Effects of remote sensing pixel resolution on modeled energy flux variability of croplands in Iowa

With increased availability of satellite data products used in mapping surface energy balance and evapotranspiration (ET), routine ET monitoring at large scales is becoming more feasible. Daily satellite coverage is available, but an essential model input, surface temperature, is at 1 km or greater pixel resolution. At such coarse spatial resolutions, the capability to monitor the impact of land cover change and disturbances on ET or to evaluate ET from different crop covers is severely hampered. The effect of sensor resolution on model output for an agricultural region in central Iowa is examined using Landsat data collected during the Soil Moisture Atmosphere Coupling Experiment (SMACEX). This study was conducted in concert with the Soil Moisture Experiment 2002 (SMEX02). Two images collected during a rapid growth period in soybean and corn crops are used with a two-source (soil+vegetation) energy balance model, which explicitly evaluates soil and vegetation contributions to the radiative temperature and to the net turbulent exchange/surface energy balance. The pixel resolution of the remote sensing inputs are varied from 60 m to 120, 240, and 960 m. Model output at high resolution are first validated with tower and aircraft-based flux measurements to assure reliability of model computations. Histograms of the flux distributions and resulting statistics at the different pixel resolutions are compared and contrasted. Results indicate that when the input resolution is on the order of 1000 m, variation in fluxes, particularly ET, between corn and soybean fields is not feasible. However, results also suggest that thermal sharpening techniques for estimating surface temperature at higher resolutions (∼250 m) using the visible/near infrared waveband resolutions could provide enough spatial detail for discriminating ET from individual corn and soybean fields. Additional support for this nominal resolution requirement is deduced from a geostatistical analysis of the vegetation index and surface temperature images.     

A recommendation framework for remote sensing images by spatial relation analysis

In recent years, Remote Sensing Images (RS-Images) are widely recognized as an essential geospatial data due to their superior ability to offer abundant and instantaneous ground truth information. One of the active RS-Image approaches is the RS-Image recommendation from the Internet for meeting the user's queried Area-of-Interest (AOI). Although a number of studies on RS-Image ranking and recommendation have been proposed, most of them only consider the spatial distance between RS-Image and AOI. It is inappropriate since both of the RS-Image and AOI not only have the spatial information but also the cover range information. In this paper, we propose a novel framework named Location-based rs-Image Finding Engine (LIFE) to rank and recommend a series of relevant RS-Images to users according to the user-specific AOI. In LIFE, we first propose a cluster-based RS-Image index structure to efficiently maintain the large amount of RS-Images. Then, two quantitative indicators named Available Space (AS) and Image Extension (IE) are proposed to measure the Extensibility and Centrality between RS-Image and AOI, respectively. To our best knowledge, this is the first work on RS-Image recommendation that considers the issues of extensibility and centrality simultaneously. Through comprehensive experimental evaluations, the experiment result shows that both indicators have their own distinguished ranking behaviors and are able to successfully recommend meaningful RS-Image results. Besides, the experimental results show that the proposed LIFE framework outperforms the state-of-the-art approach Hausdorff in terms of Precision, Recall and Normalized Discounted Cumulative Gain (NDCG).     

Influence of landscape spatial heterogeneity on the non-linear estimation of leaf area index from moderate spatial resolution remote sensing data

The monitoring of earth surface dynamic processes requires global observations of the structure and the functioning of vegetation. Moderate resolution sensors (with pixel size ranging from 250 m to 7 km) provide frequent estimates of biophysical variables to characterize vegetation such as the leaf area index (LAI). However, the computation of LAI from moderate resolution remote sensing data induces a scaling bias on the LAI estimate if the moderate resolution pixel is heterogeneous and if the transfer function that relates remote sensing data to LAI is non-linear.This study provides a model to evaluate and correct the scaling bias. The model is built first for a univariate semi-empirical transfer function relating LAI directly to NDVI. The scaling bias is a function of (i) the degree of non-linearity of the transfer function quantified by its second derivative and (ii) the spatial heterogeneity of the moderate resolution pixel quantified by the variogram of the high spatial resolution (20 m) NDVI image. Then, the model is extended to a bivariate transfer function where LAI is related to red and near infrared reflectances. The scaling bias depends on (i) the Hessian matrix of the transfer function and (ii) the variograms and cross variogram of the red and near infrared reflectances.The scaling bias is investigated on several distinct landscapes from the VALERI database. Adjusting for scaling bias is critical on crop sites which are the most heterogeneous sites at the landscape level. Regarding the univariate transfer function, the magnitude of the scaling bias increases rapidly with pixel size until this size is larger than the typical spatial scale of the data. For the bivariate transfer function, it results from the addition of several components that may add up or cancel each other out. It is thus more difficult to analyze.The accuracy of the model to estimate the scaling bias is discussed. It depends mainly on the ability of the variograms and cross variogram to represent the local dispersion variances and covariance within the moderate resolution pixel. The model is generally highly accurate at 1000 m spatial resolution for the univariate transfer function and less accurate for the bivariate transfer function.     

高分辨率遥感影像空间结构特征建模方法综述

高分辨率遥感影像能够提供详细的地面信息,具有复杂的空间结构特征。有效地描述和建模这种结构特征对实现影像解译、目标识别与提取以及场景理解等具有重要的作用。首先介绍了高分影像结构特征的概念和内涵,将结构特征划分为像元结构、目标结构和场景结构3个层次;然后对高分影像结构特征描述与建模方法进行了系统的综述,介绍了这些方法的基本思想、分析了其研究现状,并指出了存在的一些问题;最后给出了总结和展望。     

高分辨率遥感影像中道路震害信息的识别方法

大地震之后,紧急救援物资运输迫切需要了解灾区道路的震害信息,然而当前对遥感影像中道路的震害信息提取大多是基于像素的,提取的精度普遍不高。提出了一种面向对象的道路震害信息提取方法,通过综合利用道路的多种影像特征及震前GIS矢量道路相结合来提取道路,然后依据提取道路的完整程度来识别道路震害信息。采用汶川灾区的遥感影像为例进行了实验,与目视判读的结果比较后证明该方法有效改善了信息提取的速度和精度。     

Sea-air flux of CO2 in the Caribbean Sea estimated using in situ and remote sensing data

Empirical relationships between sea surface carbon dioxide fugacity (fCO₂^sw) and sea surface temperature (SST) were applied to datasets of remotely sensed SST to create fCO₂^sw fields in the Caribbean Sea. SST datasets from different sensors were used, as well as the SST fields created by optimum interpolation of bias corrected AVHRR data. Empirical relationships were derived using shipboard fCO₂^sw data, in situ SST data, and SST data from the remote sensing platforms. The results show that the application of a relationship based on shipboard SST data, on fields of remotely sensed SST yields biased fCO₂^sw values. This bias is reduced if the fCO₂^sw-SST relationships are derived using the same SST data that are used to create the SST fields. The fCO₂^sw fields found to best reproduce observed fCO₂^sw are used in combination with wind speed data from QuikSCAT to create weekly maps of the sea-air CO₂ flux in the Caribbean Sea in 2002. The region to the SW of Cuba was a source of CO₂ to the atmosphere throughout 2002, and the region to the NE was a sink during winter and spring and a source during summer and fall. The net uptake of CO₂ in the region was doubled when potential skin layer effects on fCO₂^sw were taken into account.     

引入视觉注意机制可变分辨率的遥感图像压缩

图像压缩是遥感图像处理的重要研究领域,现有的压缩方法要么丢失重要的细节信息,无法满足实际的应用需要,要么压缩率过低,难以达到实时处理的要求。将视觉注意机制引入到遥感图像压缩中,对不同的显著性区域采用不同的压缩率,这样不仅可以对整个遥感图像达到一个高的压缩率,而且还可以保持重要区域的高分辨率,实现了可变分辨率的图像压缩。实验结果表明在前几个显著性区域中,该方法得到的图像压缩性能指标优于传统压缩方法得到的性能指标。     

A conceptual framework to define the spatial resolution requirements for agricultural monitoring using remote sensing

Satellite remote sensing is an invaluable tool to monitor agricultural resources. However, spatial patterns in agricultural landscapes vary significantly across the Earth resulting in different imagery requirements depending on what part of the globe is observed. Furthermore, there is an increasing diversity of Earth observation instruments providing imagery with various configurations of spatial, temporal, spectral and angular resolutions. In terms of spatial resolution, the choice of imagery should be conditioned by knowing the appropriate spatial frequency at which the landscape must be sampled with the imaging instrument in order to provide the required information from the targeted fields. This paper presents a conceptual framework to define quantitatively such requirements for both crop area estimation and crop growth monitoring based on user-defined constraints. The methodological development is based on simulating how agricultural landscapes, and more specifically the fields covered by a crop of interest, are seen by instruments with increasingly coarser resolving power. The results are provided not only in terms of acceptable pixel size but also of pixel purity which is the degree of homogeneity with respect to the target crop. This trade-off between size and purity can be adjusted according to the end-user's requirements. The method is implemented over various agricultural landscapes with contrasting spatial patterns, demonstrating its operational applicability. This diagnostic approach can be used: (i) to guide users in choosing the most appropriate imagery for their application, (ii) to evaluate the adequacy of existing remote sensing systems for monitoring agriculture in different regions of the world and (iii) to provide guidelines for space agencies to design future instruments dedicated to agriculture monitoring.     

基于图像类推的遥感图像超分辨率技术

由于卫星上相机距离拍摄景物较远,所以遥感图像分辨率一般较低。为了获得较高分辨率的图像。提出将图像类推技术(IA)与立方卷积插值法相结合的方法;并在学习样本集合建立过程中引入一种新的思路,直接对高分辨率图像的高频细节信息进行学习。实验结果表明,该方法不仅提高了放大图像的清晰程度,而且较一般的图像类推算法,能产生更为合理的细节以增强图像,使放大后的遥感图像更为逼真。     

基于Contourlet域的遥感图像超分辨率复原技术

通过Contourlet域对遥感图像进行超分辨复原,采用了具有的更好方向性和各向异性特点的Contourlet系数作为特征表示,并通过最小欧氏距离进行全局的匹配选择。根据匹配的高频细节信息分布特点,引入了隐马尔可夫树（HMT）模型对遥感图像的Contourlet系数建模,运用期望最大（EM）算法对其进行参数估计,并结合贝叶斯估计原理,对叠加后的Contourlet系数进行修复、反变换后,最终完成了对低分辨率遥感图像的超分辨率复原。     

高分辨率遥感影像道路线性要素识别

为有效从高分辨率遥感影像中自动提取道路,提出利用线性要素间的拓扑关系识别道路线性要素的方法。提取影像中的线性要素并获取其邻域的光谱属性形成有向直线段;利用提出的道路线性要素识别模型,将满足条件的有向直线段聚类生成道路要素集;利用先验知识进一步验证。该方法主要使用道路线性要素的结构信息,适用于大范围、场景复杂的遥感影像,具有较高鲁棒性,目前该方法已应用于基于高分辨率遥感影像的GPS导航道路数据的生产和更新。     

A vegetation index based technique for spatial sharpening of thermal imagery

High spatial resolution (∼ 100 m) thermal infrared band imagery has utility in a variety of applications in environmental monitoring. However, currently such data have limited availability and only at low temporal resolution, while coarser resolution thermal data (∼ 1000 m) are routinely available, but not as useful for identifying environmental features for many landscapes. An algorithm for sharpening thermal imagery (TsHARP) to higher resolutions typically associated with the shorter wavebands (visible and near-infrared) used to compute vegetation indices is examined over an extensive corn/soybean production area in central Iowa during a period of rapid crop growth. This algorithm is based on the assumption that a unique relationship between radiometric surface temperature (T_R) relationship and vegetation index (VI) exists at multiple resolutions. Four different methods for defining a VI − T_R basis function for sharpening were examined, and an optimal form involving a transformation to fractional vegetation cover was identified. The accuracy of the high-resolution temperature retrieval was evaluated using aircraft and Landsat thermal imagery, aggregated to simulate native and target resolutions associated with Landsat, MODIS, and GOES short- and longwave datasets. Applying TsHARP to simulated MODIS thermal maps at 1-km resolution and sharpening down to ∼ 250 m (MODIS VI resolution) yielded root-mean-square errors (RMSE) of 0.67-1.35 °C compared to the ‘observed’ temperature fields, directly aggregated to 250 m. Sharpening simulated Landsat thermal maps (60 and 120 m) to Landsat VI resolution (30 m) yielded errors of 1.8-2.4 °C, while sharpening simulated GOES thermal maps from 5 km to 1 km and 250 m yielded RMSEs of 0.98 and 1.97, respectively. These results demonstrate the potential for improving the spatial resolution of thermal-band satellite imagery over this type of rainfed agricultural region. By combining GOES thermal data with shortwave VI data from polar orbiters, thermal imagery with 250-m spatial resolution and 15-min temporal resolution can be generated with reasonable accuracy. Further research is required to examine the performance of TsHARP over regions with different climatic and land-use characteristics at local and regional scales.     

一种基于Hadoop的高分辨率遥感图像处理方法

随着海量、多源的高分辨率遥感数据的获取,耗时较多、效率低下的传统处理方式已经不能满足用户需求。针对上述问题,提出了一种基于云计算的高分遥感数据处理框架,利用Hadoop技术设计和改进了Meanshift图像边缘分割算法,并在Hadoop环境下进行了仿真实验。实验结果表明,在Hadoop环境下的高分辨率卫星图像数据处理速度有了明显的改善。     

Characterizing urban sprawl using multi-stage remote sensing images and landscape metrics

This study intends to explore the spatial analytical methods to identify both general trends and more subtle patterns of urban land changes. Landsat imagery of metropolitan Kansas City, USA was used to generate time series of land cover data over the past three decades. Based on remotely sensed land cover data, landscape metrics were calculated. Both the remotely sensed data and landscape metrics were used to characterize long-term trends and patterns of urban sprawl. Land cover change analyses at the metropolitan, county, and city levels reveal that over the past three decades the significant increase of built-up land in the study area was mainly at the expense of non-forest vegetation cover. The spatial and temporal heterogeneity of the land cover changes allowed the identification of fast and slow sprawling areas. The landscape metrics were analyzed across jurisdictional levels to understand the effects of the built-up expansion on the forestland and non-forest vegetation cover. The results of the analysis suggest that at the metropolitan level both the areas of non-forest vegetation and the forestland became more fragmented due to development while large forest patches were less affected. Metrics statistics show that this landscape effect occurred moderately at the county level, while it could be only weakly identified at the city level, suggesting a scale effect that the landscape response of urbanization can be better revealed within larger spatial units (e.g., a metropolitan area or a county as compared to a city). The interpretation of the built-up patch density metrics helped identify different stages of urbanization in two major urban sprawl directions of the metropolitan area. Land consumption indices (LCI) were devised to relate the remotely sensed built-up growth to changes in housing and commercial constructions as major driving factors, providing an effective measure to compare and characterize urban sprawl across jurisdictional boundaries and time periods.     

基于异常区域感知的多时相高分辨率遥感图像配准

在对多时相高分辨遥感图像进行配准时,由于成像条件差异,图像间存在的地物变化与相对视差偏移两类典型异常区域会影响配准精度。针对上述配准中存在的问题,提出一种基于异常区域感知的多时相高分辨率遥感图像配准方法,包括粗匹配和精配准两个阶段。尺度不变特征变换（SIFT）算法考虑到尺度空间属性,不同尺度空间提取的特征点在图像中对应不同大小的斑块,高尺度空间提取的特征点对应图像中的大斑点,其对应地物相对稳定、不易发生变化。首先,利用SIFT算法提取高尺度空间特征点完成图像快速粗匹配;其次,利用灰度相关性度量对图像块进行相对偏移量统计分类以感知视差偏移区域,同时结合空间约束条件,确定低尺度空间特征点的有效提取区域以及匹配点搜索范围,完成图像精配准。实验结果表明,将该方法用于多时相高分辨遥感图像配准,可有效抑制异常区域对特征点提取的影响进而提高配准精度。     

Assessing drought probability for agricultural areas in Africa with coarse resolution remote sensing imagery

Drought is one of the most frequent climate-related disasters occurring across large portions of the African continent, often with devastating consequences for the food security of agricultural households. This study proposes a novel method for calculating the empirical probability of having a significant proportion of the total agricultural area affected by drought at sub-national level. First, we used the per-pixel Vegetation Health Index (VHI) from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) averaged over the crop season as main drought indicator. A phenological model based on NDVI was employed for defining the start of season (SOS) and end of the grain filling stage (GFS) dates. Second, the per-pixel average VHI was aggregated for agricultural areas at sub-national level in order to obtain a drought intensity indicator. Seasonal VHI averaging according to the phenological model proved to be a valid drought indicator for the African continent, and is highly correlated with the drought events recorded during the period (1981-2009). The final results express the empirical probability of drought occurrence over both the temporal and the spatial domain, representing a promising tool for future drought monitoring.     

改进的标记分水岭遥感影像分割方法*

在Meyer算法的基础上,提出一种改进的标记分水岭遥感影像分割方法,该方法针对高空间分辨率遥感影像的特点,依据梯度影像的分布特征自动提取合适的标记影像。浸没过程中,非标记像素按照梯度值由小到大进行处理,并使用正反两个队列记录当前处理的像素。实验证明,将该算法用于高分辨率遥感影像分割,不仅获得高质量的分割结果,而且具有极高的运行效率与空间利用效率。