Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Environmental Monitoring
Evaluation of the Sentinel-1 SAR image processing algorithms performance
Published: 2024-03-08
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The following paper discussed the performance of previously developed SAR algorithms applied to Sentinel-1 imagery. The outputs of algorithms were correlated to top-performing Sentinel-2 reNDVI algorithms. The study found that Levelled and Normalized Sigma nought outperformed the Gamma Nought, and, especially, Sigma Nought, and RVI algorithms.
Estimating irrigation water use from remotely sensed evapotranspiration data: Accuracy and uncertainties across spatial scales
Published: 2024-02-29
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Sustainability, Water Resource Management
Irrigated agriculture is the dominant use of water globally, but most water withdrawals are not monitored or reported. As a result, it is largely unknown when, where, and how much water is used for irrigation. Here, we evaluated the ability of remotely sensed evapotranspiration (ET) data, integrated with other datasets, to calculate irrigation water withdrawals and applications in an [...]
Satellite-based surveys reveal substantial methane point-source emissions in major oil & gas basins of North America during 2022-2023
Published: 2024-02-28
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Oil, Gas, and Energy, Remote Sensing
Utilizing imaging spectroscopy technology to identify methane super-emitters plays a vital role in mitigating methane emissions in the Oil & Gas (O&G) sector. While earlier research has uncovered significant point-source methane emissions from O&G production in the US and Canada, which are key regions with large methane emissions, a comprehensive post-COVID-19 survey has been notably [...]
A Mathematical Representation of Historical Greenhouse Gas Emissions with Rigorous Insights
Published: 2024-02-25
Subjects: Analysis, Environmental Monitoring, Longitudinal Data Analysis and Time Series, Numerical Analysis and Computation
In this paper, we analyze historical greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions worldwide, leveraging a dataset provided by (Gütschow and Pflüger, 2023). Employing mathematical modeling, a formal theory is developed, describing the growth trajectories of GHG emissions over time. The theory introduces several key concepts, including historical upper bound emission (HUBE), historical peak emission (HPE), and [...]
Multi-satellite data depicts record-breaking methane leak from a well blowout
Published: 2024-02-13
Subjects: Climate, Environmental Monitoring, Oil, Gas, and Energy
Accidental blowouts in oil and gas wells can result in large and prolonged methane emissions, which are often unreported when happening in remote places. The rapid advancement of space-based methods for detecting and quantifying methane plumes provides an essential tool for uncovering these super-emission events. We use a range of methane-sensitive satellites to document a methane leak from a [...]
Deployment-invariant probability of detection characterization for aerial LiDAR methane detection
Published: 2024-01-24
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences
Accurate detection sensitivity characterization of remote methane monitoring technologies is critical for designing, implementing, and auditing effective emissions monitoring and mitigation programs. Several research groups have developed test methods based on single/double-blind controlled release protocols and regression-based data analysis techniques to create probability of detection (PoD) [...]
Model Ensemble with Dropout for Uncertainty Estimation in Binary Sea Ice or Water Segmentation using Sentinel-1 SAR
Published: 2024-01-19
Subjects: Applied Statistics, Environmental Monitoring, Signal Processing
Despite the growing use of deep learning in sea ice mapping with SAR imagery, the study of model uncertainty and segmentation results remains limited. Deep learning models often produce overconfident predictions, a concern in sea ice mapping where misclassification can impact marine navigation safety. We incorporate and compare dropout and model ensemble within a convolutional neural network [...]
Apportioning sources of chemicals of emerging concern along an urban river with inverse modelling
Published: 2024-01-18
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences
Concentrations of chemicals in river water provide crucial information for assessing environmental exposure to fertilisers and insecticides, heavy metals, illicit drugs, pathogens, pharmaceuticals, plastics and perfluorinated substances among others. However, using concentrations measured along waterways to identify sources of contaminants and predict their fate is complicated by downstream [...]
Metrological approach for permafrost temperature measurements
Published: 2024-01-12
Subjects: Climate, Environmental Monitoring, Glaciology
Permafrost degradation is a growing direct impact of climate change. Detecting permafrost reductions, in terms of its extension, deepening of the active layer and rise of the base is fundamental to capture the magnitude of trends and address actions and warnings. Temperature profiles in permafrost allow direct understanding of the status of the frozen ground layer and its evolution in time. The [...]
Bayesian network modelling of phosphorus pollution in agricultural catchments with high-resolution data
Published: 2024-01-11
Subjects: Agriculture, Biochemistry, Environmental Monitoring, Statistical Models
A Bayesian Belief Network was developed to simulate phosphorus (P) loss in an Irish agricultural catchment. Septic tanks and farmyards were included to represent all P sources and assess their effect on model performance. Bayesian priors were defined using daily discharge and turbidity, high-resolution soil P data, expert opinion, and literature. Calibration was done against seven years of daily [...]
Open-source approach for reproducible substrate mapping using semantic segmentation on recreation-grade side scan sonar datasets
Published: 2023-12-21
Subjects: Analysis, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Databases and Information Systems, Environmental Monitoring, Hydrology, Natural Resources and Conservation, Numerical Analysis and Computation, Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing, Programming Languages and Compilers, Software Engineering, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Water Resource Management
Knowledge of the variation and distribution of substrates at large spatial extents in aquatic systems, particularly rivers, is severely lacking, impeding species conservation and ecosystem restoration efforts. Air and space-borne remote sensing important for terrestrial and atmospheric measurements are limited in benthic environments due to river stage, turbidity, and canopy cover, requiring [...]
Untangling intercropping in heterogeneous smallholder maize-cassava farming systems with remote sensing
Published: 2023-12-15
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Earth observation approaches for large-scale crop monocultures are often not transferable to heterogeneous smallholder systems. Key challenges in this regard are intercropping, high intra-field crop type variability, wide sowing windows, presence of non-crop vegetation and small but variable field sizes. Currently, studies on smallholder agriculture mainly focus on specific crops and seldom [...]
FootNet: Development of a machine learning emulator of atmospheric transport
Published: 2023-12-09
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Environmental Monitoring
There has been a proliferation of dense observing systems to monitor greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations over the past decade. Estimating emissions with these observations is often done using an atmospheric transport model to characterize the source-receptor relationship, which is commonly termed measurement ``footprint''. Computing and storing footprints using full-physics models is becoming [...]
PHOTOMOB: AUTOMATED GIS METHOD FOR ESTIMATION OF FRACTIONAL GRAIN DYNAMICS IN GRAVEL BED RIVERS. PART 1: GRAIN SIZE
Published: 2023-12-06
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Geomorphology, Hydrology, Sedimentology, Water Resource Management
Particle entrainment intensity is spatially and temporally variable, making it a complex phenomenon to measure. This paper is the first of a pair, in which we present an automated image processing procedure (PhotoMOB) for monitoring the mobility/stability of gravel river beds. The method is based on local comparison of the shape of the grains identified at the same coordinates between successive [...]
PhotoMOB: Automated GIS method for estimation of fractional grain dynamics in gravel bed rivers. Part 2: Bed stability and fractional mobility
Published: 2023-12-06
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Geomorphology, Hydrology, Sedimentology, Water Resource Management
Bed mobility and stability are spatially and temporally variable, making it a complex phenomenon to study. This paper is the second of a pair, in which we present an automated image processing procedure for monitoring the mobility/stability of gravel river beds. The method is based on local comparison of the shape of the grains identified at the same coordinates between successive photos to [...]