Porphyry Copper Deposit Prognosis in the Middle Region of the Bangonghu–Nujiang Metallogenic Belt,Tibet, Using ASTER Remote Sensing Data

The B angonghu–N ujiang metallogenic belt is considered to be T ibet’s third copper belt after the Y ulong and G angdese copper belts. The D uolong gold‐rich porphyry copper deposit, located in the western part of the B angonghu–N ujiang belt was recently recognized as a superlarge prospect. The A dvanced S paceborne T hermal E mission and R eflection R adiometer (ASTER ) was used to characterize the D uolong porphyry deposit alteration area, and three methods, color enhancement, band ratio transformation, and spectral angle mapping, were utilized to extract the phyllic and argillic alteration zones, which are typically considered the most important predictors of porphyry copper. Seven prospecting areas, which match mapped alteration zones, were delineated in the D uolong deposit. In addition, an ASTER image of the eastern region of the B angonghu–N ujiang belt in the X iongmei area was used to extract alteration information, and an area with image characteristics similar to the D uobuza and B olong ore deposits was identified as a prospecting area. Numerous malachite outcrops were identified in the field, and both laboratory analysis and isotopic dating confirmed that the deposit had formed concurrently with the D uobuza deposit (119 M a). Geologic mapping at the 1:5000 scale was conducted in the area, and three types of ore‐bearing rocks were identified, indicating that this area has significant potential to host ore deposits. The discovery of the X iongmei copper mining area is significant for the B angonghu–N ujiang belt.     

安徽省东源斑岩型钨矿床白钨矿原位微量元素特征及其指示意义

新兴的白钨矿面扫描技术对于解释矿物微量元素特征具有重要的指示意义。文章选择皖南地区东源斑岩型钨矿床中白钨矿为研究对象,利用面扫描和阴极发光图像技术对矿物微区结构和原位微量元素特征进行系统研究。分析结果显示,白钨矿具有核边结构且微量元素特征具有明显的分带性,同一白钨矿颗粒核部亏损Mo、Nb、Ta元素,富集REEs,而边部相反。在此基础上,文章通过系统的白钨矿单点微量元素分析,反演了成矿流体性质和演化过程,提出东源钨矿床成矿流体氧逸度逐渐增高,成矿流体富集F挥发分且F含量逐渐增加,成矿物质很可能有幔源组分加入。通过白钨矿面扫描和阴极发光图像查明矿物微区结构,进而开展了白钨矿微区微量元素单点分析,有可能对成矿流体和矿质来源作出合理的解释。     

基于高分二号卫星数据的煤矿区地质灾害信息提取研究

随着遥感数据获取技术和能力的全面提高,遥感数据呈现出明显的大数据特征。发展适应于遥感大数据的智能分析和信息挖掘技术,成为当前遥感技术研究的前沿。高分二号（GF-2）卫星数据是我国首颗自主研发的亚米级高分辨率卫星数据,具有观测幅宽、重访周期短、高辐射精度、高定位精度等优势,为未来我国地质灾害的长期、动态地监测和研究提供了高精度、稳定可靠的数据源。本文选取安徽谢桥煤矿2015年1月8日的GF-2卫星影像为研究数据,在对煤矿区主要地质灾害遥感地学分析的基础上,采用面向对象的影像分析方法对研究区由采煤活动所诱发的地质灾害信息进行自动提取。结果表明：利用GF-2卫星数据能够有效地识别地质灾害体的位置、范围、形态等空间分布特征;面向对象的自动提取方法对于煤矿区大面积的积水塌陷盆地、小规模的塌陷坑和线性的地裂缝都有很高的提取精度,识别精度达90% 以上;基于逐层剔除的思路构建的提取规则,为GF-2数据在地质灾害调查和大数据分析中的应用提供了很好的技术支持,也为其它地物目标的提取提供了参考,但在特征的选择和阈值的设定上需要具体分析。     

高亚洲地区冰崩灾害的研究进展

在全球气候变化的背景下,冰崩灾害极有可能成为人类面临的新常态。特别是在高亚洲地区,冰崩灾害事件严重威胁"亚洲水塔"的命运和"第三极"的生态安全。因此,研究冰崩灾害事件对于保障"一带一路"国家战略的顺利实施和保护"一带一路"沿线国家的生产与生存环境具有重要的现实意义。通过梳理历史上有记录的几次冰崩灾害事件,系统介绍冰崩的发生过程;再从冰崩体的物质组成、冰崩体的运动特征、冰崩发生的可能原因以及冰崩的影响等方面总结了冰崩的研究内容;重点阐述了冰崩的研究方法;最后讨论了当前冰崩研究存在的问题,并从冰崩研究方法等角度展望了未来冰崩灾害事件的研究方向。     

Advances and Trends in Atmospheric Measurement by Smartphones*

With the development and popularization of smartphones and embedded sensors, a non-professional atmospheric measurement method by using smartphones carried by the public has been proposed recently. Without extra dedicated instrument, this method has many advantages, such as low hardware cost, high spatio-temporal resolution, and wide coverage, and it can supplement the professional atmospheric measurement methods, which has broad applications in the meteorological operation, scientific research, public service, and other fields. At present, the research on the non-professional atmospheric measurement in China is limited. In order to make full use of this method, this paper briefly outlined the states of existing smartphones and embedded sensors, highlighted the measurement of precipitation, air temperature, pressure, aerosols, and radiation by smartphones. To promote the development of smartphones for atmospheric measurement, future research should focus on mechanism study, available sources exploration, data quality control, big data processing, joining and matching with operation, research and service, etc.     

Mapping fractional landscape soils and vegetation components from Hyperion satellite imagery using an unsupervised machine-learning workflow

An unsupervised machine-learning workflow is proposed for estimating fractional landscape soils and vegetation components from remotely sensed hyperspectral imagery. The workflow is applied to EO-1 Hyperion satellite imagery collected near Ibirací, Minas Gerais, Brazil. The proposed workflow includes subset feature selection, learning, and estimation algorithms. Network training with landscape feature class realizations provide a hypersurface from which to estimate mixtures of soil (e.g. 0.5 exceedance for pixels: 75% clay-rich Nitisols, 15% iron-rich Latosols, and 1% quartz-rich Arenosols) and vegetation (e.g. 0.5 exceedance for pixels: 4% Aspen-like trees, 7% Blackberry-like trees, 0% live grass, and 2% dead grass). The process correctly maps forests and iron-rich Latosols as being coincident with existing drainages, and correctly classifies the clay-rich Nitisols and grasses on the intervening hills. These classifications are independently corroborated visually (Google Earth) and quantitatively (random soil samples and crossplots of field spectra). Some mapping challenges are the underestimation of forest fractions and overestimation of soil fractions where steep valley shadows exist, and the under representation of classified grass in some dry areas of the Hyperion image. These preliminary results provide impetus for future hyperspectral studies involving airborne and satellite sensors with higher signal-to-noise and smaller footprints.     

Detection and mapping of bracken fern weeds using multispectral remotely sensed data: a review of progress and challenges

Bracken fern is one of the major invasive plants distributed all over the world currently threatening socio-economic and ecological systems due to its ability to swiftly colonize landscapes. The study aimed at reviewing the progress and challenges in detecting and mapping of bracken fern weeds using different remote sensing techniques. Evidence from literature have revealed that traditional methods such as field surveys and modelling have been insufficient in detecting and mapping the spatial distribution of bracken fern at a regional scale. The applications of medium spatial resolution sensors have been constrained by their limited spatial, spectral and radiometric capabilities in detecting and mapping bracken fern. On the other hand, the availability of most of these data-sets free of charge, large swath width and their high temporal resolution have significantly improved remote sensing of bracken fern. The use of commercial satellite data with high resolution have also proven useful in providing fine spectral and spatial resolution capabilities that are primarily essential to offer precise and reliable data on the spatial distribution of invasive species. However, the application of these data-sets is largely restricted to smaller areas, due to high costs and huge data volumes. Studies on bracken fern classification have extensively adopted traditional classification methods such as supervised maximum likelihood classifier. In studies where traditional methods performed poorly, the combination of soft classifiers such as super resolution analysis and traditional methods of classification have shown an improvement in bracken fern classification. Finally, since high spatial resolution sensors are expensive to acquire and have small swath width, the current study recommends that future research can also consider investigating the utility of the freely available recently launched sensors with a global footprint that has the potential to provide invaluable information for repeated measurement of invasive species over time and space.     

Assessing soil salinity using WorldView-2 multispectral images in Timpaki,Crete, Greece

Salinization is one of the major soil degradation threats occurring worldwide. This study evaluates the feasibility of operational surface soil salinity mapping based on state-of-the-art Earth Observation (EO) products captured by sensors on-board WorldView-2 (WV2) and Landsat 8 satellites. The proposed methods are tested in Timpaki, south-central Crete,Greece, where brackish water irrigation puts soil health at risk of soil salinization. In all cases, EO products are calibrated against soil samples collected from bare soil locations. Results indicate a moderate correlation of observed EC_e values with the investigated remote sensing parameters. Regarding sensitivity to saline soil, the yellow band displays higher values. Comparison between methods used in the literature shows that those developed specifically for soil salinity, and especially index S5, perform better. The proposed ‘detection index’ and 3D PCA transformation methodology perform reasonably well in detecting areas with high EC_e values and provide a simple and effective operational alternative for saline topsoil detection and mapping.     

Quantifying land use/land cover spatio-temporal landscape pattern dynamics from Hyperion using SVMs classifier and FRAGSTATS®

This study aims to quantify the landscape spatio-temporal dynamics including Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) changes occurred in a typical Mediterranean ecosystem of high ecological and cultural significance in central Greece covering a period of 9 years (2001–2009). Herein, we examined the synergistic operation among Hyperion hyperspectral satellite imagery with Support Vector Machines, the FRAGSTATS^® landscape spatial analysis programme and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for this purpose. The change analysis showed that notable changes reported in the experimental region during the studied period, particularly for certain LULC classes. The analysis of accuracy indices suggested that all the three classification techniques are performing satisfactorily with overall accuracy of 86.62, 91.67 and 89.26% in years 2001, 2004 and 2009, respectively. Results evidenced the requirement for taking measures to conserve this forest-dominated natural ecosystem from human-induced pressures and/or natural hazards occurred in the area. To our knowledge, this is the first study of its kind, demonstrating the Hyperion capability in quantifying LULC changes with landscape metrics using FRAGSTATS^® programme and PCA for understanding the land surface fragmentation characteristics and their changes. The suggested approach is robust and flexible enough to be expanded further to other regions. Findings of this research can be of special importance in the context of the launch of spaceborne hyperspectral sensors that are already planned to be placed in orbit as the NASA’s HyspIRI sensor and EnMAP.     

Fuel type mapping using object-based image analysis of DMC and Landsat-8 OLI imagery

Efficient forest fire management requires precise and up-to-date knowledge regarding the composition and spatial distribution of forest fuels at various spatial and temporal scales. Fuel-type maps are essential for effective fire prevention strategies planning, as well as the alleviation of the environmental impacts of potential wildfire events. The aim of this study was to assess and compare the potential of Disaster Monitoring Constellation and Landsat-8 OLI satellite images (Operational Land Imager), combined with Object-Based Image Analysis (GEOBIA), in operational mapping of the Mediterranean fuel types at a regional scale. The results showcase that although the images of both sensors can be used with GEOBIA analysis for the generation of accurate fuel-type maps, only the OLI images can be considered as applicable for regional mapping of the Mediterranean fuel types on an operational basis.