ES 771 Remote Sensing
James S. Aber
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ES 771 Remote Sensing |
Note: The GSA lab will be closed on Friday for a major software update.
Note 1: the final exam is scheduled for Dec. 7-11, and it will be similar to the mid-term exam. It will be put online early (Dec. 6) to give students a head start.
Note 2: your instructor will be out of town on Friday Dec. 7. Student blog submissions have now come to an end for the semester.
| The window/siding renovation project on Cram Hall is now complete outside and inside. The visual transformation is remarkable with much improved insulation and window operation. Photos © J.S. Aber. | 
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| The Garlock Fault is a left-lateral fault that intersects the San Andreas Fault southwest of the challenge scene. This intersection causes the San Andreas Fault to bend westward, which presents an obstacle in the movement between North American and Pacific plates. See USGS. |
| Left: ETM false-color composite based on bands 2, 5 and 7 color coded as blue, green and red. Active vegetation appears green. Right: close-up portion of the pan band (8) that combines green, red, and near-infrared. |  |
 portion of the challenge scene. |
Your challenge is to identify the location and main geographic features present in this scene. Identify the fault that crosses the scene and note its tectonic situation. Submit your challenge answers by Tuesday for class participation.
From Jake Hartsock: This is a false-color 3D composite of Hurricane Sandy taken just before landfall in New Jersey. The data were collected with the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite's Precipitation Radar, which can provide vertical profiles of precipitation from the land surface to a height of 12 miles. The article explains what is so special about Sandy and why this could not have been known through infrared satellite observations alone.
| This is the thermal blue image (color-enhanced IR image), currently the visible image still isn't showing up too well. I captured this from my satellite program at work. |
| From Alan Peterson: A follow up to the drought induced crop lines article. I was examining the area below the John Redmond Reservoir Dam and noticed that the subsurface joint pattern was visible in this area. |
Students should begin to form groups and discuss potential group projects—see teamwork in geosciences.
Note: Your instructor will be away from campus, Oct. 17-21 for a field trip in another course. No on-campus class meeting on Wednesday.
From Ashley Feaster: Great Lakes wind visualization.
From Katie Simmons: On October 7th, the NASA Earth Observatory Image of the Day dealt with Cheyenne Bottoms and the drought Kansas suffered during the summer. As seen in the images, many of the wetlands have disappeared from this year's drought.
Instructor's note: look at the July 17, 2012 image at the NASA site contributed by Katie. You can see the scan line gaps clearly on the left side. We conducted kite aerial photography at the Nature Conservancy marsh just one week before the Landsat image was acquired—go to Cheyenne Bottoms (click down to 2012 update).
On-campus students will review the mid-term exam, and we'll have a demonstration of radar imagery. Note: no class meeting next week (Oct. 17) on campus.
This month the U.S. Postal Service released a new sheet of stamps called Earthscapes. The stamps depict Landsat images and aerial photographs of distinctive landforms and human land use in the United States including an image from Kansas. Go to Earthscapes.
From Curtis McCaslin: A government report with details concerning the LDCM mission.
The mid-term exam is now complete; results will be returned to students individually later. The class did quite well overall with most scores in the 80-90s percentage range. Keep up the good work!
| Oct. 4: From From Alan Peterson: Bare earth LiDAR histogram equalized image of Weston Bend, vertical perspective. Meander scrolls are clearly visible. |
From Ashley Feaster: Does Apple Maps jeopardize national security? See PopSci.
| ArcScene image of Cheyenne Bottoms (KS) facing north. Created a LiDAR mosaic in ArcMap. The vertical exaggeration in the scene is 40x. |
| Left: aerial view of the Earl Park cemeteries. There are actually three cemeteries here: Catholic (foreground), Protestant (right background), and private Sumner family cemetery (left background). Right: ground shot of the cemeteries with wind turbines in the background. |  |
| Kite aerial photographs of the Earl Park wind farm looking to the west (left) and east (right). This was the first large wind farm constructed in Indiana, which began operation in 2008. See Earl Park. |  |
| Left: new Canon Elph camera rig on its first flight. Right: rokkaku kite that lifted the camera rig. Tail is 20 feet long. |  |
| Left: explanation on wall outside home of David Owen. Right: geological laboratories. Building in center was the last one utilized by Owen; the Granary (background) was the primary site for geological collections and study. This site was a precursor for the U.S. Geological Survey. |  |
Left: Rapp-Owen Granary was the principal building for housing geological specimens. Right: weathervane on Owen's final laboratory. It represents a fossil fish on top of two invertebrate fossils.
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This week, we will review manned space photography; see also RST Sec. 12 and 2-14. Lab 4 is due this week, and students should begin the exercise on Ikonos imagery. Note the major differences in spatial and spectral resolution compared with Landsat.
According to TCS, "the process for converting ESU student Gmail accounts is taking longer than originally expected ... All student email accounts are expected to be fully converted to Gmail by Tuesday morning." Is anybody surprised?
Reminder: the mid-term exam is coming soon (Oct. 1-4), so keep up with reading assignments!
Reminder: Your instructor will be away from campus Sept. 22-24. He is traveling eastward to give a seminar at Indiana University Southeast in New Albany. Please hold your email messages and assignments until he returns.
Note: your instructor will be away from campus Sept. 22-24 conducting field work and presenting a seminar at a university in Indiana.
| Right side of scene is mainland Estonia, and the Väinameri (Strait Sea) connects to the Baltic and separates many islands. Wind energy has been developed along the mainland edge of the Väinameri (see Nelja Energia). Matsalu is a national park famous for its wildlife, namely birds, and the anomalous pink-orange feature is a peat mine. |
From Ashley Feaster: Astronaut Frank Culbertson watched the 9/11 Attacks from space.
From Lyal Miller: Here's a cool link I found while searching through Yahoo today!! Kind of a different outlook on remote sensing.
From Katie Simmons: I found the Eyes on the Forest: Sumatra website via the National Geographic web article Google Mapping Tool Exposes Illegal Logging. The National Geographic article talks about how Google mapping has helped determine where illegal logging has been taking place in Sumatra, where the website is an interactive map to see where changes have been taking place over the years.
From Lindsey Gerber: I found this article about a new technology that is being developed by USGS scientists this weekend to map urban flooding caused by Hurricane Isaac. The technology is called "terrestrial lidar" or T-lidar.
Our topics this week include spectral signatures as well as thermal (heat) effects. See also textbook chap. 8 and RST 2-5, 2-24 and Sec. 9. Begin working on Lab 3: Landsat MSS and TM (due next week). Reminder: the second image challenge (below) is due tomorrow.
| Left: Landsat composite based on TM bands 1, 4 and 5 color coded as blue, green and red. Active vegetation appears green and yellow-green. Right: enlargement of the pink-orange feature in lower right portion of the main scene. |  |
Rural land cover and human use typical of the features in the challenge scene. Kite aerial photographs of agriculture (left) and forestry (right).
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Clues: this location was once ruled by Denmark, and in the 20th century it was part of the Soviet Empire. The bay in the northeastern part of the image is part of a national park famous for its wildlife. The main water body is part of a large sea (not an ocean or lake).
Your challenge is to identify the location and main geographic features present in this scene. What is the land use shown by the pink-orange feature? What sort of wind energy is found here? Submit your challenge answers by Tuesday for class participation.
From Cheyenne Acree: Google Earth satellite images may have discovered new Egyptian pyramids, and it's time for homemade satellites.
From Sarah Pick: Google has created a satellite image that traces the San Andreas fault.
Have a great Labor Day holiday!
| Bemis Moraine, also known locally as Buffalo Ridge, in southwestern Minnesota. This moraine marks the drainage divide between the Missouri and Mississippi basins; it is the highest topographic feature between the Black Hills and Appalachian Mountains in the north-central U.S., which makes it quite favorable for wind energy. |
From Katie Simmons: NASA's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) has been sending information to the National Hurricane Center with temperatures and time series data on Hurricane Isaac to show movement and convection over the past few days.
From Jake Hartsock: In celebration of Landsat's 40th anniversary on July 23, 2012, the Landsat mission team released a series of stunning photos depicting city growth. This link was found via through the sandglass. This specific post - written by professional geologist Michael Welland - is about the U.S. Government's unparalleled leadership in remote sensing and geosciences. Mr. Welland corroborates this claim by the 40th anniversary of the Landsat mission, which was overlooked by the successful landing of the Mars Rover: Curiosity. The post has excellent links to other images released by the Landsat team and it should be noted that Mr. Welland is the auther of "Sand: The Never-Ending Story," which I am strongly considering purchasing.
From Cheyenne Acree: Aerial photography gives clearer picture for agriculture from Australia.
From Lindsey Gerber: I found an image of Mount Vesuvius from a study published on March 21, 2006 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The 24th of August is the presumed anniversary of the 79 AD Mt. Vesuvius eruption.
| False-color composite: TM bands 3 (red), 4 (near-infrared) and 5 (mid-infrared) color coded as blue, green and red. This is a popular ETM/TM band combination for initial examination of scene features. Active vegetation appears green and yellow-green. Fallow, harvested or bare ground is pink-maroon. Your challenge is to identify the location and main geographic features present in this scene. Submit your challenge answers by Monday for class participation. |
As a clue, this moraine is the site of an early large wind farm in the United States. Kenetech KVS-33 wind turbines. Between 1992 and 1996, ~700 of these turbines were installed at sites across the United States and in Costa Rica. Photo © J.S. Aber
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From Richard Landzettel: This is a link to a video about the first 50 years of X-ray astronomy. It's very informative about how this form of imagery is done.
Our subject this week is aerial photography. See also RST Sec. 10-1. The first lab exercise also deals with aerial photography (due next week). On-campus students will have a stereoscope demonstration.
Check later this week for the first participation imagery challenge.
| The science hall window project is moving ahead—the east side is nearly done except for the penthouse sections above the doors. Some trim work, chaulking, and interior finishing remain to be completed.
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| A major improvement for the GSA lab is a new split AC system. The compressor is outside, and the fan unit is mounted in the ceiling inside. This will supplement the building's primary heating/cooling system. | 
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| Your instructor's office is the focus for window replacement this week. He will be in the Neff lab (back of SH 119 office complex) some of the time or in the GSA lab. However, the GSA lab still needs cleaning following installation of the new AC unit last week. Nonetheless, we will attempt to meet tomorrow. | 
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The fall semester begins officially this week, on campus students will meet Wednesday at 1 o'clock in the GSA lab. Hopefully the window replacement and AC upgrade projects will be completed for the lab by then. Ashley Feaster is the GSA lab graduate teaching assistant this academic year; she is available to help students with operation of computers, data handling, etc.
The first reading assignment is a brief introducation to remote sensing. See schedule for additional reading from the textbook (RSE) and the Remote Sensing Tutorial. Students may wish to review some tutorials for our software, Idrisi Selva. Distance-learning students should submit the student agreement form to your instructor.
| Left: looking northward along the Culebra Range. Peak is 12,955 feet elevation. A small stone monument is located on the right (east) flank of the peak. Right: stone monument contains a sealed glass bottle with a card that marks a land claim. This region is now part of the San Isabel National Forest. | 
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Notice: Student email will move to Google accounts on Sept. 24th. Addresses will change to the format "username@g.emporia.edu" For more information, go to student email.
Return to remote sensing schedule or
homepage.
ES 771 © J.S. Aber (2012).