Coastal sea level changes in Europe from GPS,tide gauge,satellite altimetry and GRACE, 1993–2011

Sea level changes are threatening the human living environments, particularly along the European Coasts with highly dense population. In this paper, coastal sea level changes in western and southern Europe are investigated for the period 1993–2011 using Global Positioning System (GPS), Tide Gauge (TG), Satellite Altimetry (SA), Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and geophysical models. The mean secular trend is 2.26 ± 0.52 mm/y from satellite altimetry, 2.43 ± 0.61 mm/y from TG+GPS and 1.99 ± 0.67 mm/y from GRACE mass plus steric components, which have a remarkably good agreement. For the seasonal variations, annual amplitudes of satellite altimetry and TG+GPS results are almost similar, while GRACE Mass+Steric results are a little smaller. The annual phases agree remarkably well for three independent techniques. The annual cycle is mainly driven by the steric contributions, while the annual phases of non-steric (mass component) sea level changes are almost a half year later than the steric sea level changes.     

Digisonde observations of TIDs with frequency and angular sounding technique

A technique for studying ionospheric wavelike phenomena, primarily AGW/TID events, is developed based on the solution of the problem of radio wave propagation in ionospheric plasma disturbed by wavelike processes. A perfectly reflecting surface model is used for representing TIDs propagating at ionospheric heights. This technique is a generalization of the Frequency-and-Angular Sounding (FAS) method developed earlier for oblique TID diagnostics using transmitters of opportunity. Trial measurements were made in November 2003 with two DPS-4 systems at Millstone Hill Observatory, providing experimental validation of the developed method by comparing the results of disturbance diagnostics to those simultaneously obtained with the original (oblique) FAS method. The TID parameters recovered during the November 2003 campaign suggest that the observed disturbances predominately propagated equatorward which likely indicates their sources to be in the auroral region. The equatorward propagating AGW/TIDs are typical for disturbed geomagnetic conditions which were observed during the campaign. Implementation of the generalized FAS technique in the DPS sounder allowed development of a dedicated data acquisition system for ionospheric disturbance diagnostics. Routine measurements with the developed technique using the existing world-wide network of Digisondes (GIRO) will make it possible to conduct large-scale studies of the AGW/TID phenomena.     

Semi-automatic determination of the Azores Current axis using satellite altimetry: Application to the study of the current variability during 1995–2006

Satellite altimetry has been widely used to study the variability of the ocean currents such as the Azores Current (AzC) in the North Atlantic. Most analyses are performed over the region that encloses the current, thus being somehow affected by other oceanographic signals, e.g., eddies. In this study, a new approach for extracting the axis of a zonal current solely based on satellite altimetry is presented. This is a semi-automatic procedure that searches for the maximum values of the gradient of absolute dynamic topography (ADT), using the geostrophic velocity as auxiliary information. The advantage of this approach is to allow the analyses to be performed over a buffer centered on the current axis instead of using a wider region. It is here applied to the AzC for the period June 1995–October 2006.     

Experiment for mapping land cover and it’s change in southeastern Sri Lanka utilizing 250 m resolution MODIS imageries

Utilizing freely available MODIS NDVI and Natural color imageries of 250 m spatial resolution produced by NASA, an experiment was made to map land-cover and its change with an emphasis on vegetation cover in southeastern Sri Lanka, which plays a vital role for control of green house gas. For the change detection purpose, 1987 land cover map made by present authors from Landsat MSS image and extensive ground truth survey data was used as the base map. The result of the experiment shows that MODIS data are useful to make a land cover map of 250 m spatial resolution for tropical areas with high cloud coverage like Sri Lanka. It was found that the forest cover decrease amounted as large as 21% in 19 years time span in southeastern Sri Lanka, the prominent forest region of the country. On the other hand homestead/vegetation and mixed vegetation/scrub dominant categories increased by 13.7% and 7.1%, respectively. These changes are considered due to a large clearance of forest areas for agriculture and building houses to accommodate increasing inhabitants.     

Comparison of fragments created by low- and hyper-velocity impacts

This paper summarizes two new satellite impact experiments. The objective of the experiments was to investigate the outcome of low- and hyper-velocity impacts on two identical target satellites. The first experiment was performed at a low-velocity of 1.5 km/s using a 40-g aluminum alloy sphere. The second experiment was performed at a hyper-velocity of 4.4 km/s using a 4-g aluminum alloy sphere. The target satellites were 15 cm × 15 cm × 15 cm in size and 800 g in mass. The ratios of impact energy to target mass for the two experiments were approximately the same. The target satellites were completely fragmented in both experiments, although there were some differences in the characteristics of the fragments. The projectile of the low-velocity impact experiment was partially fragmented while the projectile of the hyper-velocity impact experiment was completely fragmented beyond recognition. To date, approximately 1500 fragments from each impact experiment have been collected for detailed analysis. Each piece has been weighed, measured, and analyzed based on the analytic method used in the NASA Standard Breakup Model (2000 revision). These fragments account for about 95% of the target mass for both impact experiments. Preliminary analysis results will be presented in this paper.     

Spin parameters of Low Earth Orbiting satellites Larets and Stella determined from Satellite Laser Ranging data

Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) measurements contain information about the spin parameters of the fully passive, geodetic satellites. In this paper we spectrally analyze the SLR data of 5 geodetic satellites placed on the Low Earth Orbits: GFZ-1, WESTPAC, Larets, Starlette, Stella, and successfully retrieve the frequency signal from Larets and Stella only. The obtained signals indicate an exponential increase of the spin period of Larets: T = 0.860499·exp(0.0197066·D) [s], and Stella: T = 13.5582·exp(0.00431232·D) [s], where D is in days since launch. The initial spin periods calculated from the first month of the SLR observations are: Larets: T_initial = 0.8239 s, Stella: T_initial = 13.2048 s. Analysis of the apparent effects indicates the counter-clockwise spin direction of the satellites. The twice more heavy Stella lost its rotational energy more than four times slower than Larets. Fitting the spin model to the observed spin trends allows determination of the spin axis orientation evolution for Larets and Stella before their rotational period becomes equal to the orbital period.     

Deriving remote sensing reflectance from turbid Case II waters using green-shortwave infrared bands based model

The objectives of this study are to validate the applicability of a shortwave infrared atmospheric correction model (SWIR-based model) in deriving remote sensing reflectance in turbid Case II waters, and to improve that model using a proposed green-shortwave infrared model (GSWIR-based model). In a GSWIR-based model, the aerosol type is determined by a SWIR-based model and the reflectance due to aerosol scattering is calculated using spectral slope technology. In this study, field measurements collected from three independent cruises from two different Case II waters were used to compare models. The results indicate that both SWIR- and GSWIR-based models can be used to derive the remote sensing reflectance at visible wavelengths in turbid Case II waters, but GSWIR-based models are superior to SWIR-based models. Using the GSWIR-based model decreases uncertainty in remote sensing reflectance retrievals in turbid Case II waters by 2.6–12.1%. In addition, GSWIR-based model’s sensitivity to user-supplied parameters was determined using the numerical method, which indicated that the GSWIR-based model is more sensitive to the uncertainty of spectral slope technology than to that of aerosol type retrieval methodology. Due to much lower noise tolerance of GSWIR-based model in the blue and near-infrared regions, the GSWIR-based model performs poorly in determining remote sensing reflectance at these wavelengths, which is consistent with the GSWIR-based model’s accuracy evaluation results.     

Spectral transformation of ASTER and Landsat TM bands for lithological mapping of Soghan ophiolite complex,south Iran

Spectral transformation methods, including correlation coefficient (CC) and Optimum Index Factor (OIF), band ratio (BR) and principal component analysis (PCA) were applied to ASTER and Landsat TM bands for lithological mapping of Soghan ophiolitic complex in south of Iran. The results indicated that the methods used evidently showed superior outputs for detecting lithological units in ophiolitic complexes. CC and OIF methods were used to establish enhanced Red–Green–Blue (RGB) color combination bands for discriminating lithological units. A specialized band ratio (4/1, 4/5, 4/7 in RGB) was developed using ASTER bands to differentiate lithological units in ophiolitic complexes. The band ratio effectively detected serpentinite dunite as host rock of chromite ore deposits from surrounding lithological units in the study area. Principal component images derived from first three bands of ASTER and Landsat TM produced well results for lithological mapping applications. ASTER bands contain improved spectral characteristics and higher spatial resolution for detecting serpentinite dunite in ophiolitic complexes. The developed approach used in this study offers great potential for lithological mapping using ASTER and Landsat TM bands, which contributes in economic geology for prospecting chromite ore deposits associated with ophiolitic complexes.     

Assessing and minimizing collisions in satellite mega-constellations

We aim to provide satellite operators and researchers with an efficient means for evaluating and mitigating collision risk during the design process of mega-constellations. We first introduce a novel algorithm for conjunction prediction that relies on large-scale numerical simulations and uses a sequence of filters to greatly reduce its computational expense. We then use this brute-force algorithm to establish baselines of endogenous (intra-constellation), or self-induced, conjunction events for the FCC-reported designs of the OneWeb LEO and SpaceX Starlink mega-constellations. We demonstrate how these deterministic results can be used to validate more computationally efficient, stochastic techniques for close-encounter prediction by adopting a new probabilistic approach from Solar-System dynamics as a simple test case. Finally, we show how our methodology can be applied during the design phase of large constellations by investigating Minimum Space Occupancy (MiSO) orbits, a generalization of classical frozen orbits that holistically account for the perturbed-Keplerian dynamics of the Earth-satellite-Moon-Sun system. The results indicate that the adoption of MiSO orbital configurations of the proposed mega-constellations can significantly reduce the risk of endogenous collisions with nearly indistinguishable adjustments to the nominal orbital elements of the constellation satellites.     

The X-TRACK/ALES multi-mission processing system: New advances in altimetry towards the coast

In the context of the ESA Climate Change Initiative project, a new coastal sea level altimetry product has been developed in order to support advances in coastal sea level variability studies. Measurements from Jason-1,2&3 missions have been retracked with the Adaptive Leading Edge Subwaveform (ALES) Retracker and then ingested in the X-TRACK software with the best possible set of altimetry corrections. These two coastal altimetry processing approaches, previously successfully validated and applied to coastal sea level research, are combined here for the first time in order to derive a 16-year-long (June 2002 to May 2018), high-resolution (20-Hz), along-track sea level dataset in six regions: Northeast Atlantic, Mediterranean Sea, West Africa, North Indian Ocean, Southeast Asia and Australia. The study demonstrates that this new coastal sea level product called X-TRACK/ALES is able to extend the spatial coverage of sea level altimetry data ~3.5 km in the land direction, when compared to the X-TRACK 1-Hz dataset. We also observe a large improvement in coastal sea level data availability from Jason-1 to Jason-3, with data at 3.6 km, 1.9 km and 0.9 km to the coast on average, for Jason-1, Jason-2 and Jason-3, respectively. When combining measurements from Jason-1 to Jason-3, we reach a distance of 1.2–4 km to the coast. When compared to tide gauge data, the accuracy of the new altimetry near-shore sea level estimations also improves. In terms of correlations with a large set of independent tide gauge observations selected in the six regions, we obtain an average value of 0.77. We also show that it is now possible to derive from the X-TRACK/ALES product an estimation of the ocean current variability up to 5 km to the coast. This new altimetry dataset, freely available, will provide a valuable contribution of altimetry in coastal marine research community.