the Detroit River Corridor, California's Central Valley, and the city of Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Acevedo, William↗

Moon Mineralogy Mapper: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Moon

Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) is a state-of-the-art high spectral resolution imaging spectrometer that will characterize and map the mineral composition of the Moon. The M3 instrument will be flown on Chandrayaan-I, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) mission to be launched in March 2008. The Moon is a cornerstone to understanding early solar system processes. M3 high-resolution compositional maps will dramatically improve our understanding about the early evolution of the terrestrial planets and will provide an assessment of lunar resources at high spatial resolution.

Runyon, Cassandra↗

Using Earth Observations to Map Bull Kelp in the Puget Sound, Washington, to Support Conservation and Restoration

Bull kelp (Nereocystis luetkeana) is a critical component of nearshore ecosystems in the Puget Sound region of the Salish Sea. The Port of Seattle and Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) have identified possible declines in bull kelp extent and changes in its distribution throughout the Central Puget Sound near Seattle, Washington. Bull kelp losses threaten critical ecological services and marine habitat, as well as important cultural resources. However, these changes are not well tracked or understood due to the expensive and time-intensive nature of traditional kelp canopy monitoring methods. The Port of Seattle and Washington DNR partnered with the NASA DEVELOP team to explore the feasibility of using Earth observations between 2016 and 2021 obtained from Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Sentinel-2 MultiSpectral Instrument (MSI) as a potential tool to monitor and map bull kelp. Our team identified a variety of challenges that need to be addressed before this approach can be utilized as an effective means for identifying or mapping nearshore urban kelp beds. We found that neither Sentinel-2 nor Landsat 8 significantly differentiates between kelp and no-known kelp using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) or Normalized Difference Red-Edge Blue (NDREB). While the tidal and current filtering methods discussed here may be beneficial for identifying promising single image dates for kelp classification, the filters we used reduced the number of images each year to the point that modeling or mapping yearly kelp extent or creating time series of kelp did not appear to be feasible.

Mike Hitchner​↗

Development of a Land Use Mapping and Monitoring Protocol for the High Plains Region: A Multitemporal Remote Sensing Application

The purpose of this project was to develop a practical protocol that employs multitemporal remotely sensed imagery, integrated with environmental parameters to model and monitor agricultural and natural resources in the High Plains Region of the United States. The value of this project would be extended throughout the region via workshops targeted at carefully selected audiences and designed to transfer remote sensing technology and the methods and applications developed. Implementation of such a protocol using remotely sensed satellite imagery is critical for addressing many issues of regional importance, including: (1) Prediction of rural land use/land cover (LULC) categories within a region; (2) Use of rural LULC maps for successive years to monitor change; (3) Crop types derived from LULC maps as important inputs to water consumption models; (4) Early prediction of crop yields; (5) Multi-date maps of crop types to monitor patterns related to crop change; (6) Knowledge of crop types to monitor condition and improve prediction of crop yield; (7) More precise models of crop types and conditions to improve agricultural economic forecasts; (8;) Prediction of biomass for estimating vegetation production, soil protection from erosion forces, nonpoint source pollution, wildlife habitat quality and other related factors; (9) Crop type and condition information to more accurately predict production of biogeochemicals such as CO2, CH4, and other greenhouse gases that are inputs to global climate models; (10) Provide information regarding limiting factors (i.e., economic constraints of pumping, fertilizing, etc.) used in conjunction with other factors, such as changes in climate for predicting changes in rural LULC; (11) Accurate prediction of rural LULC used to assess the effectiveness of government programs such as the U.S. Soil Conservation Service (SCS) Conservation Reserve Program; and (12) Prediction of water demand based on rural LULC that can be related to rates of draw-down of underground water supplies.

Price, Kevin P.↗

The XXL Survey I. Scientific Motivations - Xmm-Newton Observing Plan - Follow-up Observations and Simulation Programme

The quest for the cosmological parameters that describe our universe continues to motivate the scientific community to undertake very large survey initiatives across the electromagnetic spectrum. Over the past two decades, the Chandra and XMM-Newton observatories have supported numerous studies of X-ray-selected clusters of galaxies, active galactic nuclei (AGNs), and the X-ray background. The present paper is the first in a series reporting results of the XXL-XMM survey; it comes at a time when the Planck mission results are being finalized. Aims. We present the XXL Survey, the largest XMM programme totaling some 6.9 Ms to date and involving an international consortium of roughly 100 members. The XXL Survey covers two extragalactic areas of 25 deg2 each at a point-source sensitivity of approx. 5 x 10(exp 15) erg/s/sq cm in the [0.5-2] keV band (completeness limit). The surveys main goals are to provide constraints on the dark energy equation of state from the space-time-distribution of clusters of galaxies and to serve as a pathfinder for future, wide-area X-ray missions. We review science objectives, including cluster studies, AGN evolution, and large-scale structure, that are being conducted with the support of approximately 30 follow-up programs. Methods. We describe the 542 XMM observations along with the associated multi- and numerical simulation programmes. We give a detailed account of the X-ray processing steps and describe innovative tools being developed for the cosmological analysis. Results. The paper provides a thorough evaluation of the X-ray data, including quality controls, photon statistics, exposure and background maps, and sky coverage. Source catalogue construction and multi-associations are briefly described. This material will be the basis for the calculation of the cluster and AGN selection functions, critical elements of the cosmological and science analyses. Conclusions. The XXL multi- data set will have a unique lasting legacy value for cosmological and extragalactic studies and will serve asa calibration resource for future dark energy studies with clusters and other X-ray selected sources. With the present article, we release the XMM XXL photon and smoothed images along with the corresponding exposure maps.

X-rays: general – large-scale structure of Unive↗

Decision Space Modeling: Trade Space Ontology

As the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) works to develop a crewed Moon to Mars Architecture, it is dealing with a large decision space consisting of the overlay of human exploration architectures for both the Moon and for Mars. Efforts are underway to enable reasoning, analysis, and deliberation on this decision space. A critical first step is to develop a model of the decision space, which will then allow for various methods and techniques to be applied in support of the larger architecture decision-making process. The Trade Space Ontology consists of a set of terminologies and relations (an ontology) and a MagicDraw resource that enables documentation of decisions and alternatives. It also provides a means by which decisions and alternatives can be traced to other Systems Engineering artifacts. For documenting alternatives, the Trade Space Ontology adapts the Morphological Matrix methodology to The Systems Modeling Language (SysML) through a profile; custom diagrams are also implemented to simplify the profile's use. With the profile and custom diagrams, system architects can specify options for architecture attributes, as well as compatibility between them, in a compact visual format. While the approach shares similarities to a trade tree, the emphasis at this stage is less on enumerating specific combinations of options and instead on specifying the options and their compatibility. Enumeration of alternatives is performed by an external analysis that operates on an output file from a model constructed using the Trade Space Ontology. For decisions, the Trade Space Ontology provides a way to model generic precedence relationships as well as documenting inputs and outputs. These may include what alternatives, criteria, and rationale are understood to be relevant for each decision. Importantly, the decision-making side of the Trade Space Ontology is defined at a more general level, such that it can be adapted to the specific terms in use by projects and programs at NASA. However, this adaptability also means that less capability is provided ``out-of-the-box'' from installation. Currently the resource includes plugin functionality to enumerate paths through generic precedence relationships between decisions and to export these paths to a spreadsheet. Custom dependency stereotypes are included in the profile to indicate the cross-cutting relationships between the trade space and the architecture decisions, providing a means to map which parts of the trade space enumerate alternatives for a decision, and to identify how the output of a decision may modify the trade space through pruning or down-selection. While the motivating use case for this resource is in human exploration architectures, the broad applicability of the Morphological Matrix methodology indicates that the Trade Space Ontology should also be useful for other activities and tasks at the agency.

Trade Tree↗

Geologic and mineral and water resources investigations in western Colorado, using Skylab EREP data

The author has identified the following significant results. Discovery of three major north-trending, throughgoing faults in the Front Range, previously mapped only as isolated segments, demonstrates the utility of space photography and may lead to reinterpretation of the Front Range tectonic style. Faulting and alteration appear to be the most useful indicators of mineralization in central Colorado. These phenomena appear on Skylab photography as tonal lineaments and color anomalies. Twenty-three lineaments have been mapped in the San Juan Mountains, the longest of which is 156 km long. Twelve lineaments intersect or are tangent to calderas. Intrusive domes are aligned along lineaments, but calderas appear to occur at the intersections of major lineaments. Lineaments can be recognized on some EREP passes but not on other passes over the same area. The difference is attributed to solar elevation effects. Bedding attitudes can be photogeologically estimated down to surprisingly low dips, on the order of + or - 1-2 deg, and attitudes can be subdivided easily into quantitative groups. The primary application of Skylab photography to geologic mapping in montane areas is clearly limited to regional mapping at scales smaller than 1:24,000.

Lee, K.↗

Dissemination of Global Flood Severity and Surface Water Mapping using Remote Sensing Data to Global Stakeholders

Flooding is a natural event that occurs frequently with high severity worldwide, responsible for significant societal and economic impacts. Disaster managers face significant challenges managing essential information for preparedness, response, and recovery efforts. The development of an open access, global flood alerting system for effective identification of flood impacted areas, classification of potential impacts, and the formulation of effective emergency response measures requires the incorporation of a wide variety of flood models and remote sensing data sources from multiple platforms. NASA is currently funding projects focused on flood forecasting, post-event flood mapping, flood depth estimation and pre-event flood severity estimation using Earth observation (EO) datasets and derived flood products. A new initiative in the Disasters Program is underway to disseminate flood products from different hydrologic models and sensors to global stakeholders via Pacific Disaster Center’s DisasterAWARE®, NASA’s Disasters Mapping Portal and potentially other mechanisms. This initiative focuses on improving response capacity and use of EO products in near real-time by a broader community for resource planning in case of extreme events. As part of this initiative, we have deployed Model of Models (MoM) – an open-source ensemble approach, that integrates outputs from hydrologic models and EO data from optical imagery to assess flood severity daily at sub-watershed level globally. The MoM output is integrated with the incident event system of DisasterAWARE to generate flood severity risk and flood impact boundaries, which are disseminated via the DisasterAWARE platform to different stakeholders globally for decision-making and response efforts. The next step will focus on using MoM outputs to estimate flood depth and extent mapping using high-resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar imagery, impact assessment using optical imagery and population datasets, and damage estimation using critical infrastructure datasets, which would be disseminated via DisasterAWARE to decision-makers, emergency managers and first responders around the world.

flood↗

Earth Resources Technology Satellite data collection project, ERTS - Bolivia

The Earth Resources Technology Satellite program of Bolivia has developed a multidisciplinary project to carry out investigations in cartography and to prepare various thematic maps. In cartography, investigations are being carried out with the ERTS-1 images and with existing maps, to determine their application to the preparation of new cartographic products on one hand and on the other to map those regions where the cartography is still deficient. The application of the MSS images to the geological mapping has given more than satisfactory results. Working with conventional photointerpretation, it has been possible to prepare regional geological maps, tectonic maps, studies relative to mining, geomorphological maps, studies relative to petroleum exploration, volcanological maps and maps of hydrologic basins. In agriculture, the ERTS images are used to study land classification and forest and soils mapping.

Brockmann, C. E.↗

Environmental surveys in Alaska based upon ERTS data

Alaskan applications of ERTS data are summarized. Areas discussed are: (1) land use; (2) archaeology; (3) vegetation mapping; (4) ice reporting and mapping; (5) permafrost; (6) mineral and oil exploration; (7) geological surveys; (8) seismology; (9) geological faults and structures; (10) hydrology and water resources; (11) glaciology; (12) water circulation in Cook Inlet; and (13) fish and mammal populations.

Miller, J. M.↗

A summary of ERTS data applications in Alaska

ERTS has proven to be an exceedingly useful tool for the preparation of urgently needed resource surveys in Alaska. For this reason the wide utilization of ERTS data by federal, state and industrial agencies in Alaska is increasingly directed toward the solution of operational problems in resource inventories, environmental surveys, and land use planning. Examples of some applications are discussed in connection with surveys of potential agricultural lands; mapping of predicted archaeological sites; permafrost terrain and aufeis mapping; snow melt enhancement from Prudhoe Bay roads; geologic interpretations correlated ith possible new petroleum fields, with earthquake activity, and with plate tectonic motion along the Denali fault system; hydrology in monitoring surging glaciers and the break-up characteristics of the Chena River watershed; sea-ice morphology correlated with marine mammal distribution; and coastal sediment plume circulation patterns.

Miller, J. M.↗