Establishing satellite data bases in developing countries: A critical view

Remote sensing is a data gathering and analysis technique that offers the possibility of natural resource evaluation. Countries that have not yet evaluated their main resources owing to the lack of basic knoweldge of their territory, are attracted by the idea of rapidly creating data banks through the use of remote sensing. While such a technique offers advantages over traditional means of data acquisition, it requires special systems and methods of analysis that are not particularly easy to assimilate. The building of data bases is taken here as the framework for analyzing some problems confronted by developing countries when trying to incorporate the techniques of teledetection.     

Main results and perspectives of some Chilean experiences developed with low cost and accurate spatial remote sensing technology

This paper intends to summarize the main results and perspectives of several Chilean Programs developed by using low cost but accurate remote sensing techniques. Due to paper restrictions, three main applications will be shown : use of satellite data collection systems to measure meteorological data in Ant arctic Peninsula; study of geothermal resources in Los Andes Range by using multispectral and multitemporal Landsat images; and snowmelt runoff forecasting for Andean watersheds by using Landsat data. All these applications have allowed to obtain important and useful results and low cost, reliable and accurate methodologies have been obtained for these studies.     

遥感卫星原始数据格式分析及规范化研究

遥感卫星原始数据(RAW)格式不仅是遥感卫星地面系统运行和建设过程中的一个焦点问题,也是遥感数据用户十分关心的问题之一.目前,国内外对RAW数据格式的定义比较混乱,没有统一的行业标准,这种局面已严重影响到遥感卫星数据的高效使用及数据的长期存档,也严重制约了地面系统的进一步发展建设.本文通过分析国内外几种主流的遥感卫星RAW数据格式及特点,并结合中国遥感卫星地面站投入运行20年来的实践,提出了一种遥感卫星RAW格式方案,以期RAW数据格式早日规范化.      

Remote sensing techniques for monitoring and managing irrigated lands

Agriculture in semi-arid tracts of the world depends on water to sustain its irrigation systems. Such agricultural systems either derive from government investments in the control of surface flow or they have been developed through the exploitation of groundwater sometimes by a large community of unsupervised individuals seeking to maximise their own advantage without concern for the resource upon which they depend in the medium and long term. In both cases government agencies need data on the area irrigated and the volume of water used. In countries with highly developed scientific and agricultural institutions the contribution of remote sensing, though significant, may only provide between five and ten per cent of the data required to guide regional and national managers. In countries without such institutions the proportion contributed by remote sensing can be very much higher, as shown in a recent study in North Africa. The paper will emphasise the importance of carefully structured sampling procedures, both to improve the areal estimates from satellite imagery and the estimates of water use based upon them. The role of satellite imagery in providing information on the status of water resources, on trends in water use and in the implementation of policies to extend or diminish irrigated land are discussed.     

Estimation of stress and its use in evaluation of landslide prone regions using remote sensing data

Recently, use of remote sensing data for determining the orientation of stress has been demonstrated. The present study deals with the estimation of stress pattern in the part of the Himalayan region which shows the ongoing neo-tectonic activities. The study area falls into a tectonically active zone of the Central-Himalaya, with a complex geotectonic set-up confined by a number of faults. Efforts have been made to evaluate the technique as a fast algorithm for quick and time limited analysis of linear feature from which the orientation of the lineaments are estimated by using remote sensing data. Further, the estimation of stress and the lineament analysis have been used in mapping of landslide prone areas. Terrain information such as land cover, geology, lineament, faults, mega faults, geomorphology and drainage has been derived from the satellite imageries, and the existing thematic information has been updated to enable the quantification of landslide causative parameters. Spatial and temporal multi-layered information have been used for landslides hazard susceptibility analysis. The qualitative hazard analysis has been carried out using the map overlying techniques in GIS environment along the central part of Himalayan region. It has been observed that the high potential zones have been found to have very high lineament density, moderate to low drainage density and high slope areas of the terrain. On the basis of the geological and morphological analysis, it is further suggested that the combined impacts of the crushed nature of bed rock (due to the neo-tectonic activities), heavy rainfall and lack of vegetation cover cause persistent recurrence of landslides along this region. The role of earthquake on induction of landslides will be presented.     

Remote sensing using GNSS signals: Current status and future directions

The refracted, reflected and scattered signals of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) have been successfully used to remotely sense the Earth’s surface and atmosphere. It has demonstrated its potential to sense the atmosphere and ionosphere, ocean, land surfaces (including soil moisture) and the cryosphere. These new measurements, although in need of refinement and further validation in many cases, can be used to complement existing techniques and sensors, e.g., radiosonde, ionosonde, radar altimetry and synthetic aperture radar (SAR). This paper presents the current status and new developments of remote sensing using GNSS signals as well as its future directions and applications. Some notable emerging applications include monitoring sea ice, dangerous sea states, ocean eddy and storm surges. With the further improvement of the next generation multi-frequency GNSS systems and receivers and new space-based instruments utilizing GNSS reflections and refractions, new scientific applications of GNSS are expected in various environment remote sensing fields in the near future.     

Modeling satellite battery aging for an operational satellite simulator

During the satellite’s operations, simulation tools perform an important role in ensuring the space mission success. In this sense, the models implemented in the context of an operational satellite simulator that enables analysis of health status and maintenance during operations shall reflect the current satellite behavior with high fidelity. Moreover, it is complicated to obtain all analytical models of a satellite’s disciplines, considering its aging. This paper proposes an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to reproduce the battery voltage behavior of a large sun-synchronous remote sensing satellite, the CBERS-4, currently in operation. Using the genetic algorithm to find the best network architecture of ANN, the neural model for this application presented an error of less than 1%, demonstrating its feasibility to obtain a high fidelity model for an operational simulator enabling extend analyses. The paper addresses advanced techniques aligned with the space industry’s future, increasing the ability to analyze a large amount of data and improve the space system’s operation.     

Remote sensing based continuous hydrologic modeling

There are two principal ways in which remote sensing can be used with continuous hydrological models: (1) by providing a cost effective way for obtaining input data and (2) by providing synoptic measurements of various state variables. This paper discusses existing hydrologic models and the modifications required to adapt them for using remotely sensed data that may significantly improve their simulation performance. Microwave and thermal infrared measurements show promise for use in hydrologic models because they can measure certain physical properties of the watershed (emissivity and temperature) from which a hydrologic condition can be inferred. Additional applications of remote sensing data include the use of spatial data, mechanisms for extrapolating point data and direct measurement of several hydrologic state variables such as soil moisture, surface temperature, snow water equivalent, frozen soils, and rainfall distribution. Results are presented from several aircraft flights where thermal infrared and microwave data were collected over a small research basin. These results are discussed with respect to their application in continuous hydrologic simulation models.     

星载高速串行数据处理系统设计与实现

遥感卫星图像数据量的高速增长,以及遥感卫星搭载的相机不同工作模式下产生的数据差异化处理的需求,为星间数据处理带来了巨大挑战。针对星载Gbit·s^–1级高速数据收发及文件缓存等星间数据处理面临的问题,以百兆每秒级星载高速接收缓存系统为切入点,以遥感卫星数据处理的发展为依据,在分析SerDes传输原理的基础上,采用模型仿真和工程验证的方法,制定了高速串行数据链路层传输协议SSLLP(Satellite Serial Link Layer Protocol)和类文件化高速缓存的策略。在硬件设计和软件开发的基础上,最终完成了具备处理入口速率3.2 Gbit·s^–1并能以类文件化的方式缓存64个数据文件的星载数据处理单元的工程实现。测试结果表明,基于SSLLP的高速串行数据接收正确,缓存策略有效,系统高效可靠。该设计已在某型号任务中取得在轨验证,为星载高速串行数据处理系统提供了参考。     

太阳紫外辐射对星上光学膜层的影响

光学遥感是当前卫星遥感的重要手段, 而卫星温控和能源系统也广泛采 用光学膜层, 它们在空间环境条件下的性能对卫星应用任务的完成, 乃至卫星寿命、安全将起着非常重要的作用. 本文给出了太阳紫外辐射对星上光学膜层影响的主要机制, 分析了这一影响的主要规律和原子氧剥蚀、高能粒子和静电场的作用, 综述了太阳紫外辐射对星上光学系统表面膜层影响的测量结果, 最后提出了星上光学膜层污染防护中应重点关注的几个方面.      

Integration of Landsat-8 and Sentinel-1 dataset to extract geological lineaments in complex formations of Tepal mountain area,Shahrood, north Iran

Recently, the detection and extraction of geological lineaments have become an essential analytical technique to find relationships between the characteristics and occurrence of hydrogeology, and tectonic studies. The use of remote sensing, with the progressive development of image enhancement techniques, provides an opportunity to produce more reliable and comprehensive lineament maps. In this paper, semi-automatic approach based on Landsat 8 and Sentinel 1 radar data is proposed for lineaments extraction and validation. The combined method of linear filtering and automatic line module ensures a high degree of accuracy resulting in a lineament map. Based on identified lineaments, Sentinel1 is more capable of detecting edges than Landsat8, but the primary orientation lineaments extracted from Landsat8 and Sentinel1 were different. So, by combining band6 of Landsat8, and VV and VH polarization of Sentinel1, the area lineaments were extracted with high accuracy. Rose diagram showed the extracted lineaments' orientation is in good compliance with the region's existing faults. Also, the formations' lineament length density has good consistent with the density of the faults in the geological map.     

CYGNSS海面风速固有误差与时空分布特征

全球导航卫星系统反射测量（GNSS-R）是一种新兴的海面风速遥感技术,对GNSS-R反演风速进行详细定量分析是该技术从科学研究走向业务应用的必要条件。 以气旋全球导航卫星系统（CYGNSS）的风速数据为例,利用时空匹配的浮标风速和欧洲中期天气预报中心（ECMWF）的预报风速数据,详细分析了CYGNSS遥感风速的气候态特征和时空分布特征。基于三配对数据分析方法,阐明了CYGNSS遥感风速的固有误差,并提出了相应的风速标定系数。研究表明:GYGNSS的中低风速（w <10 m·s–1）精度较好,但高风速的误差显著增大;风速误差具有良好的时间一致性,但呈现明显的空间分布不均匀现象;总体而言,CYGNSS风速的固有误差约为1.79 m·s–1。研究结果一方面可为CYGNSS风速数据的业务应用提供参考,另一方面也为进一步标定CYGNSS的反射测量信号提供依据。      

基于信息隐藏的遥感图像分块压缩

目前JPEG2000等图像压缩方法受制于压缩倍数的限制,无法满足用户对海量遥感数据的实时传输要求,需要进一步减少高分辨率遥感图像产生的数据量,以满足遥感图像数据的空间传输要求。针对此情况提出了一种基于信息隐藏的遥感图像分块压缩方法,利用图像块的相似性判决出基准图像块和相似图像块,将相似图像块的编号隐藏在基准图像块中,只对基准图像块进行JPEG2000压缩。采用标准图像库作为样本图像进行仿真,结果表明,该方法将样本图像压缩前的数据量减少1/3,同时将该样本图像的压缩比提高1.5倍。     

Responses to satellite remote sensing opportunities in East and Southern Africa

Since 1978 the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has funded a regional remote sensing project for East and Southern Africa. The project, hosted by the Regional Centre for Services in Surveying Mapping and Remote Sensing, has provided a programme of training courses, user services and project support. This included the equipping and establishment of a photo-laboratory complex for processing Landsat images and the provision of advice and support for agencies undertaking natural resources analysis.Response to the training programme has been very good. Courses are usually over subscribed and there is a continued demand for training. Assessments of the courses by participants are highly positive and the courses have featured consultants of international calibre. Requests for follow-up courses, and for specialist group training indicate a strong response to this training activity. User services are active, consultations with staff, use of the browse file and interpretation equipment and the purchase of data for project work all produce an average demand of 12 active enquiries per working week. The photo-laboratory is particularly active and demand for products exceeds available capacity.Project work is now being supported but limited resources restrict the range and amount of project activity. Response to the opportunities offered for projects has been favourable and this activity is ripe for expansion. The difficulty in expanding to meet the expressed demand is primarily financial. The east and southern Africa region is not economically strong and has a great need for natural resources data for development work and planning. The responses to satellite remote sensing opportunities will be limited by these financial constraints which effectively means by the level of international aid directed to this activity. For such aid to be effective it must be coordinated and firmly attached to the region. Such coordinated aid programmes would avoid fragmentation of distribution and applications work. Fragmentation could seriously disrupt the present growth in natural resources activity based on remote sensing data from satellites. The lack of financing for a regional ground receiving station is also a significant limiting factor.     

Remote sensing from the International Space Station

The time has come to give serious thought to the use of the International Space Station (ISS) as a space platform to advance remote sensing research in several scientific disciplines. The European scientific community has been developing instrumentation for deployment on the ISS for some time now. Recently, NASA opened competitions for scientific programs to be supported as “Missions of Opportunity” to utilize the “EXPRESS Pallet” facility on the ISS. A single EXPRESS Pallet has the capability of carrying a collection of instruments similar to the payload of a conventional satellite. A major difference between ISS and satellite programs is that the research funding will be expended on scientific instrumentation and analysis and not on a spacecraft, launch vehicle, and flight operations. As the ISS becomes fully operational, EXPRESS Pallets could be deployed in short periods of time compared to preparing a satellite program. The ability to retrieve, improve, and re-fly an instrument is important to a progressive research program. This allows the experiment to be responsive to data analysis in a timely manner and also keep pace with developing technology.     

The use of Earth resources satellites in the development of Latin America

Remote Sensing Technology has been used since 1972 by the governments of Latin America to promote national and regional development activities. Dedicated centers totally involved in remote sensing research and development were created. Major investment programs were also promoted by the Latin American countries to include satellite remote sensing technology in their national projects.     

遥感卫星高速数传信息流设计

随着卫星遥感技术水平的提高,遥感数据的类型和数据量快速增加。为适应多类型、高速率遥感数据传输的复杂需求,对数传信息流进行了顶层设计,定义了数传与遥感系统数据接口以及数传帧格式,对遥感数据传输所需码速率进行了分类计算,为设计固定的下行数传码速率提供了依据。进而针对不同类型的遥感数据提出了基于分组优先级虚拟信道动态调度策略的数传信息流设计方案,确保不同类型遥感数据的传输满足不同的应用需求。对高速遥感数据确保满足较低的缓存容量需求,对低速遥感数据确保满足实时性传输需求。采用动态仿真技术对数传信息流设计方案进行了试验验证。设计方案可为后续新一代遥感卫星数传系统设计提供参考。     

基于卫星遥感的岛礁影像多类目标智能化提取

卫星遥感影像具有背景复杂、目标尺度不一、观测方向各异、纹理不清晰等特点,主流的深度学习目标检测算法不能直接适用于卫星遥感影像的目标检测。改进了RetinaNet,使其适用于卫星遥感影像。首先设计了一种新的特征融合方式,融合ResNet50输出的特征图,使得融合后的特征图同时具有高层语义信息和低层纹理细节信息。为了减弱遥感影像复杂背景对目标特征的影响,设计了特征感知模块,在减弱噪声对特征图影响的同时增强有用特征。挑选DOTA数据集中船只、飞机和存储罐图像进行训练和测试。改进的算法与RetinaNet相比,飞机、船只和存储罐的平均精度分别提高了41%、25%、24%。基于高分二号卫星（GF 2）真实影像数据的试验结果表明,提出的算法能够用于卫星遥感岛礁影像的多类目标智能化提取。