Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Environmental Monitoring
Thermal Dynamics of Peri-Urban Landscapes: A Paired Spatial Analysis of Brick Kilns and Bare Soil in León, Guanajuato
Published: 2026-07-20
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences
Urban expansion and industrial activities in peri-urban environments modify land cover and influence surface thermal patterns. This study examines the thermal behavior of artisanal brick kilns in León, Guanajuato, Mexico, using a paired spatial approach designed to distinguish the contribution of kiln activity from that of the surrounding landscape. Landsat 8 Collection 2 Level-2 imagery acquired [...]
Cloud-Free Imaging Probability Forecasting for Optical Earth-Observation Tasking over Yerevan, Armenia
Published: 2026-07-18
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Atmospheric Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing, Remote Sensing
Optical Earth-observation satellites such as Sentinel-2 cannot see through cloud, so a tasking attempt over a cloudy target wastes a limited imaging window along with onboard power and downlink bandwidth. We study whether next-day cloud conditions over Yerevan, Armenia can be forecast accurately enough to automate the binary Go/No-Go tasking decision. Daily cloud-free fractions are derived from [...]
Improving PM2.5 Estimation from Satellite Aerosol Optical Depth Using Boundary Layer Height and Meteorological Variables
Published: 2026-07-16
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Accurate estimation of surface particulate matter (PM2.5) from satellite observations remains challenging because aerosol optical depth (AOD) represents column-integrated aerosol loading and is strongly influenced by meteorological conditions. This study investigates the relationship between satellite-derived AOD, meteorological variables, and surface PM2.5 concentrations over Mumbai, India, [...]
Erosion of Natural Cooling Infrastructure in Southeast Asian Cities: Comparative Land Surface Temperature Effects of Wetland and Paddy Loss in Phnom Penh and Can Tho
Published: 2026-07-15
Subjects: Climate, Environmental Monitoring
Rapid urbanisation across Southeast Asia is displacing two natural cooling resources: urban water bodies and peri-urban paddy fields. The biophysical relationship between land cover and land surface temperature (LST) is established at regional and continental scales, but conversion-attributable, satellite-derived quantification of wetland and paddy loss at city scale, compared directly within a [...]
Multi-scale measurements and temporally resolved modeling of methane emissions at natural gas distribution stations
Published: 2026-07-03
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Oil, Gas, and Energy
Methane (CH4) emissions from natural gas distribution stations are not well characterized by measurements, contributing to uncertainty in urban emissions inventories and mitigation strategies. We conducted a multi-scale, multi-temporal study of four distribution stations in Calgary, Alberta, combining component- and facility-level measurements with modeling to quantify, attribute, and compare [...]
Detecting industrial ammonia and ethylene point sources with the thermal bands of Landsat 8 and 9
Published: 2026-07-02
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences
Industrial point sources of ammonia (NH₃) and ethylene (C₂H₄) are poorly constrained in current inventories, in part because satellites tend to offer either fine spatial detail or frequent revisits. We show that the two thermal-infrared bands of the Landsat 8 and 9 Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS), though built for land-surface monitoring, can detect and spatially resolve such plumes at 100 m [...]
Mapping ethylene and acetylene plumes using satellite high-resolution imaging spectrometers that exploit the SWIR spectrum
Published: 2026-06-30
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences
Ethylene (C2H4) and acetylene (C2H2) are reactive hydrocarbons that degrade air quality through ozone formation and atmospheric oxidation. However, space-based monitoring of plumes from these gases remains largely unexplored. Here, we demonstrate, for the first time, that ethylene and acetylene point-source emissions can be detected and quantified using shortwave infrared (SWIR) imaging [...]
Spectrally structured CNN encoding for interpretable and edge-ready fractional vegetation cover mapping using UAS multispectral and imaging spectroscopy
Published: 2026-06-30
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Biogeochemistry, Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Remote Sensing
Fractional vegetation cover (FVC) is a key indicator of semi-arid ecosystem condition, but non-photosynthetic vegetation (NPV) remains difficult to map because dry or senescent vegetation, litter, woody debris, and standing dead material can overlap spectrally with photosynthetic vegetation (PV) and bare ground (BE), especially where shadows, exposed bare earth surfaces, and mixed vegetation-soil [...]
Resolving microscale surface temperature variability during a heatwave using a dense sensor network
Published: 2026-06-30
Subjects: Climate, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Meteorology, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology
High-resolution observations of near-surface temperature variability are essential for understanding heat exposure during extreme weather events, yet are rarely available from dense, regularly spaced in situ measurement grids, with most existing observations derived from unevenly distributed sensor networks. Here, we analyse temperature measurements derived from a dense network of over 3,000 [...]
SegFormer and SegFormer-UNet for anthropogenic geomorphic feature extraction from land surface parameters
Published: 2026-06-28
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Geology, Geomorphology, Remote Sensing
Accurate, scalable mapping of anthropogenic geomorphic features from high spatial resolution terrain data remains challenging. While convolutional neural networks (CNNs) excel at characterizing local texture and patterns, their limited receptive fields may fail to capture broader spatial context. Transformer-based architectures, such as SegFormer, support stronger long-range dependency modelling, [...]
Remote sensing of ammonia point sources at high spatial resolution with satellite-based imaging spectrometers
Published: 2026-06-24
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Environmental Monitoring
Ammonia (NH3) emissions play a key role in air pollution and the disruption of the nitrogen cycle. Global emissions of ammonia are expected to increase in the future, making their monitoring essential to better understand their impacts and to support effective environmental policies. Recent studies have demonstrated the potential of satellite imaging spectrometers operating in the shortwave [...]
Performance validation of the GHGSat Methane Constellation via controlled releases
Published: 2026-06-20
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Environmental Monitoring
Satellite remote sensing has become an important tool for detecting, quantifying, and attributing methane emissions, yet a rigorous, condition-dependent characterization of point-source imager performance has not previously been established, despite being essential to support its use in regulatory and voluntary reporting frameworks. We present a comprehensive performance assessment of the GHGSat [...]
Novel Source Apportionment Methodologies for Secondary PM2.5 during Extreme Wintertime Meteorological Conditions in the Western U.S.
Published: 2026-06-15
Subjects: Environmental Engineering, Environmental Monitoring, Other Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Traditional receptor-oriented source apportionment methods, such as positive matrix factorization and chemical mass balance, rely on vector-component analyses of robust observational records or pre-determined source fingerprints, respectively. These methods may struggle to resolve sources that are similar in composition due to source fingerprint collinearity. It is important to isolate [...]
Spatially Distributed Land-Use Efficiency Assessment under SDG Indicator 11.3.1: The Case of Greater Manila Area, Philippines
Published: 2026-06-06
Subjects: Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Sustainability
Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Indicator 11.3.1 assesses urban land-use efficiency (LUE) through the relationship between land consumption rate (LCR) and population growth rate (PGR), commonly expressed as LCRPGR. However, city-level implementation produces a single value that can mask where efficient or inefficient urban development occurs. This study develops and demonstrates a spatially [...]
Two decades of kilometer-scale daily PM2.5 from satellite observations and machine learning reveal geographically diverging exposure in Ghana
Published: 2026-06-06
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Atmospheric Sciences, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Public Health, Environmental Sciences, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Earth Sciences, Remote Sensing, Spatial Science
Exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is a major contributor to global burden of disease, yet air quality data remain sparse in many low- and middle-income countries, limiting nationwide monitoring and effective policy development. We address this gap by developing a high-resolution gridded (1 km × 1 km) dataset for daily surface PM2.5 concentrations in Ghana from 2005 to 2025 by training [...]