Del Mar Photonics - Del Mar Photonics at Optics and Photonics 2008

Multiscale remote sensing of wildland fires: from laboratory to landscape (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7089-2 of Conference 7089
Authors(s): Robert L. Kremens, Rochester Institute of Technology; Matthew B. Dickinson, Anthony Bova, U.S.D.A. Forest Service; Loredana Suciu, Valerie Young, Ohio Univ.
Date: Sunday, 10 August 2008
We have conducted a series of very well instrumented wildland fire experiments using overhead infrared instrumentation. These experiments relate relevant ecological and environmental parameters like fuel consumption, stem heating, soil heating and fire severity to physical observables like fire power and fire energy. These multi-scale experiments range from laboratory scale (~0.5 m on a side) to landscape scale (2500 m). We will show the results from laboratory calibrations, small plot field experiments and prescribed fires in Ohio, Kentucky, Georgia and Florida. Plans for refinement of the methods, including near-continuous IR videography from a helicopter, will also be discussed.

New possibilities for remote analysis of biomass burning: plumes by DOAS (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7089-4 of Conference 7089
Authors(s): Ulrich Platt, Ruprecht-Karls-Univ. Heidelberg (Germany)
Date: Sunday, 10 August 2008
Scattered sunlight Multi-AXis Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (MAX-DOAS) has been successfully applied to the quantitative determination of trace gas abundances in clean and polluted environments (e.g. to measure halogen oxides in polar regions, or SO2, NO2, CH2O, glyoxal, and HONO in urban air) In particular volcanic plumes have been analysed for SO2, BrO, and other species.
We present and discuss promising options for the quantitative analysis of all above mentioned trace gases in biomass burning plumes, in particular in forest fire plumes. The technique allows of the total emission burden in the plume with extremely simple and compact ground – based instruments, which also can be operated automatically. Combining the measured column densities with wind speed data the total trace gas flux from the fire can be determined with good accuracy. A few examples for possible applications of the technique to monitor fire properties are given.

Feature acquisition from hyperspectral remote sensing data (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7084-9 of Conference 7084
Authors(s): Mingyi He, Northwestern Polytechnical Univ. (China)
Date: Sunday, 10 August 2008
Geometric information in 2D and 3D images and spectral information in multi-/hyper-spectral images are very significant aspects in machine perception and remote sensing. Multi-/hyperspectral images from multiple physical phenomena contain more essential information for detecting, identifying and understanding objects and environment. Hyperspectral remote sensing provides high-dimensional data sets with better discrimination among spectral signatures or fingerprints than the traditional multispectral scanners. However, the vast amount of data volume presents challenging problems for hyperspectral information processing.

Feature acquisition is one of the crucial steps when dealing with classification and tracking problems with respect to spectral images. Two feature acquisition approaches, that is, feature extraction in kernel space using Bhattacharyya distance (BKFE for short) and feature selection with neural network weighting (NNWFS) will be presented in this paper. (1) In feature extraction: BKFE has two desirable advantages: features extracted by BKFE are more effective for classification and BKFE predicts the upper-bound of the number of necessary features to achieve the same classification accuracy as in the original space for a given pattern recognition problem. Experiments were carried out to compare the performance of BKFE with KPCA, KFD, and FD’s and it has been shown that BKFE can provide more informative features for pattern classification than the other three methods. (2) In feature selection: A neural network weighting based approach for identifying useful bands for classification of hyperspectral data sets is presented. Instead of using sequential search like most feature selection methods based on neural networks, the approach adopts feature weighting strategy to cut down the computational cost significantly. The neural network is trained by a mean square error function with regulation terms which can improve the generation performance. Experimental results with hyperspectral data demonstrated the effectiveness of the NNWFS method and it is also shown that the NNWFS method outperforms state-of-the-art feature selection methods, namely SFS, SFFS, MVPCA, MSNRPC and AMMCA.

Remote Ultra-Low Light Imaging (RULLI) for space situational awareness (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7094-8 of Conference 7094
Authors(s): Michael C. Roggemann, Michigan Technological Univ.; Kris Hamada, Pacific Defense Solutions LLC; Rao Gudimetla, Kim Luu, Air Force Research Lab.
Date: Monday, 11 August 2008
Remote Ultra-Low Light Imaging (RULLI) detectors are photon limited detectors developed at Los Alamos National Laboratories. RULLI detectors provide a very high degree of temporal resolution for the arrival times of detected photo-events, but saturate at a photo-detection rate of about 106 photo-events per second. RULLI detectors have much lower quantum efficiency (approximately 5%) than CCDs (order of 80%). As a result of these factors, and the associated analyses of signal and noise, we have found that RULLI detectors can play two key new roles in SSA: passive imaging of exceedingly dim objects, and three-dimensional imaging of objects illuminated with an appropriate pulsed laser.

Zombie algorithms: a remote sensing systems engineering design tool (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7087-9 of Conference 7087
Authors(s): Philip E. Ardanuy, Raytheon Co.; Dylan Powell, Lockheed Martin Corp.
Date: Monday, 11 August 2008
In modern horror fiction, zombies are generally undead corpses brought back from the dead by supernatural or scientific means, and are rarely under anyone’s direct control. They typically have very limited intelligence, and hunger for the flesh of the living. Experience on remote sensing science data systems suggests the benefits of “plug-n-play” concepts of operation. The concept, while intuitively simple, can be challenging to implement in practice. The use of zombie algorithms—empty shells that outwardly resemble the form, fit, and function of a “complete” algorithm without the implemented theoretical basis—provides ground system advantages equivalent to sensor engineering models.

System engineering studies for advanced geosynchronous remote sensors (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7087-16 of Conference 7087
Authors(s): Jeffery J. Puschell, Raytheon Space & Airborne Systems
Date: Monday, 11 August 2008
This paper describes system engineering design studies for geosynchronous remote sensors that are based on simplified hardware architectures derived from advanced technology. These studies were guided by environmental data requirements for operational weather, climate and other earth science studies.

Design of the stereoscopic eye-tracking system for quantative remote sensing applications (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7087-20 of Conference 7087
Authors(s): Aleksandr V. Sergeyev, Eugene Levin, Michigan Technological Univ.; Gennady Gienko, Univ. of the South Pacific (Fiji)
Date: Monday, 11 August 2008
Information obtained from eye-movement can be utilized in many ways for remote sensing applications such as geospatial image analysis and interpretation. There are various eye-tracking systems available on the market; however none of them is designed to work with stereoscopic imagery. The paper outlines optical solutions to prototype the eye-tracking system designed for stereoscopic geospatial image analysis. In this work we explore different approaches and designs base on the optical separation method to provide the most suitable and non-intrusive scheme for stereoscopic image viewing in the eye-tracking systems to observe and analyze 3D visual models.

Multi-wavelength lidar for remote sensing applications (Poster Presentation)
Paper 7081-49 of Conference 7081
Authors(s): Shalei Song, Pingxiang Li, Wei Gong, Liangpei Zhang, Wuhan Univ. (China)
Date: Monday, 11 August 2008
No description available
Novel laser approach for remote sensing of atmospheric CO2 column (Poster Presentation)
Paper 7081-54 of Conference 7081
Authors(s): Elena M. Georgieva, Emily L. Wilson, William S. Heaps, NASA Goddard Space Flight Ctr.
Date: Monday, 11 August 2008
We present preliminary experimental results, sensitivity measurements and discuss our new CO2 lidar system under development. The system is employing an erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA), superluminescent light emitting diode (SLED) as a source and our previously developed Fabry-Perot interferometer subsystem as a detector part.
Global measurement of carbon dioxide column with the aim of discovering and quantifying unknown sources and sinks has been a high priority for the last decade. The goal of Active Sensing of CO2 Emissions over Nights, Days, and Seasons (ASCENDS) mission is to significantly enhance the understanding of the role of CO2 in the global carbon cycle. The National Academy of Sciences recommended in its decadal survey that NASA put in orbit a CO2 lidar to satisfy this long standing need. Existing passive sensors suffer from two shortcomings. Their measurement precision can be compromised by path length uncertainties arising from scattering within the atmosphere. Also passive sensors using sunlight cannot observe the column at night. Both of these difficulties can be ameliorated by lidar techniques.
Lidar systems present their own set of problems however. Temperature changes in the atmosphere alter the cross section for individual CO2 absorption features while the different atmospheric pressures encountered passing through the atmosphere broaden the absorption lines. Currently proposed lidars require multiple lasers operating at multiple wavelengths simultaneously in order to untangle these effects.
Our current goal is to develop an ultra precise, inexpensive new lidar system for precise column measurements of CO2 changes in the lower atmosphere that uses a Fabry-Perot interferometer based system as the detector portion of the instrument and replaces the narrow band laser commonly used in lidars with the newly available high power SLED as the source. This approach reduces the number of individual lasers used in the system from three or more to one—considerably reducing the risk of failure. It also tremendously reduces the requirement for wavelength stability in the source putting this responsibility instead on the Fabry-Perot subsystem.

Remote phosphor LED modules for general illumination (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7058-20 of Conference 7058
Authors(s): Christoph G. A.Hoelen, Huub Borel, Philips Lighting B.V. (Netherlands); Paul Deeben, Philips Lighting BV (Netherlands); Jan de Graaf, Rene Hendriks, Matthijs Keuper, Martijn Lankhorst, Claudia Mutter, Rene Wegh, Lars Waumans, Philips Lighting B.V. (Netherlands)
Date: Tuesday, 12 August 2008
Due to scattering of light in white LEDs, a relative large fraction of light is absorbed in the package. We report on the performance of remote phosphor LED modules for general illumination, and compare the system performance with that of alternative concepts with the downlight application as a carrier. The remote phosphor concept shows superior system efficiency, and enables the application of a wider range of phosphors. A high CRI can be obtained in the complete color temperature range of 2700 to 4000 K, while the conversion efficiency from blue to white light is significantly better than for modules based on white LEDs with identical die performance.

Guidelines on pre-launch characterization and calibration of infrared instruments for remote sensing (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7082-26 of Conference 7082
Authors(s): Raju Datla, National Institute of Standards and Technology
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
The pre-launch characterization and calibration of remote sensing instruments should be planned and carried out in conjunction with their design and development to meet the mission requirements. In the case of infrared instruments the onboard calibrators such as blackbodies and the sensors such as spectral radiometers should be characterized and calibrated using SI traceable standards. This allows intercomparison and intercalibration of different sensors in space to create global time series of climate records of high accuracy where some inevitable data gaps can be easily bridged. Examples of infrared standards and calibration facilities at NIST for serving remote sensing community will be discussed.

Dramatically reducing on-orbit remote sensing uncertainty: implications of an error analysis (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7081-36 of Conference 7081
Authors(s): Mark C. Helmlinger, Butch Miller, Herbert C. Bitting, Northrop Grumman Space Technology
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
In this era of quantifying the consequences of climate change and honing climate model predictions, remote sensing end-user feedback calls for unprecedented on-orbit calibration requirements. As well, on-orbit calibration to absolute standards is necessary for the degree of pan-platform data integration and synthesis needed to further refine Level 3 environmental trend analyses. It is anticipated that at least an order-of-magnitude improvement in on-orbit uncertainty is required to fulfill the needs of the climate change community. NGST has initiated a study into the relative measure of uncertainty of methods and applications used in the state-of-the-art of calibrating observational instruments.

Character analysis of urban heat island in Shanghai City using remote sensing (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7083-5 of Conference 7083
Authors(s): Jiong Shu, Zhigang Chen, East China Normal Univ. (China)
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
In this paper, the land surface temperature is retrieved with split window algorithm, the vegetation index and surface albedo are extracted based on the EOS/MODIS data. The main results are summarized as follows:
1. Under the proper weather conditions, the intensity of the heat island at night is stronger than its counterpart during the day in winter, and vice versa.
2. The distribution of the surface high temperature area changes with the different characters of the underlying surface and the types of land use.
3. Obvious negative relationship exists between land temperature and surface albedo, as well as vegetation index.

A new quality assessment index for compressed remote sensing image (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7075-23 of Conference 7075
Authors(s): Liang Zhai, Chinese Academy of Surveying and Mapping (China)
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
Quality assessment for remote sensing image compression is of great significance in many practical applications. A comprehensive index based on muti-dimensional structure model was designed for image compression assessment, which consists of gray character distortion dimension, texture distortion dimension, loss of correlation dimension. Based on this model, a new comprehensive image quality index-Q was proposed. In order to assess the agreement between our comprehensive image quality index Q and human visual perception, we conducted subjective experiments in which observers ranked reconstructed images according to perceived distortion. For comparison, PSNR is introduced. The experiments showed that Q had a better consistency with subjective assessment results than conventional PSNR.

Iridium NEXT partnership for Earth observation: exploiting global satellite constellations for new remote sensing capabilities (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7087-24 of Conference 7087
Authors(s): Om P. Gupta, Don Thoma, Iridium Satellite LLC
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
A unique opportunity exists to host up to 66 earth observation sensors on the Iridium NEXT LEO constellation in a manner that can revolutionize earth observation and weather predictions. A constellation approach to sensing, using the real-time communications backbone of Iridium, will enable unprecedented geospatial and temporal sampling for now-casting of weather on a global basis as well as global climate monitoring.

The opportunity is proposed as a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) allowing for the sharing of infrastructure by government agencies. This has the potential to augment current and planned climate and weather observation programs in a very cost effective manner not achievable in any other way. Iridium, with the assistance of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), NASA, NOAA, and ESA, has evaluated a number of sensing missions that would be a good fit to the Iridium NEXT constellation.

Intelsat as a commercial asset for future remote sensing systems (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7087-25 of Conference 7087
Authors(s): Gerry Jansson, Intelsat Global Service Corp.
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
The Global War on Terror, program overruns, and increasing demand for new capabilities has placed an ever increasing strain on National Space Assets, from communications satellites to earth and space observing systems. It has also created an opportunity. With the goal of increasing the number and capability of space payloads, at reduced costs from dedicated systems, the concept of "Hosted Payloads" has recently been held as an example of how the government can do things differently and focus on capabilities, not systems. The Hosted Payload concept infers that a commercial spacecraft is used as a platform on which a secondary payload is provided access to space by sharing the costs of the bus, launch, and insurance with the primary mission. This paper describes the Hosted Payload vision and strategy, and the specific requirements for access to space.

Land surface variables and vegetation variables estimated from satellite remote sensing over the Tibetan Plateau (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7083-10 of Conference 7083
Authors(s): Jianmao Guo, Shuanghe Shen, Shoudong Liu, Nanjing Univ. of Information Science & Technology (China)
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
The Tibetan Plateau, with one million square kilometers area and the averaged altitude of about 4000m, plays a very important role in the Asian monsoon circulation, and the global climate change. Studying on the land surface variables and vegetation variables over heterogeneous landscape of the Tibetan Plateau area, the utilization of satellite remote sensing is indispensable. In this study, methods based on the remote sensing data are proposed and tested for deriving the regional land surface variables and vegetation variables over heterogeneous landscapes. The distributions of surface reflectance, surface temperature, NDVI, MSAVI, vegetation coverage and LAI over heterogeneous landscape of the Tibetan Plateau area are derived.

Scalable low complexity image coder for remote volume visualization (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7073-44 of Conference 7073
Authors(s): Hariharan G. Lalgudi, Michael W. Marcellin, Ali Bilgin, The Univ. of Arizona; Mariappan S. Nadar, Siemens Corporate Research
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
Remote visualization of volumetric medical images has gained importance over the past few years in order to realize the full potential of tele-radiology. Volume visualization is a computationally intensive process, often
requiring hardware acceleration to achieve real-time viewing experience. Hence, a remote visualization model that is well-suited for high speed networks would be to transmit the rendered images (with dedicated hardware) from the server based on view point requests from clients. In this regard, a compression scheme for the rendered
images is vital for efficient utilization of the server-client bandwidth. Also, the complexity of the decompressor should be low so that low-end clients can decode images at the desired frame rate. Thus, we present a new, fast and efficient image codec designed for interactive transmission of volume rendered images.

Remote triggering of high voltage systems by laser induced plasmas (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7070-16 of Conference 7070
Authors(s): Nicholas J. West, Ian R. Jandrell, Univ. of the Witwatersrand (South Africa); Andrew Forbes, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (South Africa)
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
The formation of a laser-induced plasma was first observed by Maker, Terhume and Savage in 1963. The fact that a plasma could be generated by focusing a laser beam by means of a lens resulted in great interest in the field of laser-triggering of spark gaps.

In spark gap triggering applications, an orthogonal or coaxial spark gap arrangement can be used. In the coaxial case, the laser beam is directed along the axis of the gap whereas in the orthogonal arrangement, the beam is at right angles to the gap axis. In this paper experiments are presented on the orthogonal and coaxial arrangements, and the impact this has on the breakdown voltage of various gap sizes and gap arrangements. Results on the three-way interaction of the laser beam – plasma – discharge is also presented and discussed. The results of this investigation will provide useful insight for the development of simple and efficient remote laser-triggering strategies.

Applying remote sensing techniques into crop emergency monitoring (Poster Presentation)
Paper 7085-50 of Conference 7085
Authors(s): Yanbo He, National Meteorological Ctr. (China); Jingwen Guo, Wageningen Univ. (Netherlands); Huanping Wu, National Meteorological Ctr. (China)
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
No description available
Progress towards the remote sensing of aircraft icing hazards (Poster Presentation)
Paper 7088-19 of Conference 7088
Authors(s): Andrew L. Reehorst, David Brinker, NASA Glenn Research Ctr.; Marcia Politovich, David Serke, National Ctr. for Atmospheric Research; Charles Ryerson, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Andrew Pazmany, ProSensing Inc.; Frederick Solheim, Radiometrics Corp.
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
NASA has teamed with the FAA, DoD, industry, and academia for research into the remote detection and measurement of atmospheric conditions leading to aircraft icing hazards. The ultimate goal of this effort is to provide pilots, controllers, and dispatchers sufficient information to allow aircraft to avoid or minimize their exposure to the hazards of in-flight icing. Ground-based icing remote sensing relies upon radar, lidar, and multi-frequency microwave radiometry. Airborne concepts include multi-frequency radiometry and multi-frequency radar. Ground-based systems are envisioned as providing hazard detection in airport terminal regions while airborne systems will be needed to provide flight path coverage between terminal regions.

Remote counseling using HyperMirror quasi space-sharing system (Poster Presentation)
Paper 7073-84 of Conference 7073
Authors(s): Sayuri Hashimoto, Univ. of Tsukuba (Japan); Osamu Morikawa, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (Japan); Nobuyuki Hashimoto, Citizen Technology Ctr. Co., Ltd. (Japan); Takanori Maesako, Osaka Univ. (Japan)
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
A practical remote-supporting system of guidance and counseling in health medicine,　education or welfare have started thank to the high-speed and low cost internet.　In the research, we will report the remote-counseling using HyperMirror systems　which can give virtual sharing spaces. We added information of the sense of touch other than visual or auditory that aimed improvements on the remote-supporting.Three volunteers of this experiment estimated that this system was acceptable for practical use. A volunteer felt that she could eliminate the anxiety and got ease after observing the HyperMirror images that remote counselor whispered in and hugged her warmly.

Remote sensing-based research of urban thermodynamic landscape heterogeneity and heat environment (Poster Presentation)
Paper 7083-60 of Conference 7083
Authors(s): Jia Yi, Yongzhong Tian, Southwest Univ. (China)
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
This paper uses Landsat TM/ETM+ images in 1988、2001 and 2006, combined with the observing data from automatic meteorological stations, to detect the spatial pattern and temporal change of urban thermal environment in core urban area of Chongqing. Thermodynamic landscape heterogeneity model is used to analyze the spatial structure and pattern of urban thermal environment from 1988 to 2006. This study shows that the urban heat island effect is strongly correlated with the land cover and that increasing green area and lakes might be the effective ways to weaken the negative affect of urban heart island effect.

The application of Modified Perpendicular Drought Index (MPDI) method in drought remote sensing monitoring (Poster Presentation)
Paper 7083-58 of Conference 7083
Authors(s): Huailiang Chen, Hongwei Zhang, Henan Institute of Meteorological Science (China); Xuefen Zhang, Yanxia Zhao, Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences (China); Shuanghe Shen, Nanjing Univ. of Information Science & Technology (China); Zixuan Du, Zhongyang Liu, Chunhui Zou, Henan Institute of Meteorological Science (China)
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
Soil moisture and Vegetation status are the most direct and important indication of drought, so the spectral interpreting of vegetation and soil is most important in drought estimation. Using the MODIS image to calculate Perpendicular Drought Index and Modified Perpendicular Drought Index in various periods, and compared them with the observation data in-situ. The result showed that the PDI and the MPDI is highly accordant with in-situ drought value with the higher correlation found between the MPDI and an in-situ drought index derived from 0～20 cm mean soil moisture. The results showed that the PDI and the MPDI provide quite similar results for bare soil surfaces, especially in the early stages of vegetation growth.

The Fog Remote Sensing And Modeling (FRAM) field project: visibility analysis and remote sensing of fog (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7088-2 of Conference 7088
Authors(s): Ismail Gultepe, Environment Canada (Canada); Patrick Minnis, NASA Langley Research Ctr.; Jason Milbrandt, Stewart G. Cober, George A. Isaac, Environment Canada (Canada); Louis Nguyen, NASA Langley Research Ctr.; Bjarne Hansen, Patrick King, Environment Canada (Canada); Gary Ellrod,
Date: Thursday, 14 August 2008

Remote detection and diagnosis of thunderstorm turbulence (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7088-3 of Conference 7088
Authors(s): John K. Williams, Robert D. Sharman, Jason A. Craig, Gary E. Blackburn, National Ctr. for Atmospheric Research
Date: Thursday, 14 August 2008
Under FAA and NASA funding, a new capability for providing real-time assessments of thunderstorm-induced turbulence for aviation users is being developed. The NEXRAD Turbulence Detection Algorithm (NTDA) provides in-cloud turbulence intensity measurements, and operational radar, satellite and lightning data are used in conjunction with numerical weather model data to infer turbulence location and severity in the near-storm environment. Data fusion is accomplished using a machine learning technique tuned using automated in-situ turbulence reports from commercial aircraft. This research is designed to enhance US and international turbulence decision support systems and contribute to the planned NextGen 4-D weather database.

Sea roughness remote sensing from the sun’s glitter (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7085-37 of Conference 7085
Authors(s): Viktor Titov, Institute of Applied Physics (Russia)
Date: Thursday, 14 August 2008
It is known that the sun glitter area most often visible on sea images from airplane or space is very useful for remote sensing of sea surface roughness. The glint intensity and pattern is directly related to the wave slope probability function. The long surface waves appear on the edge of a sun glitter area. Its visibility is related with distribution of glints along the wave profile. The model of long surface waves visibility on sea surface using twoscale approach of sea roughness and taking into account shadowing of sea slopes under grazing angles is developed and method for retrieval of spectra of such waves is proposed. The accuracy of retrieving of long surface wave spectra is evaluated. The example of sea surface image made during the flight of the helicopter above Gorky Sea and its processing is shown.

Dual-source remote sensing model for estimating land surface evapotranspiration and its application in North China Plain (Poster Presentation)
Paper 7083-23 of Conference 7083
Authors(s): Chaoshun Liu, Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research (China)
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
Based on the theory of linear dual-source evapotranspiration(ET) model，this paper develops a remote sensing model for estimating the land surface ET．The remote sensing model has two characteristics：(1)simplify the VITT method and improve the accuracy of determining soil water status in North China Plain，and(2)introduce the dual-source model in calculating land surface ET and improve the calculation accuracy of the mixed pixels．The remote sensing model is applied for calculating the land surface ET about a 1000 km2 in North China Plain by using Modis images during the period 2005-2006．It is illustrated that the remote sensing model based on dual-source linear concept call get good estimates when applied in Shandong area．

Calculation of light use efficiency from net ecosystem CO2 fluxes for remotely-sensed estimates of primary production in corn and soybean (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7083-9 of Conference 7083
Authors(s): E. Raymond Hunt, Jr., Paul C. Doraiswamy, John H. Prueger, Jerry L. Hatfield, USDA Agricultural Research Service
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
The objective of this study was to calculate light use efficiency from daily net CO2 flux and the amount of daily absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (PAR). The Soil Moisture Experiment 2005 (SMEX’05) was conducted in Walnut Creek Watershed near Ames IA, during which eddy-correlation towers were used to measure net CO2 fluxes various fields of corn and soybean. Comparison to NASA Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) standard data products show that the differences in net carbon flux over the Iowa region have significant differences, which could be important for the monitoring the global carbon budget.

Dynamic monitoring of urban expansion and land use change in Taian City based on remotely-sensed images (Poster Presentation)
Paper 7083-19 of Conference 7083
Authors(s): Xiaoyan Zhou, Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research (China)
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
Urban has changed the landscape of the Earth with unexpreeding speed. On one hand, the rapid expansion of urban resulted in the change of the regional landscape, on the other hand, it made the regional environment worser and worser. All of these changes make an important impact on urban long-term and sustainable development.
This study takes Taian city of Shandong Province as an example. Based on three satellite images of Landsat TM/ETM+ and with the help of GIS technology and scio-economic data, we monitor and analyse the urbanization process of Taian city during the reform period from 1987 to 2005.

Further evaluation of the WVSS-II moisture sensor using co-located in-situ and remotely-sensed observations (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7088-13 of Conference 7088
Authors(s): Ralph A. Petersen, Sarah Bedka, Wayne Feltz, Erik Olson, Univ. of Wisconsin/Madison
Date: Thursday, 14 August 2008
The laser-diode based Water Vapor Sensing System (WVSS-II) is being deployed on US commercial aircraft. The paper discusses the latest objective WVSS-II assessment, both of the accuracy of the humidity data and determining how best to use these data to supplement to other upper-air reports. About 5 rawinsonde/WVSS-II co-locations (within 1 hour and 50 km) were obtained daily during a 2 week period in November 2006 in Louisville KY, including Temperature, Wind, and Humidity. Results of ascent data showed generally excellent agreement, especially in the lower troposphere, with RMS fits <0.5 g/kg for mixing ratio (<10% for relative humidity).

Multifunctional imaging systems (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7096-2 of Conference 7096
Authors(s): Keith L. Lewis, Electro Magnetic Remote Sensing Defence Technology Ctr. (United Kingdom)
Date: Sunday, 10 August 2008
Increased levels of emphasis are being placed on the need for multifunctional imaging systems. To some extent these are being driven by the form factors of military platforms, whilst in others they are driven by explicit requirements associated with the operational context in which those platforms are fielded. This paper explores the feasibility of fielding multifunctional imaging systems on small airborne platforms covering a wide electromagnetic spectrum (RF to EO). A review is presented of the state-of-the-art for compact multi-mode systems, with some emphasis on the benefits that multi-spectral EO systems provide in relation to improved target recognition.

Using MODIS imagery for improving AVHRR geolocation (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7085-22 of Conference 7085
Authors(s): Konstantin V. Khlopenkov, Alexander P. Trishchenko, Canada Ctr. for Remote Sensing (Canada)
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
To improve the AVHRR geolocation for historical time series, a new AVHRR image processing system, CAPS (Canadian AVHRR Processing System), has been developed at CCRS in the framework of climate change project and CEOS Climate Action Plan. A new system takes advantage of high accuracy of MODIS image geolocation with 250 m resolution. Preliminary analysis has shown that the accuracy in image georeferencing is within ±1/3 pixel along and across the scan direction. The developed system is now employed for re-processing the entire AVHRR 1-km archive assembled at CCRS starting from AVHRR NOAA-6.

Using MODIS imagery for improving AVHRR geolocation (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7081-22 of Conference 7081
Authors(s): Konstantin V. Khlopenkov, Alexander P. Trishchenko, Canada Ctr. for Remote Sensing (Canada)
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
To improve the AVHRR geolocation for historical time series, a new AVHRR image processing system, CAPS (Canadian AVHRR Processing System), has been developed at CCRS in the framework of climate change project and CEOS Climate Action Plan. A new system takes advantage of high accuracy of MODIS image geolocation with 250 m resolution. Preliminary analysis has shown that the accuracy in image georeferencing is within ±1/3 pixel along and across the scan direction. The developed system is now employed for re-processing the entire AVHRR 1-km archive assembled at CCRS starting from AVHRR NOAA-6.

Two methods for the absolute calibration of SZ-3 CMODIS sensors and their comparison based on Dunhuang test size (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7081-23 of Conference 7081
Authors(s): Xuan Li, National Meteorological Ctr. (China); Zhifeng Guo, Institute of Remote Sensing Applications (China)
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
In this paper two different approaches are used and compared for absolute radiometric calibration of the seven reflective channels of the SZ-3 CMODIS sensor. One Method is radiometric cross-calibration in which achieves a calibration by reference to another satellite sensor that acquired imagery on the same day as the CMODIS overpass, it differs significantly from the second approach in that no ground reflectance and atmospheric measurements are needed on overpass day. The other method is the reflectance-based calibration in which ground reflectance and atmospheric measurements are needed on overpass day.

Two methods for the absolute calibration of SZ-3 CMODIS sensors and their comparison based on Dunhuang test size (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7085-23 of Conference 7085
Authors(s): Xuan Li, National Meteorological Ctr. (China); Zhifeng Guo, Institute of Remote Sensing Applications (China)
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
In this paper two different approaches are used and compared for absolute radiometric calibration of the seven reflective channels of the SZ-3 CMODIS sensor. One Method is radiometric cross-calibration in which achieves a calibration by reference to another satellite sensor that acquired imagery on the same day as the CMODIS overpass, it differs significantly from the second approach in that no ground reflectance and atmospheric measurements are needed on overpass day. The other method is the reflectance-based calibration in which ground reflectance and atmospheric measurements are needed on overpass day.

McIDAS-V applications: multi- and hyper-spectral analysis and visualization (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7085-10 of Conference 7085
Authors(s): Thomas D. Rink, Thomas H. Achtor, Thomas M. Whittaker, Univ. of Wisconsin/Madison
Date: Tuesday, 12 August 2008
McIDAS-V, the next generation McIDAS, is being developed here at SSEC and is
aimed at the data analysis and visualization requirements for the next generation
research and operational Earth observing systems. McIDAS-V will have an emphasis on
remote sensing analysis and visualization with keen focus on NPOESS and GOES-R, and
provide extended HYDRA capabilities. HYDRA is an interactive visualization and analysis tool developed to explore and research multi- and hyper-spectral satellite data. It is used extensively around the world in the education and training of remote sensing scientists, as well as, in the development of remote sensing applications.

Fielding of a time-resolved tomographic diagnostic (Poster Presentation)
Paper 7061A-32 of Conference 7061A
Authors(s): Daniel Frayer, Brian Cox, Wendi Dreesen, Douglas Johnson, Morris Kaufman, National Security Technologies, LLC
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
A diagnostic instrument has been developed for the acquisition of high-speed time-resolved images for the creation of time histories of an electron beam. Four optical subsystems employ cylindrical optics to image an x-ray target in one direction and collapse light in the orthogonal direction. Each of the four images and collapses in unique axes, thereby capturing unique information. Light is relayed via optical fiber to streak cameras. Software reconstructs the original image from the four collapsed images. The instrument can be operated remotely to adjust optical parameters and can be remotely calibrated. The instrument was deployed and calibrated, and has been used to capture and reconstruct images. Matters of alignment, calibration, control, resolution, adverse conditions and maintenance will be discussed.

Observational considerations for moderate resolution nighttime lights (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7081-23 of Conference 7081
Authors(s): Christopher D. Elvidge, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; Donald R. Pettit, NASA Johnson Space Ctr.; Marc L. Imhoff, NASA Goddard Space Flight Ctr.; Ramakrishna Nemani, NASA Ames Research Ctr.; Dee Pack, The Aerospace Corporation
Date: Tuesday, 12 August 2008
Traditional optical remote sensing systems focus on the detection of reflected sunlight. What changes if the objective is the detection of lighting present at the Earth's surface, the discrimination of lighting types and the measurement of development growth rates? This paper will discuss the rationale for such observation and what can be concluded regarding the sensing requirements based on field spectra, airborne remote sensing data, and digital camera imagery from the International Space Station.

Low-noise InGaAs-balanced p-i-n photoreceiver for space-based remote sensing applications at 2-micron wavelength (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7095-15 of Conference 7095
Authors(s): Abhay M. Joshi, Donald A. Becker, Shubhashish Datta, Discovery Semiconductors, Inc.
Date: Monday, 11 August 2008
Space based LIDAR sensors require very low sensitivity in order to detect weak backscattered signals. This is enabled by using balanced coherent detection. We demonstrate a low-noise InGaAs balanced p-i-n photoreceiver at 2 micron wavelength. The photoreceiver is comprised of a matched pair of p-i-n photodiodes having a responsivity of 1A/W that is coupled to transimpedance amplifier having 24dB RF gain and 19pA/√Hz input equivalent noise at 300K. The photoreceiver demonstrates a 3dB bandwidth of 200MHz and provides LIDAR sensors with 20-30m resolution. The photoreceiver exhibits common mode rejection ratio of 30dB and optical power handling of 3dBm per photodiode.

Comparisons between state-of-the-art HgCdTe/Si and HgCdTe/CdZnTe infrared FPAs for remote sensing applications (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7082-16 of Conference 7082
Authors(s): David A. Buell, Raytheon Vision Systems
Date: Monday, 11 August 2008
HgCdTe/Si grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) has competitive performance and can be produced in significantly larger sizes for lower cost than HgCdTe/CdZnTe grown by either MBE or liquid phase epitaxy (LPE).

The reduction of defect densities, and achieving both high QE and R0A in HgCdTe/Si detectors makes MBE on Si NEI, Response uniformity, and cluster performance competitive with HgCdTe/CdZnTe FPAs produced from LPE-grown materials. Larger format single–piece IRFPA HgCdTe/Si detector die greater than 10 cm on a side can be fabricated on 15 cm–diameter substrate wafers.

Both MBE-grown HgCdTe/Si and LPE-grown HgCdTe/CdZnTe IRFPAs discussed in this paper have a broad spectral response from 1.5-5.1 µm with quantum efficiencies > 80%, low NEI, and operability exceeding 98%.

New differential Fabry-Perot radiometer for remote sensing measurements of column CO2, O2, H2O and other atmospheric trace gases (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7081-18 of Conference 7081
Authors(s): William S. Heaps, Emily L. Wilson, Elena M. Georgieva, NASA Goddard Space Flight Ctr.
Date: Monday, 11 August 2008
A new type of remote sensing instrument based upon the Fabry-Perot interferometric technique has been developed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. The instrument detects the absorption of various atmospheric trace gases in direct or reflected sunlight. It can be used as ground based, airborne and satellite sensor for gases such as carbon dioxide , oxygen and water vapor . Our recent long term experimental data on CO2 and O2 detection in atmosphere will be presented and discussed

A study on the spatio-temporal characteristics and mechanism of landuse evolvement with urban renewal and expansion in Shanghai based on mixed-pixel classification for remote sensing imagery (Poster Presentation)
Paper 7083-30 of Conference 7083
Authors(s): Xiaoyan Dai, Zhongyang Guo, Jianping Wu, East China Normal Univ. (China)
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
In this paper, we propose a possibilistic c repulsive medoids (PCRMdd) algorithm which is applied to generate a set of fraction images, each displaying the proportion of a certain land cover class within each pixel. The results obtained on multi-temporal Landsat ETM images of Shanghai city in China reveal spatio-temporal characteristics and mechanism of Shanghai landuse evolvement from 1989 to 2005, the amount and spatial pattern in landuse transformation with urban renewal and expansion indicate the improvement of ecological environment step by step nowadays, and besides, PCRMdd represents a robust and efficient tool for mixed-pixel classification in remote sensing image.

An application of satellite remote sensing to coastal topography generation: a case study in Chongming Island in Shanghai (Poster Presentation)
Paper 7083-32 of Conference 7083
Authors(s): Xiaohu Zhang, Zhongyang Guo, East China Normal Univ. (China)
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
The aim of this article is to elaborate the method of constructing the coastal near shore topography of Chongming Island by using image processing techniques with optical satellite images. And it includes two main components. The first is to extract the entire waterline of Chongming Island, the second is to construct the regional tidal flat DEM.The result indicated that the method we used to construct the coastal near shore topography of Chongming Island is viable, and the precision of the DEM of Dongtan is acceptable.

Study on models for monitoring of above ground biomass about Bayinbuluke grassland assisted by remote sensing (Poster Presentation)
Paper 7083-27 of Conference 7083
Authors(s): Xiaoming Cao, Graduate Univ. of Chinese Academy of Sciences (China)
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
Using the CBERS data in August,2005 and the corresponding measured grass yield data from 15 samples in the region of Bayinbuluke grassland, we established the linear regression models、the non-linear regression models to express the relationship between grassland biomass and the vegetation indices. Finally, The results show that: the comparison of different forms shows that the logarithm equation is the best one in terms of the suitability of use in study area and the non-linear regression Y=-1242.2MSAVI3+6254.1MSAVI2-10044MSAVI+5267 is the best model which can be used in monitoring grassland biomass based on the vegetation indices in the region of Bayinbuluke grassland.

The use of x-band radar to support the detection of in-flight icing hazards by the NASA icing remote sensing system during AIRS-II (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7088-14 of Conference 7088
Authors(s): David J. Serke, Marcia Politovich, National Ctr. for Atmospheric Research; Andrew L. Reehorst, NASA Glenn Research Ctr.; Andrew Gaydos, National Ctr. for Atmospheric Research
Date: Thursday, 14 August 2008
The Alliance Icing Research Study-II (AIRS-II) field program was conducted near Montreal, Canada during the winter of 2003. The NASA Icing Remote Sensing System (NIRSS) was deployed to detect in-flight icing hazards and consisted of a vertically pointing multichannel radiometer, a ceilometer and an x-band cloud radar. The radiometer was used to derive atmospheric temperature soundings and integrated liquid water, while the ceilometer and radar were used only to define cloud boundaries. The purpose of this study is to show that the radar reflectivity profiles from AIRS-II case studies could be used to provide a qualitative icing hazard.

Responses of plant biochemical substances to reflectance spectra at leaf and canopy scales (Poster Presentation)
Paper 7083-38 of Conference 7083
Authors(s): Runhe Shi, Huifang Zhang, Juan Sun, Wei Gao, East China Normal Univ. (China); Dafang Zhuang, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research (China); Zheng Niu, Institute of Remote Sensing Applications (China)
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
Plant biochemical substances are key factors that influence or even control the exchange of materials and energy between land and atmosphere. Their estimation through leaf and canopy reflectance measurement is a fast and promising way especially for large-scale observation with remote sensing. This paper discusses the responses of plant biochemical substances to the reflectance spectra at both leaf and canopy scales using a large amount of model simulated spectra. Sensitivity analysis methods are used to differentiate their contributions to the outcome spectra at different wavelengths and their scale effects.

Improvements of regional evapotranspiration model by considering topography correction (Poster Presentation)
Paper 7083-21 of Conference 7083
Authors(s): Chaoshun Liu, Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research (China)
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
A remote sensing regional evapotranspiration(ET) model was built on the basis of topography correction(slope, aspect and elevation). A variety of satellite data which have visible, near-infrared and thermal infrared remote sensing data can be used by this improved model. Combined with conventional ground meteorological information, it can estimate regional distribution of ET under different climate and terrain conditions, expanding the scope of application. This research indicate that application of medium or high resolution satellite data to calculate regional ET under undulating landform should consider the impact of terrain. It improve the accuracy of ET estimates and has important reference value.

Numerical simulation of the soil moisture over China during the summer of 2006 by Common Land Model (CLM) (Poster Presentation)
Paper 7083-48 of Conference 7083
Authors(s): Lanjun Zou, Shanghai Meteorological Ctr. (China); Wei Gao, Colorado State Univ.; Tongwen Wu, Qifeng Lu, Yanwu Zhang, Chinese Meteorological Administration (China)
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
CLM is a useful tool to analyze how land surface effects the interaction of energy, mass and momentum between land and atmosphere, but it is not carefully validated over East-Asia monsoon zone with complex land surface conditions.
We use CLM to simulate the distribution and variation of soil moisture over China in the summer of 2006 while comparing with AMSR-E and FY remotely observed and station-observed soil moisture data.
Results illuminate that CLM can reasonably simulate the distribution and variation of soil moisture over China, which is meaningful to the research on climatic problems lack of soil moisture data.

Image compression effects in visual analysis (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7084-18 of Conference 7084
Authors(s): Alaitz Zabala, Univ. Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain); Xavier Pons, Univ. Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain) and Ctr. de Recerca Ecològica i Aplicacions Forestals (Spain); Francesc Auli-Llinas, Joan Serra-Sagrista, Univ. Autònoma de Barcelona
Date: Monday, 11 August 2008
This study deals with the effects of lossy image compression in the visual analysis of remotely sensed images. Color 1:5000 orthoimages have been submitted to a JPEG2000 lossy compression algorithm and to on-screen photographic interpretation. These processes have generated a set polygon layers, one for every area and compression ratio. Maps obtained using images highly compressed present high structural differences regarding to maps obtained with the original images. On the other hand, the compression of 20% obtains values only slightly different from those of the original photographic interpretation, but these differences seem owed to the subjectivity of the photographic interpretation.

Estimation on net primary productivity of vegetation in Yellow River delta, China (Poster Presentation)
Paper 7083-59 of Conference 7083
Authors(s): Wen-zuo Zhou, Southwest Univ. (China)
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
Net primary productivity (NPP) of vegetation reflects its capacity of carbon sequestration and it is basis to research transform of material and energy of ecosystem. The NPP plays important role in evolvement of ecosystem and interaction between climate and ecosystem in arid and semi-arid areas. This paper was to estimate the NPP of vegetation in the Yellow River Delta (YRD), China in 2004. The production efficiency model NPP-PEM modified for the regional scale was developed for estimation of NPP with remotely sensed data MODIS and meteorological data. The spatial and seasonal distribution of vegetation NPP was analyzed with geographic information system technology. The difference of NPP between different landscape vegetation was analyzed by comparison. The results showed that the vegetation NPP had changed greatly with seasons and there were obvious differences of NPP between landscapes in YRD during summer when plants grow.

Image quality vs. sensitivity: fundamental sensor system engineering (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7087-8 of Conference 7087
Authors(s): Carl F. Schueler, Schueler Consulting
Date: Monday, 11 August 2008
This paper focuses on image quality vs. sensitivity, a trade driving remote sensing system complexity, cost, performance, schedule, and risk, and encompassing all system performance and design attributes. Examples illustrate the balance required to optimize cost, complexity, performance and risk.

Misalignment parameters estimation in refractive optical systems (Poster Presentation)
Paper 7068-23 of Conference 7068
Authors(s): Braulio Fonseca Carneiro Albuquerque, Roberto Vieira da Fonseca Lopes, Helio K. Kuga, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (Brazil); Erica G. Carvalho, Lucimara C. Nakata Scaduto, Mario A. Stefani, Opto Eletrônica S.A. (Brazil)
Date: Monday, 11 August 2008
Misalignment characterization and estimation techniques based on Bayesian estimators and wavefront measurements have been proposed in the literature. This paper is the result of a deep study and investigation of these techniques, with emphasis on an application to an intentionally simple system for the sake of illustration that highlights conceptual issues that could be extended to more realistic, complex optical systems. We also present insights on how to apply the technique to the alignment of a 11-lens optical system used in the Brazilian remote sensing camera MUX, that will fly on-board the upcoming CBERS 3&4 satellites

Adaptive control of conformal laser beams in deep atmospheric turbulence (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7090-6 of Conference 7090
Authors(s): Svetlana L. Lachinova, Univ. of Maryland/College Park; Mikhail A. Vorontsov, Army Research Lab.
Date: Tuesday, 12 August 2008
We present a mathematical model and provide an analysis of conformal optical beam director systems composed of adaptive arrays of fiber collimators (conformal system subapertures) for laser beam projection through deep atmospheric turbulence. Adaptive optics compensation of turbulence-induced phase aberrations in these systems is performed at each fiber collimator. Operation of both the conformal system with mutually incoherent output laser beams and the corresponding coherent system whose subapertures can be coherently combined (phase-locked) at a remote target plane is compared for various adaptive system configurations characterized by the number of fiber collimators, the adaptive compensation resolution, and atmospheric turbulence conditions.

Space instrument performance traceability for high resolution satellite systems (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7081-22 of Conference 7081
Authors(s): Andreas Eckardt, Anko Börner, Herbert Jahn, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (Germany); Ralf Reulke, Humboldt-Univ. zu Berlin (Germany)
Date: Tuesday, 12 August 2008
Technology changes in detector development and the significant improvement of manufacturing accuracy in combination with the permanent engineering research influences the next generation of spaceborne sensor systems, which is focused on Earth observation and remote sensing. The paper gives an overview about current technologies for performance measurements on sensor, focal plane assembly (FPA) and instrument level without the optical performances of the telescope. The paper proposes also a technology, which can be used for sensor performance measurements on wafer level.

Analysis of concurrent space based and ground based atmospheric infrared spectrometer measurements (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7086-14 of Conference 7086
Authors(s): Paul E. Lewis, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency; David P. Miller, Northrop Grumman IT - TASC; Sylvia S. Shen, The Aerospace Corp.; Robert T. Kroutil, Los Alamos National Lab.
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
Infrared spectrometer data from the space based downward looking NASA Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and from the ground based upward looking Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI) are used in this study. Spatially and temporally concurrent cloud free data from these spectrometers are correlated and analyzed. The effects of water vapor, ozone and carbon dioxide on infrared remote sensing applications are characterized.

Analysis of ecological vulnerability based on landscape pattern and ecological sensitivity: a case of Duerbete County (Poster Presentation)
Paper 7083-49 of Conference 7083
Authors(s): Jiang Miao, Peking Univ. (China); Wei Gao, Colorado State Univ.; Xiuwan Chen, Xianfeng Zhang, Peking Univ. (China)
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
Ecological vulnerability evaluation has important real significance and scientific value. In this study, under the support of Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System, we use ETM images, agrotype map and related geographic information, and adopt a combined landscape pattern and ecosystem sensitivity approach to access the ecological vulnerability of Duerbete county. Its result is reasonable and can support ecological construction.

Hyperentanglement for advanced quantum communication (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7092-26 of Conference 7092
Authors(s): Julio T. Barreiro, Paul G. Kwiat, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Date: Thursday, 14 August 2008
Quantum entanglement is known to enable otherwise impossible feats in
various communication protocols, such as quantum key distribution and
super-dense coding. Here we describe efforts to further enhance
the usual benefits, by incorporating quantum states that are
simultaneously entangled in multiple
degrees of freedom -- ``hyperentangled''. Via the process of spontaneous
parametric down conversion, we have demonstrated photon pairs simultaneously
entangled in polarization and spatial mode, and have used these to realize
remote entangled state preparation, full polarization Bell-state analysis,
and the highest reported capacity quantum dense coding.

Middle-IR supercontinuum generations and applications (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7056-31 of Conference 7056
Authors(s): Shizhuo Yin, Jae Hun Kim, The Pennsylvania State Univ.; Paul B. Ruffin, Eugene Edwards, Christina L. Brantley, U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Ctr.; Claire Luo, General Opto Solutions, LLC
Date: Thursday, 14 August 2008
In this paper, we present our recent work on middle IR supercontinuum generation in single crystal fibers/waveguides and its applications to standoff, remote sensing and multispectrum LADAR.

Hypertemporal satellite-based data products for wildland fire decision support (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7089-9 of Conference 7089
Authors(s): Brad Quayle, USDA Forest Service
Date: Sunday, 10 August 2008
The USDA Forest Service Active Fire Mapping Program is an operational, satellite-based fire detection and mapping system. The program provides a near real-time status of wildland fire conditions in a geospatial context for the United States and Canada. Hypertemporal image data collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) are the primary remote sensing data source of the program.
The program utilizes real-time MODIS imagery to generate a series of timely fire detection and assessment products. These products serve as an integrated decision support tool and a data/information source for various fire applications within the interagency wildland fire community.

Hopfield neural network based mixed pixel unmixing for multispectral data (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7084-11 of Conference 7084
Authors(s): Shaohui Mei, Northwestern Polytechnical Univ. (China) and The Univ. of Sydney (Australia); David D. Feng, The Univ. of Sydney (Australia) and Hong Kong Polytechnic Univ. (China); Mingyi He, Northwestern Polytechnical Univ. (China)
Date: Sunday, 10 August 2008
A fully constrained linear unmixing algorithm based on Hopfield Neural Network (HNN) is proposed in this paper. The Nonnegative constraint, which has no close-form analytical solution, is secured by the activation function of neurons instead of traditional numerical method. The Sum-to-one constraint is embedded in the HNN by adopting the least square Linear Mixture Model as the energy function. The Noise Energy Percentage stop criterion is also proposed for the HNN to improve its robustness for various noise levels. The proposed algorithm has been compared with the widely used Fully Constrained Least Square algorithm and the Gradient Descent Maximum Entropy algorithm on two sets of benchmark simulated data. The experimental results demonstrate that this novel approaches can decompose mixed pixels more accurately regardless of how much the endmember overlaps. The HNN based unmixing algorithm also shows satisfatory performance in dealing with practical multispectral remote sensing data.

CNES studies for on-board compression (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7084-14 of Conference 7084
Authors(s): Carole Thiebaut, Ctr. National d'Études Spatiales (France)
Date: Sunday, 10 August 2008
Future instruments planned by CNES for space remote sensing missions will lead to higher bit rates because of the increase in resolution. Lossy data compression with low complexity algorithms is then needed with compression ratio always higher. New image compression algorithms have been used to increase their compression performance while complying with image quality requirements. Recent compression algorithms use a wavelet-transform and a bit-plane encoder. But future compressors will have to be more powerful to reach higher compression ratios. New transforms are studied by CNES to exceed the DWT but a performance gap could be obtained with selective compression.

UHV-based TERS toward single molecule detection (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7033-14 of Conference 7033
Authors(s): Bruno Pettinger, Jens Steidtner, Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (Germany)
Date: Sunday, 10 August 2008
We present an UHV-based TER microscope employing an electronically adjustable parabolic mirror to achieve a sharp focus and an efficient collection of scattered light. The SPM and optical components are connected with optical fibers to remote laser and spectrograph. For dyes adsorbed on Au(111), the Raman signal from the focus of ~300nm diameter is weak. The TERS signal has an about 4000-fold higher level, though the enhanced signal stems only from a region underneath the tip having a diameter of 15 nm. This indicates an underlying TERS enhancement of about 10^6, sufficient to permit single molecule spectroscopy and microscopy.

Plasmon mediated InGaAs/InP tunable far-IR detector (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7082-8 of Conference 7082
Authors(s): Walter R. Buchwald, Air Force Research Lab.; Himanshu Saxena, Robert E. Peale, Univ. of Central Florida
Date: Monday, 11 August 2008
This work presents an experimental investigation of a THz detector based on plasmon excitation in the two dimensional electron gas of a high electron mobility transistor. This device, fabricated from the InGaAs/InP material system, relies on e-beam lithography to fabricate a gate in the form of a grating with sub-micron period. Sensitivity of the device conductance to incident THz fields is reported. Direct absorption of THz radiation, temperature effects, and the effects of source to drain current on system performance are also investigated. It is expected that this class of device will find use in spaceborne remote sensing applications.

Geospatial visualization of atmospheric chemistry satellite data using Google Earth (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7087-12 of Conference 7087
Authors(s): John C. Burke, Raytheon
Date: Monday, 11 August 2008
Earth observation satellites employ various types of remote-sensing instruments to peer into the secrets of the atmosphere. Many of these instruments collect two-dimensional data stored as raster images which can be easily geo-referenced and overlaid onto a virtual globe, with stunning results. However, certain instruments collect three-dimensional science data which can pose a significant challenge for visualization efforts. The Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) is such an instrument which collects scientific data about atmospheric chemistry and stores the outputs in an Oracle database. With some imaginative programming, the data is transformed into interesting and information-packed visualizations using the database to produce Google Earth-formatted files.

Lockin-speckle-interferometry for non-destructive testing (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7063-11 of Conference 7063
Authors(s): Philipp Menner, Henry Gerhard, Gerhard Busse, Univ. of Stuttgart (Germany)
Date: Monday, 11 August 2008
Interferometrical methods like Shearography or Electronic-Speckle-Pattern-Interferometry (ESPI) are being used for remote deformation measurements, e.g. for the purpose of non-destructive testing. By applying the Lockin-technique, even small local discontinuities on a large background deformation can be monitored. In this method, heating is performed periodically by modulation of light intensity while object deformation is continuously monitored and recorded to give a stack of fringe images. After unwrapping, the temporal deformation is extracted by Fourier transformation, resulting in an amplitude- and a phase angle image. The phase angle image features significant advantages like defect selectivity, enhanced signal-to-noise ratio and depth resolution.

New type of Bessel-like optical beams (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7062-12 of Conference 7062
Authors(s): Vladimir N. Belyi, Nikolai S. Kazak, Nikolai A. Khilo, Piotr I. Ropot, Larisa I. Kramoreva, B.I. Stepanov Institute of Physics (Belarus)
Date: Monday, 11 August 2008
A new type of Bessel-like optical beams is considered. The distinguished property of proposed beams is a linear decrease of the cone angle with the propagation distance. Their angular spectrum beams is dependent on the aperture limitations. The propagation length of the Bessel-like beam is larger than that for the Bessel beam, and their axial intensity is considerably higher than one for the equivalent Gaussian beam. It is caused by a very small divergence of optical field in the near-axial region. The divergence of the main lobe is less than 10-4 rad. Such beams are promising for the remote sensing applications.

Reflective liquid crystal polarization gratings with high efficiency and small pitch (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7050-18 of Conference 7050
Authors(s): Ravi K. Komanduri, Chulwoo Oh, Michael J. Escuti, North Carolina State Univ.
Date: Monday, 11 August 2008
We report our experimental success in realizing high efficiency liquid crystal polarization gratings (LCPGs) on reflective substrates, with periods as small as 2.0µm, enabling the largest LCPG diffraction angles reported yet. Moreover, these gratings retain nearly ideal electro-optical properties, including > 95% hologram efficiency, high polarization contrast, sub-millisecond total switching times, and relatively low voltage operation (thresholds ~1.5V, and operating range < 10V). We discuss two independent fabrication approaches, each with its own set of advantages, which have resulted in gratings with the above compelling properties. We anticipate broad utility of these diffractive elements in applications including displays, polarimetry, beam-steering, remote-sensing, and beyond.

High voltage discharge control by spatial shaping of a laser induced plasma (Poster Presentation)
Paper 7062-40 of Conference 7062
Authors(s): Nicholas J. West, Ian R. Jandrell, Univ. of the Witwatersrand (South Africa); Andrew Forbes, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (South Africa)
Date: Monday, 11 August 2008
In this paper we report on the use of novel laser beam shaping to improve the spatial distribution of the plasma for optimized high voltage discharge by laser induced plasmas. Focused circular Gaussian beams are used as the standard and compared to line focused beams, flat-top beams, and Bessel beams as a means of triggering the discharge. We also consider the impact of multiple foci in the discharge region and the impact this has on breakdown voltage and discharge path. Finally, we report on the three-way interaction between the laser beam, plasma and current discharge path, and comment on the physical mechanisms to possibly explain some of the observations. The results of this investigation will provide useful insight for the development of novel remote laser-triggering strategies.

MERTIS: from laboratory to Mercury (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7082-19 of Conference 7082
Authors(s): Jorn Helbert, Thomas Säuberlin, Carsten Paproth, DLR Berlin-Adlershof (Germany); Ingo Walter, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (Germany); Gabriele Armold, Harald Hiesinger, Univ. Münster (Germany)
Date: Tuesday, 12 August 2008
MERTIS (MERcury Thermal infrared Imaging Spectrometer) is an advanced infrared remote sensing instrument that is part of the ESA mission BepiColombo to planet Mercury. The enabling technology that allows sending the first spectrometer for the thermal infrared spectral range to Mercury is an uncooled microbolometer. With this detector the instrument can be operated in the hot environment of Mercury without the need for a cryogenic cooling system. The challenge is the characterization and calibration of the instrument. We will report on the ongoing calibration efforts including laboratory measurements of analogue materials, end-to-end simulations and a detailed characterization of all components.

Implementation of a global-scale operational data assimilation system for satellite-based soil moisture retrievals (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7085-18 of Conference 7085
Authors(s): John D. Bolten, Wade Crow, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture; Xiwu Zhan, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; Curt Reynolds, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
NASA’s soil moisture remote sensing product provided by the EOS Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) has been incorporated into the U.S. Department of Agriculture Crop Assessment and Data Retrieval (CADRE) decision support system to provide better characterization of regional-scale surface wetness in key agricultural areas. A quasi-global-scale operational data assimilation system has been designed and implemented to provide CADRE a daily product of integrated AMSR-E soil moisture observations with the CADRE two-layer soil moisture model forecasts. A methodology of the system design and an evaluation of the system performance over the Conterminous United States (CONUS) will be presented.

Epifluorescence surveys of extreme environments using PanCam imaging systems: Antarctica and the Mars regolith (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7097-25 of Conference 7097
Authors(s): Michael C. Storrie-Lombardi, Kinohi Institute; Jan-Peter Muller, Univ. College London (United Kingdom); Martin R. Fisk, Oregon State Univ.; Andrew D. Griffiths, Andrew J. Coates, Univ. College London (United Kingdom)
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
Rapid delineation of organic distribution/abundance without destroying samples or expending irreplaceable resources is a primary requirement for exploring extreme environments in remote locations on Earth and Mars. PAHs, amino/nucleic acids, photosynthetic pigments, and critical microbial metabolites exhibit strong fluorescence following excitation by UV-VIS-NIR light. Imaging these fluorescence signatures is easily accomplished with systems available on Mars rovers and during human/robotic exploration on Earth. We discuss results with epifluorescent imaging of bio-organic targets using filter bands comparable to those available to ExoMars and review plans for epifluorescence surveys of Schirmacher Oasis and Lake Untersee in Eastern Antarctic Dry Valleys.

Accuracy assessment on the crop area estimating method based on RS sampling at national scale (Poster Presentation)
Paper 7085-52 of Conference 7085
Authors(s): Yonglan Qian, Chinese Meteorological Administration (China); Bangjie Yang, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (China); Xianfeng Jiao, Zhiyuan Pei, Ministry of Agriculture of the People's Republic of China (China)
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
The paper reviews different methods and the corresponding assessments of agricultural monitoring using remote sensing in developed countries and China, then assesses the crop area estimating method using TM data as sampling area in Northeast China. The ground truth is gathered with GPS and 40 sampling areas are used to assess the classification accuracy. The error matrix is constructed and the producer accuracy, the user accuracy and total accuracy are calculated respectively. A new error index is introduced and it measures how much the objective area estimation is positive or negative apart from the truth data.

Analyzing the 2007 drought of Poyang Lake basin with MODIS-derived Normalized Difference Water Deviation Index (NDWDI) (Poster Presentation)
Paper 7083-61 of Conference 7083
Authors(s): Wenjiang Zhang, Sichuan Univ. (China); Zhiqiang Gao, Chinese Academy of Sciences (China)
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
The year of 2007 has seen the most serious drought in last century occurred in Poyang Lake Basin. In the Drought, the area of Poyang Lake shrank from 3,500 square kilometer to only hundreds of square kilometer. The remotely sensed Normalized Difference Water Indices (NDWI) for the summers of 2001―2007 were calculated based on 8-day composite MODIS products, which were further used to construct a water index (Normalized Difference Water Deviation Index, NDWDI) to examine the sensitivity of remote sensing in the Drought. The study showed that the NDWDI is more sensitive to regional drought than other absolute-soil-moisture-based indices. With the index, the study extracted the spatial-temporal characteristics of the Drought of Poyang Lake, and explored its developing and withdrawing processes.

Application of support vector machines in cloud detection using images of EOS/MODIS (Poster Presentation)
Paper 7088-22 of Conference 7088
Authors(s): Hanjie Wang, Yinming He, Chinese Academy of Sciences (China)
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008

Apply QuikSCAT data to rebuild wind profile (Poster Presentation)
Paper 7083-55 of Conference 7083
Authors(s): Jingwei Xu, Yong Luo, Nanjing Univ. of Information Science & Technology (China) and Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences (China); Xiuzhi Zhang, Rong Zhu, Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences (China) and Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences (China)
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
A small island with high masts is selected as reference site. The mesoscale model MC2 and MM5 are applied to simulate the wind field there. The results show that model simulation with high (low) correlation with the mast measurement in the high (low) level in the contemporary time. The QuikSCAT data, 10 above the sea level, is relatively high correlation with the masts observation, even the island is quit near the mainland. Finally the remote sensing data of 10m high and MC2 upper layer results are applied to rebuild the wind profile. Then distinctly improve the wind resource estimation results.

Features of the large-scale circulation of the extremely heavy rain with severe floods over South China in June 2005 and its possible cause (Poster Presentation)
Paper 7083-28 of Conference 7083
Authors(s): Lijuan Wang, Zhaoyong Guan, Jinhai He, Nanjing Univ. of Information Science & Technology (China)
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
Based on NCEP/NCAR daily reanalysis data and some remote sensing data, the circulation background of the extremely heavy rain with severe flood over South China in June 2005 and its possible cause were analyzed. The results showed that the weak El Nino events during 2004~2005 was the climatic background of the extremely heavy rain with severe flood. The exceptional heating source over the east coast of Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal forced an exceptional anticyclonic circulation over its northwest high level leading to the South Asian High enhancing and anomalous westward, making for heavy rain and severe flood in South China areas.

Global information-energy networks (Poster Presentation)
Paper 7072-39 of Conference 7072
Authors(s): Igor I. Tyutyunnyk, Olena V. Dronenko, Vinnitsa State Technical Univ. (Ukraine)
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
The given work is dedicated to the future global information-energy networks. The main goal of this network architecture is to effectively serve large quantities of users. As user can be any device consuming or generating information streams. This approach allows creating fully interactive environment, where different objects are able to exchange information between each other. Integration of such networks with the Internet extends them to whole World.
The main application of such networks is transport layer for different global and local services (e.g. television translation, Internet, industrial data transferring systems, remote monitoring of different objects state and so on).

Landscape pattern change research of land use about the Baiyang River in Fukang based on fractal theory (Poster Presentation)
Paper 7083-26 of Conference 7083
Authors(s): Xiaoming Cao, Graduate Univ. of Chinese Academy of Sciences (China)
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
Combing the theory of Fractal and the techniques of Remote Sensing and GIS, we study spatial pattern of Land Use of two periods(2000 and 2005)in Baiyang River Firstly, under the support of RS and GIS, the classification information of land use is extracted from the Landsant TM imageries and a spatial database of land use is built. Secondly, we use the fractal model to calculate fractal indices of different landscape patterns to study the Land Use change about Baiyang River. Thirdly, Combining some landscape indices, we analyze the characteristics of land use change quantificationally and provide sustainable development of land use with several pieces of advice in the end.

The circulation background of the extremely heavy rain causing severe floods in Huaihe River valley in 2003 and its relationship to the apparent heating (Poster Presentation)
Paper 7085-55 of Conference 7085
Authors(s): Lijuan Wang, Zhaoyong Guan, Nanjing Univ. of Information Science & Technology (China)
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
Based on some remote sensing data, the circulation background of the extremely heavy rain causing severe floods in Huaihe river valley in 2003 and its relationships to the apparent heating were analyzed. The results showed that the El Nino events with middling intensity during 2002~2003 was the previous background of this extremely heavy rain. The exceptional heating source over the Bay of Bengal forced an exceptional anticyclonic circulation over its northwest high level leading to the South Asian High enhancing and maintaining over the Tibetan Plateau , the south of Changjiang river valleys and South China, so Huaihe river valley areas just located the updraft areas which was in the south of the high-level jet，making for heavy rain and severe flood.

Raman analysis of common gases using a multi-pass capillary cell (MCC) (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7061A-19 of Conference 7061A
Authors(s): Christopher M. Gordon, William F. Pearman, Univ. of South Carolina; Chance Carter, Lawrence Livermore National Lab.; Michael Angel, Univ. of South Carolina; James W. Chan, Lawrence Livermore National Lab.
Date: Thursday, 14 August 2008
Raman measurements for some common, non-absorbing gases are made using a simple multipass capillary Raman cell (MCC) coupled to an 18@1 fiber-optic Raman probe. The MCC is made by coating a 1-2 mm glass capillary with a highly reflective metal and provides up to 30-fold enhancements in Raman signal. The device is small, simple to construct, and optical alignment is trivial making it suitable for remote and in-situ measurements with optical fibers. With our first-generation MCCs made with silver-coated capillaries, LODs of 0.02% 0.2% were obtained for CH4 and CO2 respectively.

Convection diagnosis and nowcasting for oceanic aviation applications (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7088-8 of Conference 7088
Authors(s): Cathy J. Kessinger, Huaqing Cai, Nancy Rehak, Dan Megenhardt, National Ctr. for Atmospheric Research; Jeffrey D. Hawkins, Richard L. Bankert, Naval Research Lab.; Earle Williams, MIT Lincoln Lab.
Date: Thursday, 14 August 2008
Oceanic airspace has few high resolution products that depict the current or future location of convection. Satellite remote sensing provides the best means to monitor convective attributes near the temporal and spatial resolution desired by the oceanic aviation community. Convective diagnosis and nowcasting products have been developed that use geostationary and polar-orbiting satellite observations with a global model. Nowcasts of convection location are accomplished for 1-hr or 2-hr over the Gulf of Mexico, Pacific, and continental United States domains. Independent validation will be accomplished with the TRMM Precipitation Radar and Lightning Imaging System, the CloudSat Cloud Profiling Radar and the NEXRAD network. Currently, the nowcasting system uses an object-tracker to extrapolate identified convective storms. To capture storm initiation, satellite-derived environmental parameters that identify favorable conditions are being included.

Interferometric radiometer for in-flight detection of aviation hazards (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7088-10 of Conference 7088
Authors(s): Bill Smith, Sr., Stanislav Kireev, Hampton Univ.; Leanne West, Gary Gimmestad, Georgia Tech Research Institute; Larry Cornman, Univ. Corp. for Atmospheric Research; Wayne Feltz, Univ. of Wisconsin/Madison; Glen Perram, Air Force Institute of Technology; Taumi Daniels, NASA Langley Research Ctr.
Date: Thursday, 14 August 2008
A new instrument concept for in-flight detection of aviation hazards is being investigated. The instrument, known generically as the Forward-Looking Interferometer (FLI) is a passive infrared radiometer based on high-resolution Fourier transform spectrometry technologies developed for satellite remote sensing. The FLI concept is being evaluated for its potential to address multiple hazards including clear air turbulence (CAT), volcanic ash, wake vortices, low slant range visibility, dry wind shear, and icing, during all phases of flight (takeoff, cruise, and landing). The project has three major elements: sensitivity studies; development of algorithms to estimate the hazard severity; and field measurements.

Corrections for rotating shadowband pyranometers for solar resource assessment (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7046-15 of Conference 7046
Authors(s): Norbert Geuder, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (Germany); Benedikt Pulvermueller, Solar Millennium AG (Germany); Oliver Vorbrugg, FLAGSOL GmbH (Germany)
Date: Thursday, 14 August 2008
Solar irradiation data are rarely available in regions suitable for solar energy use. As small deviations decide over the realization of solar power plants, accurate but affordable measurements are indispensable. The most accurate sensors are little appropriate for installation at remote stations due to soiling, high power consumption and elevated costs. Semiconductor sensors finally show a better performance. New correction functions will be presented for measurements with Rotating Shadowband Pyranometers with an integrated temperature probe. For several sites, uncorrected and corrected RSP data (RMS deviations <2%) will be analyzed by means of precise measurements and compared with other algorithms.

Mix and match: enhanced Raman spectroscopy instrumentation in field applications (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7097-43 of Conference 7097
Authors(s): Bin Chen, Christopher P. McKay, Carol R. Stoker, Nathalie A. Cabrol, NASA Ames Research Ctr.
Date: Thursday, 14 August 2008
Structural and composition analytical methods including Raman spectroscopy, Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF), and laser breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) have been used to detect and analyze the minerals and fossils from planetary surfaces. Raman spectroscopy analysis, in particular, has advantage of detecting chemical groups such as C-C, C-O and C-N as molecular markers. These compositions have large scattering cross-section, yielding high sensitivity and high selectivity from the background mixtures. This analytical technique is very powerful for the detection of organic and biogenic organic detections on the surface of planetary and Mars analog environments in situ. We will discuss design, integration and laboratory tests of field Raman spectrometer suite that combines complementary sensing capability. We will evaluate laser excitation conditions and optical probe designs for further instrument improvement. Comparison studies of a field unit and a laboratory micro Raman spectrometer equipped with multiple laser excitation wavelengths have shown the potentials to further improve the instrument for in situ deployment and for orbital remote sensing. We will discuss deployment potentials of the active sensing techniques for small payloads and standoff detections.

Use of MODIS satellite images to investigate the chlorophyll-a concentrations in Lake Okeechobee, Florida (Poster Presentation)
Paper 7083-66 of Conference 7083
Authors(s): Ammarin Makkeasorn, Ni-Bin Chang, Univ. of Central Florida; Kang-Ren Jin, South Florida Water Management
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
Lake Okeechobee, a large, shallow, and eutrophic lake in south Florida is the second largest land-locked, freshwater lake in the U.S. Chlorophyll-a is the green pigment that is normally found in plants. Chlorophyll-a allows plants to use the solar energy to convert water and carbon dioxide into plants’ cells and oxygen known as photosynthesis. One early scenario envisages that increasing input of nutrient, especially the phosphorus, from the Lake Okeechobee drainage basin over the last few decades has significantly deteriorated the water quality in the lake. A different scenario, however, showed that a large proportion of nutrients are sorbed onto fine sediment particles, which are periodically resuspended leading to partial nutrient release regardless of the present nutrient loads. As a consequence, nutrient-enriched lake water therefore flourishes algal bloom in Lake Okeechobee. Additional impact that causes change of chlorophyll-a concentration was due to the gradual changes of the flow regime to the lake. Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), one type of the salient global climate change patterns, is the term for changes in river flow patterns based on long term changes in the temperature of the surface of the North Atlantic Ocean. Changes in river flows occur because significant changes in ocean temperature affect rainfall patterns on a continental scale. It had been observed that, between AMO warm (i.e., from 1940 to 1969) and cold phases (i.e., from 1970 to 1999), the inflow to Lake Okeechobee varies by 40%” with respect to the average of daily mean over the warm and cold phases, respectively. The ultimate change of the concentration of chlorophyll-a in a water body would be normally used as a surrogate indicator to assess the water quality in this lake. While the in-situ water quality monitoring is time-consuming and costly, multispectral remote sensing sensors onboard satellites can detect chlorophyll-a contained in most phytoplankton efficiently. The objective of this study is thus to demonstrate the use of MODIS/Terra Surface Reflectance 8-Day images to estimate the chlorophyll-a concentrations in the Lake Okeechobee. The development of multiple linear regression model and genetic programming model help the information retrieval for spatial mapping of chlorophyll-a concentrations comparatively. Multi-decadal changes of chlorophyll-a concentrations will be presented in response to the long-term trend in terms of eutrophication.

Thickness of cryolithosphere and frozen rocks on Mars (Paper Presentation)
Paper 7097-36 of Conference 7097
Authors(s): Ilya Komarov, Vladislav Isaev, Oleg Abramenko, M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State Univ. (Russia)
Date: Thursday, 14 August 2008