Advanced Remote Sensing: Terrestrial Information Extraction and Applications

Advanced Remote Sensing

Terrestrial Information Extraction and Applications

Second Edition

Edited by

Shunlin Liang

University of Maryland

Jindi Wang

Beijing Normal University

Table of Contents

Cover image

Title page

Copyright

Contributors of the second edition

Foreword to the first edition

Preface to the first edition

Preface to the second edition

Chapter 1. A systematic view of remote sensing

1.1. Introduction

1.2. Platform and sensor systems

1.3. Data transmission and ground receiving system

1.4. Data processing

1.5. Mapping category variables

1.6. Estimating quantitative variables

1.7. Production, archiving, and distribution of high-level products

1.8. Product validation

1.9. Remote sensing applications

1.10. Conclusion

Chapter 2. Geometric processing and positioning techniques

2.1. Overview

2.2. In-orbit geometric calibration of satellite remote sensing imagery

2.3. Geometric rectification of a single remote sensing image

2.4. Geometric registration of satellite remote sensing imagery

2.5. Construction of a digital terrain model

2.6. Orthoimage production

2.7. Summary

2.8. Questions

Chapter 3. Compositing, smoothing, and gap-filling techniques

3.1. Multitemporal compositing techniques

3.2. Time series data smoothing and gap filling

3.3. Summary

Chapter 4. Atmospheric correction of optical imagery

4.1. Atmospheric effects

4.2. Correcting the aerosol impact

4.3. Correcting the impact of water vapor

4.4. Correcting the impacts of other constituents

4.5. Commonly used models and software

4.6. Application of GF-1 WFV atmospheric correction

4.7. Conclusions

Chapter 5. Solar radiation

5.1. Basic concepts

5.2. Observation network of land surface radiation

5.3. Surface radiation estimation based on satellite remote sensing and GCM

5.4. Current existing products and long-term variations

5.5. Summary

Nomenclature

Chapter 6. Broadband albedo

6.1. Land surface bidirectional reflectance modeling

6.2. The albedo-estimation method based on bidirectional reflectance model inversion

6.3. The direct estimation of surface albedo

6.4. Global land surface albedo products and validation

6.5. Temporal and spatial analysis of the global land surface albedo

6.6. Problems and prospects in the study of broadband albedo

Chapter 7. Land surface temperature and thermal infrared emissivity

7.1. The definitions of land surface temperature and land surface emissivity

7.2. The estimation of average land surface temperature

7.3. LSE estimation methods

7.4. LSE and LST products

7.5. Fusion of land surface temperature products

7.6. Summary

Acronyms

Chapter 8. Surface longwave radiation budget

8.1. Surface downward longwave radiation

8.2. Surface upwelling longwave radiation

8.3. Surface net longwave radiation

8.4. Ground validation networks and existing satellite-derived surface longwave radiation budget products

8.5. Summary

Chapter 9. Canopy biochemical characteristics

9.1. Overview of principles and methods

9.2. Empirical and semiempirical methods

9.3. Extraction using physical models

9.4. Extraction of vertical distribution of biochemical components in vegetation using hyperspectral lidar

9.5. Summary

Chapter 10. Leaf area index

10.1. Definitions

10.2. Statistical methods

10.3. Canopy model inversion methods

10.4. Data assimilation methods

10.5. LAI retrieval from lidar data

10.6. Global and regional leaf area index products

10.7. Summary

Chapter 11. Fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation

11.1. Introduction

11.2. FAPAR estimation method

11.3. FAPAR product intercomparison and validation

11.4. Spatiotemporal analysis and applications

11.5. Summary

Chapter 12. Fractional vegetation cover

12.1. Introduction

12.2. Field measurements of fractional vegetation cover

12.3. The remote sensing retrieval

12.4. Current remote sensing products

12.5. Spatiotemporal change analysis of fractional vegetation cover

Chapter 13. Vegetation height and vertical structure

13.1. Field measurement of vegetation height and vertical structure

13.2. Small footprint lidar data

13.3. Vegetation canopy height and vertical structure from SAR data

13.4. Vegetation canopy height and vertical structure from airborne stereoscopic images

13.5. Future perspectives

Chapter 14. Aboveground biomass

14.1. Introduction

14.2. Allometric methods

14.3. Optical remote sensing methods

14.4. Active and stereoscopic remote sensing methods

14.5. Synthesis methods of multisource data

14.6. Future perspective

Chapter 15. Estimate of vegetation production of terrestrial ecosystem

15.1. Concept of vegetation production

15.2. Ground observation of vegetation production

15.3. Statistical models based on vegetation index

15.4. Light use efficiency model based on remote sensing data

15.5. Potential of sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence for vegetation production estimates

15.6. Dynamic global vegetation models

15.7. Temporal and spatial distribution pattern of global vegetation productivity

15.8. Global gross primary production product

15.9. Summary

Chapter 16. Precipitation

16.1. Introduction

16.2. Surface measurement techniques

16.3. Estimation from satellite data

16.4. Global and regional datasets

16.5. Global precipitation climatology

16.6. Summary

Chapter 17. Terrestrial evapotranspiration

17.1. Introduction

17.2. Basic theories of λE

17.3. Satellite λE algorithms

17.4. Observations for algorithm calibration and validation

17.5. The spatiotemporal characteristics of global and regional λE

17.6. Conclusions and discussion

Chapter 18. Soil moisture contents

18.1. Introduction

18.2. Conventional SMC measurement techniques

18.3. Microwave remote sensing methods

18.4. Optical and thermal infrared remote sensing methods

18.5. Estimation of soil moisture profile

18.6. Comparison of different remote sensing techniques

18.7. Available datasets and spatial and temporal variations

18.8. Conclusions

Chapter 19. Snow water equivalent

19.1. Snow water equivalent ground measurement method

19.2. Snow microwave scattering and emission modeling

19.3. Microwave snow water equivalent retrieval techniques

19.4. Optical remote sensing techniques

19.5. Snow water equivalent product and applications

19.6. Summary

Chapter 20. Water storage

20.1. Introduction

20.2. Water balance–based estimation

20.3. Surface parameter–based estimation

20.4. GRACE-based estimation

20.5. Summary

Chapter 21. High-level land product integration methods

21.1. Introduction

21.2. Geostatistics methods

21.3. Multiresolution tree

21.4. Empirical orthogonal function–based methods

21.5. Summary

Chapter 22. Data production and management system

22.1. Remote sensing ground system

22.2. Data production system

22.3. Cloud computing–based integration of data management and analytics

22.4. Summary

Chapter 23. Urbanization: monitoring and impact assessment

23.1. Introduction

23.2. Urban area monitoring

23.3. Urban ecological environment monitoring

23.4. Study on the impact of urbanization

23.5. Summary

Chapter 24. Remote sensing application in agriculture

24.1. Introduction

24.2. Cropland information extracting

24.3. Crop yield prediction

24.4. Drought monitoring of crop

24.5. Crop residue monitoring

24.6. The impact from cropland

24.7. Response of crops to climate change

24.8. Summary

Chapter 25. Forest cover changes: mapping and climatic impact assessment

25.1. Introduction

25.2. Mapping forest change

25.3. Qualifying the climatic effects of forest change

25.4. Case studies

25.5. Conclusions

Index

Copyright

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Contributors of the second edition

Yuqi Bai email address: yuqibai@tsinghua.edu.cn ,     Center for Earth System Science, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

Jinshan Cao email address: caojinshan0426@163.com ,     Collaborative Innovation Center for Geospatial Technology, Wuhan University, 129 Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430079, China

Erxue Chen email address: chenerx@caf.ac.cn , email address: chenerx@ifrit.ac.cn ,     Institute of Forest Resources Information Techniques, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Dongxiaofu No. 2, Xiangshan Road, Beijing 100091, China

Jun Chen email address: chenjun0903@qq.com

State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Jointly Sponsored by Beijing Normal University and Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Beijing Engineering Research Center for Global Land Remote Sensing Products, Institute of Remote Sensing Science and Engineering, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Jie Cheng email address: Jie_Cheng@bnu.edu.cn

State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Jointly Sponsored by Beijing Normal University and Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Beijing Engineering Research Center for Global Land Remote Sensing Products, Institute of Remote Sensing Science and Engineering, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Robert E. Dickinson email address: robted@jsg.utexas.edu ,     Department of Geological Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA

Cuicui Dou email address: dccdou@163.com

Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 73 East Beijing Road, Nanjing 210008, China

School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, China

Jinyang Du email address: jinyang.du@mso.umt.edu ,     Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group, W.A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation, The University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812, USA

Wenjie Fan email address: fanwj@pku.edu.cn ,     Institute of RS and GIS, Peking University, 5 Yiheyuan Road, Beijing 100871, China

Hongliang Fang email address: fanghl@lreis.ac.cn ,     Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 11A Datun Road, Beijing 100101, China

Yi Fang email address: fywhu@qq.com ,     School of Remote Sensing and Information Engineering, Wuhan University, 129 Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430079, China

Qiaoni Fu

Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 73 East Beijing Road, Nanjing 210008, China

School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, China

Shuai Gao email address: gaoshuai@radi.ac.cn ,     Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China

Zhan Gao email address: 1578090895@qq.com ,     Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Ruifang Guo email address: gr120206@126.com ,     Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 73 East Beijing Road, Nanjing 210008, China

Tao He email address: taohers@whu.edu.cn ,     School of Remote Sensing and Information Engeering, Wuhan University, Luoyu Road No. 129, Wuhan 430079, China

Wenli Huang email address: wenli.huang@whu.edu.cn ,     School of Resource and Environmental Sciences, Wuhan University, 129 Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430079, China

Shunping Ji email address: Jishunping2000@163.com ,     School of Remote Sensing and Information Engineering, Wuhan University, 129 Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430079, China

Kun Jia email address: jiakun@bnu.edu.cn

State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Jointly Sponsored by Beijing Normal University and Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Beijing Engineering Research Center for Global Land Remote Sensing Products, Institute of Remote Sensing Science and Engineering, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Bo Jiang email address: bojiang@bnu.edu.cn

State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Jointly Sponsored by Beijing Normal University and Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Beijing Engineering Research Center for Global Land Remote Sensing Products, Institute of Remote Sensing Science and Engineering, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Lingmei Jiang email address: jiang@bnu.edu.cn

State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Jointly Sponsored by Beijing Normal University and Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Beijing Engineering Research Center for Global Land Remote Sensing Products, Institute of Remote Sensing Science and Engineering, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Zengyuan Li,     Institute of Forest Resources Information Techniques, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Dongxiaofu No. 2, Xiangshan Road, Beijing, 100091, China

Shunlin Liang email address: sliang@umd.edu ,     Department of Geographical Sciences, Univsersity of Maryland, College Park MD 20742, USA

Ming Lin email address: tj_linming@foxmail.com ,     Tsinghua University, MengMinWei Sci-tech Building, S912, Beijing 100084, China

Qiang Liu email address: toliuqiang@bnu.edu.cn

State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Jointly Sponsored by Beijing Normal University and Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

College of Global Change and Earth System Science, Beijing Normal University, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Suhong Liu email address: liush@bnu.edu.cn ,     Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Yaokai Liu email address: liuyk@aoe.ac.cn ,     Academy of Opto-Electronics, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing 100094, China

Yuanbo Liu email address: ybliu@niglas.ac.cn ,     Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 73 East Beijing Road, Nanjing 210008, China

Yufu Liu email address: liuyufu18@mails.tsinghua.edu.cn ,     Tsinghua University, MengMinWei Sci-tech Building, S917, Beijing 100084, China

Qian Ma email address: maqian@bnu.edu.cn ,     State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, College of Global Change and Earth System Science, Beijing Normal University, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Yuna Mao email address: shanxian.08@163.com ,     State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, College of Global Change and Earth System Science, Beijing Normal University, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Xiangcheng Meng email address: xiangchenmeng@yeah.net ,     Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Xihan Mu email address: muxihan@bnu.edu.cn

State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Jointly Sponsored by Beijing Normal University and Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Beijing Engineering Research Center for Global Land Remote Sensing Products, Institute of Remote Sensing Science and Engineering, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Wenjian Ni email address: niwj@radi.ac.cn ,     Institute of remote sensing and digital earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences, A20 north, Datun road, Beijing 100101, China

Zheng Niu email address: niuzheng@radi.ac.cn ,     Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100101 Beijing, China

Jinmei Pan email address: panjm@aircas.ac.cn ,     State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Jointly Sponsored by the Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Beijing Normal University, 100101 Beijing, China

Yong Pang email address: pangy@ifrit.ac.cn ,     Institute of Forest Resources Information Techniques, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Dongxiaofu No. 2, Xiangshan Road, Beijing, 100091, China

Jingjing Peng email address: jingjingpeng89@gmail.com ,     Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, College Park 20740 MD, USA

Ying Qu email address: quy100@nenu.edu.cn ,     School of Geographical Sciences, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, China

Yonghua Qu email address: qyh@bnu.edu.cn

State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Jointly Sponsored by Beijing Normal University and Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Beijing Engineering Research Center for Global Land Remote Sensing Products, Institute of Remote Sensing Science and Engineering, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Jiancheng Shi email address: shijc@radi.ac.cn ,     State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Jointly Sponsored by the Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Beijing Normal University, 100101 Beijing, China

Jinling Song email address: songjl@bnu.edu.cn

State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Jointly Sponsored by Beijing Normal University and Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Beijing Engineering Research Center for Global Land Remote Sensing Products, Institute of Remote Sensing Science and Engineering, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Wanjuan Song email address: songwanjuan@126.com

State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Jointly Sponsored by Beijing Normal University and Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Beijing Engineering Research Center for Global Land Remote Sensing Products, Institute of Remote Sensing Science and Engineering, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Guoqing Sun email address: guoqing.sun@gmail.com ,     Department of Geographical Sciences, Univsersity of Maryland, College Park MD 20742, USA

Wanxiao Sun email address: sunwa@gvsu.edu ,     Department of Geography and Sustainable Planning, Grand Valley State University, 1 Campus Drive, Allendale, MI 49401-9403, USA

Xin Tao email address: xintao@buffalo.edu ,     Department of Geography, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY 14261, USA

Xinpeng Tian email address: xptian@yic.ac.cn ,     CAS Key Laboratory of Coastal Environmental Processes and Ecological Remediation, Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yantai 264003, China

Dongdong Wang email address: ddwang@umd.edu ,     Department of Geographical Sciences, Univsersity of Maryland, College Park MD 20742, USA

Haoyu Wang email address: why0925@mail.bnu.edu.cn ,     Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Jindi Wang email address: wangjd@bnu.edu.cn

State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Jointly Sponsored by Beijing Normal University and Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Beijing Engineering Research Center for Global Land Remote Sensing Products, Institute of Remote Sensing Science and Engineering, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Kaicun Wang email address: kcwang@bnu.edu.cn ,     State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, College of Global Change and Earth System Science, Beijing Normal University, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Wenhui Wang email address: wang.wenhui@gmail.com ,     I.M. Systems Group at NOAA/NESDIS/STAR, 5200 Auth Road, Camp Springers, MD 20746, USA

Zhigang Wang email address: kevinwang2000@163.com ,     China Center for Resource Satellite Data and Applications, No. 5, Fengxian East Road, Beijing 100094, China

Jianguang Wen email address: wenjg@radi.ac.cn ,     Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China

Guiping Wu email address: gpwu@niglas.ac.cn ,     Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China

Zhiqiang Xiao email address: zhqxiao@bnu.edu.cn

State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Jointly Sponsored by Beijing Normal University and Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Beijing Engineering Research Center for Global Land Remote Sensing Products, Institute of Remote Sensing Science and Engineering, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Chuan Xiong email address: xiongchuan@swjtu.edu.cn ,     Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 611756, China

Chunyan Yan email address: 147583592@qq.com ,     China University of Geosciences, Beijing, 29 Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100083, China

Guangjian Yan email address: gjyan@bnu.edu.cn

State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Jointly Sponsored by Beijing Normal University and Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Beijing Engineering Research Center for Global Land Remote Sensing Products, Institute of Remote Sensing Science and Engineering, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Feng Yang email address: yftaurus@mail.bnu.edu.cn

State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Jointly Sponsored by Beijing Normal University and Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Beijing Engineering Research Center for Global Land Remote Sensing Products, Institute of Remote Sensing Science and Engineering, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Wenping Yuan email address: yuanwpcn@126.com ,     School of Atmospheric Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University. No. 135, Xingang Xi Road, Guangzhou 510275, China

Xiuxiao Yuan email address: yuanxx@whu.edu.cn ,     School of Remote Sensing and Information Engineering, Wuhan University, 129 Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430079, China

Quan Zhang email address: zhangquanzq@126.com ,     Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Xiaotong Zhang email address: xtngzhang@bnu.edu.cn

State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Jointly Sponsored by Beijing Normal University and Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Beijing Engineering Research Center for Global Land Remote Sensing Products, Institute of Remote Sensing Science and Engineering, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Zhiyu Zhang email address: zhangzy@irsa.ac.cn ,     Institute of remote sensing and digital earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences, A20 north, Datun road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, China

Peisheng Zhao email address: pzhao@gmu.edu ,     George Mason University, 4400 University Drive, MSN 6E1, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030, USA

Xiang Zhao email address: zhaoxiang@bnu.edu.cn

State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Jointly Sponsored by Beijing Normal University and Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Beijing Engineering Research Center for Global Land Remote Sensing Products, Institute of Remote Sensing Science and Engineering, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Xiaosong Zhao email address: xszhao@niglas.ac.cn ,     Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 73 East Beijing Road, Nanjing 210008, China

Yi Zheng email address: zhengy263@mail2.sysu.edu.cn ,     School of Atmospheric Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University. No. 135, Xingang Xi Road, Guangzhou 510275, China

Shugui Zhou email address: zhoushugui1990@msn.cn ,     Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Xiufang Zhu email address: zhuxiufang@bnu.edu.cn ,     Institute of Remote Sensing Science and Engineering, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China

Foreword to the first edition

The Symposium on Quantitative Retrieval Algorithms in Remote Sensing was held in the summer of 2010 at Beijing Normal University. It was chaired by Professors Shunlin Liang and Xiaowen Li. During the Symposium, I stressed the roles of geography and remote-sensing science in the process of globalization. In the twenty-first century, world development has taken on three new characteristics: a constantly developing knowledge economy, constantly progressing globalization, and a widespread sustainable development theory. Since Earth science focuses on the relationships between human beings and the Earth’s environment, it will significantly influence studies on the globalization process and sustainable development. For this reason, Earth science research in China should establish a much broader global outlook and extend its research perspective worldwide. Scientists should be much more concerned about global issues, multidisciplinary developments, and quantitative methods in the field of Earth science research.

Remote sensing is an important method of Earth observation. Satellite sensors can constantly observe the Earth’s surface, and, with the development of remote-sensing science, it has become an important mechanism to determine spatial and temporal land-surface information quantitatively based on radiative transfer theory. High-level remote-sensing products are urgently needed to meet global changes and for many other applications. Generating these high-level products is challenging, however, and has become a hot research topic. Remote-sensing scientists, especially the young scientists among them, are fully aware of this and have accordingly paid more attention to quantitative methodology. Therefore, they are more eager to understand fundamental principles and practical algorithms.

Professors Xiaowen Li and Shunlin Liang are long-term explorers in the research field of quantitative remote sensing. They are not only worldknown scientists but also tutors and friends trusted by many young scholars. Their most ardent wish is to satisfy the need of readers, especially young students, for knowledge of quantitative remote sensing.

To meet the needs of scientists and graduate students, Professors Shunlin Liang, Xiaowen Li, and Jindi Wang secured the collaboration of a group of scientists engaged in the frontiers of remote sensing in producing this book two years after the 2010 Symposium. The present volume introduces remote-sensing systems, remote-sensing models, the inversion algorithms of nearly 20 land-surface variables, and existing global products, all of which are state of the art. The book offers an extensive resource and reference that will help readers understand quantitative remote-sensing principles, communicate more effectively with other. Earth science researchers and promote the quantitative applications of remote sensing.

This book will be of significant value to both students and scientists worldwide, helping to promote better understanding of quantitative remote sensing and contributing to the further development of Earth science in the twenty-first century.

Guanhua Xu,     Professor, Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Former Minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China

Preface to the first edition

As the technology of remote sensing has advanced over the last two decades, the scientific potential of the data that it produces has greatly improved. To better serve society’s needs, the immense amounts of aggregated satellite data need to be transferred into high-level products in order to improve the predictive capabilities of global and regional models at different scales and to aid in decision making through various decision support systems. A general trend is that the data centers are distributing more high-level products rather than simply the raw satellite imagery.

An increasing number of researchers from a diverse set of academic and scientific disciplines are now routinely using remotely sensed data products, and the mathematical and physical sophistication of the techniques used to process and analyze these data have increased considerably. As a result, there is an urgent need for a reference book on the advanced methods and algorithms that are now available for extracting information from the huge volume of remotely sensed data, which are often buried in various journals and other sources. Such a book should be highly quantitative and rigorously technical; at the same time, it should be accessible to students at the upper undergraduate and first-year graduate student level.

To meet this critical demand, we have identified and organized a group of active research scientists to contribute chapters and sections drawn from their research expertise. Although this is an edited volume with multiple authors, it is well designed and integrated. The editors and authors have made great efforts to ensure the consistency and integrity of the text.

In addition to the introductory chapter, this book consists of five parts: (1) data processing methods and techniques; (2) estimation of landsurface radiation budget components; (3) estimation of biophysical and biochemical variables; (4) estimation of water cycle components; and (5) high-level product generation and application demonstrations. The titles and authors of the individual chapters are as follows:

Chapter 1 presents introductory material and provides an overview of the book. From the system perspective, it briefly describes the essential components of the remote-sensing system, ranging from platforms and sensors, modeling approaches, and information extraction methods to applications.

Part 1 includes four chapters on data processing. Chapter 2 is the only chapter that presents the methods and techniques for handling geometric properties of remotely sensed data. These include the calibration of systematic errors, geometric correction, geometric registration, digital terrain model generation, and digital ortho-image generation.

Chapter 3 seeks to reconstruct spatial and temporal continuous high-quality imagery. As the temporal resolution of satellite observations greatly increases, images are more often contaminated by clouds and aerosols that partially or completely block the surface information. Two groups of techniques are presented. The first group deals with composite methods for aggregating the fine temporal resolution (say, daily) to the coarse resolution (say, weekly or monthly), and the second discusses smoothing and gapfilling methods to eliminate the impacts of clouds and aerosols at the same temporal resolution.

Chapter 4 introduces the basic principles and methods of data fusion for integrating multiple data sources on the pixel basis, which have different spatial resolutions, and are acquired from different spectra (optical, thermal, microwave). This chapter focuses mainly on low-level data products. (The methods for integrating high-level products are introduced in Chapter 22.)

Chapter 5 introduces methods for correcting the atmospheric effects of aerosols and water vapor on the optical imagery. Other atmospheric correction methods are discussed in Chapter 8 for thermal-IR data and in Part 4 for microwave data.

Part 2 focuses on estimation of surface radiation budget components. The surface radiation budget is characterized by all-wave net radiation (R n ) that is the sum of shortwave (S n ) and longwave (L n ) net radiation

is the downward shortwave radiation (discussed in is the upward longwave radiation. Longwave net radiation (L n ) can be also calculated by

and Ts is discussed in and L n are covered in Chapter 9.

Part 3 focuses on the estimation of biochemical and biophysical variables of plant canopy. Chapter 10 introduces the various methods for estimating plant biochemical variables, such as chlorophyll, water, protein, lignin and cellulose. The biophysical variables discussed in this book include leaf area index (LAI) in Chapter 11, the fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation by green vegetation (FPAR) in Chapter 12, fractional vegetation cover in Chapter 13, vegetation height and vertical structure in Chapter 14, above-ground biomass in Chapter 15, and vegetation production in terms of gross primary production (GPP) and net primary production (NPP) in Chapter 16. Various inversion methods are introduced in this part, including optimization methods (Section 11.3.2), neural networks (Sections 11.3.3, 13.3.3 and 15.3.4), genetic algorithms (Section 11.3.4), Bayesian networks (Section 11.3.5), regression tree methods (Section 13.3.3), data assimilation methods (Section 11.4) and look-up table methods (Section 11.3.6). Part 3 also discusses multiple data sources besides optical imagery, such as Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and Light Detection and Ranging (Lidar), and polarimetric InSAR data.

Part 4 is on estimation of water balance components. A general water balance equation is expressed by:

where P is precipitation (discussed in Chapter 17), Q is runoff that is currently difficult to estimate from remote sensing, E is evapotranspiration (discussed in Chapter 18), and ΔS is the change in storage to which three chapters are related: soil moisture in Chapter 19, snow water equivalence in Chapter 20, and surface water storage in Chapter 21. In addition to optical and thermal data, microwave data are dealt with extensively in all chapters except in Chapter 18. The gravity data with the GRACE data are also briefly introduced in Chapter 21.

Part 5 deals with high-level product generation, integration, and application. Chapter 22 presents different methods for integrating highlevel products of the same variable (e.g., LAI) that may be generated from different satellite data or different inversion algorithms. The data fusion methods for integrating low-level products are discussed in Chapter 4. Chapter 23 describes the typical procedures for producing high-level products from low-level satellite data and for developing a data management system that is used for effectively handling a large volume of satellite data. The last chapter demonstrates how remote-sensing data products can be used for land-cover and land-use change studies, particularly on mapping the extent of three major land-use types (urban, forest, and agriculture), detecting changes in these landuse types, and evaluating the environmental impacts of these land-use changes.

One important feature of this book is its focus on extracting land-surface information from satellite observations. All relevant chapters follow the same template: introduction to basic concepts and fundamental principles, review of practical algorithms with a comprehensive list of references, detailed descriptions of representative algorithms and case studies, surveys of current products, spatiotemporal variations of the variable, and identification of future research directions. The book includes almost 500 figures and tables, as well as 1700 references.

This book can serve as a text for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in a variety of disciplines related to Earth observation. The entire book may be too lengthy for a one-semester or one quarter class, but most chapters in Parts 2–5 are relatively independent, and using a subset of them will be useful in such classes.

The text can also serve as a valuable reference book for anyone interested in the use and applications of remote-sensing data. Ideally, those using this book will have taken an introductory remote-sensing course, but we have written it at such a level that even those who have had little or no prior training in remote sensing can easily understand the overall development of this field.

Preface to the second edition

Since the first edition of this book was published in 2012, the field of remote sensing has experienced extensive growth and development. An updated text that examines and describes in detail this growth is now needed.

There are several remarkable trends. The first trend is the steadily increasing volume of remotely sensed data, driven by the growing number of satellites with higher spatial and temporal resolutions. For example, DigitalGlobe's satellite fleet currently generates 80TB per day of images. The constellations of smaller satellites, mostly operated by the commercial sector, provide high spatial and temporal resolutions imagery. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), platforms, and associated sensing technologies are now also collecting huge amounts of data for use in a variety of applications in a cost-effective manner.

The second trend is the widespread application of machine learning techniques that transform raw satellite observations into the values of various bio/geophysical variables. These methods, such as artificial neural network, support vector regression, random forest, and multivariate adaptive regression splines, are often based on extensive simulations of different radiative transfer models.

The third trend has been the gradual adaptation of cloud computing. It is essential to develop an infrastructure that connects global remotely sensed data collected and managed by various agencies and data centers located throughout the world. It will be a cost-effective approach for sharing, processing, archiving, and disseminating the massive size of remotely sensed data. The processing and analysis can be greatly enhanced by using a massive number of computing nodes through high-performance computing and high-throughput computing techniques.

Another trend is the generation of long-term consistent high-level satellite products that can be used directly by users for a variety of applications. The creation of long-term high-level land products leverages off the advantages of multisource remote sensing data. It started from the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) program in late 1980s. One of the product suites extensively discussed in this book is the Global Land Surface Satellite (GLASS) products, which are being distributed free of charge through the China National Data Sharing Infrastructure of Earth System Science (http://www.geodata.cn/thematicView/GLASS.html) and the University of Maryland (www.glass.umd.edu). The GLASS products have some unique features, one of which is long-term time series (from 1981 to present). Considerable efforts are also being made by the remote sensing community to develop the Climate Data Records (CDR) defined as the time series of measurements of sufficient length, consistency, and continuity to determine climate variability and change by the US National Research Council.

To incorporate state-of-the-art development of land remote sensing, this new book provides a major revision of the first edition by presenting new methods, new data products, and more applications. The chapter titles and author information are provided in the following table.

Most chapters have been considerably expanded and all have updated references. Chapter 1 provides a more comprehensive introduction to the remote sensing system and also serves as the pointers to various chapters of the book. Machine learning techniques are described in many chapters. We removed the chapter on data fusion but expanded the application section from one chapter to three (Chapters 23–25).

One of the first edition editors, Prof. Xiaowen Li, passed away in 2015. We lost a great colleague and friend. He made significant contributions to land remote sensing. For example, he was the primary developer of the well-known Li–Strahler geometric-optical vegetation reflectance model and pioneered in developing the simplified kernels modeling structure to characterize land surface directional reflectance that have been used for the MODIS surface albedo product generation and other applications. A full account of Prof. Li's lifetime achievements is available in a journal paper (Liu Q., et al., 2018. From Geometric-Optical Remote Sensing Modeling to Quantitative Remote Sensing Science—In Memory of Academician Xiaowen Li. Remote Sensing 10, 1764, 2018).

We would like to thank all the authors for their valuable contributions and are indebted to our many colleagues for their kind assistance in preparing this edition. Among them is Ms. Liulin Song who kept communicating with all contributors, managed all the documents, and applied for the permission of the copyright materials. Assistance from Dr. Hongmin Zhou is also greatly appreciated. Without their help, this project would probably never come to the end.

We also thank the editors and production personnel at Elsevier, particularly Ms. Lena Sparks, Editorial Project Manager, who has worked with us until the completion of this edition.

Lastly, we most appreciate the support of our families. To one and all, thank you!

This project was supported in part by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2016YFA0600100), State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, and Beijing Engineering Research Center for Global Land Remote Sensing Products.

Shunlin Liang

Jindi Wang

October 2019

Chapter 1

A systematic view of remote sensing

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of the remote sensing system, including the platform and sensor system, data transmission and ground receiving system, processing system of radiometric and geometric properties, analysis system for mapping category variables and generating high-level products of quantitative variables, product production and distribution system, product validation system, and remote sensing applications. It aims to present a complete picture of the state-of-the-art development of remote sensing techniques by linking different chapters in the rest of the book and filling in any possible gaps.

Keywords

Application; Inversion; Modeling; Remote sensing system; Satellite

1.1 Introduction

1.2 Platform and sensor systems

1.2.1 Geostationary satellites

1.2.2 Polar-orbiting satellites

1.2.3 Overview of major satellite missions and programs

1.2.3.1 USA

1.2.3.2 Europe

1.2.3.3 China

1.2.4 Small satellites and satellite constellations

1.2.5 Sensor types

1.2.6 Data characteristics

1.2.6.1 Spatial resolution

1.2.6.2 Spectral resolution

1.2.6.3 Temporal resolution

1.2.6.4 Radiometric resolution

1.3 Data transmission and ground receiving system

1.4 Data processing

1.4.1 Radiometric calibration

1.4.2 Geometric processing

1.4.3 Image quality enhancement

1.4.4 Atmospheric correction

1.4.5 Image fusion and product integration

1.5 Mapping category variables

1.6 Estimating quantitative variables

1.6.1 Forward radiation modeling

1.6.1.1 Scene generation

1.6.1.2 Surface radiation modeling

1.6.1.3 Atmospheric radiative transfer

1.6.1.4 Sensor modeling

1.6.2 Inversion methods

1.6.2.1 Statistical analysis and machine learning techniques

1.6.2.2 Optimization algorithms

1.6.2.3 Look-up table algorithms

1.6.2.4 Direct estimation methods

1.6.2.5 Data assimilation methods

1.6.2.6 Spatial and temporal scaling

1.6.2.7 Regularization method

1.6.3 Use of multisource data

1.6.4 Use of a prior knowledge

1.6.5 Space–time constraints

1.6.6 Algorithm ensemble

1.7 Production, archiving, and distribution of high-level products

1.8 Product validation

1.9 Remote sensing applications

1.10 Conclusion

References

1.1. Introduction

We are living in a world where population is rapidly increasing, depleting natural resources, and experiencing the possible consequences of human-induced climate change. Our ability to meet these challenges partially depends on how well we understand the Earth system and use that information to guide our actions. Remote sensing is a tremendous source of information needed by policy-makers, resource managers, forecasters, and other users, and it has become increasingly vital for the effective and sustainable future management of the Earth. A remote sensing system consists of instrumentation, processing, and analysis designed to measure, monitor, and predict the physical, chemical, and biological aspects of the Earth system. Sophisticated new technologies have been developed to gather vast quantities of data, and the mathematical and physical sophistication of the techniques used to process and analyze the observed data has increased considerably.

The first chapter of the book aims to link diverse components to paint a full picture of a remote sensing system as illustrated in Fig. 1.1. It starts with a brief introduction to the platform and sensor system for acquiring data and then moves on to the data transmission and ground receiving system, the processing system for handling the geometric and radiometric properties of data, the analysis system for extracting information on both category and numerical variables of the Earth surface environment, the product generation and distribution system, the product validation system, and end-user applications. Applications largely define the data acquisition system, and end-users often need to validate the products to quantify their errors and uncertainties.

Figure 1.1 Key components of the remote sensing system.

1.2. Platform and sensor systems

The data acquisition system mainly consists of the sensor and the platform on which the sensor resides. The platform may be on the surface, in the air, or in space. A surface platform may be a ladder, tower, cherry picker, crane, building, or scaffolding that provides data used primarily for validation.

Aerial platforms include aircraft and balloons. Unmanned aerial systems (UAS), commonly known as a drone, have considerable potential to radically improve Earth observation by providing high spatial detail over relatively large areas in a cost-effective way and an entirely new capacity for enhanced temporal retrieval (Manfreda et al., 2018). In addition to the increasing availability of UAS and affordability, recent advances in sensor technologies and analytical capabilities have stimulated an explosion of interest from the remote sensing community. Increasing miniaturization allows multispectral, hyperspectral, and thermal imaging, as well as synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) and light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensing to be conducted from UAS.

Spaceborne platforms are mainly satellites and space shuttles. As the landmark of spaceborne remote sensing, Landsat 1 was launched in 1972. Since then, there have been over 50 countries operating land remote sensing satellites. The Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) database (http://database.eohandbook.com/database/missiontable.aspx) lists the current and future satellite missions and sensors. The following will mainly discuss the satellite remote sensing.

1.2.1. Geostationary satellites

A geostationary satellite is in an orbit that can only be achieved at an altitude very close to 35,786   km (22,236 miles) and which keeps the satellite fixed over one longitude at the equator. The satellite appears motionless at a fixed position in the sky to ground observers. There are several hundred communication satellites and several meteorological satellites in such an orbit. Fig. 1.2 illustrates a few typical meteorological satellites in the geostationary orbit relative to the polar-orbiting satellites.

US operational weather satellites include the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) used for short-range warning and now-casting primarily to support the National Weather Service requirements. The procurement, design, and manufacturing of GOES are overseen by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), while all operations of the satellites once in orbit are effected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Before being launched, GOES satellites are designated by letters (-A, -B, -C). Once a GOES satellite is launched successfully, it is redesignated with a number (−1, −2, −3). Normally two GOES satellites are operational. Information on the GOES series is shown in Table 1.1. The third generation of GOES, the new GOES-R satellite series program, consisting of four satellites (from GOES-16), represents a significant improvement in spatial, temporal, and spectral observations over the capabilities of the previously operational GOES series. For example, the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) is the primary instrument on the GOES-R Series for imaging Earth's weather, oceans, and environment. The ABI provides three times more spectral information, four times the spatial resolution, and more than five times faster temporal coverage than the previous system.

European operational missions are currently operated by the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT). EUMETSAT's geostationary satellite programs include the Meteosat First Generation system (up to Meteosat-7) from 1977 to 2017, four Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellites (MSG-1,2,3,4 or Meteosat-8,9,10,11) from 2004 to 2025, and six Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) satellites from 2021 to 39. The MSG satellites carry an impressive pair of instruments: the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI), which has the capacity to observe the Earth in 12 spectral channels and provide image data every half hour, and the Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget (GERB) instrument supporting climate studies.

Figure 1.2 Illustration of the distribution of a few common geostationary satellites compared to the polar-orbiting satellites.

The Japanese Geostationary Meteorological Satellite (GMS) series had five satellites from 1977. The Multifunctional Transport Satellites (MTSAT) are the successors to the GMS 1–5 satellite series. The MTSAT-2 from 2010 was also known as Himawari-7. Himawari-8 was operational from July 2015, and Himawari-9 started backup operation on March 2017. Both satellites are located in orbit at around 140.7 degrees east and will observe the East Asia and Western Pacific regions for a period of 15 years. The Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI), similar to ABI, has six channel multispectral bands in the visible to near-infrared spectrum with 500m spatial resolution and provides full disk observations every 10   min and images of Japan every 2.5   min.

China has launched eight of the first-generation geostationary satellites named Fengyun (FY-2) from FY-2A to FY-2H since 1997. The second generation of geostationary meteorological satellites FY-4 was launched in December 2016, and multiple FY-4 satellites have been planned to provide service through 2037 when a successor program will be inaugurated. The Advanced Geosynchronous Radiation Imager (AGRI) aboard FY-4 is the corresponding version of ABI in the GOES-R series. It has 14 spectral bands, delivering full disk images every 15   min at a significantly improved resolution of 0.5–4   km.

Table 1.1

1.2.2. Polar-orbiting satellites

Polar-orbiting satellites can provide an observational platform for the entire Earth surface, while their geostationary counterparts are limited to approximately 60 degrees of latitude of geostationary meteorological satellites at a fixed point over the Earth. Polar-orbiting satellites are able to circle the globe approximately once every 100   min. Most polar-orbiting Earth observation satellites, such as Terra, ENVISAT, and Landsat, have an altitude of about 800   km. They are in sun-synchronous orbits passing directly over a given spot on the ground at the same local time. A relatively low orbit allows detection and collection of data by instruments aboard a polar-orbiting satellite at a higher spatial resolution than from a geostationary satellite.

NASA has launched a series of polar-orbiting satellite missions with the ability to characterize the current state of the Earth system. The currently active satellites are illustrated in Fig. 1.3. All the missions fall into three types: exploratory, operational precursor and technology demonstration, and systematic.

Exploratory missions are designed to yield new scientific breakthroughs. Each exploratory satellite project is expected to be a one-time mission that can deliver conclusive scientific results addressing a focused set of scientific questions. In some cases, an exploratory mission may focus on a single pioneering measurement that opens a new window on the behavior of the Earth system. These missions are managed in the NASA Earth System Science program (ESSP). Examples include the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and CloudSAT. GRACE data can be used for estimating soil moisture and surface/underground water (Section 20.4).

Operational precursor and technology demonstration missions enable major upgrades of existing operational observing systems. NASA is investing in innovative sensor technologies and developing more cost-effective versions of its pioneer scientific instruments that can be used effectively by operational agencies. An example is the NMP EO-1 (New Millennium Program Earth Observing-1) mission launched on November 21, 2000, which includes three advanced land imaging sensors and five revolutionary crosscutting spacecraft technologies. The three sensors led to a new generation of lighter weight, higher performance, and lower cost Landsat-type Earth surface imaging instruments. The hyperspectral sensor Hyperion is the first of its kind to provide images of land surface in more than 220 spectral bands.

Figure 1.3 Illustration of the current NASA Earth observing satellites, downloaded from https://eospso.gsfc.nasa.gov/ in February 2019.

Systematic missions provide systematic measurements of key environmental variables that are essential to specify changes in forcings caused by factors outside the Earth system (e.g., changes in incident solar radiation) and to document the behavior of the major components of the Earth system. An example is the Earth Observing System (EOS) program. EOS is the centerpiece of NASA's recent Earth observation program. It was conceived in the 1980s and began to take shape in the early 1990s. It is composed of a series of satellites and sensors, a science component, and a data system supporting a coordinated series of polar-orbiting and low inclination satellites for long-term global observations of the land surface, biosphere, solid Earth, atmosphere, and oceans. Complete and still active EOS satellites are shown in Tables 1.2 and 1.3.

1.2.3. Overview of major satellite missions and programs

There exist 72 different government space agencies as of 2018, and 14 of those have launch capability. Six government space agencies have full launch capabilities, i.e., launch and recover multiple satellites, deploy cryogenic rocket engines and operate space probes. They are the China National Space Administration (CNSA), the European Space Agency (ESA), the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the NASA, and the Russian Federal Space Agency (RFSA or Roscosmos).

Table 1.2

Table 1.3

According to the Union of Concerned Scientists Database: As of November 30, 2018, there are 1957 Earth-orbiting satellites (US 849, China 284, Russia 152), 36% of these have a main purpose of either Earth Observation (EO) or Earth Science. Among active EO satellites (620) in 2017, a massive increase by 66% from the year 2016, their purposes can be grouped as following: 327 for optical imaging, 45 for radar imaging, 7 for infrared imaging, 7 for satellites, 64 for meteorology, and 60 for Earth Science. The following will introduce the major satellite programs of the United States, Europe, and China.

1.2.3.1. USA

The United States has three major federal agencies involved in the EO satellites: NASA, NOAA, and US Geological Survey (USGS), but only NASA is responsible for launching all satellites for these agencies. The satellite missions managed by NASA have been briefly presented in Section 1.2.2, and USGS is currently managing the Landsat program. In the following, we will discuss the satellites operated by NOAA.

NOAA's operational environmental satellite system is composed of both geostationary and polar-orbiting satellites. GOES satellites, as discussed in Section 1.2.1, are mainly for national, regional, short-range warning, and now-casting. Complementing the GOES geostationary satellites are the polar-orbiting satellites known as Polar Operational Environmental Satellites (POES), Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP), and Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) for global, long-term forecasting and environmental monitoring. Both types of satellite are necessary for providing a complete global weather monitoring system.

The POES system includes the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and the Television Infrared Observation Satellite (TIROS) Operational Vertical Sounder (TOVS). The world's first meteorological satellite, TIROS, was launched on April 1, 1960 and demonstrated the advantage of mapping Earth's cloud cover from satellite altitudes.

On January 23, 1970, the first of the improved TIROS Operational Satellite (ITOS) was launched. Between December 11, 1970 and July 29, 1976, five ITOS satellites designated NOAA-1 through 5 were launched. From October 13, 1978 to July 23, 1981, satellites in the TIROS-N series were launched, where N represents the next generation of operational satellites. NOAA-6 and NOAA-7 were also launched during this time frame. On March 28, 1983, the first of the Advanced TIROS-N (or ATN) satellites, designated NOAA-8, was launched. NOAA continues to operate the ATN series of satellites today with improved instruments. Complementing the geostationary satellites are two NOAA polar-orbiting satellites, one crossing the equator at 7:30 a.m. local time and the other at 1:40 p.m. local time. The latest is NOAA-19, launched on February 6, 2009. NOAA-18 (PM secondary), NOAA-17 (AM backup), NOAA-16 (PM secondary), and NOAA-15 (AM secondary) all continue transmitting data as standby satellites. NOAA-19 is the operational PM primary satellite, and METOP-A, owned and operated by EUMETSAT, is the AM Primary satellite.

The first AVHRR sensor was a 4-channel radiometer, first carried on TIROS-N (launched October 1978). This was subsequently improved to a 5-channel instrument (AVHRR/2) that was initially carried on NOAA-7 (launched June 1981). The latest instrument version is AVHRR/3, with six channels, first carried on NOAA-15, launched in May 1998. Multiple global vegetation index datasets have been developed from NOAA-7 to now.

From 2011, NOAA has started the new JPSS program. JPSS is a collaborative program between the NOAA and NASA. This interagency effort is the latest generation of US polar-orbiting environmental satellites. The S-NPP satellite, launched in October 2011, is the predecessor to the JPSS series spacecraft and is considered the bridge between NOAA's legacy polar satellite fleet, NASA's EOS missions, and the JPSS constellation. S-NPP was constructed with a design life of 5   years but is still functioning normally. NOAA-20 (formerly JPSS-1), which launched into space on November 18, 2017, is the first spacecraft of NOAA's next generation of polar-orbiting satellites. Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) is very similar to MODIS. NOAA-20 carries five similar instruments to the Suomi NPP. The following-on satellites have been planned: JPSS-2 (2021), JPSS-3 (2026), and JPSS-4 (2031).

The Landsat missions have provided the long-term land surface observations at fine spatial resolutions (Fig. 1.4). On July 23, 1972, the Earth Resources Technology Satellite (ERTS-1) was launched and later renamed Landsat 1. The launches of Landsat 2, Landsat 3, Landsat 4, and Landsat 5 followed in 1975, 1978, 1982, and 1984, respectively. Landsat 5 provided the Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery for 28 years and 10 months; Landsat 6 failed to achieve orbit in 1993. Landsat 7 successfully launched in 1999 with the ETM   +   sensor, Landsat 8 in 2013, and both satellites continue to acquire data. The Landsat 9 satellite is