scholarly journals Assessing within-Field Corn and Soybean Yield Variability from WorldView-3, Planet, Sentinel-2, and Landsat 8 Satellite Imagery

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 872 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergii Skakun ◽  
Natacha I. Kalecinski ◽  
Meredith G. L. Brown ◽  
David M. Johnson ◽  
Eric F. Vermote ◽  
...  

Crop yield monitoring is an important component in agricultural assessment. Multi-spectral remote sensing instruments onboard space-borne platforms such as Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) have shown to be useful for efficiently generating timely and synoptic information on the yield status of crops across regional levels. However, the coarse spatial resolution data inherent to these sensors provides little utility at the management level. Recent satellite imagery collection advances toward finer spatial resolution (down to 1 m) alongside increased observational cadence (near daily) implies information on crops obtainable at field and within-field scales to support farming needs is now possible. To test this premise, we focus on assessing the efficiency of multiple satellite sensors, namely WorldView-3, Planet/Dove-Classic, Sentinel-2, and Landsat 8 (through Harmonized Landsat Sentinel-2 (HLS)), and investigate their spatial, spectral (surface reflectance (SR) and vegetation indices (VIs)), and temporal characteristics to estimate corn and soybean yields at sub-field scales within study sites in the US state of Iowa. Precision yield data as referenced to combine harvesters’ GPS systems were used for validation. We show that imagery spatial resolution of 3 m is critical to explaining 100% of the within-field yield variability for corn and soybean. Our simulation results show that moving to coarser resolution data of 10 m, 20 m, and 30 m reduced the explained variability to 86%, 72%, and 59%, respectively. We show that the most important spectral bands explaining yield variability were green (0.560 μm), red-edge (0.726 μm), and near-infrared (NIR − 0.865 μm). Furthermore, the high temporal frequency of Planet and a combination of Sentinel-2/Landsat 8 (HLS) data allowed for optimal date selection for yield map generation. Overall, we observed mixed performance of satellite-derived models with the coefficient of determination (R2) varying from 0.21 to 0.88 (averaging 0.56) for the 30 m HLS and from 0.09 to 0.77 (averaging 0.30) for 3 m Planet. R2 was lower for fields with higher yields, suggesting saturation of the satellite-collected reflectance features in those cases. Therefore, other biophysical variables, such as soil moisture and evapotranspiration, at similar fine spatial resolutions are likely needed alongside the optical imagery to fully explain the yields.

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (19) ◽  
pp. 2304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanna Huryna ◽  
Yafit Cohen ◽  
Arnon Karnieli ◽  
Natalya Panov ◽  
William P. Kustas ◽  
...  

A spatially distributed land surface temperature is important for many studies. The recent launch of the Sentinel satellite programs paves the way for an abundance of opportunities for both large area and long-term investigations. However, the spatial resolution of Sentinel-3 thermal images is not suitable for monitoring small fragmented fields. Thermal sharpening is one of the primary methods used to obtain thermal images at finer spatial resolution at a daily revisit time. In the current study, the utility of the TsHARP method to sharpen the low resolution of Sentinel-3 thermal data was examined using Sentinel-2 visible-near infrared imagery. Compared to Landsat 8 fine thermal images, the sharpening resulted in mean absolute errors of ~1 °C, with errors increasing as the difference between the native and the target resolutions increases. Part of the error is attributed to the discrepancy between the thermal images acquired by the two platforms. Further research is due to test additional sites and conditions, and potentially additional sharpening methods, applied to the Sentinel platforms.


2020 ◽  
Vol 71 (5) ◽  
pp. 593 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Drozd ◽  
P. de Tezanos Pinto ◽  
V. Fernández ◽  
M. Bazzalo ◽  
F. Bordet ◽  
...  

We used hyperspectral remote sensing with the aim of establishing a monitoring program for cyanobacteria in a South American reservoir. We sampled at a wide temporal (2012–16; 10 seasons) and spatial (30km) gradient, and retrieved 111 field hyperspectral signatures, chlorophyll-a, cyanobacteria densities and total suspended solids. The hyperspectral signatures for cyanobacteria-dominated situations (n=75) were used to select the most suitable spectral bands in seven high- and medium-spatial resolution satellites (Sentinel 2, Landsat 5, 7 and 8, SPOT-4/5 and -6/7, WorldView 2), and for the development of chlorophyll and cyanobacteria cell abundance algorithms (λ550 – λ650+λ800) ÷ (λ550+λ650+λ800). The best-performing chlorophyll algorithm was Sentinel 2 ((λ560 – λ660+λ703) ÷ (λ560+λ660+λ703); R2=0.80), followed by WorldView 2 ((λ550 – λ660+λ720) ÷ (λ550+λ660+λ720); R2=0.78), Landsat and the SPOT series ((λ550 – λ650+λ800) ÷ (λ550+λ650+λ800); R2=0.67–0.74). When these models were run for cyanobacteria abundance, the coefficient of determination remained similar, but the root mean square error increased. This could affect the estimate of cyanobacteria cell abundance by ~20%, yet it still enable assessment of the alert level categories for risk assessment. The results of this study highlight the importance of the red and near-infrared region for identifying cyanobacteria in hypereutrophic waters, demonstrating coherence with field cyanobacteria abundance and enabling assessment of bloom distribution in this ecosystem.


2021 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Hung Le Trinh ◽  
Ha Thu Thi Le ◽  
Loc Duc Le ◽  
Long Thanh Nguyen ◽  

Classification of built-up land and bare land on remote sensing images is a very difficult problem due to the complexity of the urban land cover. Several urban indices have been proposed to improve the accuracy in classifying urban land use/land cover from optical satellite imagery. This paper presents an development of the EBBI (Enhanced Built-up and Bareness Index) index based on the combination of Landsat 8 and Sentinel 2 multi-resolution satellite imagery. Near infrared band (band 8a), short wave infrared band (band 11) of Sentinel 2 MSI image and thermal infrared band (band 10) Landsat 8 image were used to calculate EBBI index. The results obtained show that the combination of Landsat 8 and Sentinel 2 satellite images improves the spatial resolution of EBBI index image, thereby improving the accuracy of classification of bare land and built-up land by about 5% compared with the case using only Landsat 8 images.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 579
Author(s):  
Athos Agapiou

The use of medium resolution, open access, and freely distributed satellite images, such as those of Landsat, is still understudied in the domain of archaeological research, mainly due to restrictions of spatial resolution. This investigation aims to showcase how the synergistic use of Landsat and Sentinel optical sensors can efficiently support archaeological research through object-based image analysis (OBIA), a relatively new scientific trend, as highlighted in the relevant literature, in the domain of remote sensing archaeology. Initially, the fusion of a 30 m spatial resolution Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS Level-2 and a 10 m spatial resolution Sentinel 2 Level-1C optical images, over the archaeological site of “Nea Paphos” in Cyprus, are evaluated in order to improve the spatial resolution of the Landsat image. At this step, various known fusion models are implemented and evaluated, namely Gram–Schmidt, Brovey, principal component analysis (PCA), and hue-saturation-value (HSV) algorithms. In addition, all four 10 m available spectral bands of the Sentinel 2 sensor, namely the blue, green, red, and near-infrared bands (Bands 2 to 4 and Band 8, respectively) were assessed for each of the different fusion models. On the basis of these findings, the next step of the study, focused on the image segmentation process, through the evaluation of different scale factors. The segmentation process is an important step moving from pixel-based to object-based image analysis. The overall results show that the Gram–Schmidt fusion method based on the near-infrared band of the Sentinel 2 (Band 8) at a range of scale factor segmentation to 70 are the optimum parameters for the detection of standing visible monuments, monitoring excavated areas, and detecting buried archaeological remains, without any significant spectral distortion of the original Landsat image. The new 10 m fused Landsat 8 image provides further spatial details of the archaeological site and depicts, through the segmentation process, important details within the landscape under examination.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 632 ◽  
Author(s):  
Belen Franch ◽  
Eric Vermote ◽  
Sergii Skakun ◽  
Jean-Claude Roger ◽  
Jeffrey Masek ◽  
...  

The Harmonized Landsat/Sentinel-2 (HLS) project aims to generate a seamless surface reflectance product by combining observations from USGS/NASA Landsat-8 and ESA Sentinel-2 remote sensing satellites. These satellites’ sampling characteristics provide nearly constant observation geometry and low illumination variation through the scene. However, the illumination variation throughout the year impacts the surface reflectance by producing higher values for low solar zenith angles and lower reflectance for large zenith angles. In this work, we present a model to derive the bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) normalization and apply it to the HLS product at 30 m spatial resolution. It is based on the BRDF parameters estimated from the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) surface reflectance product (M{O,Y}D09) at 1 km spatial resolution using the VJB method (Vermote et al., 2009). Unsupervised classification (segmentation) of HLS images is used to disaggregate the BRDF parameters to the HLS spatial resolution and to build a BRDF parameters database at HLS scale. We first test the proposed BRDF normalization for different solar zenith angles over two homogeneous sites, in particular one desert and one Peruvian Amazon forest. The proposed method reduces both the correlation with the solar zenith angle and the coefficient of variation (CV) of the reflectance time series in the red and near infrared bands to 4% in forest and keeps a low CV of 3% to 4% for the deserts. Additionally, we assess the impact of the view zenith angle (VZA) in an area of the Brazilian Amazon forest close to the equator, where impact of the angular variation is stronger because it occurs in the principal plane. The directional reflectance shows a strong dependency with the VZA. The current HLS BRDF correction reduces this dependency but still shows an under-correction, especially in the near infrared, while the proposed method shows no dependency with the view angles. We also evaluate the BRDF parameters using field surface albedo measurements as a reference over seven different sites of the US surface radiation budget observing network (SURFRAD) and five sites of the Australian OzFlux network.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 5518
Author(s):  
Honglyun Park ◽  
Jaewan Choi

Worldview-3 satellite imagery provides panchromatic images with a high spatial resolution and visible near infrared (VNIR) and shortwave infrared (SWIR) bands with a low spatial resolution. These images can be used for various applications such as environmental analysis, urban monitoring and surveying for sustainability. In this study, mineral detection was performed using Worldview-3 satellite imagery. A pansharpening technique was applied to the spatial resolution of the panchromatic image to effectively utilize the VNIR and SWIR bands of Worldview-3 satellite imagery. The following representative similarity analysis techniques were implemented for the mineral detection: the spectral angle mapper (SAM), spectral information divergence (SID) and the normalized spectral similarity score (NS3). In addition, pixels that could be estimated to indicate minerals were calculated by applying an empirical threshold to each similarity analysis result. A majority voting technique was applied to the results of each similarity analysis and pixels estimated to indicate minerals were finally selected. The results of each similarity analysis were compared to evaluate the accuracy of the proposed methods. From that comparison, it could be confirmed that false negative and false positive rates decreased when the methods proposed in the present study were applied.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Ángel Aguilar ◽  
Rafael Jiménez-Lao ◽  
Abderrahim Nemmaoui ◽  
Fernando José Aguilar ◽  
Dilek Koc-San ◽  
...  

Remote sensing techniques based on medium resolution satellite imagery are being widely applied for mapping plastic covered greenhouses (PCG). This article aims at testing the spectral consistency of surface reflectance values of Sentinel-2 MSI (S2 L2A) and Landsat 8 OLI (L8 L2 and the pansharpened and atmospherically corrected product from L1T product; L8 PANSH) data in PCG areas located in Spain, Morocco, Italy and Turkey. The six corresponding bands of S2 and L8, together with the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), were generated through an OBIA approach for each PCG study site. The coefficient of determination (r2) and the root mean square error (RMSE) were computed in sixteen cloud-free simultaneously acquired image pairs from the four study sites to evaluate the coherence between the two sensors. It was found that the S2 and L8 correlation (r2 > 0.840, RMSE < 9.917%) was quite good in most bands and NDVI. However, the correlation of the two sensors fluctuated between study sites, showing occasional sun glint effects on PCG roofs related to the sensor orbit and sun position. Moreover, higher surface reflectance discrepancies between L8 L2 and L8 PANSH data, mainly in the visible bands, were always observed in areas with high-level aerosol values derived from the aerosol quality band included in the L8 L2 product (SR aerosol). In this way, the consistency between L8 PANSH and S2 L2A was improved mainly in high-level aerosol areas according to the SR aerosol band.


Author(s):  
M. Matsuoka ◽  
M. Takagi ◽  
S. Akatsuka ◽  
R. Honda ◽  
A. Nonomura ◽  
...  

Himawari-8/AHI is a new geostationary sensor that can observe the land surface with high temporal frequency. Bidirectional reflectance derived by the Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI) includes information regarding land surface properties such as albedo, vegetation condition, and forest structure. This information can be extracted by modeling bidirectional reflectance using a bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF). In this study, a kernel-driven BRDF model was applied to the red and near infrared reflectance observed over 8 hours during daytime to express intraday changes in reflectance. We compared the goodness of fit for six combinations of model kernels. The Ross-Thin and Ross-Thick kernels were selected as the best volume kernels for the red and near infrared bands, respectively. For the geometric kernel, the Li-sparse-Reciprocal and Li-Dense kernels displayed similar goodness of fit. The coefficient of determination and regression residuals showed a strong dependency on the azimuth angle of land surface slopes and the time of day that observations were made. Atmospheric correction and model adjustment of the terrain were the main issues encountered. These results will help to improve the BRDF model and to extract surface properties from bidirectional reflectance.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramez Saeed ◽  
Saad Abdelrahman ◽  
Andrea Scozari ◽  
Abdelazim Negm

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ABSTRACT&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;With the fast and highly growing demand for all possible ways of remote work as a result of COVID19 pandemic, new technologies using Satellite data were highly encouraged for multidisciplinary applications in different fields such as; agriculture, climate change, environment, coastal management, maritime, security and Blue Economy.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This work supports applying Satellite Derived Bathymetry (SDB) with the available low-cost multispectral satellite imagery applications, instruments and readily accessible data for different areas with only their benthic parameters, water characteristics and atmospheric conditions.&amp;#160; The main goal of this work is to derive bathymetric data needed for different hydrographic applications, such as: nautical charting, coastal engineering, water quality monitoring, sediment movement monitoring and supporting both green carbon and marine data science. &amp;#160;Also, this work proposes and assesses a SDB procedure that makes use of publicly-available multispectral satellite images (Sentinel2 MSI) and applies algorithms available in the SNAP software package for extracting bathymetry and supporting bathymetric layers against highly expensive traditional in-situ hydrographic surveys. The procedure was applied at SAFAGA harbor area, located south of Hurghada at (26&amp;#176;44&amp;#8242;N, 33&amp;#176;56&amp;#8242;E), on the Egyptian Red Sea coast.&amp;#160; SAFAGA controls important maritime traffic line in Red Sea such as (Safaga &amp;#8211; Deba, Saudi Arabia) maritime cruises. &amp;#160;SAFAGA depths change between 6 m to 22m surrounded by many shoal batches and confined waters that largely affect maritime safety of navigation.&amp;#160; Therefore, there is always a high demand for updated nautical charts which this work supports.&amp;#160; The outcome of this work provides and fulfils those demands with bathymetric layers data for the approach channel and harbour usage bands electronic nautical chart of SAFAGA with reasonable accuracies. &amp;#160;The coefficient of determination (R&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt;) differs between 0.42 to 0.71 after applying water column correction by Lyzenga algorithm and deriving bathymetric data depending on reflectance /radiance of optical imagery collected by sentinel2 missions with in-situ depth data values relationship by Stumpf equation.&amp;#160; The adopted approach proved to give&amp;#160; highly reasonable results that could be used in nautical charts compilation. Similar methodologies could be applied to inland water bodies. &amp;#160;This study is part of the MSc Thesis of the first author and is in the framework of a bilateral project between ASRT of Egypt and CNR of Italy which is still running.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Keywords: Algorithm, Bathymetry, Sentinel 2, nautical charting, Safaga port, satellite imagery, water depth, Egypt.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;


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