THE PRESENT STATE OF ECOSYSTEMS IN MONGOLIA: PRINCIPLES OF EVALUATION AND MAPPING

This paper explores how such characteristics as the polarization of reflected radiation, the angular characteristics of its reflectance, and its thermal properties can be used to supplement conventional remote sensing studies of the condition of the vegetation cover. One possible application is clarified by means of an experiment testing the relationship between the degree of polarization of radiation reflected from cultivated cotton fields and the condition of the crop in those fields. Empirical data demonstrate that changes in the geometric structure of (and reflectance from) fields occurs when cultivated plants are subjected to stress (disease or moisture deprivation). Translated by Edward Torrey, Alexandria, VA 22308 from: L. N. Vasil'yev, ed., Kosmicheskiye metody izucheniya biosfery [Remote Sensing Methods in the Study of the Biosphere]. Moscow: Nauka, 1990, pp. 77–82.     

Predicting agricultural drought in eastern Rajasthan of India using NDVI and standardized precipitation index

In the present study, prediction of agricultural drought has been addressed through prediction of agricultural yield using a model based on NDVI-SPI. It has been observed that the meteorological drought index SPI with different timescale is correlated with NDVI at different lag. Also NDVI of current fortnight is correlated with NDVI of previous lags. Based on the correlation coefficients, the Multiple Regression Model was developed to predict NDVI. The NDVI of current fortnight was found highly correlated with SPI of previous fortnight in semi-arid and transitional zones. The correlation between NDVI and crop yield was observed highest in first fortnight of August. The RMSE of predicted yield in drought year was found to be about 17.07 kg/ha which was about 6.02 per cent of average yield. In normal year, it was 24 kg/Ha denoting about 2.1 per cent of average yield.     

Simulating Spatial Dynamics and Processes in a Retail Gasoline Market: An Agent‐Based Modeling Approach

Simulating the dynamics and processes within a spatially influenced retail market, such as the retail gasoline market, is a highly challenging research area. Current approaches are limited through their inability to model the impact of supplier or consumer behavior over both time and space. Agent‐based models (ABMs) provide an alternative approach that overcomes these problems. We demonstrate how knowledge of retail pricing is extended by using a ‘hybrid’ model approach: an agent model for retailers and a spatial interaction model for consumers. This allows the issue of spatial competition between individual retailers to be examined in a way only accessible to agent‐based models, allowing each model retailer autonomous control over optimizing their price. The hybrid model is shown to be successful at recreating spatial pricing dynamics at a national scale, simulating the effects of a rise in crude oil prices as well as accurately predicting which retailers were most susceptible to closure over a 10‐year period.     

Multi‐Season Atmospheric Normalization of NOAA AVHRR Derived NDVI for Crop Yield Modeling

Abstract

A methodology has been developed to normalize the multi‐temporal NDVIs derived from NOAA AVHRR data for the atmospheric effects to the least affected NDVI for development of spectral and spectrometeorological (or spectromet, for short) crop yield models. This is found to reduce the noise in NDVI due to varying atmospheric conditions from season to season and improve the predictability of statistical multiple linear regression yield models. The spectromet yield models for mustard crop in the nine districts of Rajasthan state haven been developed based on normalized NDVIs and have been validated by comparing the predicted yields with the estimated from crop cutting experiments by the state Development of Agriculture.     

Proximal Remote Sensing of Herbicide and Drought Stress in Field Grown Colocasia and Sweet Potato Plants by Sunlight-Induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence Imaging

Chlorophyll fluorescence is an indicator of plant photosynthetic activity and has been used to monitor the health status of vegetation. Several studies have exploited the application of red/far-red chlorophyll fluorescence ratio in detecting the impact of various types of stresses in plants. Recently, sunlight-induced chlorophyll fluorescence imaging has been used to detect and discriminate different stages of mosaic virus infection in potted cassava plants with a multi-spectral imaging system (MSIS). In this study, the MSIS is used to investigate the impact of drought and herbicide stress in field grown crop plants. Towards this control and treatment groups of colocasia and sweet potato plants were grown in laterite soil beds and the reflectance images of these crop plants were recorded up to 14-days of treatment at the Fraunhofer lines of O₂ B at 687 nm and O₂ A at 759.5 nm and the off-lines at 684 and 757.5 nm. The recorded images were analyzed using the Fraunhofer Line Discrimination technique to extract the sunlight-induced chlorophyll fluorescence component from the reflectance images of the plant leaves. As compared to the control group, the chlorophyll fluorescence image ratio (F ₆₈₇/F ₇₆₀) in the treatment groups of both the plant varieties shows an increasing trend with increase in the extent of stress. Further, the F ₆₈₇/F ₇₆₀ ratio was found to correlate with the net photosynthetic rate (Pn) and stomatal conductance (g_s) of leaves. The correlation coefficient (R ²) for the relationship of F ₆₈₇/F ₇₆₀ ratio with Pn were found to be 0.78, 0.79 and 0.78, respectively for the control, herbicide treated and drought treated colocasia plants, while these were 0.77, 0.86 and 0.88, respectively for sweet potato plants. The results presented show the potential of proximal remote sensing and the application F ₆₈₇/F ₇₆₀ fluorescence image ratio for effective monitoring of stress-induced changes in field grown plants.     

SVLBI用于大地测量的卫星轨道及其跟踪网设计

SVLBI （space very long baseline interferometry） has some important potential applications in geodesy and geodynamics, for which one of the most difficult tasks is to precisely determine the orbit of an SVLBI satellite. This work studies several technologies that will possibly be able to determine the orbit of a space VLBI satellite. Then, according to the types and charac- teristics of the satellite and the requirements for geodetic study and the geometry of the GNSS （GPS, GALILEO） satellite to track the space VLBI satellite, the six Keplerian elements of the SVLBI satellite （TEST-SVLBI） are determined. A program is designed to analyze the coverage area of space of different altitudes by the stations of the network, with which the tracking network of TEST-SVLBI is designed. The efficiency of tracking TEST-SVLBI by the network is studied, and the results are presented.     

Change of river channel and bank erosion of the burhi dihing river (assam), assessed using remote sensing data and gis

The Burhi Dining river flows in a meandering course for about 220 km through alluvial plains of Assam including a short rocky and hilly tract in between. Sequential changes in the position of banklines of the river due to consistent bank erosion have been studied from Survey of India topographic maps of 1934 and 1972, and digital satellite data of 2001 and 2004 using GIS. Two broad kinds of changes have been observed, e.g. alteration of direction of flow due to neck cut-off and progressive gradual change of the meander bends that accounts for translational, lateral, rotational, extensional and other types of movement of the meander bends. Study of bankline shift due to the bank erosion has been carried out for the periods 1934–1972, 1972–2001, 2001–2004 and 1934–2004 at 13 segments spaced at 5′ longitude interval (average 15 km) as the river course trends nearly east to west. The amounts of the bank area lost due to erosion and gained due to sediment deposition are estimated separately. The total area eroded in both banks during 1934–1972 was more (26.796 km²) as compared to sediment deposition (19.273 km²), whereas total sediment deposition was more (34.61 km²) during 1972-2001 as compared to erosion (23.152 km²). Erosion was again more in 2001–2004 (7.568 km²) as compared to sediment deposition (2.493 km²). During the entire period (1934–2004) of study the overall erosion on the both banks was 31.169 km² and overall sediment deposition was 30.101 km². The highest annual rates of bank erosion as well as bank building of the river are 21055.47 m²/km in 2001–2004 and 9665.81 m²/km in 1972-2001, respectively. Similarly the highest average annual rates of erosion as well as sediment deposition in both banks are observed during 2001–2004 and 1972–2001, respectively. The hard rocks of the hilly tract situated in between result in development of entrenched meandering and this tract has suffered minimum bank erosion.     

Study of fractional vegetation cover using high spectral resolution data

A field experiment was conducted to study the effect of vegetation cover on soil spectra and relationship of spectral indices with vegetation cover. Multi-date spectral measurements were carried out on twelve wheat fields. Five sets of measurements were taken during the growth period of wheat crop. Field reflectance data were collected in the range 350 to 1800 nm using ASD spectroradiometer. Analysis of data was done to select narrow spectral bands for estimation of ground cover. The ratio of reflectance from vegetation covered soil and reflectance from bare soil indicated that spectral reflectance at 670 and 710 nm are the most sensitive bands. Two bands in visible (670 and 560 nm), three bands in near infrared (710, 870 and 1100 nm) and three bands in middle infrared (1480, 1700 and 1800 nm) were found highly correlated with fractional cover. Vegetation indices developed using narrow band spectral data have been found to be better than those developed using broad- band data for estimation of ground cover.