EG2234 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
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
Disaster Management
Uses of RS for Disaster Management
Wildfires Volcanic eruptions Avalanche Tsunami Earthquake Landslides Flooding Extreme weather Drought Disease Refugees Military
Disaster Management
PLANNING MITIGATION
ModellingAssessmentPredictionContingency
Monitoring situationsDeployment of resourcesDecision-makingPublic relations
COST EFFECTIVENESS !!!
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
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