Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Other Environmental Sciences
Mapping and Monitoring Rice Agriculture with Multisensor Temporal Mixture Models
Published: 2018-08-31
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Other Earth Sciences, Other Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Soil Science
Rice feeds more humans than any other crop on Earth. Accurate prediction of the timing and volume of rice harvests therefore has considerable global importance for food security and economic stability, especially in the developing world. Optical and thermal satellite imagery can provide critical constraints on the spatial extent of rice planting and the timing of rice phenology. We present a [...]
Steady state analysis of vegetation growth models with correlated white noises
Published: 2018-06-07
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Other Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Vegetation community plays a pivotal role in geomorphic processes. However, the growth of vegetation intrinsically depends on the effective shear stresses exerted by the flow of material (e.g. water or soil) along the slope. We comparatively assess the growth and decay of vegetation using linear and logistic growth model coupled with a runoff erosion model. The model parameters are calibrated [...]
Surface albedo as a proxy for land-cover clearing in seasonally dry forests: evidence from the Brazilian Caatinga
Published: 2018-05-16
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Other Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Ongoing increase in human and climate pressures, in addition to the lack of monitoring initiatives, makes the Caatinga one of the most vulnerable forests in the world. The Caatinga is located in the semi-arid region of Brazil and its vegetation phenology is highly dependent on precipitation, which has a high spatial and temporal variability. Under these circumstances, satellite image-based [...]
A new global mode of Earth deformation: seasonal cycle detected
Published: 2017-11-13
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Hydrology, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Earth Sciences, Other Environmental Sciences, Other Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
We have detected a global mode of Earth deformation that is predicted by theory. Precise positioning of GPS sites distributed worldwide reveals that in February to March the northern hemisphere compresses (and the southern hemisphere expands), such that sites near the North Pole move downward by 3.0 mm, and sites near the equator are pulled northwards by 1.5 mm. The opposite pattern of [...]
Choice of optimal averaging radii for temporal GRACE gravity solutions, a comparison with GPS and satellite altimetry
Published: 2017-11-13
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Glaciology, Hydrology, Other Earth Sciences, Other Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
One of the initial challenges of the GRACE mission is to validate the accuracy of the time-variable gravity fields. These gravity fields contain both spatially correlated (systematic) and random noise and hence spatial averaging needs to be implemented. Before the fields may be interpreted, optimum averaging radii need to be determined through comparison with independent data. We compare time [...]
Basis functions for the consistent and accurate representation of surface mass loading
Published: 2017-11-13
Subjects: Applied Mathematics, Earth Sciences, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Numerical Analysis and Computation, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Earth Sciences, Other Environmental Sciences, Other Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Inversion of geodetic site displacement data to infer surface mass loads has previously been demonstrated using a spherical harmonic representation of the load. This method suffers from the continent-rich, ocean-poor distribution of the geodetic data, coupled with the predominance of the continental load (water storage and atmospheric pressure) compared with the ocean bottom pressure (including [...]
Using filtered and semi-continuous high rate GPS for monitoring deformations
Published: 2017-11-13
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Construction Engineering and Management, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Geotechnical Engineering, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering, Other Earth Sciences, Other Environmental Sciences, Other Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Structural Engineering
Multipath is a major sidereally-repeating error affecting precise GPS positioning and deformation monitoring. Because satellite-receiver geometry repeats almost exactly every sidereal day, filtering can reduce multipath in near-static situations. Here, we investigate how sidereal filtering can be used in a switched multi-antenna array system providing semi-continuous GPS data, which may be [...]
J2: an evaluation of new estimates from GPS, GRACE and load models compared to SLR
Published: 2017-11-13
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Other Earth Sciences, Other Environmental Sciences, Other Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Changes in J2, resulting from past and present changes in Earth’s climate, are traditionally observed by Satellite Laser ranging (SLR). Assuming an elastic Earth, it is possible to infer changes in J2 from changes in Earth’s shape observed by GPS. We compare estimates of non-secular J2 changes from GPS, SLR, GRACE and a load model. The GPS and SLR annual signals agree but are different (16%) to [...]
An examination of network RTK GPS services in Great Britain
Published: 2017-11-13
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Construction Engineering and Management, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering, Other Earth Sciences, Other Environmental Sciences, Other Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
As of March 2009, network real-time kinematic (RTK) GPS surveying is available in Great Britain with the aid of two commercial service providers, Leica’s “SmartNet” and Trimble’s “VRS Now”, both of which rely largely on the Ordnance Survey’s “OS Net” network of around 120 continuously operating reference stations. With the aim of testing the performance of Network RTK under both ideal and [...]
Ocean tide loading and relative GNSS in the British Isles
Published: 2017-11-13
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering, Other Earth Sciences, Other Environmental Sciences, Other Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Ocean tide loading (OTL) affects all parts of the British Isles to varying degree, causing peak-to-peak vertical displacements of up to 13 cm in South-West England over semi-diurnal and diurnal timescales. Lateral displacements are typically around one-third of the magnitude of vertical displacements at a point, so are also considerable for carrier phase GNSS surveying. Using a recent numerical [...]
Increased ice loading in the Antarctic Peninsula since the 1850s and its effect on Glacial Isostatic Adjustment
Published: 2017-11-13
Subjects: Climate, Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Glaciology, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Earth Sciences, Other Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Antarctic Peninsula (AP) ice core records indicate significant accumulation increase since 1855, and any resultant ice mass increase has the potential to contribute substantially to present-day Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA). We derive empirical orthogonal functions from climate model output to infer typical spatial patterns of accumulation over the AP and, by combining with ice core records, [...]
Computationally Efficient Tsunami Modelling on Graphics Processing Units (GPU)
Published: 2017-11-13
Subjects: Applied Mathematics, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Hydraulic Engineering, Numerical Analysis and Computation, Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering, Other Earth Sciences, Other Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Tsunamis generated by earthquakes commonly propagate as long waves in the deep ocean and develop into sharp-fronted surges moving rapidly towards the coast in shallow water, which may be effectively simulated by hydrodynamic models solving the nonlinear shallow water equations (SWEs). However, most of the existing tsunami models suffer from long simulation time for large-scale real-world [...]