Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Francescopaolo Sica, Sofie Bretzke, Andrea Pulella, Jose-Luis Bueso-Bello, Michele Martone, Pau Prats-Iraola, Maria-Jose Gonzalez-Bonilla, Michael Schmitt, Paola Rizzoli
Summary: Decorrelation phenomena are always present in synthetic aperture radar interferometry, and can provide valuable information about imaged targets. This letter investigates InSAR decorrelation effects at the X-band using data from the TanDEM-X and PAZ spaceborne missions, showcasing the potential of combining bistatic and repeat-pass InSAR acquisitions.
IEEE GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING LETTERS
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Daniel Carcereri, Paola Rizzoli, Dino Ienco, Lorenzo Bruzzone
Summary: This article presents a study on using deep learning to estimate forest height from InSAR data. The proposed fully convolutional neural network framework achieves good performance when tested on multiple sites, with an overall mean error of 1.46 m and mean absolute error of 4.2 m.
IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATIONS AND REMOTE SENSING
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Cristina Gomez, Juan M. Lopez-Sanchez, Noelia Romero-Puig, Jianjun Zhu, Haiqiang Fu, Wenjie He, Yanzhou Xie, Qinghua Xie
Summary: The study evaluated the capacity of TDX data to assess canopy height in Mediterranean forests of Spain, with favorable results found under certain conditions. However, results may vary in areas characterized by specific terrain and tree species.
IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATIONS AND REMOTE SENSING
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Changhyun Choi, Victor Cazcarra-Bes, Roman Guliaev, Matteo Pardini, Konstantinos P. P. Papathanassiou, Wenlu Qi, John Armston, Ralph O. O. Dubayah
Summary: The present study focuses on developing, implementing, and validating a forest height mapping scheme by combining TanDEM-X interferometric coherence and GEDI waveform measurements. The study assumes the availability of only a single polarisation TanDEM-X interferogram, a set of spatially discrete GEDI waveform measurements, and no DTM. The study aims to develop a methodology for inverting forest height at large scales, achieving a spatially continuous 25-m resolution forest height map covering the whole of Tasmania Island by combining 595 TanDEM-X scenes and about 15 million GEDI waveforms. The derived forest height map is validated against an airborne lidar-derived canopy height map available across the whole island.
IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATIONS AND REMOTE SENSING
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Changhyun Choi, Matteo Pardini, Michael Heym, Konstantinos P. Papathanassiou
Summary: This study investigates how to locally adapt the height-to-biomass allometry in heterogeneous forests using interferometric TanDEM-X data and lidar data, to improve biomass estimation performance. The experimental results demonstrate the appropriateness of TanDEM-X data for characterizing forest structure and enhancing biomass estimation performance.
IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATIONS AND REMOTE SENSING
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Manfred Zink, Alberto Moreira, Irena Hajnsek, Paola Rizzoli, Markus Bachmann, Ralph Kahle, Thomas Fritz, Martin Huber, Gerhard Krieger, Marie Lachaise, Michele Martone, Edith Maurer, Birgit Wessel
Summary: The TanDEM-X mission, launched in 2010, aimed to provide a global Digital Elevation Model with unprecedented accuracy using a formation flying radar system. In addition to DEM data, TanDEM-X also has unique capabilities that support various scientific experiments. Despite the completion of most mission objectives, the mission continues to focus on monitoring ongoing changes in Earth's topography.
IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATIONS AND REMOTE SENSING
(2021)
Article
Remote Sensing
Henrik J. Persson, Jonas Jonzen, Mats Nilsson
Summary: This study successfully predicted forest above-ground biomass and stem volume in a large area in Sweden by combining data from TanDEM-X and Sentinel-2 satellite sensors with national field inventory data. The combined use of the two data sources enabled seamless mapping of AGB and VOL, while the kNN algorithm proved suitable for estimating forest variables from a combination of different satellite sensors.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOINFORMATION
(2021)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Noelia Romero-Puig, Armando Marino, Juan M. Lopez-Sanchez
Summary: This study investigates the incorporation of the operator Trace Coherence (TrCoh) in polarimetric and interferometric SAR methodologies for estimating vegetation biophysical parameters. A modified inversion algorithm based on the RVoG model, employing TrCoh, demonstrates improved computational efficiency and accuracy compared to conventional methods. Validation using TanDEM-X data and reference data in a paddy rice area shows the proposed approach provides higher accuracy in vegetation height estimation.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING
(2022)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Noelia Romero-Puig, Juan M. Lopez-Sanchez, Mario Busquier
Summary: The study investigates the contribution of polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometry (PolInSAR) observables to crop-type classification, demonstrating the high accuracy of PolInSAR features in crop-type classification.
IEEE GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Qinghua Xie, Jinfei Wang, Juan M. Lopez-Sanchez, Xing Peng, Chunhua Liao, Jiali Shang, Jianjun Zhu, Haqiang Fu, J. David Ballester-Berman
Summary: This study demonstrates the feasibility of using machine learning techniques with space-borne PolSAR data for crop height retrieval in corn fields. Random Forest Regression method shows better accuracy in height estimation compared to the Support Vector Regression method. Selected polarimetric features by variable importance ranking contribute to improved results.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Shaojia Ge, Oleg Antropov, Tuomas Hame, Ronald E. McRoberts, Jukka Miettinen
Summary: This study demonstrates the application of transfer learning, using plot-level measurements, to transfer a pretrained deep learning model to a target area for forest height prediction. The performance of the transferred model is compared to other machine learning models, and it is found to be considerably more accurate. The results indicate that this forest-specific deep learning model transfer approach can be suitable for other forest variables and sensitive EO data sources.
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Changhyun Choi, Matteo Pardini, John Armston, Konstantinos P. Papathanassiou
Summary: This article discusses the implementation of an above ground biomass (AGB) estimation scheme by using continuous TanDEM-X interferometric synthetic aperture radar and spatial discrete GEDI waveform lidar measurements. It addresses the estimation of forest height and structure in the absence of a digital terrain model (DTM) using wavelet-based scale analysis. The article also explores the potential of using the derived structure information to account for the spatial variability of height-to-biomass allometry derived from GEDI measurements.
IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATIONS AND REMOTE SENSING
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Pei Zhan, Wenquan Zhu, Nan Li
Summary: The researchers proposed an automated rice mapping method called ARM-SARFS based on Sentinel-1A data, which has high accuracy and is not sensitive to thresholds. Validation results show that ARM-SARFS exhibits high classification accuracy under different rice cropping systems and geographical-climatic conditions, with significant improvements compared to previous methods.
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Unmesh Khati, Gulab Singh
Summary: This study explores the potential of combining backscatter with polarimetric SAR interferometry (PolInSAR) estimated forest stand height for improved above-ground biomass (AGB) estimation. The results demonstrate the potential of this synergistic combination for AGB mapping over a tropical forest range in India.
FRONTIERS IN FORESTS AND GLOBAL CHANGE
(2022)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Shuyi Yao, Timo Balz
Summary: This paper presents a new defringing method for distributed scatterer (DS) time series analysis. The method utilizes the information from redundant interferometric combinations under the assumption of Gaussian speckle, and employs a weighted least square adjustments framework with gross error elimination to estimate and remove fringes. By exploiting the statistical properties of fringe frequency estimation, the quality of the estimated fringes is significantly improved, leading to enhanced consistency of phases in nonstationary areas. Simulated and real data experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Qinghua Xie, Qi Dou, Xing Peng, Jinfei Wang, Juan M. Lopez-Sanchez, Jiali Shang, Haiqiang Fu, Jianjun Zhu
Summary: This paper validates the efficiency of the physically constrained general model-based decomposition (PCGMD) method in crop classification for the first time. By analyzing the response and temporal evolution of the scattering components obtained by PCGMD, a forward selection approach with multi-temporal SAR data and the random forest algorithm achieved the highest classification accuracy. PCGMD method is highly sensitive to seasonal crop changes and matches well with the real physical characteristics of the crops.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Arturo Villarroya-Carpio, Juan M. Lopez-Sanchez, Marcus E. Engdahl
Summary: This study explores the use of Sentinel-1 interferometric coherence data as a tool for crop monitoring. By analyzing time series of Sentinel-1 and 2 images acquired during 2017, it was found that coherence can serve as a good measure for monitoring the crop growing season, showing strong correlations with the NDVI.
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Nan Li, Juan M. Lopez-Sanchez, Haiqiang Fu, Jianjun Zhu, Wentao Han, Qinghua Xie, Jun Hu, Yanzhou Xie
Summary: The logistic growth equation was introduced into the PolInSAR method for the first time to estimate crop height, and an improved inversion scheme was proposed. The results showed that the improved method can effectively monitor the height variation of crops throughout the whole growth cycle.
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Alp Erturk, Esra Erten
Summary: The mucilage outbreak in the Sea of Marmara in spring 2021 highlights the importance of addressing climate and pollution-related hazards. This study proposes the use of unmixing on PRISMA datasets to analyze the spectral characteristics, variation due to aggregation, and spatial distribution of marine mucilage. The proposed approach provides consistent and relevant information without the need for a training step and allows for easy interpretation and analysis of mucilage aggregation.
IEEE GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Alejandro Mestre-Quereda, Juan M. Lopez-Sanchez, Jordi J. Mallorqui
Summary: Geometrical decorrelation is one of the sources of noise in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) interferograms, and it can be compensated by range filtering. Multiple range filtering methods have been proposed, and this manuscript analyzes their advantages and limitations. A new adaptive filtering approach is also proposed, which improves filtering accuracy, especially in steep areas and vegetation-covered regions.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Mehmet Furkan Celik, Mustafa Serkan Isik, Onur Yuzugullu, Noura Fajraoui, Esra Erten
Summary: This research utilized satellite data and a deep learning model to predict soil moisture, achieving effective results for agricultural activities. The model, trained with static and dynamic features, can accurately estimate SM values, particularly in dry and semi-arid climates.
Article
Engineering, Geological
R. Tomas, E. Diaz, W. T. Szeibert, X. Liu, J. M. Lopez-Sanchez, C. Zhao
Summary: This paper analyzes an active landslide in Alcoy, Spain, which affects a road and industrial buildings of historical significance. High-resolution SAR images from the PAZ satellite were used to determine the behavior of the landslide, and detailed geomorphological mapping and structural damage analysis were conducted. 3D modeling confirmed the overall instability of the area and the relationship between the landslide and rainfall and road construction. This information is crucial for local authorities to effectively manage the landslide.
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Arturo Villarroya-Carpio, Juan M. Lopez-Sanchez
Summary: Interferometric coherence from SAR data is evaluated for its potential use in crop monitoring by comparing it with vegetation indices and NDVI derived from Sentinel-2 imagery. The study shows that coherence is generally well correlated with NDVI across all seasons and the ratio between coherences at different polarimetric channels can be an alternative tool for analyzing crop dynamics. However, backscatter-based indices describe the evolution of certain crops better than coherence, indicating the complementary use of both coherence and backscatter.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Wenjie He, Jianjun Zhu, Juan M. Lopez-Sanchez, Cristina Gomez, Haiqiang Fu, Qinghua Xie
Summary: This study evaluates the capacity of TanDEM-X interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data assisted by an external digital terrain model (DTM) to estimate forest canopy height. A ground-to-volume ratio estimation model is proposed for precise estimation of canopy height. The results show that the proposed method has high accuracy and performance in forest height estimation, compared with existing methods and LiDAR data.
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Jiayin Luo, Lu Zhang, Jie Dong, Juan M. Lopez-Sanchez, Yian Wang, Hao Feng, Mingsheng Liao
Summary: Despeckling is an essential task in PolSAR image processing. Existing filters for SAR images mainly make use of either real or complex information, but their performance may vary in different applications due to differences in input sources. To achieve better results in all cases, we propose a tensor decomposition-based method that constructs a new CCM containing polarimetric, interferometric, and multitemporal information for each pixel, improving the identification of homogeneous pixels for spatially adaptive filtering. The effectiveness and performance of the proposed method are evaluated with simulated and real SAR data, compared with several established methods.
IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATIONS AND REMOTE SENSING
(2023)
Article
Remote Sensing
Roberto Tomas, Qiming Zeng, Juan M. Lopez-Sanchez, Chaoying Zhao, Zhenhong Li, Xiaojie Liu, Maria I. Navarro-Hernandez, Liuru Hu, Jiayin Luo, Esteban Diaz, William T. Szeibert, Jose Luis Pastor, Adrian Riquelme, Chen Yu, Miguel Cano
Summary: This paper presents the main outcomes of the joint European Space Agency and Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology cooperation project. The project focuses on developing advanced SAR/InSAR and optical techniques to investigate seismic hazards and risks, detect potential landslides, and demonstrate an EO-based landslide early warning system. The achieved results provide essential assets for planning scientific activities related to landslides.
GEO-SPATIAL INFORMATION SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Mehmet Furkan Celik, Mustafa Serkan Isik, Gulsen Taskin, Esra Erten, Gustau Camps-Valls
Summary: This study created an explainable and accurate predictive model for cotton yield prediction using a multisource dataset and integrating climatic factors, soil parameters, and biophysical parameters observed by remote sensing satellites. The importance of precipitation, enhanced vegetation index, and leaf area index as the most important features was highlighted.
IEEE GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Narayanarao Bhogapurapu, Subhadip Dey, Avik Bhattacharya, Carlos Lopez-Martinez, Irena Hajnsek, Y. S. Rao
Summary: Estimating soil permittivity using polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) data is a widely researched area. This article introduces a novel method that utilizes full polarimetric (FP) and compact polarimetric (CP) modes to estimate soil permittivity over croplands with vegetation cover. The proposed method considers the depolarizing structure of the scattered wave and enhances the expected value of the inversion accuracies.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Roberto Coscione, Irena Hajnsek, Charles Werner, Othmar Frey
Summary: Agile synthetic aperture radar (SAR) platforms require combined inertial navigation systems (INS) and global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) to measure radar sensor trajectories for accurate topographic and deformation information. This study analyzes the impact of residual positioning errors on car-borne repeat-pass SAR interferometry and evaluates the reduction of phase errors achieved by using a local GNSS reference station compared to remote reference stations.
IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATIONS AND REMOTE SENSING
(2022)
Article
Geography, Physical
Philipp Bernhard, Simon Zwieback, Nora Bergner, Irena Hajnsek
Summary: In the Arctic region, there are regional differences in the volume changes, scaling laws, and terrain controls of RTSs (retrogressive thaw slumps). Our study provides important insights into the modeling and monitoring of Arctic carbon, nutrient, and sediment cycles.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Ruonan Chen, Liangyun Liu, Xinjie Liu, Zhunqiao Liu, Lianhong Gu, Uwe Rascher
Summary: This study presents methods to accurately estimate sub-daily GPP from SIF in evergreen needleleaf forests and demonstrates that the interactions among light, canopy structure, and leaf physiology regulate the SIF-GPP relationship at the canopy scale.
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Daniel L. Goldberg, Madankui Tao, Gaige Hunter Kerr, Siqi Ma, Daniel Q. Tong, Arlene M. Fiore, Angela F. Dickens, Zachariah E. Adelman, Susan C. Anenberg
Summary: A novel method is applied in this study to directly use satellite data to evaluate the spatial patterns of urban NOx emissions inventories. The results show that the 108 spatial surrogates used by NEMO are generally appropriate, but there may be underestimation in areas with dense intermodal facilities and overestimation in wealthy communities.
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Zhuoyue Hu, Xiaoyan Li, Liyuan Li, Xiaofeng Su, Lin Yang, Yong Zhang, Xingjian Hu, Chun Lin, Yujun Tang, Jian Hao, Xiaojin Sun, Fansheng Chen
Summary: This paper proposes a whisk-broom imaging method using a long-linear-array detector and high-precision scanning mirror to achieve high-resolution and wide-swath thermal infrared data. The method has been implemented in the SDGs satellite and has shown promising test results.
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Dandan Wang, Leiqiu Hu, James A. Voogt, Yunhao Chen, Ji Zhou, Gaijing Chang, Jinling Quan, Wenfeng Zhan, Zhizhong Kang
Summary: This study evaluates different schemes for determining model coefficients to quantify and correct the anisotropic impact from remote sensing LST for urban applications. The schemes have consistent results and accurately estimate parameter values, facilitating the broadening of parametric models.
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Jamie Tolan, Hung - Yang, Benjamin Nosarzewski, Guillaume Couairon, Huy V. Vo, John Brandt, Justine Spore, Sayantan Majumdar, Daniel Haziza, Janaki Vamaraju, Theo Moutakanni, Piotr Bojanowski, Tracy Johns, Brian White, Tobias Tiecke, Camille Couprie
Summary: Vegetation structure mapping is crucial for understanding the global carbon cycle and monitoring nature-based approaches to climate adaptation and mitigation. This study presents the first high-resolution canopy height maps for California and Sao Paulo, achieved through the use of very high resolution satellite imagery and aerial lidar data. The maps provide valuable tools for forest structure assessment and land use monitoring.
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Regina Eckert, Steffen Mauceri, David R. Thompson, Jay E. Fahlen, Philip G. Brodrick
Summary: In this paper, a mathematical framework is proposed to improve the retrieval of surface reflectance and atmospheric parameters by leveraging the expected spatial smoothness of the atmosphere. Experimental results show that this framework can reduce the surface reflectance retrieval error and surface-related biases.
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Chongya Jiang, Kaiyu Guan, Yizhi Huang, Maxwell Jong
Summary: This study presents the Field Rover method, which uses vehicle-mounted cameras to collect ground truth data on crop harvesting status. The machine learning approach and remote sensing technology are employed to upscale the results to a regional scale. The accuracy of the remote sensing method in predicting crop harvesting dates is validated through comparison with satellite data.
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Oksana V. Lunina, Anton A. Gladkov, Alexey V. Bochalgin
Summary: In this study, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was used to detect and map surface discontinuities with displacements of a few centimeters, indicating the presence of initial geological deformations. The study found that sediments of alluvial fans are susceptible to various tectonic and exogenous deformational processes, and the interpretation of ultra-high resolution UAV images can help recognize low-amplitude brittle deformations at an early stage. UAV surveys are critical for discerning neotectonic activity and its related hazards over short observation periods.
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Feng Zhao, Weiwei Ma, Jun Zhao, Yiqing Guo, Mateen Tariq, Juan Li
Summary: This study presents a data-driven approach to reconstruct the terrestrial SIF spectrum using measurements from the TROPOMI instrument on Sentinel-5 precursor mission. The reconstructed SIF spectrum shows improved spatiotemporal distributions and demonstrates consistency with other datasets, indicating its potential for better understanding of the ecosystem function.
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Stephen Stehman, John E. Wagner
Summary: This article investigates optimal sample allocation in stratified random sampling for estimation of accuracy and proportion of area in applications where the target class is rare. The study finds that precision of estimated accuracy has a stronger impact on sample allocation than estimation of proportion of area, and the trade-offs among these estimates become more pronounced as the target class becomes rarer. The results provide quantitative evidence to guide sample allocation decisions in specific applications.
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2024)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Jingyao Zheng, Tianjie Zhao, Haishen Lu, Defu Zou, Nemesio Rodriguez-Fernandez, Arnaud Mialon, Philippe Richaume, Jianshe Xiao, Jun Ma, Lei Fan, Peilin Song, Yonghua Zhu, Rui Li, Panpan Yao, Qingqing Yang, Shaojie Du, Zhen Wang, Zhiqing Peng, Yuyang Xiong, Zanpin Xing, Lin Zhao, Yann Kerr, Jiancheng Shi
Summary: Soil moisture and freeze/thaw (F/T) play a crucial role in water and heat exchanges at the land-atmosphere interface. This study reports the establishment of a wireless sensor network for soil moisture and temperature over the permafrost region of Tibetan Plateau. Satellite-based surface soil moisture (SSM) and F/T products were evaluated using ground-based measurements. The results show the reliability of L-band passive microwave SSM and F/T products, while existing F/T products display earlier freezing and later thawing, leading to unsatisfactory accuracy.
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2024)