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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 37 records · Page 2
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1977

Microwave remote sensing from space for earth resource surveys

The concepts of radar remote sensing and microwave radiometry are discussed and their utility in earth resource sensing is examined. The direct relationship between the character of the remotely sensed data and the level of decision making for which the data are appropriate is considered. Applications of active and a passive microwave sensing covered include hydrology, land use, mapping, vegetation classification, environmental monitoring, coastal features and processes, geology, and ice and snow. Approved and proposed microwave sensors are described and the use of space shuttle as a development platform is evaluated.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1978

Microwave remote sensing of sea ice in the AIDJEX Main Experiment

A microwave remote sensing program of sea ice in the Beaufort Sea was conducted during the Arctic Ice Dynamics Joint Experiment (AIDJEX). Several types of both passive and active sensors were used to perform surface and aircraft measurements during all seasons of the year. In situ observations were made of physical properties (salinity, temperature, density, surface roughness), dielectric properties, and passive microwave measurements were made of first-year, multiyear, and first-year/multiyear mixtures. Airborne passive microwave measurements were performed with the electronically scanning microwave radiometer while airborne active microwave measurements were performed by synthetic aperture radar, X- and L-band radar, and a scatterometer.

Campbell, W. J.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Modeling the Effect of Vegetation on Passive Microwave Remote Sensing of Soil Moisture

The effect of vegetation on passive microwave remote sensing of soil moisture is studied. The radiative transfer modeling work of Njoku and Kong is applied to a stratified medium of which the upper layer is treated as a layer of vegetation. An effective dielectric constant for this vegetation layer is computed using estimates of the dielectric constant of individual components of the vegetation layer. The horizontally-polarized brightness temperature is then computed as a function of the incidence angle. Model predictions are used to compare with the data obtained in the Huntsville '96, remote sensing of soil moisture experiment, and with predictions obtained using a correction procedure of Jackson and Schmugge.

Liu, Y. P.↗
NASA NTRS1972

Earth resources programs at the Langley Research Center. Part 1: Advanced Applications Flight Experiments (AAFE) and microwave remote sensing program

The earth resources activity is comprised of two basic programs as follows: advanced applications flight experiments, and microwave remote sensing. The two programs are in various stages of implementation, extending from experimental investigations within both the AAFE program and the microwave remote sensing program, to multidisciplinary studies and planning. The purpose of this paper is simply to identify the main thrust of the Langley Research Center activity in earth resources.

Parker, R. N.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Estimation of Soil Moisture Profile using a Simple Hydrology Model and Passive Microwave Remote Sensing

Soil moisture is an important component of analysis in many Earth science disciplines. Soil moisture information can be obtained either by using microwave remote sensing or by using a hydrologic model. In this study, we combined these two approaches to increase the accuracy of profile soil moisture estimation. A hydrologic model was used to analyze the errors in the estimation of soil moisture using the data collected during Huntsville '96 microwave remote sensing experiment in Huntsville, Alabama. Root mean square errors (RMSE) in soil moisture estimation increase by 22% with increase in the model input interval from 6 hr to 12 hr for the grass-covered plot. RMSEs were reduced for given model time step by 20-50% when model soil moisture estimates were updated using remotely-sensed data. This methodology has a potential to be employed in soil moisture estimation using rainfall data collected by a space-borne sensor, such as the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite, if remotely-sensed data are available to update the model estimates.

Soman, Vishwas V.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Implications of RFI at L-Band on Passive Microwave Remote Sensing of Soil Moisture from Space: Experience with ESTAR During SGP97

Passive microwave remote sensing in the protected band at 1.413 GHz (L-band) is important for monitoring parameters of the ocean and land surface such as soil moisture and sea surface salinity. These parameters are needed for understanding energy exchange between the surface and atmosphere and therefore are important for improving our understanding of weather and climate change. Although the band at 1.413 GHz is protected for passive use, airborne radiometers experience problems with RFI. For example, during the Southern Great Plains Experiment (1997) the ESTAR radiometer experienced significant RFI associated with airports, presumably air traffic control radar. This is a potential problem for future sensors in space planned for remote sensing of the earth surface in this frequency band.

LeVine, David M.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Progress in microwave remote sensing of soil moisture

Significant progress has been made in the application of microwave remote sensing for measuring soil moisture. Both passive and active systems have demonstrated the capability for measuring soil moisture. However, several questions are still unresolved regarding the optimal instrument configuration and other target characteristics, such as roughness and vegetation. In addition, the most likely disciplines for using these data, agriculture and hydrology, do not currently possess adequate models or procedures for using these new data.

Engman, Edwin T.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Microwave Remote Sensing Modeling of Ocean Surface Salinity and Winds Using an Empirical Sea Surface Spectrum

Active and passive microwave remote sensing techniques have been investigated for the remote sensing of ocean surface wind and salinity. We revised an ocean surface spectrum using the CMOD-5 geophysical model function (GMF) for the European Remote Sensing (ERS) C-band scatterometer and the Ku-band GMF for the NASA SeaWinds scatterometer. The predictions of microwave brightness temperatures from this model agree well with satellite, aircraft and tower-based microwave radiometer data. This suggests that the impact of surface roughness on microwave brightness temperatures and radar scattering coefficients of sea surfaces can be consistently characterized by a roughness spectrum, providing physical basis for using combined active and passive remote sensing techniques for ocean surface wind and salinity remote sensing.

Sea surface spectrum↗
NASA NTRS1989

Microwave remote sensing and radar polarization signatures of natural fields

Theoretical models developed for simulation of microwave remote sensing of the Earth surface from airborne/spaceborne sensors are described. Theoretical model calculations were performed and the results were compared with data of field measurements. Data studied included polarimetric images at the frequencies of P band, L band, and C band, acquired with airborne polarimeters over a agricultural field test site. Radar polarization signatures from bare soil surfaces and from tree covered fields were obtained from the data. The models developed in this report include: (1) Small perturbation model of wave scatterings from randomly rough surfaces, (2) Physical optics model, (3) Geometrical optics model, and (4) Electromagnetic wave scattering from dielectric cylinders of finite lengths, which replace the trees and branches in the modeling of tree covered field. Additionally, a three-layer emissivity model for passive sensing of a vegetation covered soil surface is also developed. The effects of surface roughness, soil moisture contents, and tree parameters on the polarization signatures were investigated.

Mo, Tsan↗
NASA NTRS2002

Passive and Active Microwave Remote Sensing of Precipitation and Latent Heating Distributions in the Tropics from TRMM

Passive and active microwave remote sensing data are analyzed to identify signatures of precipitation and vertical motion in tropical convection. A database of cloud/radiative model simulations is used to quantify surface rain rates and latent heating profiles that are consistent with these signatures. At satellite footprint-scale (approximately 10 km), rain rate and latent heating estimates are subject to significant random errors, but by averaging the estimates in space and time, random errors are substantially reduced, Bias errors have been minimized by improving the microphysics in the supporting cloud/radiative model simulations, and by imposing a consistent definition of remotely-sensed and model-simulated convective/stratiform rain coverage. Remotely-sensed precipitation and latent heating distributions in the tropics are derived from Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) and Special Sensor Microwave/ Imager (SSM/ I) sensor data. The prototype Version 6 TRMM passive microwave algorithm typically yields average heating profiles with maxima between 6 and 7 km altitude for organized mesoscale convective systems. Retrieved heating profiles for individual convective systems are compared to coincident estimates based upon a combination of dual-Doppler radar and rawinsonde data. Also, large-scale latent heating distributions are compared to estimates derived from a simpler technique that utilizes observations of surface rain rate and stratiform rain proportion to infer vertical heating structure. Results of these tests will be presented at the conference.

Olson, William S.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Progress in passive microwave remote sensing - Nonlinear retrieval techniques

A variety of nonlinear retrieval methods have been applied to passive microwave remote sensing problems. These problems can be characterized in part by the degree to which their underlying physics and statistics can be understood and characterized in a simple way. Four examples of varying complexity are considered here; the simplest problem requires only analytic expressions for retrievals, whereas the most complex problem has been handled only with pattern classification techniques. The four examples are: (1) Doppler measurements of winds at 70 to 100 km, (2) retrieval of atmospheric water vapor profiles using the opaque 183-GHz water vapor resonance, (3) retrieval of snow accumulation rate by means of combined theoretical and empirical procedures, and (4) classification of diverse polar terrain by means of pattern recognition techniques.

Staelin, D. H.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Microwave Remote Sensing of Soil Moisture for Estimation of Soil Properties

Surface soil moisture dynamics was derived using microwave remote sensing, and employed to estimate soil physical and hydraulic properties. The L-band ESTAR radiometer was employed in an airborne campaign over the Little Washita watershed, Oklahoma during June 10-18, 1992. Brightness temperature (TB) data were employed in a soil moisture inversion algorithm which corrected for vegetation and soil effects. Analyses of spatial TB and soil moisture dynamics during the dry-down period revealed a direct relationship between changes in TB, soil moisture and soil texture. Extensive regression analyses were carried out which yielded statistically significant quantitative relationships between ratio of percent sand to percent clay (RSC, a term derived to quantify soil texture) and saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat) in terms of change components of TB and surface soil moisture. Validation of results indicated that both RSC and Ksat can be estimated with reasonable accuracy. These findings have potential applications for deriving spatial distributions of RSC and Ksat over large areas.

Mattikalli, Nandish M.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Radiometer system requirements for microwave remote sensing from satellites

An area of increasing interest is the establishment of a significant research program in microwave remote sensing from satellites, particularly geosynchronous satellites. Due to the relatively small resolution cell sizes, a severe requirement is placed on beam efficiency specifications for the radiometer antenna. Geostationary satellite microwave radiometers could continuously monitor several important geophysical parameters over the world's oceans. These parameters include the columnar content of atmospheric liquid water (both cloud and rain) and water vapor, air temperature profiles, and possibly sea surface temperature. Two principle features of performance are of concern. The first is the ability of the radiometer system to resolve absolute temperatures with a very small absolute error, a capability that depends on radiometer system stability, on frequency bandwidth, and on footprint dwell time. The second is the ability of the radiometer to resolve changes in temperature from one resolution cell to the next when these temperatures are subject to wide variation over the overall field-of-view of the instrument. Both of these features are involved in the use of the radiometer data to construct high-resolution temperature maps with high absolute accuracy.

Juang, Jeng-Nan↗
NASA NTRS1988

Microwave remote sensing of soil moisture

Knowledge of soil moisture is important to many disciplines, such as agriculture, hydrology, and meteorology. Soil moisture distribution of vast regions can be measured efficiently only with remote sensing techniques from airborne or satellite platforms. At low microwave frequencies, water has a much larger dielectric constant than dry soil. This difference manifests itself in surface emissivity (or reflectivity) change between dry and wet soils, and can be measured by a microwave radiometer or radar. The Microwave Sensors and Data Communications Branch is developing microwave remote sensing techniques using both radar and radiometry, but primarily with microwave radiometry. The efforts in these areas range from developing algorithms for data interpretation to conducting feasibility studies for space systems, with a primary goal of developing a microwave radiometer for soil moisture measurement from satellites, such as EOS or the Space Station. These efforts are listed.

Shiue, J. C.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Technology transfer of NASA microwave remote sensing system

Viable techniques for effecting the transfer from NASA to a user agency of state-of-the-art airborne microwave remote sensing technology for oceanographic applications were studied. A detailed analysis of potential users, their needs and priorities; platform options; airborne microwave instrument candidates; ancillary instrumentation; and other, less obvious factors that must be considered were studied. Conclusions and recommendations for the development of an orderly and effective technology transfer of an airborne microwave system that could meet the specific needs of the selected user agencies are reported.

Akey, N. D.↗
NASA NTRS2001

Microwave Remote Sensing and the Cold Land Processes Field Experiment

The Cold Land Processes Field Experiment (CLPX) has been designed to advance our understanding of the terrestrial cryosphere. Developing a more complete understanding of fluxes, storage, and transformations of water and energy in cold land areas is a critical focus of the NASA Earth Science Enterprise Research Strategy, the NASA Global Water and Energy Cycle (GWEC) Initiative, the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX), and the GEWEX Americas Prediction Project (GAPP). The movement of water and energy through cold regions in turn plays a large role in ecological activity and biogeochemical cycles. Quantitative understanding of cold land processes over large areas will require synergistic advancements in 1) understanding how cold land processes, most comprehensively understood at local or hillslope scales, extend to larger scales, 2) improved representation of cold land processes in coupled and uncoupled land-surface models, and 3) a breakthrough in large-scale observation of hydrologic properties, including snow characteristics, soil moisture, the extent of frozen soils, and the transition between frozen and thawed soil conditions. The CLPX Plan has been developed through the efforts of over 60 interested scientists that have participated in the NASA Cold Land Processes Working Group (CLPWG). This group is charged with the task of assessing, planning and implementing the required background science, technology, and application infrastructure to support successful land surface hydrology remote sensing space missions. A major product of the experiment will be a comprehensive, legacy data set that will energize many aspects of cold land processes research. The CLPX will focus on developing the quantitative understanding, models, and measurements necessary to extend our local-scale understanding of water fluxes, storage, and transformations to regional and global scales. The experiment will particularly emphasize developing a strong synergism between process-oriented understanding, land surface models and microwave remote sensing. The experimental design is a multi-sensor, multi-scale (1-ha to 160,000 km ^ {2}) approach to providing the comprehensive data set necessary to address several experiment objectives. A description focusing on the microwave remote sensing components (ground, airborne, and spaceborne) of the experiment will be presented.

Kim, Edward J.↗