Application of remote sensing in the study of vegetation and soils in Idaho
There are no author-identified significant results in this report.
SEARCH · Search NASA
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.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
There are no author-identified significant results in this report.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
The Planetary Geology Field Conference on the central Snake River Plain was conceived and developed to accomplish several objectives. Primarily, field conferences are sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to draw attention to aspects of terrestrial geology that appear to be important in interpreting the origin and evolution of extraterrestrial planetary surfaces. Another aspect is to present results of recent research in a region. A final objective of this conference is to bring together investigators of diverse backgrounds who share a common interest in the Snake River Plain. The Snake River Plain appears to be similar in surface morphology to many volcanic regions on the Moon, Mars, and possibly Mercury. Therefore, the Snake River Plain, in combination with the relatively good state of preservation, the lack of forests or other heavy vegetation, and the good network of jeep trails, is an area nearly ideal for analog studies.
Preliminary mapping shows East Butte to be a single, large cumulo-dome composed dominantly of rhyolite which can be classified into three main groups based on color and structure. The rhyolite of East Butte is aphanitic with phenocrysts of sanidine and quartz which vary from 1 to 5 mm in length. Vesicular reddish black inclusions of basalt up to 10 cm in length, found in all varieties of the East Butte rhyolites are believed to have originated from fragmentation of the basalt walls of the conduit by rhyolitic magma as it was emplaced. Most of the inclusions contain plagioclase phenocrysts. These phenocrysts measure up to 1 to 2 cm in length and have a typical euhedral, tabular habit. A 250-m diameter depression which has the appearance of a crater is located at the top of East Butte. Evidence supporting the fact that the depression is a crater is displayed by three small (3 to 5 m in height) mounds of massive rhyolite which border the depression.
Changes in surface roughness of lava flows, estimated from dual polarization, synthetic aperture, X and L band side-looking airborne radar images, were tested as a means of locating fissure vent areas. If lava textures proess from smooth, near-vent shelly pahoehoe to hummocky pahoehoe to aa with distance from fissure vents, then radr images of the lava flows would show a progression from dark to brighter tones due to the flows' increasing radar back-scatter.
Per-pixel maximum likelihood digital classification and photo interpretation of Thematic Mapper Simulator (TMS) composited images for a managed conifer forest were used to evaluate both land cover and forest structure characteristics. TMS channels 4, 7, 5 and 3, which were found to be optimal for forest vegetation analysis, used the full range of the Thematic Mapper's spectral capability. Photo interpretation results indicate that a false color composite from TMS channels 4, 7, and 2 provided the highest accuracies; the combination of improved spatial, spectral and radiometric resolution of the Thematic Mapper yielded greater sensitivity to forest structural characteristics.
Lunar sinuous rilles are thought to have formed by thermal erosion, mechanical erosion, construction, or a combination of these processes via emplacement by lava tubes or lava channels. The investigation of Hadley Rille by Apollo 15 provided the first field observations of a rille, but remote sensing observations remain our primary method for studying these features. Terrestrial volcanic features with similar morphologies to lunar rilles can provide insight into their formation on the Moon.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Wildfires in the western United States have caused immense infrastructure damage and loss of human life in recent years. Wildfire smoke, which travels far from its original source, is also harmful to human health. Mixing height, which acts as a lid and prevents smoke from rising above a certain altitude in the lower troposphere, is a critical input in smoke dispersion and air quality models used by agencies that monitor wildfires. These models, coupled with forecaster expertise, are also used to decide when it is safe to execute a prescribed burn. The DEVELOPID team partnered with the National Weather Service (NWS) Fire Weather Program, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC), and National Park Service (NPS) Fire Management Program Center (FMPC) to help improve reliability and confidence in mixing height estimations, and therefore the burn prescription decision-making process. To that end, the team developed a toolbox for measuring smoke-related aerosol mixing heights using Cloud-Aerosol LiDAR and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) Vertical Feature Mask granules. CALIPSO mixing heights and NWS estimations covaried significantly and positively. However, substantial disagreement between the methods stymied the team’s attempts to quantify systematic bias in a meaningful way. The relative error between the methods was especially large at low mixing heights, which suggests that this method of validation may only be suitable at higher altitudes.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
The author has identified the following significant results. Results of temporal overlays, equal and unequal prior probabilities, and independent test data are discussed. The amount of improvement that each technique contributed are summarized: (1) Results in Missouri where temporal overlays were made, show that temporal information improved the overall classification by 10%. (2) The dates were not optimum that were overlaid. (3) Data analysis in both Missouri and Idaho indicates that the use of prior probabilities improves the overall classification rates by at least 10% overusing the assumption that the crops are all equally likely. (4) Using both procedures together indicates that overall performance can be improved by 20% over one data and equal prior probabilities. (5) Idaho data has banding problems that may have caused serious problems in the crop classification. (6) The twelve crop types in Idaho seem to be quite similar spectrally, and hence, classification is quite difficult. (7) ERTS may not contain enough information to have perfect classification, but the data may still be useful for making crop acreage estimates. (8) Remotely sensed data could be used with a regression estimator if there is a correlation between ground data and classification results. (9) Remotely sensed data could be used with a double sample model.
Heat Capacity Mapping Mission thermal-inertia images of a diversity of terrains and geologic settings were examined in conjunction with topographic, geologic, geophysical, and LANDSAT data. The images were found to have attributes similar to bedrock maps. In the Cascades region, two new features were identified and a method was developed to characterize regional terranes using linear feature data. Two northeast-trending Lineaments were discovered in the Overthrust Belt of Montana and Idaho. The longer of the two extends from the Idaho-Oregon border, through the Idaho batholith and across the Lewis thrust. It coincides, along segments, with mapped faults and an aeromagnetic pattern change. A major lineament crossing the Colorado Plateau and the Southern Rocky Mountians was detected on several thermal-inertial images and evidence was found for the existence of a geologic discontinuity. Vegetation-covered areas in Richfield and the Silver City quadrangle (Arizona and New Mexico) displayed thermal-inertia differences within heavily vegetation areas although no apreciable correlation was found between vegetation cover and thermal inertia. Resistant ridges and knolls have high thermal inertias and thermal-inertia contrasts occurred at lithologic and fault contacts. In the heavy vegetated Pinaleno Mountains, Arizona, a Lithologic unit obscured on LANDSAT MSS data due to the vegetation cover, exhibited a thermal-inertia contrast with its surroundings.