Assessment of tropical forest degradation by selective logging and fire using Landsat imagery

Many studies have assessed the process of forest degradation in the Brazilian Amazon using remote sensing approaches to estimate the extent and impact by selective logging and forest fires on tropical rain forest. However, only a few have estimated the combined impacts of those anthropogenic activities. We conducted a detailed analysis of selective logging and forest fire impacts on natural forests in the southern Brazilian Amazon state of Mato Grosso, one of the key logging centers in the country. To achieve this goal a 13-year series of annual Landsat images (1992-2004) was used to test different remote sensing techniques for measuring the extent of selective logging and forest fires, and to estimate their impact and interaction with other land use types occurring in the study region. Forest canopy regeneration following these disturbances was also assessed. Field measurements and visual observations were conducted to validate remote sensing techniques. Our results indicated that the Modified Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index aerosol free (MSAVI_af) is a reliable estimator of fractional coverage under both clear sky and under smoky conditions in this study region. During the period of analysis, selective logging was responsible for disturbing the largest proportion (31%) of natural forest in the study area, immediately followed by deforestation (29%). Altogether, forest disturbances by selective logging and forest fires affected approximately 40% of the study site area. Once disturbed by selective logging activities, forests became more susceptible to fire in the study site. However, our results showed that fires may also occur in undisturbed forests. This indicates that there are further factors that may increase forest fire susceptibility in the study area. Those factors need to be better understood. Although selective logging affected the largest amount of natural forest in the study period, 35% and 28% of the observed losses of forest canopy cover were due to forest fire and selective logging combined and to forest fire only, respectively. Moreover, forest areas degraded by selective logging and forest fire is an addition to outright deforestation estimates and has yet to be accounted for by land use and land cover change assessments in tropical regions. Assuming that this observed trend of land use and land cover conversion continues, we predict that there will be no undisturbed forests remaining by 2011 in this study site. Finally, we estimated that 70% of the total forest area disturbed by logging and fire had sufficiently recovered to become undetectable using satellite data in 2004.     

耦合SVM和Cloud-Score算法的Sentinel-2影像云检测模型研究

云覆盖阻碍了光学遥感卫星对地观测的有效范围,快速、准确的云检测是遥感应用产品生成过程中的重要一步。针对Google Earth Engine云平台中缺乏适用且高质量的云检测模型,以热带多云的斯里兰卡为研究区,构建了耦合SVM和Cloud-Score算法的Sentinel-2影像云检测模型,通过实验从目视判读与定量分析两个角度对比了其与QA60法、Cloud-Score算法以及Fmask的云检测精度,并在海南岛和亚马逊森林两个地区进行了云检测测试。研究结果表明：Fmask模型的云检测性能最低,总体精度仅为63.45%,存在严重的水体误分为云的现象,但其漏提率极低;QA60法对卷云识别不足,漏提率较高,同时存在一定的误分现象,并且低空间分辨率影响了云体边界提取结果的细节性;Cloud-Score算法的云检测性能明显好于QA60法,总体精度达到了89.83%,误提率仅为2.17%,但仍存在部分卷云漏提的现象;相比于其他3种云检测方法,本文提出的云检测模型总体精度最高,达到了98.21%,并且拥有极低的漏提率和误提率,能比较精准地识别出云体的边界,可满足Sentinel-2遥感产品的云检测预处...     

New GOES imager algorithms for cloud and active fire detection and fire radiative power assessment across North, South and Central America

Vegetation fires are a key global terrestrial disturbance factor and a major source of atmospheric trace gases and aerosols. Therefore, many earth-system science and operational monitoring applications require access to repetitive, frequent and well-characterized information on fire emissions source strengths. Geostationary imagers offer important temporal advantages when studying rapidly changing phenomena such as vegetation fires. Here we present a new algorithm for detecting and characterising active fires burning within the imager footprints of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES), including consideration of cloud-cover and calculation of fire radiative power (FRP), a metric shown to be strongly related to fuel consumption and smoke emission rates. The approach is based on a set of algorithms now delivering near real time (NRT) operational FRP products from the Meteosat Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infra-Red Imager (SEVIRI) imager (available from http://landsaf.meteo.pt/), and the GOES processing chain presented here is designed to deliver a compatible fire product to complete geostationary coverage of the Western hemisphere. Results from the two GOES imagers are intercompared, and are independently verified against the well regarded MODIS cloud mask and active fire products. We find that the detection of cloud and active fires from GOES matches that of MODIS very well for fire pixels having FRP > 30 MW, when the GOES omission error falls to less than 10%. The FRP of fire clusters detected near simultaneously by both GOES and MODIS have a bias of only 22 MW, and a similar bias is found when comparing near-simultaneous GOES East and GOES West FRP observations. However, many fire pixels having FRP < 30 MW remain undetected by GOES, probably unavoidably since it has a much coarser spatial resolution than MODIS. Adjustment using data from the less frequent but more accurate views obtained from high spatial resolution polar orbiting imagers could be used to bias correct regional FRP totals. Temporal integration of the GOES FRP record indicates that during the summer months, biomass burning combusts thousands of millions of tonnes of fuel daily across the Americas. Comparison of these results to those of the Global Fire Emissions Database (GFEDv2) indicate strong linear relationships (r² > 0.9), suggesting that the timely FRP data available from a GOES real-time data feed is likely to be a suitable fire emissions source strength term for inclusion in schemes aiming to forecast the concentrations of atmospheric constituents affected by biomass burning.     

Validation analyses of an operational fire monitoring product: The Hazard Mapping System

Vegetation fires are becoming increasingly important especially in regions where the proximity to urban areas can result in large populations being directly impacted by such events. During emergency situations, accurate fire location data becomes crucial to assess the affected areas as well as to track smoke plumes and delineate evacuation plans. In this study, the performance of the NOAA/NESDIS Hazard Mapping System (HMS) is evaluated. The system combines automated and analyst‐made fire detections to monitor fires across the conterminous United States. Using 30‐m‐spatial‐resolution ASTER imagery as the main instantaneous validation data, commission and omission error estimates are reported for a subset of HMS automated and analyst‐based fire pixels derived from the Terra MODIS and GOES data.     

Remote sensing approaches for reconstructing fire perimeters and burn severity mosaics in desert spring ecosystems

Desert spring ecosystems provide water resources essential for sustaining wildlife, plants, and humans inhabiting arid regions of the world. Disturbance processes in desert spring ecosystems are likely important but have not been well studied. Documentation of historic wildfires in these often remote areas has been inconsistent and proxy records are often not available. Remote sensing methods have been used in other environments to gain information about fires that have occurred over recent decades, but these methods have not been tested in desert spring environments. The differenced normalized burn ratio (dNBR) is the most commonly used method for delineating fire perimeters and burn severity mosaics, although another method, differenced linear spectral unmixing (dSMA), may produce more accurate results in heterogeneous desert spring ecosystems due to its ability to detect changes at the sub-pixel scale. This study compared dNBR and dSMA using field observations of burn presence and fire severity for two recent wildfires. The dNBR method outperformed dSMA, but required some post-processing manipulation to reduce errors of commission. The dNBR classification correctly indentified burned areas with 86% accuracy (3% omission error, 19% commission error) and classified fire severity with 76% accuracy. Misclassification errors were most common in dune and mesquite bosque/meadow land cover types (mean misclassification rate = 36%). Nine of the fifteen wildfires reported to have occurred in the study site were successfully identified, with five of the unidentified fires having reported sizes of less than one hectare. Additional refinement of remote sensing methods is necessary to better distinguish small (< 5 ha) burned areas from areas of change resulting from soil moisture fluctuation and other short-term shifts in background conditions.     

Satellite-based detection of Canadian boreal forest fires: Development and application of the algorithm

This study presents a comprehensive investigation of fires across the Canadian boreal forest zone by means of satellite-based remote sensing. A firedetection algorithm was designed to monitor fires using daily Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) images. It exploits information from multichannel AVHRR measurements to determine the locations of fires on satellite pixels of about 1 km2 under clear sky or thin smoke cloud conditions. Daily fire maps were obtained showing most of the active fires across Canada (except those obscured by thick clouds). This was achieved by first compositing AVHRR scenes acquired over Canada on a given day and then applying the fire-detection algorithm. For the fire seasons of 1994-1998, about 800 NOAA/AVHRR daily mosaics were processed. The results provide valuable nation-wide information on fire activities in terms of their locations, burned area, starting and ending dates, as well as development. The total burned area as detected by satellite across Canada is estimated to be approximately 3.9, 4.9, 1.3, 0.4 and 2.4 million hectares in 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 and 1998, respectively. The peak month of burning varies considerably from one year to another between June and August, as does the spatial distribution of fires. In general, conifer forests appear to be more vulnerable to burning and fires tend to grow larger than in deciduous forests.     

Spatial and temporal probabilities of obtaining cloud‐free Landsat images over the Brazilian tropical savanna

Remotely sensed data are the best and perhaps the only possible way for monitoring large‐scale, human‐induced land occupation and biosphere‐atmosphere processes in regions such as the Brazilian tropical savanna (Cerrado). Landsat imagery has been intensively employed for these studies because of their long‐term data coverage (>30 years), suitable spatial and temporal resolutions, and ability to discriminate different land‐use and land‐cover classes. However, cloud cover is the most obvious constraint for obtaining optical remote sensing data in tropical regions, and cloud cover analysis of remotely sensed data is a requisite step needed for any optical remote sensing studies. This study addresses the extent to which cloudiness can restrict the monitoring of the Brazilian Cerrado from Landsat‐like sensors. Percent cloud cover from more than 35 500 Landsat quick‐looks were estimated by the K‐means unsupervised classification technique. The data were examined by month, season, and El Niño Southern Oscillation event. Monthly observations of any part of the biome are highly unlikely during the wet season (October–March), but very possible during the dry season, especially in July and August. Research involving seasonality is feasible in some parts of the Cerrado at the temporal satellite sampling frequency of Landsat sensors. There are several limitations at the northern limit of the Cerrado, especially in the transitional area with the Amazon. During the 1997 El Niño event, the cloudiness over the Cerrado decreased to a measurable but small degree (5% less, on average). These results set the framework and limitations of future studies of land use/land cover and ecological dynamics using Landsat‐like satellite sensors.     

Validation of GOES and MODIS active fire detection products using ASTER and ETM+ data

In this study we implemented a comprehensive analysis to validate the MODIS and GOES satellite active fire detection products (MOD14 and WFABBA, respectively) and characterize their major sources of omission and commission errors which have important implications for a large community of fire data users. Our analyses were primarily based on the use of 30 m resolution ASTER and ETM+ imagery as our validation data. We found that at the 50% true positive detection probability mark, WFABBA requires four times more active fire area than is necessary for MOD14 to achieve the same probability of detection, despite the 16× factor separating the nominal spatial resolutions of the two products. Approximately 75% and 95% of all fires sampled were omitted by the MOD14 and WFABBA instantaneous products, respectively; whereas an omission error of 38% was obtained for WFABBA when considering the 30-minute interval of the GOES data. Commission errors for MOD14 and WFABBA were found to be similar and highly dependent on the vegetation conditions of the areas imaged, with the larger commission errors (approximately 35%) estimated over regions of active deforestation. Nonetheless, the vast majority (> 80%) of the commission errors were indeed associated with recent burning activity where scars could be visually confirmed in the higher resolution data. Differences in thermal dynamics of vegetated and non-vegetated areas were found to produce a reduction of approximately 50% in the commission errors estimated towards the hours of maximum fire activity (i.e., early-afternoon hours) which coincided with the MODIS/Aqua overpass. Lastly, we demonstrate the potential use of temporal metrics applied to the mid-infrared bands of MODIS and GOES data to reduce the commission errors found with the validation analyses.     

Automated masking of cloud and cloud shadow for forest change analysis using Landsat images

Accurate masking of cloud and cloud shadow is a prerequisite for reliable mapping of land surface attributes. Cloud contamination is particularly a problem for land cover change analysis, because unflagged clouds may be mapped as false changes, and the level of such false changes can be comparable to or many times more than that of actual changes, even for images with small percentages of cloud cover. Here we develop an algorithm for automatically flagging clouds and their shadows in Landsat images. This algorithm uses clear view forest pixels as a reference to define cloud boundaries for separating cloud from clear view surfaces in a spectral-temperature space. Shadow locations are predicted according to cloud height estimates and sun illumination geometry, and actual shadow pixels are identified by searching the darkest pixels surrounding the predicted shadow locations. This algorithm produced omission errors of around 1% for the cloud class, although the errors were higher for an image that had very low cloud cover and one acquired in a semiarid environment. While higher values were reported for other error measures, most of the errors were found around the edges of detected clouds and shadows, and many were due to difficulties in flagging thin clouds and the shadow cast by them, both by the developed algorithm and by the image analyst in deriving the reference data. We concluded that this algorithm is especially suitable for forest change analysis, because the commission and omission errors of the derived masks are not likely to significantly bias change analysis results.     

Detecting unknown coal fires: synergy of automated coal fire risk area delineation and improved thermal anomaly extraction

This paper presents two complementing algorithms for remote sensing based coal fire research and the results derived thereof. Both are applicable on Landsat, ASTER and MODIS data. The first algorithm automatically delineates coal fire risk areas from multispectral satellite data. The second automatically extracts local coal fire related thermal anomalies from thermal data. The presented methods aim at the automated, unbiased retrieval of coal fire related information. The delineation of coal fire risk areas is based on land cover extraction through a knowledge based spectral test sequence. This sequence has been proven to extract coal fire risk areas not only in time series of the investigated study areas in China, but also in transfer regions of India and Australia. The algorithm for the extraction of thermal anomalies is based on a moving window approach analysing sub‐window histograms. It allows the extraction of thermally anomalous pixels with regard to their surrounding background and therefore supports the extraction of very subtle, local thermal anomalies of different temperature. It thus shows clear advantages to anomaly extraction via simple thresholding techniques. Since the thermal algorithm also does extract thermal anomalies, which are not related to coal fires, the derived risk areas can help to eliminate false alarms. Overall, 50% of anomalies derived from night‐time data can be rejected, while even 80% of all anomalies extracted from daytime data are likely to be false alarms. However, detection rates are very good. Over 80% of existing coal fires in our first study area were extracted correctly and all fires (100%) in study area two were extracted from Landsat data. In MODIS data extraction depends on coal fire types and reaches 80% of all fires in our study area with hot coal fires of large spatial extent, while in another region with smaller and ‘colder’ coal fires only the hottest ones (below 20%) can be extracted correctly. The success of the synergetic application of the two methods has been proven through our detection of so far unknown coal fires in Landsat 7 ETM+ remote sensing data. This is the first time in coal fire research that unknown coal fires were detected in satellite remote sensing data exclusively and were validated later subsequently during in situ field checks.     

基于HSV色彩空间的MODIS云检测算法研究

云是一种自然现象,广泛、高频、不规律地出现在地球上空,因此云也经常在卫星影像上有所体现。在遥感影像中,云覆盖在很大程度上降低了数据的质量和利用率。云检测是进行遥感数据处理与分析的基础和必要环节,因此准确地提取云区所在位置是一个非常有意义的研究课题。提出基于HSV色彩空间的MODIS云检测算法,首次将HSV色彩空间引入云检测领域,提出的算法以云与其他地物的自身光谱特性和光谱差异为理论基础,以色彩空间HSV正变换为数学基础,将MODIS波段1、6和26的假彩色合成影像进行HSV正变换,对获得的色调值（H）进行简单的、客观的阈值限定,获得最后的云检测效果。该算法具有精度高、简单可行、客观性强和计算速度快等特点,适用于不同的下垫面和季节,云检测效果理想。     

基于超像素统计量的随机森林遥感图像分类

针对遥感图像地物覆盖分类方法对图像空间分布信息利用不足的问题,提出一种基于超像素统计量的随机森林遥感图像分类方法。以北京市海淀区为研究区,选用Landsat-8卫星为主要数据源,通过改进SLIC超像素分割方法,使之适用于多光谱遥感图像中超像素的分割,提取超像素常见的六个统计量(最小值、最大值、均值、标准差、上四分位数、下四分位数)用于随机森林在遥感图像中的分类。实验结果表明,本文对研究区遥感图像的总体分类精度为89.01%,明显改善了对地物的错分和漏分现象,能够推广到Landsat-8遥感图像的地物覆盖分类工作中。     

基于被动微波的地表温度反演研究综述

热红外遥感反演地表温度已取得丰硕的成果,某些反演算法精度可达到1 K以内。然而在非晴空条件下,热红外遥感的应用受到很大限制,甚至无能为力。而被动微波遥感受大气干扰小,可穿透云层获取地表辐射信息,具有全天候、多极化及高时间分辨率等特点,在地表温度反演中具有独特的优越性。被动微波反演地表温度已经成为被动微波遥感技术应用研究的主要问题之一。系统阐述了微波热辐射机理、地表温度反演模型、反演算法及应用现状,分析了目前被动微波地表温度反演研究中存在的主要问题与技术难点,为后续相关研究提供参考。     

Cloud cover in Landsat observations of the Brazilian Amazon

High spatial resolution Landsat imagery is employed in efforts to understand the impact of human activities on ecological, biogeochemical and atmospheric processes in the Amazon basin. The utility of Landsat multi-spectral data depends both on the degree to which surface properties can be estimated from the radiometric measurements and on the ability to observe the surface through the atmosphere. Clouds are a major obstacle to optical remote sensing of humid tropical regions, therefore cloud cover probability analysis is a fundamental prerequisite to land-cover change and Earth system process studies in these regions. This paper reports the results of a spatially explicit analysis of cloud cover in the Landsat archive of Brazilian Amazonia from 1984 to 1997. Monthly observations of any part of the basin are highly improbable using Landsat-like optical imagers. Annual observations are possible for most of the basin, but are improbable in northern parts of the region. These results quantify the limitations imposed by cloud cover to current Amazon land-cover change assessments using Landsat data. They emphasize the need for improved radar and alternative optical data fusion techniques to provide time-series analyses of biogeophysical properties for regional modelling efforts.     

Generation of long time series of burn area maps of the boreal forest from NOAA–AVHRR composite data

A time series of burned land areas was generated for a 23 year period (1984–2006) using 10-day composites of AVHRR data. The study area covers 1.6 million km² of boreal forest in western Canada. The algorithm was intended to be consistent throughout the study period and region, and to avoid commission errors, so as to obtain a reliable sample of temporal trends in burned area in the region. The algorithm relies on temporal comparisons of several spectral indices (GEMI, BAI), as well as near infrared reflectance. It emphasizes the stability of the post-fire signal, to avoid false detections associated with cloud, cloud shadows, missed data and radiometric or geometric calibration between AVHRR sensors.

Final results show a very consistent temporal adjustment to official statistics and fire perimeters, with very low commission error (< 10%), but medium to high omission error (50%). Burned areas in the region were predominantly associated with coniferous forest cover, with the Taiga and Boreal Shield ecozones, in latitudes between 56 and 60°N, and predominantly at long distances from populated places.     

利用EOS/MODIS数据反演水云云底高度的初步研究

云底高度作为重要的云宏观物理特征参数,在云层与地表之间的能量交换中起着重要作用。传统的云底高度测量方法大多基于常规观测资料,利用星载被动遥感仪器的观测数据反演云底高度在国内尚未开展。论述了基于EOS/MODIS可见光、红外数据反演云底高度的原理、方法和可行性,并结合西北某空域的飞机探测数据进行了MODIS水云云底高度反演的对比试验。初步结果表明：利用MODIS数据反演水云的云底高度是可行的;在与3次飞机穿云记录的云高真实数据对比中,反演结果平均误差为249.4 m。     

基于支持向量机的遥感图像厚云去除算法

厚云的存在大大降低了遥感图像的利用率,利用支持向量机超强捕获边缘点的能力和图像融合方法,提出了一种基于支持向量机遥感图像厚云去除算法。首先构造支持向量值轮廓波变换并对图像进行分解,然后进行云层检测和图像融合,最后进行支持向量值轮廓波逆变换,得到重构图像。仿真实验表明,对于有厚云覆盖但无云区重叠的遥感图像,该算法能取得满意的去云效果,不仅保留了图像边缘信息,而且有效地解决了云层残留问题。     

Cloud analysis by modeling the integration of heterogeneous satellite data and imaging

This paper presents a computer-aided cloud-analysis approach by effectively modeling the integration of heterogeneous satellite-observed data and remote sensing images. First, automatic cloud detection and tracking methods are proposed to identify the georeferenced cloud objects in satellite remote sensing images. Then, a data integration modeling mechanism is designed to collect meaningful properties of those detected clouds by integrating the heterogeneous satellite-observed data and imaging into a unified cloud database. Finally, based on the integrated global data schema, a two-phase data mining method employing the decision tree algorithm is implemented to analyze and forecast the meteorological activities of all the cloud objects. Experimental results have shown that the proposed data integration model can effectively extract and synthesize all the useful information from heterogeneous data sources to generate a unified view of knowledge, on the basis of which the evolvement trends of clouds can be analyzed properly.     

The impact of deforestation on cloud cover over the Amazon arc of deforestation

Atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) simulations predict that a complete deforestation of the Amazon basin would lead to a significant climate change; however, it is more difficult to determine the amount of deforestation that would lead to a detectable climate change. This paper examines whether cloudiness has already changed locally in the Brazilian arc of deforestation, one of the most deforested regions of the Amazon basin, where over 15% of the primary forest has been converted to pasture and agriculture. Three pairs of deforested/forested areas have been selected at a scale compatible with that of climate model grids to compare changes in land cover with changes in cloudiness observed in satellite data over a 10-year period from 1984 to 1993. Analysis of cloud cover trends suggests that a regional climate change may already be underway in the most deforested part of the arc of deforestation. Although changes in cloud cover over deforested areas are not significant for interannual variations, they are for the seasonal and diurnal distributions. During the dry season, observations show more low-level clouds in early afternoon and less convection at night and in early morning over deforested areas. During the wet season, convective cloudiness is enhanced in the early night over deforested areas. Generally speaking, the results suggest that deforestation may lead to increased seasonality; however, some of the differences observed between deforested and forested areas may be related to their different geographical locations.     

基于类内拟合的遥感影像薄云雾校正方法

光学遥感观测极易受到云雾影响,降低数据质量并限制其后续应用潜力。由此,提出了一种基于类内拟合的遥感影像薄云雾校正方法。首先,利用滑动窗口逐波段地搜索局部最小值,称之为暗目标,通过拟合不同波段的暗目标样本估计出薄云雾辐射的相关性。基于此,联合云雾波段相关性与成像模型,生成不含云雾干扰的合成假彩色影像,利用K均值分类自动得到地表覆被类型。利用地类信息,进一步选取晴空区像元获取不同地类在不同波段对间的线性关系。最后,将上述两种线性关系进行联立,求解出各地表类型在不同波段上的值,从而完成影像校正。通过模拟与真实实验对方法有效性和场景适用性进行测试,并从定性目视与定量评估两方面对结果进行检验。实验结果表明：提出方法可有效去除薄云雾干扰,适用于不同地表覆被类型场景,获得高光谱保真的校正地表。