EG2211 Earth Observation

Applications of Remote sensing

TOPICS

 Quantitative remote sensing  Rainfall estimation  Land surface temperature  Proxy air temperature  NDVI, albedo, wind-speed and others  Disaster Management  Human Health  Hydrodynamics

Quantitative remote sensing?

 Estimation of a physical quantity  Proxy environmental variables  Application driven  Less science and more operational  Makes use of algorithms  Interfaces with environmental models

Applications that use quantitative RS

     Agriculture – NDVI, temperature, rainfall Health – NDVI, temperature, rainfall, dust, wind Hydrology – Rainfall Climate change – NDVI, temperature, rainfall Weather forecasting – Winds, rainfall

Rainfall estimation

 Cold Cloud Duration (CCD) using Meteosat  Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission using radar (TRMM)  Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) rainfall measurement using microwave instruments

Rainfall estimation

Cold Cloud Duration (CCD):  Pioneered by work of Lethbridge, 1967  Became an operational system thanks to Milford and Dugdale at TAMSAT (University of Reading)  Based on relationship between period during which convective cloud tops are below a specific threshold and rainfall measured beneath them

Rainfall estimation

Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM):   TRMM mission is a joint US/Japan effort coordinated by NASDA (National Space Development Agency of Japan) TRMM was launched in 1997 – with an initial mission life of 3 years  TRMM data is relayed to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

Rainfall estimation

Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM):  Precipitation Radar (PR)  TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI)   Visible and Infrared Scanner (VIRS) Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES)  Lightning Image Sensor (LIS)

Rainfall estimation

Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I):  System coordinated by NOAA  Became operational in 1987  Uses a 7-channel passive microwave radiometer

Rainfall estimation

Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I):  Data collected from the SSM/I are used to estimate several geophysical parameters including: Rainfall Rate    Rainfall Frequency Cloud Liquid Water Cloudiness Frequency      Total Precipitable Water Snow Cover Sea-Ice Sampling Frequency Ocean Surface Wind Speed (1.0 degree only!)

Land Surface Temperature

    Thermal infrared images provide an estimate of the magnitude of radiant energy Radiance (usually expressed as watts per square metre) can be converted to temperature via an instrument-specific algorithm Energy (and hence temperature) is of the land surface (LST) LST may be converted to a proxy air temperature by means of a solar correction algorithm

Other quantitative measurements

 NDVI  Albedo  Wind speed  Potential Evapotranspiration (PET)  Soil moisture  Tropospheric humidity

•Monitoring •Habitat modelling •Hydrology

NDVI

VISIBLE

•Albedo •Weather Fcst.

WATER VAPOUR •Cloud motion •Troposphere

Disaster Management Uses of RS for Disaster Management

 Wildfires  Avalanche  Earthquake  Flooding  Drought  Refugees Volcanic eruptions Tsunami Landslides Extreme weather Disease Military

Disaster Management

PLANNING LEARNING Disaster Management MITIGATION

Disaster Management

PLANNING

Modelling Assessment Prediction Contingency

MITIGATION

Monitoring situations Deployment of resources Decision-making Public relations COST EFFECTIVENESS !!!

QuickBird used extensively throughout Asian Tsunami Disaster

Human Health

 Health and disease often has a spatial component  Climatic, environmental and socio-economic variables affect health  Epidemics and outbreaks spread across a region – either as a function of movement of people or environmental factors

Human Health

 Many countries are vulnerable to diseases directly influenced by the environment  Vector-borne diseases (like malaria)  Respiratory illnesses (like meningitis)  Water-borne diseases (like cholera)   Stress illnesses (heat-stroke or hypothermia) Illnesses caused by “mechanical” effects of extreme weather events

Hydrodynamics

stream stream stream river river river estuary THE SEA stream

Hydrodynamics

From DeMers, 2002

Hydrodynamics

From DeMers, 2002

Case Studies

 Until mid-February we will be examining specific case studies where RS is used  Case studies will be: – Agriculture – Weather Forecasting – Human Health – Disaster Management and Emergencies

Case Studies

 Lecture session will provide basic material related to topic – but groups will have to prepare their own material and presentations for the workshop 

Everybody

will be assigned to a case-study group and will

have

to turn up to one workshop session following the lecture

Case Studies – Timetable

Topic Agriculture Weather forecasting Human health Disasters Lecture/workshop Week beginning 22/1/2007 29/1/2007 5/2/2007 12/2/2007

Case Studies – Timetable

• You will

ALL

have to attend the second hour (workshop) covering each topic. You will have to take notes from the other groups presenting and record their literature references • Workshops will be based around Q&A sessions (questions from YOU) and a short group presentation

Further Reading

Cresswell MP, Morse AP, Thomson MC and Connor SJ. (1999). Estimating surface air temperatures from Meteosat land surface temperatures using an empirical solar zenith angle model.

International Journal of Remote Sensing

, Vol 20 (

6

), 1125-1132.

Lethbridge M. (1967). Precipitation probability and satellite radiation data. Monthly Weather Review, Vol 95 (7), 487-490 Milford J and Dugdale G. (1990).

Estimation of rainfall using geostationary satellite data

. In Applications of Remote Sensing in Agriculture. Edited by Steven M and Clark J. Published by Butterworths, London Dugdale G, Hardy S and Milford J. (1991). Daily catchment rainfall estimated from Meteosat.

Hydrological Processes

, Vol 5, 261-270

Further Reading

TRMM Website:

http://www.eorc.nasda.go.jp/TRMM/index_e.htm

SSM/I Website:

http://orbit-net.nesdis.noaa.gov/arad2/

TAMSAT (CCD Rainfall) Website:

http://www.met.reading.ac.uk/tamsat/