scholarly journals Mapping and Monitoring Rice Agriculture with Multisensor Temporal Mixture Models

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Sousa ◽  
Christopher Small

Rice is the staple food for more than half of humanity. Accurate prediction of rice harvests is therefore of considerable global importance for food security and economic stability, especially in the developing world. Landsat sensors have collected coincident thermal and optical images for the past 35+ years, and so can provide both retrospective and near-realtime constraints on the spatial extent of rice planting and the timing of rice phenology. Thermal and optical imaging capture different physical processes, and so provide different types of information for phenologic mapping. Most analyses use only one or the other data source, omitting potentially useful information. We present a novel approach to the mapping and monitoring of rice agriculture which leverages both optical and thermal measurements. The approach relies on Temporal Mixture Models (TMMs) derived from parallel Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) analyses of Landsat image time series. Analysis of each image time series is performed in two stages: (1) spatiotemporal characterization, and (2) temporal mixture modeling. Characterization evaluates the covariance structure of the data, culminating in the selection of temporal endmembers (EMs) representing the most distinct phenological cycles of either vegetation abundance or surface temperature. Modeling uses these EMs as the basis for linear TMMs which map the spatial distribution of each EM phenological pattern across study area. The two metrics we analyze in parallel are (1) fractional vegetation abundance (Fv) derived from spectral mixture analysis (SMA) of optical reflectance, and (2) land surface temperature (LST) derived from brightness temperature (Tb). These metrics are chosen on the basis of being straightforward to compute for any (cloud-free) Landsat 4-8 image in the global archive. We demonstrate the method using a 90 × 120 km area in the Sacramento Valley of California. Satellite Tb retrievals are corrected to LST using a standardized atmospheric correction approach and pixelwise fractional emissivity estimates derived from SMA. LST and Tb time series are compared to field station data in 2016 and 2017. Uncorrected Tb is observed to agree with the upper bound of the envelope of air temperature observations to within 3 °C on average. As expected, LST estimates are 3 to 5 °C higher. Soil T, air T, Tb and LST estimates can all be represented as linear transformations of the same seasonal cycle. The 3D temporal feature spaces of Fv and LST clearly resolve 5 and 7 temporal EM phenologies, respectively, with strong clustering distinguishing rice from other vegetation. Results from parallel EOF analyses of coincident Fv and LST image time series over the 2016 and 2017 growing seasons suggest that TMMs based on single year Fv datasets can provide accurate maps of crop timing, while TMMs based on dual year LST datasets can provide comparable maps of year-to-year crop conversion. We also test a partial-year model midway through the 2018 growing season to illustrate a potential real-time monitoring application. Field validation confirms the monitoring model provides an upper bound estimate of spatial extent and relative timing of the rice crop accurate to 89%, even with an unusually sparse set of usable Landsat images.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 2869
Author(s):  
MohammadAli Hemati ◽  
Mahdi Hasanlou ◽  
Masoud Mahdianpari ◽  
Fariba Mohammadimanesh

With uninterrupted space-based data collection since 1972, Landsat plays a key role in systematic monitoring of the Earth’s surface, enabled by an extensive and free, radiometrically consistent, global archive of imagery. Governments and international organizations rely on Landsat time series for monitoring and deriving a systematic understanding of the dynamics of the Earth’s surface at a spatial scale relevant to management, scientific inquiry, and policy development. In this study, we identify trends in Landsat-informed change detection studies by surveying 50 years of published applications, processing, and change detection methods. Specifically, a representative database was created resulting in 490 relevant journal articles derived from the Web of Science and Scopus. From these articles, we provide a review of recent developments, opportunities, and trends in Landsat change detection studies. The impact of the Landsat free and open data policy in 2008 is evident in the literature as a turning point in the number and nature of change detection studies. Based upon the search terms used and articles included, average number of Landsat images used in studies increased from 10 images before 2008 to 100,000 images in 2020. The 2008 opening of the Landsat archive resulted in a marked increase in the number of images used per study, typically providing the basis for the other trends in evidence. These key trends include an increase in automated processing, use of analysis-ready data (especially those with atmospheric correction), and use of cloud computing platforms, all over increasing large areas. The nature of change methods has evolved from representative bi-temporal pairs to time series of images capturing dynamics and trends, capable of revealing both gradual and abrupt changes. The result also revealed a greater use of nonparametric classifiers for Landsat change detection analysis. Landsat-9, to be launched in September 2021, in combination with the continued operation of Landsat-8 and integration with Sentinel-2, enhances opportunities for improved monitoring of change over increasingly larger areas with greater intra- and interannual frequency.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 1019
Author(s):  
Jianhui Xu ◽  
Yi Zhao ◽  
Caige Sun ◽  
Hanbin Liang ◽  
Ji Yang ◽  
...  

This study explored the model of urban impervious surface (IS) density, land surface temperature (LST), and comprehensive ecological evaluation index (CEEI) from urban centers to suburbs. The interrelationships between these parameters in Guangzhou from 1987 to 2019 were analyzed using time-series Landsat-5 TM (Thematic Mapper), Landsat-8 OLI (Operational Land Imager), and TIRS (Thermal Infrared Sensor) images. The urban IS densities were calculated in concentric rings using time-series IS fractions, which were used to construct an inverse S-shaped urban IS density function to depict changes in urban form and the spatio-temporal dynamics of urban expansion from the urban center to the suburbs. The results indicated that Guangzhou experienced expansive urban growth, with the patterns of urban spatial structure changing from a single-center to a multi-center structure over the past 32 years. Next, the normalized LST and CEEI in each concentric ring were calculated, and their variation trends from the urban center to the suburbs were modeled using linear and nonlinear functions, respectively. The results showed that the normalized LST had a gradual decreasing trend from the urban center to the suburbs, while the CEEI showed a significant increasing trend. During the 32-year rapid urban development, the normalized LST difference between the urban center and suburbs increased gradually with time, and the CEEI significantly decreased. This indicated that rapid urbanization significantly expanded the impervious surface areas in Guangzhou, leading to an increase in the LST difference between urban centers and suburbs and a deterioration in ecological quality. Finally, the potential interrelationships among urban IS density, normalized LST, and CEEI were also explored using different models. This study revealed that rapid urbanization has produced geographical convergence between several ISs, which may increase the risk of the urban heat island effect and degradation of ecological quality.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 1777 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmine Maffei ◽  
Silvia Alfieri ◽  
Massimo Menenti

Forest fires are a major source of ecosystem disturbance. Vegetation reacts to meteorological factors contributing to fire danger by reducing stomatal conductance, thus leading to an increase of canopy temperature. The latter can be detected by remote sensing measurements in the thermal infrared as a deviation of observed land surface temperature (LST) from climatological values, that is as an LST anomaly. A relationship is thus expected between LST anomalies and forest fires burned area and duration. These two characteristics are indeed controlled by a large variety of both static and dynamic factors related to topography, land cover, climate, weather (including those affecting LST) and anthropic activity. To investigate the predicting capability of remote sensing measurements, rather than constructing a comprehensive model, it would be relevant to determine whether anomalies of LST affect the probability distributions of burned area and fire duration. This research approached the outlined knowledge gap through the analysis of a dataset of forest fires in Campania (Italy) covering years 2003–2011 against estimates of LST anomaly. An LST climatology was first computed from time series of daily Aqua-MODIS LST data (product MYD11A1, collection 6) over the longest available sequence of complete annual datasets (2003–2017), through the Harmonic Analysis of Time Series (HANTS) algorithm. HANTS was also used to create individual annual models of LST data, to minimize the effect of varying observation geometry and cloud contamination on LST estimates while retaining its seasonal variation. LST anomalies where thus quantified as the difference between LST annual models and LST climatology. Fire data were intersected with LST anomaly maps to associate each fire with the LST anomaly value observed at its position on the day previous to the event. Further to this step, the closest probability distribution function describing burned area and fire duration were identified against a selection of parametric models through the maximization of the Anderson-Darling goodness-of-fit. Parameters of the identified distributions conditional to LST anomaly where then determined along their confidence intervals. Results show that in the study area log-transformed burned area is described by a normal distribution, whereas log-transformed fire duration is closer to a generalized extreme value (GEV) distribution. The parameters of these distributions conditional to LST anomaly show clear trends with increasing LST anomaly; significance of this observation was verified through a likelihood ratio test. This confirmed that LST anomaly is a covariate of both burned area and fire duration. As a consequence, it was observed that conditional probabilities of extreme events appear to increase with increasing positive deviations of LST from its climatology values. This confirms the stated hypothesis that LST anomalies affect forest fires burned area and duration and highlights the informative content of time series of LST with respect to fire danger.


Author(s):  
W. E. Li ◽  
X. Q. Wang ◽  
H. Su

Land surface temperature (LST) is a key parameter of land surface physical processes on global and regional scales, linking the heat fluxes and interactions between the ground and atmosphere. Based on MODIS 8-day LST products (MOD11A2) from the split-window algorithms, we constructed and obtained the monthly and annual LST dataset of Fujian Province from 2000 to 2015. Then, we analyzed the monthly and yearly time series LST data and further investigated the LST distribution and its evolution features. The average LST of Fujian Province reached the highest in July, while the lowest in January. The monthly and annual LST time series present a significantly periodic features (annual and interannual) from 2000 to 2015. The spatial distribution showed that the LST in North and West was lower than South and East in Fujian Province. With the rapid development and urbanization of the coastal area in Fujian Province, the LST in coastal urban region was significantly higher than that in mountainous rural region. The LST distributions might affected by the climate, topography and land cover types. The spatio-temporal distribution characteristics of LST could provide good references for the agricultural layout and environment monitoring in Fujian Province.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 791 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingjing Yang ◽  
Si-Bo Duan ◽  
Xiaoyu Zhang ◽  
Penghai Wu ◽  
Cheng Huang ◽  
...  

Land surface temperature (LST) is vital for studies of hydrology, ecology, climatology, and environmental monitoring. The radiative-transfer-equation-based single-channel algorithm, in conjunction with the atmospheric profile, is regarded as the most suitable one with which to produce long-term time series LST products from Landsat thermal infrared (TIR) data. In this study, the performances of seven atmospheric profiles from different sources (the MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiomete atmospheric profile product (MYD07), the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder atmospheric profile product (AIRS), the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), the Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2 (MERRA2), the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)/Global Forecasting System (GFS), NCEP/Final Operational Global Analysis (FNL), and NCEP/Department of Energy (DOE)) were comprehensively evaluated in the single-channel algorithm for LST retrieval from Landsat 8 TIR data. Results showed that when compared with the radio sounding profile downloaded from the University of Wyoming (UWYO), the worst accuracies of atmospheric parameters were obtained for the MYD07 profile. Furthermore, the root-mean-square error (RMSE) values (approximately 0.5 K) of the retrieved LST when using the ECMWF, MERRA2, NCEP/GFS, and NCEP/FNL profiles were smaller than those but greater than 0.8 K when the MYD07, AIRS, and NCEP/DOE profiles were used. Compared with the in situ LST measurements that were collected at the Hailar, Urad Front Banner, and Wuhai sites, the RMSE values of the LST that were retrieved by using the ECMWF, MERRA2, NCEP/GFS, and NCEP/FNL profiles were approximately 1.0 K. The largest discrepancy between the retrieved and in situ LST was obtained for the NCEP/DOE profile, with an RMSE value of approximately 1.5 K. The results reveal that the ECMWF, MERRA2, NCEP/GFS, and NCEP/FNL profiles have great potential to perform accurate atmospheric correction and generate long-term time series LST products from Landsat TIR data by using a single-channel algorithm.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (19) ◽  
pp. 3202
Author(s):  
Xinran Chen ◽  
Yulin Zhan ◽  
Yan Liu ◽  
Xingfa Gu ◽  
Tao Yu ◽  
...  

Accurate cropland classification is important for agricultural monitoring and related decision-making. The commonly used input spectral features for classification cannot be employed to effectively distinguish crops that have similar spectro-temporal features. This study attempted to improve the classification accuracy of crops using both the thermal feature, i.e., the land surface temperature (LST), and the spectral feature, i.e., the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), for classification. To amplify the temperature differences between the crops, a temperature index, namely, the modified land surface temperature index (mLSTI) was built using the LST. The mLSTI was calculated by subtracting the average LST of an image from the LST of each pixel. To study the adaptability of the proposed method to different areas, three study areas were selected. A comparison of the classification results obtained using the NDVI time series and NDVI + mLSTI time series showed that for long time series from June to November, the classification accuracy when using the mLSTI and NDVI time series was higher (85.6% for study area 1 in California, 96.3% for area 2 in Kansas, and 91.2% for area 3 in Texas) than that when using the NDVI time series alone (82.0% for area 1, 94.7% for area 2, and 90.9% for area 3); the same was true in most of the cases when using the shorter time series. With the addition of the mLSTI time series, the shorter time series achieved higher classification accuracy, which is beneficial for timely crop identification. The sorghum and soybean crops, which exhibit similar NDVI feature curves in this study, could be better distinguished by adding the mLSTI time series. The results demonstrated that the classification accuracy of crops can be improved by adding mLSTI long time series, particularly for distinguishing crops with similar NDVI characteristics in a given study area.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (24) ◽  
pp. 4067
Author(s):  
Thanhtung Dang ◽  
Peng Yue ◽  
Felix Bachofer ◽  
Michael Wang ◽  
Mingda Zhang

Global warming-induced climate change evolved to be one of the most important research topics in Earth System Sciences, where remote sensing-based methods have shown great potential for detecting spatial temperature changes. This study utilized a time series of Landsat images to investigate the Land Surface Temperature (LST) of dry seasons between 1989 and 2019 in the Bac Binh district, Binh Thuan province, Vietnam. Our study aims to monitor LST change, and its relationship to land-cover change during the last 30 years. The results for the study area show that the share of Green Vegetation coverage has decreased rapidly for the dry season in recent years. The area covered by vegetation shrank between 1989 and 2019 by 29.44%. Our findings show that the LST increase and decrease trend is clearly related to the change of the main land-cover classes, namely Bare Land and Green Vegetation. For the same period, we find an average increase of absolute mean LST of 0.03 °C per year for over thirty years across all land-cover classes. For the dry season in 2005, the LST was extraordinarily high and the area with a LST exceeding 40 °C covered 64.10% of the total area. We expect that methodological approach and the findings can be applied to study change in LST, land-cover, and can contribute to climate change monitoring and forecasting of impacts in comparable regions.


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