Satellite remote sensing is about asking the right questions Alexandre Bevington Research Earth Scientist FLNRORD, Prince George, BC
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ACTIVE
Radar Lidar
Elevation Subsidence Deformation Land cover … Through clouds Through night
PASSIVE
Multispectral Thermal Pretty pictures Land cover Monitoring Classification … Not through clouds Not through night
Weather 35,000 km
GPS 20,000 km
EO 650-900 km
ISS 400 km
Commercial Flights 10 km
Free public imagery over Vancouver
Almost double the imagery since I started with the BC Gov 2018-02-28
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When should you look up and smile?
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Academic Publications
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RESOLUTION IS THE SOLUTION
SPATIAL
SPECTRAL
TEMPORAL
Sentinel 2A imagery of Aleppo, Syria acquired July 25, 2016 – August 1, 2016 (ESA 2016)
1960
1970
1980
1990
http://richiecarmichael.github.io/sat/index.html#
2000
2010
2018
Why does this matter to you? • We can identify the timing of a event down to 1985) • We can locate anything larger than 10 m at least 1/month (>2015) • This technology is very powerful and it is growing very fast. This type of analysis is now expected in almost every field. • A basic understanding is necessary, for all
• Now: wildfire, forest cover and forest health examples
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Wildfire • What can we do about wildfire? – Near-realtime
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% • Global thermal anomaly 4-8 times daily (Modis, VIIRS) • 250-1000 m resolution • Cannot see through clouds • Also comes with imagery • Free
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We can map fires with SAR -8
Backscatter Values
-12
-16
-20
2015
2016
2017
2018
Image Acquisition Date
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https://earthenginepartners.appspot.com/science-2013-global-forest 2018-02-28
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Recent Forest Loss in British Columbia
Data source: Hansen et al. (2013)
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Forest, Gain, Loss, and Net over BC
Data source: Hansen et al. (2013)
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Total Disturbed Area Over Time, Canada
SoF over estimates CanLaD most accurate LOSS (Hansen et al.) underestimates
Guindon et al. (2018)
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2017-09-14
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White et al. (2016)
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Hart and Veblen (2015)
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• This field is growing • Much can be done for free • Operationally relevant • It is about asking the right questions…
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Thanks!
[email protected]
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