Use of multi‐platform,multi‐temporal remote‐sensing data for calibration of a distributed hydrological model: an application in the Arno basin,Italy

Images from satellite platforms are a valid aid in order to obtain distributed information about hydrological surface states and parameters needed in calibration and validation of the water balance and flood forecasting. Remotely sensed data are easily available on large areas and with a frequency compatible with land cover changes. In this paper, remotely sensed images from different types of sensor have been utilized as a support to the calibration of the distributed hydrological model MOBIDIC, currently used in the experimental system of flood forecasting of the Arno River Basin Authority. Six radar images from ERS‐2 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensors (three for summer 2002 and three for spring–summer 2003) have been utilized and a relationship between soil saturation indexes and backscatter coefficient from SAR images has been investigated. Analysis has been performed only on pixels with meagre or no vegetation cover, in order to legitimize the assumption that water content of the soil is the main variable that influences the backscatter coefficient. Such pixels have been obtained by considering vegetation indexes (NDVI) and land cover maps produced by optical sensors (Landsat‐ETM). In order to calibrate the soil moisture model based on information provided by SAR images, an optimization algorithm has been utilized to minimize the regression error between saturation indexes from model and SAR data and error between measured and modelled discharge flows. Utilizing this procedure, model parameters that rule soil moisture fluxes have been calibrated, obtaining not only a good match with remotely sensed data, but also an enhancement of model performance in flow prediction with respect to a previous calibration with river discharge data only. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN HEMISPHERIC POLAR LOWS——A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Northern Hemispheric“polar lows”,i.e.maritime,small,but fairly intense cyclonic systems have been studied formore than two decades.Recently researchers have turned their attention towards the occurrence of polar lows and othersmall-scale cyclonic disturbances on the Southern Hemisphere.In this paper a short account of our present knowledgeof Northern Hemispheric polar lows will be given,followed by some preliminary results of an investigation of the natureand occurrence of polar lows on the Southern Hemisphere.     

基于直射辐射遥感图象的地物双向反射特性研究(英文)

该文讨论了一种在ＧＩＳ支持下利用直射辐射遥感图象研究地物双向反射特性的原理和方法。其主要依据是象元地面的坡度和坡向的不同，同时改变了象元地面与太阳之间、象元地面与卫星传感器之间的相对位置，并且造成了同类象元太阳直射辐射遥感分量的差异。而正是这种差异体现了该类地物双向反射特性。在ＧＩＳ的支持下利用卫星直射辐射遥感数字图象，研究卫片象元同类地物的这种差异的规律以及它们与对应坡面上的太阳位置、卫星位置的关系，便可进行该类地物的双向反射特性研究。     

A bottom-up approach to segment individual deciduous trees using leaf-off lidar point cloud data

Light Detection and Ranging (Lidar) can generate three-dimensional (3D) point cloud which can be used to characterize horizontal and vertical forest structure, so it has become a popular tool for forest research. Recently, various methods based on top-down scheme have been developed to segment individual tree from lidar data. Some of these methods, such as the one developed by Li et al. (2012), can obtain the accuracy up to 90% when applied in coniferous forests. However, the accuracy will decrease when they are applied in deciduous forest because the interlacing tree branches can increase the difficulty to determine the tree top. In order to solve challenges of the tree segmentation in deciduous forests, we develop a new bottom-up method based on the intensity and 3D structure of leaf-off lidar point cloud data in this study. We applied our algorithm to segment trees in a forest at the Shavers Creek Watershed in Pennsylvania. Three indices were used to assess the accuracy of our method: recall, precision and F-score. The results show that the algorithm can detect 84% of the tree (recall), 97% of the segmented trees are correct (precision) and the overall F-score is 90%. The result implies that our method has good potential for segmenting individual trees in deciduous broadleaf forest.     

一种实用的数字图像压缩方法

提出以C Builder 6.0为开发平台,以其所提供的TJPEGImage为核心,实现真彩色图像的压缩,为工程实际的应用提供了一种非常实用的压缩手段。该方法减少了大量程序代码的编写工作。实验表明,当综合压缩比设为65时,压缩图像与原图像相比并无明显变化,由此可见,压缩效果令人满意。     

边坡开挖破坏过程的离心模型试验研究

边坡开挖是工程中经常遇到的问题。在清华大学土工离心机上,开发了一种离心机运转过程中的边坡开挖模拟技术。进行了土坡开挖的离心模型试验,测量了开挖过程中边坡的位移场变化。结果表明,边坡的破坏过程是从坡体下部开始的剪切带逐渐向上发展贯通的过程,并经历了滑裂面贯通前的平缓变形和贯通后变形迅速增大两个阶段。坡顶裂缝最初均是由受拉引起的,但随着剪切带的不断向上发展,裂缝的扩展是由拉伸和剪切两种作用综合引起的。     

数字地图图像的基本形态学变换和结构元素的分解

本文是作者关于“数学形态学与数字地图图像的分析和识别”研究成果的一部分。文章提出了地图图形的集合概念和地图图像形态分析的基元确定原则,证明了结构元素的基元最小分解定理;同时,介绍了基本的形态学变换,统一并扩展了带约束条件的数学形态学变换模型;从而,奠定了数字地图图像分析和识别的数学基础。     

数字图像处理技术在隧道掌子面的应用

在隧道施工过程中,为了解开挖方量以及隧道前方的地质构造等信息,有必要对掌子面图像进行分析。传统分析中大多数以人工素描为主,效果因人而异。为了克服传统方法的局限,将图形、图像处理及三维建模技术引入对掌子面图像的处理中,建立隧道掌子面地质图像画像系统,对一系列跟踪拍摄的掌子面图像进行处理,自动提取出掌子面上不同岩层的边界,获取岩层的特征信息,以此对围岩分级。根据相邻掌子面上岩层目标的对应关系,建立起隧道的三维模型,为隧道施工提供必要的参考信息。     

The Moon 35 years after Apollo: What's left to learn?

With the cancellation of the Apollo program after Apollo 17 returned from the Moon in 1972, the focus of NASA switched to other areas of the Solar System. Study of the Moon did continue through analysis of the returned samples and remotely sensed data sets (both orbital and surface), as well as through Earth-based telescopic studies. In the 1990s, new orbital data were obtained from several missions (fly-by and orbital), the first being Galileo that allowed the lunar farside to be mapped, followed by global mapping by the Clementine and Lunar Prospector missions.Interest in the Moon started to increase at the beginning of the 21st century as other nations focused their space exploration programs on the Moon. The speech by President Bush in January 2004 put the Moon back into the critical exploration path for NASA, paving the way for humans to return to the lunar surface by 2020. This return will be critical for developing technologies and protocols for the eventual human exploration of other parts of the solar system. At the time of writing (June 2008), the SELENE/Kaguya mission (Japan and Chang’e-1 (China) are orbiting the Moon, with Chandrayaan-1 (India) and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (USA) being scheduled to launch later in 2008.The past (and present) exploration of the Moon begs the question “what's left to be done?” With the renewed focus on the Moon, now that it is on the pathway for the exploration of Mars (and beyond) a similar question has been raised - what should the astronauts do on the Moon? The publication of the New Views of the Moon book [Jolliff et al., 2006. New Views of the Moon, Reviews in Mineralogy, vol. 60. American Mineralogical Society, 721pp] highlighted a number of important scientific questions that remain unanswered as well as posing many more on the basis of the currently available data. These questions resonated in three Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG) reports pertinent to this discussion, which were also published (on line) during 2006 (http://www.lpi.usra.edu/leag), and in the National Research Council of the National Academies [2007. The Scientific Context for Exploration of the Moon. National Academies Press, Washington, DC, 112pp] report entitled “The Scientific Context for Exploration of the Moon”. This paper synthesizes these recent studies, along with those from the 1980s and 1990s, to emphasize the lunar science questions that remain unanswered. In addition, it summarizes the missions already flown to the Moon along with those that are planned in order to give the reader an idea of exactly what lunar science has been and will be conducted in the hope that it will inspire proposals for missions to address the outstanding science questions.     

The first ISPRS software contest for computer-assisted teaching (CATCON)

The first ISPRS software contest for computer-assisted teaching, CATCON, took place on July 12, 1996 at the ISPRS Congress in Vienna. The main objective of the contest was to promote the development and dissemination of good/user-friendly software packages for computer-assisted teaching. Ten software packages and one data set from six countries were nominated. All the software and the data set were demonstrated at the contest, and prizes were given to three software packages and to one data set.