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The subduction of the Cocos plate beneath Costa Rica is among the highest convergence rates in the world. The high subduction rate and nearness of the Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica to the Middle America Trench (MAT) provide a unique opportunity to map variations in interseismic strain of the crust above the seismogenic zone in response to variations in seismic coupling.
Balloon sonde measurements of tropical water vapor using the Cryogenic Frostpoint Hygrometer were initiated in Costa Rica in July 2005 and have continued to the present day. Over the nine years through July 2014, the Ticosonde program has launched 174 CFH payloads, representing the longest-running and most extensive single-site balloon dataset for tropical water vapor. In this presentation we present a seasonal climatology for water vapor and ozone at Costa Rica and examine the frequency of upper tropospheric supersaturation with comparisons to cloud fraction and cloud ice water content observations from the Cloud Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) on the CALIPSO mission. We then make a critical comparison of these data to water vapor measurements from the MLS instrument on board Aura in light of recently published work for other sites. Finally, we examine time series of 2-km altitude averages in the upper troposphere-lower stratosphere at Costa Rica in light of anomalies and trends seen in various large-scale indices of tropical water vapor.
Seven percent of all scientifically known life forms lie within the 202,230 square miles of Central America, making this area ecologically unique and increasing the need for environmental management. The Mesoamerican Biological Corridor forms a conservation partnership throughout Central America to establish a forested corridor of over 600 protected areas. Although conservation programs exist, deforestation still afflicts the area, putting strain on these diverse ecosystems. La Amistad International Park in southern Costa Rica and northern Panama in particular faces conflicting land use changes. Expanding agricultural development and urbanization, combined with concern over indigenous land rights, have raised questions about the implementation of sustainability goals and communication strategies within the region. To help address these issues, the NASA DEVELOP Costa Rica & Panama Ecological Forecasting II team continued a partnership with the Ministry of Environment and Energy in Costa Rica and the National Environmental Authority in Panama. The team created a Land Use Conflict Identification Strategy (LUCIS) model based on land cover maps for 2019 and 2029 that were created in term I using imagery from Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI). With partner input, the team applied weights to different objectives and combined suitability maps to identify areas of potential biodiversity conflict. Additionally, the team created a Short-term Forest Change (SFTC) Tool using Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, Landsat 8 OLI, and Sentinel-2 Multispectral Instrument to help the partners identify areas of immediate, major forest changes. The LUCIS model indicated higher agricultural growth when compared to the ecological category.
Seven percent of all scientifically known life forms lie within the 202,230 square miles of Central America, making this area ecologically unique and increasing the need for environmental management. The Mesoamerican Biological Corridor forms a conservation partnership throughout Central America to establish a forested corridor of over 600 protected areas. Although conservation programs exist, deforestation still afflicts the area, putting strain on these diverse ecosystems. La Amistad International Park in southern Costa Rica and northern Panama in particular faces conflicting land use changes. Expanding agricultural development and urbanization, combined with concern over indigenous land rights, have raised questions about the implementation of sustainability goals and communication strategies within the region. To help address these issues, the NASA DEVELOP Costa Rica & Panama Ecological Forecasting II team continued a partnership with the Ministry of Environment and Energy in Costa Rica and the National Environmental Authority in Panama. The team created a Land Use Conflict Identification Strategy (LUCIS) model based on land cover maps for 2019 and 2029 that were created in term I using imagery from Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI). With partner input, the team applied weights to different objectives and combined suitability maps to identify areas of potential biodiversity conflict. Additionally, the team created a Short-term Forest Change (SFTC) Tool using Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, Landsat 8 OLI, and Sentinel-2 Multispectral Instrument to help the partners identify areas of immediate, major forest changes. The LUCIS model indicated higher agricultural growth when compared to the ecological category.
Seven percent of all scientifically known life forms lie within the 202,230 square miles of Central America, making this area ecologically unique and increasing the need for environmental management. The Mesoamerican Biological Corridor forms a conservation partnership throughout Central America to establish a forested corridor of over 600 protected areas. Although conservation programs exist, deforestation still afflicts the area, putting strain on these diverse ecosystems. La Amistad International Park in southern Costa Rica and northern Panama in particular faces conflicting land use changes. Expanding agricultural development and urbanization, combined with concern over indigenous land rights, have raised questions about the implementation of sustainability goals and communication strategies within the region. To help address these issues, the NASA DEVELOP Costa Rica & Panama Ecological Forecasting II team continued a partnership with the Ministry of Environment and Energy in Costa Rica and the National Environmental Authority in Panama. The team created a Land Use Conflict Identification Strategy (LUCIS) model based on land cover maps for 2019 and 2029 that were created in term I using imagery from Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI). With partner input, the team applied weights to different objectives and combined suitability maps to identify areas of potential biodiversity conflict. Additionally, the team created a Short-term Forest Change (SFTC) Tool using Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, Landsat 8 OLI, and Sentinel-2 Multispectral Instrument to help the partners identify areas of immediate, major forest changes. The LUCIS model indicated higher agricultural growth when compared to the ecological category.
GPS observations in Costa Rica from 1994-1997 reveal a complex pattern of motion consistent with the superposition of seismic cycle and secular plate margin deformation.
This paper will discuss the objectives, approach, and anticipated results of a study of earthquakes in Costa Rica. GPS measurements will be taken and field surveys will be made. Assessments of seismic strain accumulation and post-seismic deformation will be made in an effort to understand the effect these processes have on regional tectonic models.
The magma volume emitted by Volcan Arenal, Costa Rica, has been calculated to be 304 x 10 to the 6th cu m. A near-continuous rise from very deep within the crust is proposed as an explanation for Arenal's magma supply, and the long-term seismic pattern is interpreted as individual batches of magma using previously fractured pathways. During a break in activity (1973) the effusion site moved from Crater A to Crater C, approximately 400 m higher. It is maintained that the steady downward tilting of the volcano's summit was caused by the loading of the volcano's western side by about 19 x 10 to the 6th cu m of lava. Also noted is the abrupt decrease in effusion rate compatible with the increased magmatic head needed to reach Crater C. It is concluded that the constancy of magma composition and effusion rate from 1974 to 1980 indicates a homogeneous magma reservoir.
Using medium-large footprint lidar sampling of approximately 500 square km of Costa Rica, we assessed the vertical and horizontal complexity of a forest-dominated tropical landscape. As expected, vertical extents of structure and canopy heights estimated from lidar waveforms were smaller in high elevation forests than in forests at lower elevations. In areas of the park and long-protected areas of La Selva Biological Station, forests typically had more consistent ratios of median height to total height than areas with other types of recent land use. Areas outside the park exhibited both stronger and weaker spatial correlations in canopy properties than most areas within the park. We also simulated the effects of these differences on data products gridded from lidar transects, like those produced by the Vegetation Canopy Lidar (VCL) Mission.
Results are presented for analysis of Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements made at sites in Costa Rica in February and July 1991. Significant horizontal and vertical displacements relative to February positions were observed. Differences were found in GPS derived vertical and horizontal displacements as compared to other types of geodetic measurements of uplift in the coastal regions. A slip dislocation model which fits the GPS measured displacement was computed. Differences between these data sets and their associated models were investigated in light of unmodeled slip heterogeneity on the fault and post-seismic displacements.
We assessed the effects of deforestation on soil carbon (C) and nutrient stocks in the premontane landscape near Las Cruces Biological Station in southern Costa Rica, where forests were cleared for pasture in the mid-1960s. We excavated six soil pits to a depth of 1 m in both pasture and primary forest, and found that C stocks were ~20 kg C per square meters in both settings. Nevertheless, soil delta C-13 suggests ~50 percent of the forest-derived soil C above 40 cm depth has turned over since deforestation. Soil nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) stocks derived from the soil pits were not significantly different between land uses (P = 0.43 and 0.61, respectively). At a larger spatial scale, however, the ubiquity of ruts produced by cattle-induced erosion indicates that there are substantial soil effects of grazing in this steep landscape. Ruts averaged 13 cm deep and covered ~45 percent of the landscape, and thus are evidence of the removal of 0.7 Mg C/ ha/yr, and 70, 9 and 40 kg/ha/yr of N, P and potassium (K), respectively. Subsoils in this region are ~10 times less C- and N-rich, and ~2 times less P- and K-rich than the topsoil. Thus, rapid topsoil loss may lead to a decline in pasture productivity in the coming decades. These data also suggest that the soil C footprint of deforestation in this landscape may be determined by the fate of soil C as it is transported downstream, rather than C turnover in situ.
Maps are presented that describe the compressional tectonic structures found at the base of the Central Costa Rica volcanic range (CCRVR), which comprise thrust faults and related fault propagation folds, only partly covered by syntectonic and posttectonic volcanoclastic deposits. Evidence is presented that these structures formed by gravitational failure and lumping of the flanks of the volcanic range. It is suggested that similar structures may be found at the toe of the southern flank of Kilauea volcano, Hawaii, and along the perimeter scarp of the Olympus Mons volcano on Mars.
This study explores the potential of waveform lidar in mapping the vertical and spatial distributions of leaf area index (LAI) over the tropical rain forest of La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica. Vertical profiles of LAI were derived at 0.3 m height intervals from the Laser Vegetation Imaging Sensor (LVIS) data using the Geometric Optical and Radiative Transfer (GORT) model. Cumulative LAI profiles obtained from LVIS were validated with data from 55 ground to canopy vertical transects using a modular field tower to destructively sample all vegetation. Our results showed moderate agreement between lidar and field derived LAI (r2=0.42, RMSE=1.91, bias=−0.32), which further improved when differences between lidar and tower footprint scales (r2=0.50, RMSE=1.79, bias=0.27) and distance of field tower from lidar footprint center (r2=0.63, RMSE=1.36, bias=0.0) were accounted for. Next, we mapped the spatial distribution of total LAI across the landscape and analyzed LAI variations over different land cover types. Mean values of total LAI were 1.74, 5.20, 5.41 and 5.62 over open pasture, secondary forests, regeneration forests after selective-logging and old-growth forests respectively. Lastly, we evaluated the sensitivities of our LAI retrieval model to variations in canopy/ground reflectance ratio and to waveform noise such as induced by topographic slopes. We found for both, that the effects were not significant for moderate LAI values (about 4). However model derivations of LAI might be inaccurate in areas of high-slope and high LAI (about 8) if ground return energies are low. This research suggests that large footprint waveform lidar can provide accurate vertical LAI profile estimates that do not saturate even at the high LAI levels in tropical rain forests and may be a useful tool for understanding the light transmittance within these canopies.
Measurements of SO2 emission rates and concentrations and of particle distribution, size, shape, and composition were made in quiescent volcanic plumes emitted into the troposphere from Poas and Arenal volcanos, Costa Rica, and Colima volcano, Mexico. SO2 emission rates were 700 + or - 180 metric tons per day (t/d) for Poas, 210 + or - 30 t/d for Arenal, and 320 + or - 50 t/d for Colima. The concentrations of SO2 calculated from the COSPEC/lidar data were 5-380 ppb. Concentrations of SO2 measured directly by flame photometry were 10-250 ppb. Particles collected in the plumes with a quartz crystal microbalance impactor were mostly less than 3 microns in diameter and consisted of droplets of dilute sulfur-bearing solutions and minor amounts of layer silicate particles coated with a sulfur-bearing film or crust. Total particle concentrations were 4.7 micrograms per cu.m for Poas and 18.8 micrograms per cu.m for Colima. Comparison of concentrations of SO2 in the plumes with gas samples collected at fumaroles on the ground suggests that the plumes are diluted by the atmosphere by factors of up to 100,000.
A digital terrain elevation data set was coregistered with radar data for assessing tropical forest stand characteristics. Both raw and topographically corrected L-band polarimetric radar data acquired over the tropical forests of Costa Rica were analyzed and correlated with field-collected tree parameter data to study the stand characteristics. The results of analyses using 18 out of 81 plots for sites A and B indicated that per-plot bole volume and tree volume are related to SAR data, particularly at site A. The topographically corrected SAR data appear to produce the same findings as those of uncorrected data.
An efficient means to map tree plantations is needed to detect tropical land use change and evaluate reforestation projects. To analyze recent tree plantation expansion in northeastern Costa Rica, we examined the potential of combining moderate-resolution hyperspectral imagery (2005 HyMap mosaic) with multitemporal, multispectral data (Landsat) to accurately classify (1) general forest types and (2) tree plantations by species composition. Following a linear discriminant analysis to reduce data dimensionality, we compared four Random Forest classification models: hyperspectral data (HD) alone; HD plus interannual spectral metrics; HD plus a multitemporal forest regrowth classification; and all three models combined. The fourth, combined model achieved overall accuracy of 88.5%. Adding multitemporal data significantly improved classification accuracy (p less than 0.0001) of all forest types, although the effect on tree plantation accuracy was modest. The hyperspectral data alone classified six species of tree plantations with 75% to 93% producer's accuracy; adding multitemporal spectral data increased accuracy only for two species with dense canopies. Non-native tree species had higher classification accuracy overall and made up the majority of tree plantations in this landscape. Our results indicate that combining occasionally acquired hyperspectral data with widely available multitemporal satellite imagery enhances mapping and monitoring of reforestation in tropical landscapes.
Papers are presented on remote sensing applications in resource monitoring and management, data classification and modeling procedures, and the use of remote sensing techniques in developing nations. The subjects of land use/land cover, soil mapping, crop identification, mapping of geological resources, renewable resource analysis, and oceanographic applications are discussed. Papers from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, the Syrian Arab Republic, the People's Republic of China, the Phillipines, Italy, Upper Volta and the United States are included.
Astrobee is complex autonomous system comprehending components on board the International Space Station and on Earth. It aims to help scientists and engineers drive innovative research faster as well as becoming the foundation for autonomous systems operating on future un-crewed space stations. I would have not believed I was going to work with Astrobee 10 years ago, let alone when I was a growing up. Being a kid in the mid 80s-90s in Costa Rica was quite different from today. Dreaming of working in space robotics was, unsurprisingly, only a dream. During this presentation, I will talk about the events that helped me navigate through the road that took me from this small Central American country to create maps on a weekly basis for the Astrobee robots in the International Space Station.