Analysis of dynamic thresholds for the normalized difference water index
Lei Ji, Li Zhang, Bruce K. Wylie
2009, Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing (75) 1307-1317
The normalized difference water index (NDWI) has been successfully used to delineate surface water features. However, two major problems have been often encountered: (a) NDWIs calculated from different band combinations [visible, nearinfrared, or shortwave-infrared (SWIR)] can generate different results, and (b) NDWI thresholds vary depending on the proportions of subpixel...
Climate, lightning ignitions, and fire severity in Yosemite National Park, California, USA
J.A. Lutz, J. W. van Wagtendonk, A. E. Thode, J.D. Miller, J.F. Franklin
2009, International Journal of Wildland Fire (18) 765-774
Continental-scale studies of western North America have attributed recent increases in annual area burned and fire size to a warming climate, but these studies have focussed on large fires and have left the issues of fire severity and ignition frequency unaddressed. Lightning ignitions, any of which could burn a large...
Using the Sonoran Desert test site to monitor the long-term radiometric stability of the Landsat TM/ETM+ and Terra MODIS sensors
A. Angal, X. Xiong, T. Choi, G. Chander, A. Wu
2009, Conference Paper, Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
Pseudo-invariant ground targets have been extensively used to monitor the long-term radiometric calibration stability of remote sensing instruments. The NASA MODIS Characterization Support Team (MCST), in collaboration with members from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center, has previously demonstrated the use of pseudo-invariant ground...
SSTL UK-DMC SLIM-6 data quality assessment
G. Chander, S. Saunier, M.J. Choate, P. L. Scaramuzza
2009, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (47) 2380-2391
Satellite data from the Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) United Kingdom (UK) Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) were assessed for geometric and radiometric quality. The UK-DMC Surrey Linear Imager 6 (SLIM-6) sensor has a 32-m spatial resolution and a ground swath width of 640 km. The UK-DMC SLIM-6 design consists of...
Regional estimates of reef carbonate dynamics and productivity Using Landsat 7 ETM+, and potential impacts from ocean acidification
C.S. Moses, S. Andrefouet, C. Kranenburg, F. E. Muller-Karger
2009, Marine Ecology Progress Series (380) 103-115
Using imagery at 30 m spatial resolution from the most recent Landsat satellite, the Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), we scale up reef metabolic productivity and calcification from local habitat-scale (10 -1 to 100 km2) measurements to regional scales (103 to 104 km2). Distribution and spatial extent of...
Developing collaborative classifiers using an expert-based model
G. Mountrakis, R. Watts, L. Luo, Jingyuan Wang
2009, Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing (75) 831-843
This paper presents a hierarchical, multi-stage adaptive strategy for image classification. We iteratively apply various classification methods (e.g., decision trees, neural networks), identify regions of parametric and geographic space where accuracy is low, and in these regions, test and apply alternate methods repeating the process until the entire image is...
Developing consistent Landsat data sets for large area applications: the MRLC 2001 protocol
G. Chander, Chengquan Huang, Limin Yang, Collin G. Homer, C. Larson
2009, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters (6) 777-781
One of the major efforts in large area land cover mapping over the last two decades was the completion of two U.S. National Land Cover Data sets (NLCD), developed with nominal 1992 and 2001 Landsat imagery under the auspices of the MultiResolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium. Following the successful generation...
Monitoring urban land cover change by updating the national land cover database impervious surface products
George Z. Xian, Collin G. Homer
2009, Conference Paper, 2009 Joint urban remote sensing event
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2001 is widely used as a baseline for national land cover and impervious conditions. To ensure timely and relevant data, it is important to update this base to a more recent time period. A prototype method was developed to update...
Cross-comparison of the IRS-P6 AWiFS sensor with the L5 TM, L7 ETM+, & Terra MODIS sensors
G. Chander, X. Xiong, A. Angal, T. Choi, R. Malla
2009, Conference Paper, Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
As scientists and decision makers increasingly rely on multiple Earth-observing satellites to address urgent global issues, it is imperative that they can rely on the accuracy of Earth-observing data products. This paper focuses on the crosscomparison of the Indian Remote Sensing (IRS-P6) Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS) with the Landsat...
Lysimetric evaluation of simplified surface energy balance approach in the Texas high plains
P.H. Gowda, G.B. Senay, T.A. Howell, T.H. Marek
2009, Applied Engineering in Agriculture (25) 665-669
Numerous energy balance (EB) algorithms have been developed to make use of remote sensing data to estimate evapotranspiration (ET) regionally. However, most EB models are complex to use and efforts are being made to simplify procedures mainly through the scaling of reference ET. The Simplified Surface Energy Balance (SSEB) is...
Global irrigated area map (GIAM), derived from remote sensing, for the end of the last millennium
P.S. Thenkabail, C.M. Biradar, P. Noojipady, V. Dheeravath, Y. Li, M. Velpuri, M. Gumma, O.R.P. Gangalakunta, H. Turral, X. Cai, J. Vithanage, M.A. Schull, R. Dutta
2009, International Journal of Remote Sensing (30) 3679-3733
A Global Irrigated Area Map (GIAM) has been produced for the end of the last millennium using multiple satellite sensor, secondary, Google Earth and groundtruth data. The data included: (a) Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) 3-band and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) 10 km monthly time-series for 1997-1999, (b)...
Dynamics of national forests assessed using the Landsat record: Case studies in eastern United States
C. Huang, S.N. Goward, K. Schleeweis, N. Thomas, J. G. Masek, Z. Zhu
2009, Remote Sensing of Environment (113) 1430-1442
The national forests (NFs) in the United States are protected areas managed for multiple purposes, and therefore are subject to both natural and anthropogenic disturbances. Monitoring forest changes arising from such disturbances and the post-disturbance recovery processes is essential for assessing the conditions of the NFs and the effectiveness...
Assessing rates of forest change and fragmentation in Alabama, USA, using the vegetation change tracker model
Mingshi Li, Chengquan Huang, Zhiliang Zhu, Hua Shi, Heng Lu, Shikui Peng
2009, Forest Ecology and Management (257) 1480-1488
Forest change is of great concern for land use decision makers and conservation communities. Quantitative and spatial forest change information is critical for addressing many pressing issues, including global climate change, carbon budgets, and sustainability. In this study, our analysis focuses on the differences in geospatial patterns and their changes...
Providing public standardized data access function: Lessons learned from accessing USGS Landsat archive
X. Cheng, Y. Bai, L. Di, D. Nebert
2009, Conference Paper, 2009 17th International Conference on Geoinformatics, Geoinformatics 2009
The geospatial community is experiencing a shift from having data locally to sharing them over the Web. However, not all the data accessing systems are built in compliance with open geospatial standards and thus are weak in terms of interoperability. The USGS Landsat data are now available through free electronic...
Influence of resolution in irrigated area mapping and area estimation
N.M. Velpuri, P.S. Thenkabail, M.K. Gumma, C. Biradar, V. Dheeravath, P. Noojipady, L. Yuanjie
2009, Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing (75) 1383-1395
The overarching goal of this paper was to determine how irrigated areas change with resolution (or scale) of imagery. Specific objectives investigated were to (a) map irrigated areas using four distinct spatial resolutions (or scales), (b) determine how irrigated areas change with resolutions, and (c) establish the causes of differences...
Arctic lake physical processes and regimes with implications for winter water availability and management in the national petroleum reserve alaska
Benjamin M. Jones, C.D. Arp, Kenneth M. Hinkel, R.A. Beck, Joel A. Schmutz, B. Winston
2009, Environmental Management (43) 1071-1084
Lakes are dominant landforms in the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska (NPRA) as well as important social and ecological resources. Of recent importance is the management of these freshwater ecosystems because lakes deeper than maximum ice thickness provide an important and often sole source of liquid water for aquatic biota, villages,...
Updating the 2001 National Land Cover Database land cover classification to 2006 by using Landsat imagery change detection methods
George Xian, Collin G. Homer, Joyce Fry
2009, Remote Sensing of Environment (113) 1133-1147
The recent release of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2001, which represents the nation's land cover status based on a nominal date of 2001, is widely used as a baseline for national land cover conditions. To enable the updating of this land cover information in...
Climatic effects of 30 years of landscape change over the Greater Phoenix, Arizona, region: 1. Surface energy budget changes
M. Georgescu, G. Miguez-Macho, L. T. Steyaert, C.P. Weaver
2009, Journal of Geophysical Research D: Atmospheres (114)
This paper is part 1 of a two-part study that evaluates the climatic effects of recent landscape change for one of the nation's most rapidly expanding metropolitan complexes, the Greater Phoenix, Arizona, region. The region's landscape evolution over an approximate 30-year period since the early 1970s is documented on the...
Summary of current radiometric calibration coefficients for Landsat MSS, TM, ETM+, and EO-1 ALI sensors
G. Chander, B. L. Markham, D. L. Helder
2009, Remote Sensing of Environment (113) 893-903
This paper provides a summary of the current equations and rescaling factors for converting calibrated Digital Numbers (DNs) to absolute units of at-sensor spectral radiance, Top-Of-Atmosphere (TOA) reflectance, and at-sensor brightness temperature. It tabulates the necessary constants for the Multispectral Scanner (MSS), Thematic Mapper (TM), Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+),...
Mapping and monitoring Mt. Graham Red Squirrel habitat with GIS and thematic mapper imagery
James R. Hatten, John L. Koprowski
H. Reed Sanderson, John L. Koprowski, editor(s)
2009, Book chapter, The Last Refuge of the Mt. Graham Red Squirrel
To estimate the Mt. Graham red squirrel (MGRS) population, personnel visit a proportion of middens each year to determine their occupancy (Snow in this vol.). The method results in very tight confidence intervals (high precision), but the accuracy of the population estimate is dependent upon knowing where all the middens...
Coastal-Change and Glaciological Map of the Palmer Land Area, Antarctica: 1947-2009
Jane G. Ferrigno, Alison J. Cook, Amy M. Mathie, Richard S. Williams Jr., Charles Swithinbank, Kevin M. Foley, Adrian J. Fox, Janet W. Thomson, Jorn Sievers
2009, IMAP 2600-C
Reduction in the area and volume of the two polar ice sheets is intricately linked to changes in global climate, and the resulting rise in sea level could severely impact the densely populated coastal regions on Earth. Antarctica is Earth's largest reservoir of glacial ice. Melting of the West Antarctic...
Basin characteristics for selected streamflow-gaging stations in and near West Virginia
Katherine S. Paybins
2008, Open-File Report 2008-1087
Basin characteristics have long been used to develop equations describing streamflow. In the past, flow equations used in West Virginia were based on a few hand-calculated basin characteristics. More recently, the use of a Geographic Information System (GIS) to generate basin characteristics from existing datasets has refined the process for...
National Land Cover Database 2001 (NLCD01) Tile 3, Southwest United States: NLCD01_3
Andrew LaMotte
2008, Data Series 383-C
This 30-meter data set represents land use and land cover for the conterminous United States for the 2001 time period. The data have been arranged into four tiles to facilitate timely display and manipulation within a Geographic Information System (see http://water.usgs.gov/GIS/browse/nlcd01-partition.jpg).The National Land Cover Data Set for 2001 was produced...
Landscape complexity and soil moisture variation in south Georgia, USA, for remote sensing applications
M.A. Giraldo, D. Bosch, M. Madden, L. Usery, Craig Kvien
2008, Journal of Hydrology (357) 405-420
This research addressed the temporal and spatial variation of soil moisture (SM) in a heterogeneous landscape. The research objective was to investigate soil moisture variation in eight homogeneous 30 by 30 m plots, similar to the pixel size of a Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) or Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+)...
Mapping regional distribution of a single tree species: Whitebark pine in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
L. Landenburger, R.L. Lawrence, S. Podruzny, C.C. Schwartz
2008, Sensors (8) 4983-4994
Moderate resolution satellite imagery traditionally has been thought to be inadequate for mapping vegetation at the species level. This has made comprehensive mapping of regional distributions of sensitive species, such as whitebark pine, either impractical or extremely time consuming. We sought to determine whether using a combination of moderate resolution...