The ionosphere: effects,GPS modeling and the benefits for space geodetic techniques

The main goal of this paper is to provide a summary of our current knowledge of the ionosphere as it relates to space geodetic techniques, especially the most informative technology, global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), specifically the fully deployed and operational global positioning system (GPS). As such, the main relevant modeling points are discussed, and the corresponding results of ionospheric monitoring are related, which were mostly computed using GPS data and based on the direct experience of the authors. We address various phenomena such as horizontal and vertical ionospheric morphology in quiet conditions, traveling ionospheric disturbances, solar flares, ionospheric storms and scintillation. Finally, we also tackle the question of how improved knowledge of ionospheric conditions, especially in terms of an accurate understanding of the distribution of free electrons, can improve space geodetic techniques at different levels, such as higher-order ionospheric effects, precise GNSS navigation, single-antenna GNSS orientation and real-time GNSS meteorology.     

Transverse Mercator with an accuracy of a few nanometers

Implementations of two algorithms for the transverse Mercator projection are described; these achieve accuracies close to machine precision. One is based on the exact equations of Thompson and Lee and the other uses an extension of Krüger’s series for the mapping to higher order. The exact method provides an accuracy of 9 nm over the entire ellipsoid, while the errors in the series method are less than 5 nm within 3900 km of the central meridian. In each case, the meridian convergence and scale are also computed with similar accuracy. The speed of the series method is competitive with other less accurate algorithms and the exact method is about five times slower.     

Self-calibration Applied in Converting Simulation Surveying

In the field of converting simulation surveying and traditional close range photogrammetry, it has been developed so far to survey objects by commercial digital camera and this technique is applied widely in every part of production. In order to get three-dimensional information of objects, commercial digital camera must be examined. For a long time, digital camera has been examined by DLT. Then there must be a high-precision control field. For realizing surveying without control points, a method for self-calibration is proposed.     

Study on the urban heat island effects and its relationship with surface biophysical characteristics using MODIS imageries

This study assesses surface urban heat island (UHI) and its associated surface physical characteristics using remote sensing approaches. TERRA/MODIS images acquired in 2005 in three different seasons were selected to generate land surface tem-perature and surface characteristics for the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan metropolitan area in China. The intensity of urban heat is-land effects and its seasonal variations were examined. The result showed that UHI effects were significant both in the summer and the spri...     

Integrating terrain and vegetation indices for identifying potential soil erosion risk area

The present paper offers an innovative method to monitor the change in soil erosion potential by integrating terrain and vegetation indices derived from remote sensing data. Three terrain indices namely, topographic wetness index (TWI), stream power index (SPI) and slope length factor (LS), were derived from the digital elevation model. Normalized vegetation index (NDVI) was derived for the year 1988 and 2004 using remote sensing images. K-mean clustering was performed on staked indices to categorize the study area into four soil erosion potential classes. The validation of derived erosion potential map using USLE model showed a good agreement. Results indicated that there was a significant change in the erosion potential of the watershed and a gradual shifting of lower erosion potential class to next higher erosion potential class over the study period.     

Use of service middleware based on ECHO with CSW for discovery and registry of MODIS data

Nowadays, NASA is producing several terabytes Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data everyday; how to find the data with criteria, such as specific times, locations, and scales using an international standard becomes more and more important. In this paper, a service-oriented architecture for use of the integration Earth Observation System Clearing-HOuse (ECHO) with the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Catalogue Service—Web profile (CSW) is put forward. The architecture consists of three roles: a service requester (the user), a service provider (the ECHO metadata server), and a service broker (the GeoNetwork CSW and MODIS registry service middleware). The core component-MODIS registry service middleware includes three components: metadata fetcher, metadata transformer, and metadata register. The metadata fetcher is used to fetch metadata from ECHO metadata server; the metadata transformer is responsible for transform metadata from one form to another; the metadata register is in charge of registering ISO19139-based metadata to CSW. A prototype system is designed and implemented by using the service middleware technology and a standard interface and protocol. The feasibility and the response time of registry and retrieval of MODIS data are evaluated by means of a realistic LPDAAC_ECS MODIS data center. The implementation of this prototype system and the experiment show that the architecture and method is feasible and effective.     

Vulnerability Assessment and Earthquake Risk Mapping in Part of North Iran Using Geospatial Techniques

Earthquakes cause huge loss of lives and infrastructure every year in Iran. Many settlement areas (urban & rural) as well as Tehran, the capital city of Iran are located in the hazardous area. This research deals with the earthquake risk assessment and mapping based on recent remote sensing information on a GIS platform. The study area is part of Central Alborz in southern Caspian Sea and north of capital city of Tehran called Marzanabad area. It is a potentially high-risk zone as several earthquakes have occurred in the past. The study’s main objective is to develop an Earthquake Risk Map at the scale of 1:25,000 to identify high-risk zone and vulnerability areas to the settlements and infrastructure of area. Digital lineaments wear extraction and analysis for identification the faults using several RADAR and optical images with spatial analysis techniques. The probable faults were detected by superimposition of the lithological and geomorphologic features and their variance over the lineaments in a GIS environment. This research work involved fault identification on the remote sensed dataset as well as field studies and the risky areas were classified in the vicinity of the faults by applying different buffer with specifying distance of the source/site of risk to fault location. Statistical analysis of Earthquake Risk Map (ERM) by GIS indicated that 32% of the total area with about 66% of settlements and 52% of population is located in strongly high-risk and high-risk zone. Moderately low risk and low risk zones cover 38.67% of total area, which is free of settlements as well as population. The Earthquake map elaborated in this research work will be a useful tool for disaster management as well as urban and regional planning of future activities in the area.     

An Introduction to MODISI and SCMOD Methods for Correction of the MODIS Snow Assessment Algorithm

Detection, monitoring and precise assessment of the snow covered regions is an important issue. Snow cover area and consequently the amount of runoff generated from snowmelt have a significant effect on water supply management. To precisely detect and monitor the snow covered area we need satellite images with suitable spatial and temporal resolutions where we usually lose one for the other. In this study, products of two sensors MODIS and ASTER both on board of TERRA platform having low and high spatial resolution respectively were used. The objective of the study was to modify the snow products of MODIS by using simultaneous images of ASTER. For this, MODIS snow index image with high temporal resolution were compared with that of ASTER, using regression and correlation analysis. To improve NDSI index two methods were developed. The first method generated from direct comparison of ASTER averaged NDSI with those of MODIS (MODISI). The second method generated by dividing MODIS NDSI index into 10 codes according to their percentage of surface cover and then compared the results with the difference between ASTER averaged and MODIS snow indices (SCMOD). Both methods were tested against some 16 MODIS pixels. It is found that the precision of the MODISI method was more than 96%. This for SCMOD was about 98%. The RMSE of both methods were as good as 0.02.     

Accuracy improvement of ASTER stereo satellite generated DEM using texture filter

The grid DEM(digital elevation model) generation can be from any of a number of sources:for instance,analogue to digital conversion of contour maps followed by application of the TIN model,or direct elevation point modelling via digital photogrammetry applied to airborne images or satellite images.Currently,apart from the deployment of point-clouds from LiDAR data acquisition,the generally favoured approach refers to applications of digital photogrammetry.One of the most important steps in such deployment i...     

Geo-scape,a granularity depended spatialization tool for visualizing multidimensional data sets

Recently,the expertise accumulated in the field of geovisualization has found application in the visualization of abstract multidimensional data,on the basis of methods called spatialization methods.Spatialization methods aim at visualizing multidimensional data into low-dimensional representational spaces by making use of spatial metaphors and applying dimension reduction techniques.Spatial metaphors are able to provide a metaphoric framework for the visualization of information at different levels of gran...