Hurricane Monitoring With Spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar

This book discusses in detail the science and morphology of powerful hurricane detection systems. It broadly addresses new approaches to monitoring hazards using freely available images from the European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) Sentinel-1 SAR satellite and benchmarks a new interdisciplinary field at the interface between oceanography, meteorology and remote sensing. Following the launch of the first European Space Agency (ESA) operational synthetic aperture radar satellite, Sentinel-1, in 2014, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data has been freely available on the Internet hub in real-time. This advance allows weather forecasters to view hurricanes in fine detail for the first time. As a result, the number of synthetic aperture radar research scientists working in this field is set to grow exponentially in the next decade; the book is a valuable resource for this large and budding audience.

Accurate and timely forecasting of hazardous weather events induced by meso-scale convection systems (MCSs) is the key to safeguarding lives and property. Yet the MCS forecasting is challenging due to imperfect initial numerical conditions that lack meso-scale convective information and multi-scale dynamic and thermodynamic consistency. Remote sensing observations are the primary source of estimating weather conditions, such as moisture, wind velocity, and precipitation. It is of fundamental pivotality to develop data assimilation technologies to enhance applications of multi-source observations. Performance assessments of new types of observations facilitate the network designment for regional- and storm-scale numerical models. This Research Topic seeks submissions underscoring the improvement of the accuracy of MCS predictions, warnings, and decision support for high-impact weather events as well as observation network designs.

Following success in other areas as a remote sensor, the spaceborne microwave image radars are assuming a notable position in the problem of ship detection for civilian and military purposes. This work will discuss the strong and weak points of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) when used for ship detection. First, the thesis gives a brief description of SAR fundamentals, image processing and the parameters for ship detection. Second, the actual techniques, limitations, errors and some models used for ship detection are described. Finally, using a well-known and reliable ship detection model (Vachon et al. 1997), tested in the Canadian Ocean Monitoring Workstation and in some validation field programs, the new generation of spaceborne SARs, mainly RADARSAT 2, are analyzed for ship detection capabilities. During the analysis parameters like wind velocity, wind direction related to the antenna, satellite incident angle and Number of Looks are changed to study their influence on ship detection.

This book offers a complete overview of the measurement of precipitation from space, which has made considerable advancements during the last two decades. This is mainly due to the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission, CloudSat and a carefully maintained constellation of satellites hosting passive microwave sensors. The book revisits a previous book, Measuring Precipitation from Space, edited by V. Levizzani, P. Bauer and F. J. Turk, published with Springer in 2007. The current content has been completely renewed to incorporate the advancements of science and technology in the field since then. This book provides unique contributions from field experts and from the International Precipitation Working Group (IPWG). The book will be of interest to meteorologists, hydrologists, climatologists, water management authorities, students at various levels and many other parties interested in making use of satellite precipitation data sets. Chapter “TAMSAT” is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

The oceans cover approximately 71% of Earth’s surface, 90% of the biosphere and contains 97% of Earth’s water. Since the first launch of SEASAT satellite in 1978, an increasing number of SAR satellites have or will become available, such as the European Space Agency’s ERS-1/-2, ENVISAT, and Sentinel-1 series; the Canadian RADARSAT-1/-2 and the upcoming RADARSAT Constellation Mission series satellites; the Italian COSMO-SkyMed satellites, the German TERRASAR-X and TANDEM-X, and the Chinese GAOFEN-3 SAR, among others. Recently, European Space Agency has launched a new generation of SAR satellites, Sentinel-1A in 2014 and Sentinel-1B in 2016. These SAR satellites provide researchers with free and open SAR images necessary to carry out their research on the global oceans. The scope of Advances in SAR Remote Sensing of Oceans is to demonstrate the types of information that can be obtained from SAR images of the oceans, and the cutting-edge methods needed for analysing SAR images. Written by leading experts in the field, and divided into four sections, the book presents the basic principles of radar backscattering from the ocean surface; introduces the recent progresses in SAR remote sensing of dynamic coastal environment and management; discusses the state-of-the-art methods to monitor parameters or phenomena related to the dynamic ocean environment; and deals specifically with new techniques and findings of marine atmospheric boundary layer observations. Advances in SAR Remote Sensing of Oceans is a very comprehensive and up-to-date reference intended for use by graduate students, researchers, practitioners, and R&D engineers working in the vibrant field of oceans, interested to understand how SAR remote sensing can support oceanography research and applications.

This book offers a unique multidisciplinary integration of the physics of turbulence and remote sensing technology. Remote Sensing of Turbulence provides a new vision on the research of turbulence and summarizes the current and future challenges of monitoring turbulence remotely. The book emphasizes sophisticated geophysical applications, detection, and recognition of complex turbulent flows in oceans and the atmosphere. Through several techniques based on microwave and optical/IR observations, the text explores the technological capabilities and tools for the detection of turbulence, their signatures, and variability. FEATURES Covers the fundamental aspects of turbulence problems with a broad geophysical scope for a wide audience of readers Provides a complete description of remote-sensing capabilities for observing turbulence in the earth’s environment Establishes the state-of-the-art remote-sensing techniques and methods of data analysis for turbulence detection Investigates and evaluates turbulence detection signatures, their properties, and variability Provides cutting-edge remote-sensing applications for space-based monitoring and forecasts of turbulence in oceans and the atmosphere This book is a great resource for applied physicists, the professional remote sensing community, ecologists, geophysicists, and earth scientists.

This book provides basic and advanced concepts of synthetic aperture radar (SAR), PolSAR, InSAR, PolInSAR, and all necessary information about various applications and analysis of data of multiple sensors. It includes information on SAR remote sensing, data processing, and separate applications of SAR technology, compiled in one place. It will help readers to use active microwave imaging sensor-based information in geospatial technology and applications. This book: Covers basic and advanced concepts of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) remote sensing Introduces spaceborne SAR sensors Discusses applications of SAR remote sensing in earth observation Explores utilization of SAR data for solid earth, ecosystem, and cryosphere, including imaging of extra-terrestrial bodies Includes PolSAR and PolInSAR for aboveground forest biomass retrieval, as well as InSAR and PolSAR for snow parameters retrieval This book is aimed at researchers and graduate students in remote sensing, photogrammetry, geoscience, image processing, agriculture, environment, forestry, and image processing.