scholarly journals Developing Transformation Functions for VENμS and Sentinel-2 Surface Reflectance over Israel

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (14) ◽  
pp. 1710 ◽  
Author(s):  
V.S. Manivasagam ◽  
Gregoriy Kaplan ◽  
Offer Rozenstein

Vegetation and Environmental New micro Spacecraft (VENμS) and Sentinel-2 are both ongoing earth observation missions that provide high-resolution multispectral imagery at 10 m (VENμS) and 10–20 m (Sentinel-2), at relatively high revisit frequencies (two days for VENμS and five days for Sentinel-2). Sentinel-2 provides global coverage, whereas VENμS covers selected regions, including parts of Israel. To facilitate the combination of these sensors into a unified time-series, a transformation model between them was developed using imagery from the region of interest. For this purpose, same-day acquisitions from both sensor types covering the surface reflectance over Israel, between April 2018 and November 2018, were used in this study. Transformation coefficients from VENμS to Sentinel-2 surface reflectance were produced for their overlapping spectral bands (i.e., visible, red-edge and near-infrared). The performance of these spectral transformation functions was assessed using several methods, including orthogonal distance regression (ODR), the mean absolute difference (MAD), and spectral angle mapper (SAM). Post-transformation, the value of the ODR slopes were close to unity for the transformed VENμS reflectance with Sentinel-2 reflectance, which indicates near-identity of the two datasets following the removal of systemic bias. In addition, the transformation outputs showed better spectral similarity compared to the original images, as indicated by the decrease in SAM from 0.093 to 0.071. Similarly, the MAD was reduced post-transformation in all bands (e.g., the blue band MAD decreased from 0.0238 to 0.0186, and in the NIR it decreased from 0.0491 to 0.0386). Thus, the model helps to combine the images from Sentinel-2 and VENμS into one time-series that facilitates continuous, temporally dense vegetation monitoring.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manivasagam Vellalapalayam Subramanian ◽  
Gregoriy Kaplan ◽  
Offer Rozenstein

<p>The availability of public-domain high-resolution satellite imagery such as Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 has increased earth observation (EO) studies across the globe. Empirically combining different EO sensor data into a single dataset increases the temporal coverage, which is useful for land-cover monitoring. In this study, a transformation model was developed for Sentinel-2 and Vegetation and Environmental New micro Spacecraft (VENμS) imagery over Israel. Both sensors offer high spatio-temporal resolution imagery, i.e., VENμS has a 10m spatial resolution with a two-day revisit period, and Sentinel-2 has a 10-20 m spatial resolution with a five-day revisit period. Near-simultaneously acquired imagery was employed for the transformation model development. The model coefficients were derived for the overlapping spectral regions of both sensors. Further, the transformation model performance was tested using various statistical measures, namely, orthogonal distance regression (ODR), spectral angle mapper (SAM), and mean absolute difference (MAD). The validation results highlighted that MAD values were reduced between Sentinel-2 and transformed VENμS reflectance. Similarly, the ODR slope values became closer to one, and the overall spectral similarity increased as demonstrated by a decrease in SAM values. This transformation function creates a unified reflectance dataset in the form of a dense time-series of observation, especially useful for vegetation monitoring.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (21) ◽  
pp. 3524
Author(s):  
Feng Gao ◽  
Martha C. Anderson ◽  
W. Dean Hively

Cover crops are planted during the off-season to protect the soil and improve watershed management. The ability to map cover crop termination dates over agricultural landscapes is essential for quantifying conservation practice implementation, and enabling estimation of biomass accumulation during the active cover period. Remote sensing detection of end-of-season (termination) for cover crops has been limited by the lack of high spatial and temporal resolution observations and methods. In this paper, a new within-season termination (WIST) algorithm was developed to map cover crop termination dates using the Vegetation and Environment monitoring New Micro Satellite (VENµS) imagery (5 m, 2 days revisit). The WIST algorithm first detects the downward trend (senescent period) in the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) time-series and then refines the estimate to the two dates with the most rapid rate of decrease in NDVI during the senescent period. The WIST algorithm was assessed using farm operation records for experimental fields at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC). The crop termination dates extracted from VENµS and Sentinel-2 time-series in 2019 and 2020 were compared to the recorded termination operation dates. The results show that the termination dates detected from the VENµS time-series (aggregated to 10 m) agree with the recorded harvest dates with a mean absolute difference of 2 days and uncertainty of 4 days. The operational Sentinel-2 time-series (10 m, 4–5 days revisit) also detected termination dates at BARC but had 7% missing and 10% false detections due to less frequent temporal observations. Near-real-time simulation using the VENµS time-series shows that the average lag times of termination detection are about 4 days for VENµS and 8 days for Sentinel-2, not including satellite data latency. The study demonstrates the potential for operational mapping of cover crop termination using high temporal and spatial resolution remote sensing data.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (19) ◽  
pp. 3209
Author(s):  
Yunan Luo ◽  
Kaiyu Guan ◽  
Jian Peng ◽  
Sibo Wang ◽  
Yizhi Huang

Remote sensing datasets with both high spatial and high temporal resolution are critical for monitoring and modeling the dynamics of land surfaces. However, no current satellite sensor could simultaneously achieve both high spatial resolution and high revisiting frequency. Therefore, the integration of different sources of satellite data to produce a fusion product has become a popular solution to address this challenge. Many methods have been proposed to generate synthetic images with rich spatial details and high temporal frequency by combining two types of satellite datasets—usually frequent coarse-resolution images (e.g., MODIS) and sparse fine-resolution images (e.g., Landsat). In this paper, we introduce STAIR 2.0, a new fusion method that extends the previous STAIR fusion framework, to fuse three types of satellite datasets, including MODIS, Landsat, and Sentinel-2. In STAIR 2.0, input images are first processed to impute missing-value pixels that are due to clouds or sensor mechanical issues using a gap-filling algorithm. The multiple refined time series are then integrated stepwisely, from coarse- to fine- and high-resolution, ultimately providing a synthetic daily, high-resolution surface reflectance observations. We applied STAIR 2.0 to generate a 10-m, daily, cloud-/gap-free time series that covers the 2017 growing season of Saunders County, Nebraska. Moreover, the framework is generic and can be extended to integrate more types of satellite data sources, further improving the quality of the fusion product.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (24) ◽  
pp. 5074
Author(s):  
Feng Gao ◽  
Martha C. Anderson ◽  
David M. Johnson ◽  
Robert Seffrin ◽  
Brian Wardlow ◽  
...  

Crop emergence is a critical stage for crop development modeling, crop condition monitoring, and biomass accumulation estimation. Green-up dates (or the start of the season) detected from remote sensing time series are related to, but generally lag, crop emergence dates. In this paper, we refine the within-season emergence (WISE) algorithm and extend application to five Corn Belt states (Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, and Nebraska) using routine harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 (HLS) data from 2018 to 2020. Green-up dates detected from the HLS time series were assessed using field observations and near-surface measurements from PhenoCams. Statistical descriptions of green-up dates for corn and soybeans were generated and compared to county-level planting dates and district- to state-level crop emergence dates reported by the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). Results show that emergence dates for corn and soybean can be reliably detected within the season using the HLS time series acquired during the early growing season. Compared to observed crop emergence dates, green-up dates from HLS using WISE were ~3 days later at the field scale (30-m). The mean absolute difference (MAD) was ~7 days and the root mean square error (RMSE) was ~9 days. At the state level, the mean differences between median HLS green-up date and median crop emergence date were within 2 days for 2018–2020. At this scale, MAD was within 4 days, and RMSE was less than 5 days for both corn and soybeans. The R-squares were 0.73 and 0.87 for corn and soybean, respectively. The 2019 late emergence of crops in Corn Belt states (1–4 weeks to five-year average) was captured by HLS green-up date retrievals. This study demonstrates that routine within-season mapping of crop emergence/green-up at the field scale is practicable over large regions using operational satellite data. The green-up map derived from HLS during the growing season provides valuable information on spatial and temporal variability in crop emergence that can be used for crop monitoring and refining agricultural statistics used in broad-scale modeling efforts.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Campos-Taberner ◽  
Francisco Javier García-Haro ◽  
Beatriz Martínez ◽  
Emma Izquierdo-Verdiguier ◽  
Clement Atzberger ◽  
...  

Abstract The use of deep learning (DL) approaches for the analysis of remote sensing (RS) data is rapidly increasing. DL techniques have provided excellent results in applications ranging from parameter estimation to image classification and anomaly detection. Although the vast majority of studies report precision indicators, there is a lack of studies dealing with the interpretability of the predictions. This shortcoming hampers a wider adoption of DL approaches by a wider users community, as model’s decisions are not accountable. In applications that involve the management of public budgets or policy compliance, a better interpretability of predictions is strictly required. This work aims to deepen the understanding of a recurrent neural network for land use classification based on Sentinel-2 time series in the context of the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). This permits to address the relevance of predictors in the classification process leading to an improved understanding of the behaviour of the network. The conducted analysis demonstrates that the red and near infrared Sentinel-2 bands convey the most useful information. With respect to the temporal information, the features derived from summer acquisitions were the most influential. These results contribute to the understanding of models used for decision making in the CAP to accomplish the European Green Deal (EGD) designed in order to counteract climate change, to protect biodiversity and ecosystems, and to ensure a fair economic return for farmers.


Author(s):  
Yuval Sadeh ◽  
Xuan Zhu ◽  
David Dunkerley ◽  
Jeffrey P. Walker ◽  
Yuxi Zhang ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (13) ◽  
pp. 1547 ◽  
Author(s):  
Najib Djamai ◽  
Detang Zhong ◽  
Richard Fernandes ◽  
Fuqun Zhou

Time series of vegetation biophysical variables (leaf area index (LAI), fraction canopy cover (FCOVER), fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (FAPAR), canopy chlorophyll content (CCC), and canopy water content (CWC)) were estimated from interpolated Sentinel-2 (S2-LIKE) surface reflectance images, for an agricultural region located in central Canada, using the Simplified Level 2 Product Prototype Processor (SL2P). S2-LIKE surface reflectance data were generated by blending clear-sky Sentinel-2 Multispectral Imager (S2-MSI) images with daily BRDF-adjusted Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer images using the Prediction Smooth Reflectance Fusion Model (PSFRM), and validated using thirteen independent S2-MSI images (RMSE ≤ 6%). The uncertainty of S2-LIKE surface reflectance data increases with the time delay between the prediction date and the closest S2-MSI image used for training PSFRM. Vegetation biophysical variables from S2-LIKE products are validated qualitatively and quantitatively by comparison to the corresponding vegetation biophysical variables from S2-MSI products (RMSE = 0.55 for LAI, ~10% for FCOVER and FAPAR, and 0.13 g/m2 for CCC and 0.16 kg/m2 for CWC). Uncertainties of vegetation biophysical variables derived from S2-LIKE products are almost linearly related to the uncertainty of the input reflectance data. When compared to the in situ measurements collected during the Soil Moisture Active Passive Validation Experiment 2016 field campaign, uncertainties of LAI (0.83) and FCOVER (13.73%) estimates from S2-LIKE products were slightly larger than uncertainties of LAI (0.57) and FCOVER (11.80%) estimates from S2-MSI products. However, equal uncertainties (0.32 kg/m2) were obtained for CWC estimates using SL2P with either S2-LIKE or S2-MSI input data.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 1512
Author(s):  
Quan Xiong ◽  
Liping Di ◽  
Quanlong Feng ◽  
Diyou Liu ◽  
Wei Liu ◽  
...  

Sentinel-2 images have been widely used in studying land surface phenomena and processes, but they inevitably suffer from cloud contamination. To solve this critical optical data availability issue, it is ideal to fuse Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 images to create fused, cloud-free Sentinel-2-like images for facilitating land surface applications. In this paper, we propose a new data fusion model, the Multi-channels Conditional Generative Adversarial Network (MCcGAN), based on the conditional generative adversarial network, which is able to convert images from Domain A to Domain B. With the model, we were able to generate fused, cloud-free Sentinel-2-like images for a target date by using a pair of reference Sentinel-1/Sentinel-2 images and target-date Sentinel-1 images as inputs. In order to demonstrate the superiority of our method, we also compared it with other state-of-the-art methods using the same data. To make the evaluation more objective and reliable, we calculated the root-mean-square-error (RSME), R2, Kling–Gupta efficiency (KGE), structural similarity index (SSIM), spectral angle mapper (SAM), and peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) of the simulated Sentinel-2 images generated by different methods. The results show that the simulated Sentinel-2 images generated by the MCcGAN have a higher quality and accuracy than those produced via the previous methods.


Author(s):  
Максим В’ячеславович Марюшко ◽  
Руслан Едуардович Пащенко

The subject of the study in the article is using the new approach to the processing of spatial information from satellites for more effective and operational evaluation of crops. This is due to the growing trend of access to remote sensing data, due to the improvement of spatial and temporal resolution, which can be used in the analysis of vegetation cover and other related work. The goal of the article is the capability assessment of processing the Sentinel-2 satellite imagery using fractal dimensions to agricultural plant monitoring at different phases of the vegetative. The tasks: to research the method of constructing fractal dimensions for the Sentinel-2 satellite imagery to assess the state of crops during the vegetative phase; to assess the relationship between changes in FD averages and changes in the NDVI index of different time series remote images, to determine the advantage of calculation method fractal dimensions compared to the NDVI index. The following results were obtained. It was found that the NDVI index is most often used to quantify the state of biomass during different time intervals. But this index becomes ineffective during periods of weakening of the vegetation active phase. Accordingly, it is of practical interest to evaluate the possibility of using fractal analysis of agricultural crop satellite imagery at different vegetation phases. The basis of fractal analysis of digital images is the formation of fractal dimensions fields. The analysis of changes in the FD values on different remote images time series of the grain cornfields from the «sliding window» values is carried out. The dependences of the maximum and minimum values of FD, which are in the images, on the «window» size are investigated. It is shown that the homogeneity of the underlying surface can be estimated from the magnitude of changes in the maximum values of FD with the increasing size of the «window». It is established that the pattern of the change of the FD minimum values when changing the «window» size is due to the large sharpness of the underlying surface in the images, and the anomalous behavior of these values allows determining anomalous areas of different sizes in satellite imagery. The pattern of the change in the range of FD with increasing size of the «window», which can be used to determine the homogeneity of the underlying surface in satellite imagery, as well as during the detection of abnormal areas on them. The change analysis of FD average values with an increase in the sizes of «sliding window» is carried out. It is shown that with the same size of the «window» for different image time series, the average FD will be different, which can be used to characterize the agriculture crop vegetation phase. It is established that the pattern of changes in the FD average values is the same as the NDVI indices for different satellite imagery time series of the corn crop fields and that the magnitudes of the FD average values depend on the size of the «window». The size of the «window» is recommended, which provides accommodation between the speed of image processing and the quality of the assessment state vegetation crop. It is shown that to increase the speed of formation of the FFD during the processing of large images, it is advisable to use a «jumping window» instead of a «sliding window». It is mentioned that the «jump» value can be equal to the «window» size. This «jump» value provides maximum speed and does not affect the crop satellite imagery processing quality. Conclusions. The recommended approach to the processing of spatial data from satellites allows assessing the crops' consistency using FD. The pattern of the change in the FD mean values is identical to the NDVI change in different satellite imagery time series of corn crops. In that event, when forming the FFD, data from only one channel of the Sentinel-2 satellite can be used (for example, from the near-infrared channel – b8), and to calculate the NDVI index it is necessary to obtain data from two channels (from the near-infrared and red channels – channels b8 and b4 of the satellite Sentinel-2, respectively), which will reduce the processing time. The scale of FD average values allows detecting a qualitative change in biomass. During further research, it is advisable to perform fractal analysis of Sentinel-2 satellite imagery for other crops at different phases of the vegetation.


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (7) ◽  
pp. 7281-7319 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Lyapustin ◽  
Y. Wang ◽  
X. Xiong ◽  
G. Meister ◽  
S. Platnick ◽  
...  

Abstract. The Collection 6 (C6) MODIS land and atmosphere datasets are scheduled for release in 2014. C6 contains significant revisions of the calibration approach to account for sensor aging. This analysis documents the presence of systematic temporal trends in the visible and near-infrared (500 m) bands of the Collection 5 (C5) MODIS Terra, and to lesser extent, in MODIS Aqua geophysical datasets. Sensor degradation is largest in the Blue band (B3) of the MODIS sensor on Terra and decreases with wavelength. Calibration degradation causes negative global trends in multiple MODIS C5 products including the dark target algorithm's aerosol optical depth over land and Ångström Exponent over the ocean, global liquid water and ice cloud optical thickness, as well as surface reflectance and vegetation indices, including the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and enhanced vegetation index (EVI). As the C5 production will be maintained for another year in parallel with C6, one objective of this paper is to raise awareness of the calibration-related trends for the broad MODIS user community. The new C6 calibration approach removes major calibrations trends in the Level 1B (L1B) data. This paper also introduces an enhanced C6+ calibration of the MODIS dataset which includes an additional polarization correction (PC) to compensate for the increased polarization sensitivity of MODIS Terra since about 2007, as well as de-trending and Terra–Aqua cross-calibration over quasi-stable desert calibration sites. The PC algorithm, developed by the MODIS ocean biology processing group (OBPG), removes residual scan angle, mirror side and seasonal biases from aerosol and surface reflectance (SR) records along with spectral distortions of SR. Using the Multi-Angle Implementation of Atmospheric Correction (MAIAC) algorithm over deserts, we have also developed a de-trending and cross-calibration method which removes residual decadal trends on the order of several tenths of one percent of the top-of-atmosphere (TOA) reflectance in the visible and near-infrared MODIS bands B1–B4, and provides a good consistency between the two MODIS sensors. MAIAC analysis over the southern USA shows that the C6+ approach removed an additional negative decadal trend of Terra ΔNDVI ~ 0.01 as compared to Aqua data. This change is particularly important for analysis of vegetation dynamics and trends in the tropics, e.g., Amazon rainforest, where the morning orbit Terra provides considerably more cloud-free observations compared to the afternoon Aqua measurements.


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