Passive Remote Sensing: allocations, sensors, measurements and applications

Thomas.vonDeak@nasa.gov NASA HQ Spectrum Management REMOTE Office SENSING WORKSHOP

Geneva, Switzerland 11 December 2007

Passive Sensing
Radio Regulation No. 1.183 (definition) Passive Sensor: A measuring instrument in the earth explorationsatellite service or in the space research service by means of which information is obtained by reception of radio waves of emissions from the ground, air, Radio waves of natural origin arenatural origin.
and water. All objects emit radio waves and the emissions convey information about those objects.

Remote sensing is a layered system

The complete remote sensing system addresses societal concerns

Use of the Passive Bands

Passive sensors are designed to receive and measure natural emissions produced by the Earths surface and its atmosphere. The frequency and strength of these natural emissions characterize the type and status of many important geophysical, which describe the status of the Earth/Atmosphere/Oceans System: Earth surface parameters such as soil moisture, sea surface temperature, ice extension and age, snow cover, rainfall over land, etc ... ; Three-dimensional atmospheric parameters (low, medium, and upper atmosphere) such as wind circulation, temperature profiles, water vapour content and concentration profiles of radiatively and chemically important trace gazes (for instance O3, SO2 and ClO).

Use of the Passive Bands

Microwave observations at frequencies below 100 GHz enable studies of the Earths surface and its atmosphere from spaceborne instruments even in the presence of clouds, because clouds are almost transparent at these frequencies. This "all-weather" observing capability has been very important for EESS in achieving the repetitive global coverage mandatory for meteorological, climatological, and environmental monitoring and surveying.

The impressive progress made in recent years in weather analysis, warning and forecasts, especially for dangerous weather phenomena that affect all populations and economies is largely attributable to the spaceborne observations and their assimilation in numerical models.
Play a major role in the prediction and detection of disasters.

Use of the Passive Bands

Typical bands and their main application:
1400-1427

MHz: salinity (ocean), soil moisture (ground)

10.6-10.7 MHz: rain, snow, ice, sea state, ocean wind

23.6-24 GHz: total content of water vapour 31.3-31.5 GHz: the lowest cumulated effects due to oxygen and water vapour in the vicinity of the 50 GHz band. Optimum window channel to see the Earths surface: reference for the other channels. 36-37 GHz: cloud liquid water, vegetation structure, surface roughness

50.2-50.4 GHz: temperature profile

Passive Sensors observe through the atmosphere

Sensitivity of Brightness Temperature to Geophysical Parameters over Land Surface

Tb Pi
Surface roughness Vegetation biomass

Cloud liquid water

Soil moisture Integrated water vapour

10

15

20 Frequency (GHz)

25

30

35

40

Spectrum Spectral Sensitivity to Environmental Parameters: Ocean Scene

SALINITY WIND SPEED

LIQUID CLOUDS

WATER VAPOUR

Tb Pi

Frequency (GHz)

10

20

30

40

SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE

Aqua Instruments AMSR-E

Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS 12-Channels, 6 frequencies 6.9-89.0 GHz dual-polarization 5.4-56 km footprint at nadir All weather

AMSR-E Products

Precipitation Rate Cloud Water Surface wind speed over oceans Sea Surface Temperature Ice, Snow and Soil Moisture

Aqua Instruments AMSU/A

Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit 15 Microwave Channels 15-90 GHz ~40 km footprint at nadir All-Weather

Global composite of brightness temperature (K) From AMSU-A Channel 3

Radiation Measurements to Vertical Soundings

AIRS and AMSU data combined to create vertical soundings of temperature and humidity Air and/or water vapor at various heights (pressures) contribute to the total radiation measurement viewed from space. The contribution peaks at different pressures for different wavelengths

Improve Accuracy of Severe Weather Warnings

Microwave Imagery and Sounding products improve prediction of precipitation, surface wind speed and direction Increase in hurricane landfall forecast skill saves an estimated $1 million per mile of coastline that does not have to be evacuated Improved observations yield improved early warnings, which in turn mitigate the devastating effects of floods through disaster planning and response

Disaster Management
EARTH SYSTEM MODELS Earthquake: MMI, Quakesim Hurricane: HURRSIM Flood: SLOSH, WAVEwatch, STWAVE, HURSURGE Land: GPS Network, SBEACH Earthquake prediction Floods Hurricane & Typhoons DECISION SUPPORT TOOLS HAZUS-MH (Hazards U.S. Multi Hazard) Disaster Recovery/ Mitigation

VALUE & BENEFITS

Identify/ Prioritize high-risk communities Reduction in lives lost Reduction in damage cost

Building Cost Models: ATC-13

Building Structure Models: EPEDAT
*Supported Non-NASA Model

Land use decision

Potential economic loss Estimation of direct damage, induced damage, direct losses, and indirect losses

Data EARTH OBSERVATORIES Land: Landsat, SRTM, GPS, SCIGN, Terra, Aqua Ocean: QuickSCAT, Seawinds, IceSAT, GOES, POES, SSMI, JASON, TOPEX/POSEIDON Atmosphere: TRMM, GOES, POES, GPM, NPP, NPOESS
*Future Mission

Land Surface Topography

Global Precipitation Ocean Surface Winds Surface Deformation Motions of the Earths Interior

Accurate risk prediction to communities Loss estimates of buildings, essential facilities, transportation & utility lifelines, and population Social impacts

Anticipate the scope of disaster-related damage

Improve disaster response Community Planning

Disaster Related Remote Sensing Applications

Weather Prediction: a key input to numerical weather prediction models used globally for weather forecasting. (Microwave(passive)) Global Warming: concentrations and distributions of atmospheric gases, sea and land ice thickness and change, and ozone measurements are key components to studying and prediction of global warming. (Microwave(passive), Infrared) Severe Weather Events: the prediction of severe weather events requires accurate measurements of rain rates in storms over the oceans which is only possible with remote sensing satellites. (Microwave(passive)) Forest Fires: detection of fires through smoke by their microwave radiation. (Infrared)

Key Applications (continued)

Management of Natural Resources: measurements of biomass, deforestation, and water resources through systematic environmental monitoring. (Microwave (passive), Infrared, Optical) Volcanoes: used to detect volcanic activity even before eruptions and to track and predict the volcanic fallout effects. (Optical, Microwave (active), Infrared, SubM) Shipping: used to track sea ice, ice floes, and ocean storms to steer ships out of harms way. (Optical, MW(active)) Long Range Climate Forecasts: study of global atmospheric and oceanic events such as El Nio requires sea surface temperature, ocean winds, ocean wave height, and many other components used in the prediction of long range weather forecasting and climatic trends. (Microwave (active/passive))

Remote Sensing Report

ITU-D SG 2 Question 22/2 Utilization of ICT for
disaster management, resources, and active and passive space-based sensing systems as they apply to disaster and emergency relief situations
Work Item 2: Identification and examination of active and passive sensing system applications for their potential effect in enhancing disaster mitigation.

Version 1 of the Report is complete and available upon request from the presenter.

THANK YOU!
Thomas vonDeak NASA HQ Spectrum Management Office

(VIEWS EXPRESSED ARE THOSE OF THE PRESENTER AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THOSE OF NASA.)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Global Passive Sensor Systems

AQUARIUS Aquarius is a focused satellite mission to measure global Sea Surface Sainity. Aquarius will resolve missing physical processes that link the water cycle, the climate, and the ocean. Aqua, collects information on the Earths water cycle. The AMSR-E instrument observes atmospheric, lad, oceanic, and cryospheric parameters, including precipitation, sea surface temperatures, ice concentrations, snow water equivalent, surface wetness, wind speed, atmospheric cloud water, and water vapor. The AMSU instrument is a 15-channel microwave sounder designed primarily to obtain temperature profiles in the upper atmosphere (especially the stratosphere) and to provide a cloud-filtering capability for tropospheric temperature observations. Coriolis is a 3-year meteorological science mission to demonstrate the viability of using polarimetry to measure ocean surface wind speed and direction from space, and to demonstrate predictions of geomagnetic disturbances through continuous observation of Coronal Mass Ejections. Its WinSat instrument is a passive polarimetric microwave radiometer developed as a risk reduction item in the development of the planned production Conial Microwave Imager Sounder. The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) monitors the meteorological, oceanographic, and solar-terrestrial physics environments. The SSM/I instrument is a seven-channel, four frequency, linearly-polarize, passive microwave radiometric system whose data is sued to obtain synoptic maps of critical atmospheric, oceanographic and selected land parameters on a global scale. The SSM/T instrument is a five channel, total power microwave radiometer designed to provide global monitoring of the concentration of water vapor in the atmosphere under all sky conditions.
www.nasa.gov

AQUA

CORIOLIS

DMSP

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Global Passive Sensor Systems

GCOM JAXAs Global Change Observation Missions (GCOM) will carry the AMSR2 instrument which is an upgraded version of the AMSR-E instrument on NASAs AQUA mission. Jason-1 is the first satellite in a series designed to ensure continued observation of the oceans for several decades. The JASON-1 Microwave Radiometer (JMR) is a passive sensor which acquires measurements via three separate frequency channels to determine the path delay of the altimeters radar signal due to atmospheric water vapor. Megha-Tropique is designed to investigate the contribution of the water cycle to climate dynamics specifically in the tropical regions. Its Microwave Analysis and Detection of Rain and Atmospheric Structures (MADRAS) passive sensor measures cloud, precipitation and upper atmospheric ice parameters. The overall objective of the Meteor-M-1 mission are to provide operational meteorological services. The objective of MTVZA is to monitor ocean and land surfaces as well as global atmospheric parameters such as temperature and water vapor profiles and to obtain sea surface wind profiles. MetOp promises to provide outstanding data sets to advance the filed of meteorology, which will ultimately improve the accuracy of weather forecasting and our understanding of climate change. AMSU-A and AMSU-B passively measure+C17 scene radiance which is used in conjunction with an infrared sounder to calculate the global atmospheric temperature and humidity profiles.

JASON

MEGHATROPIQUE

METEOR-M-1

METOP

www.nasa.gov

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Global Passive Sensor Systems

NOAA (=GOES) The NOAA satellites, more commonly known as the geostationary operational environmental satellites (GOES), are used for short-range warning and nowcasting and use a form of the AMSU sensor found on NASAs AQUA satellite. National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) and its Preparatory Project (NPP) collects and distributes remotely-sensed land, ocean, and atmospheric data to the meteorological and global climate change communities. The Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) passively collects atmospheric data to permit the calculation of temperature and moisture profiles at high (~daily) temporal resolution. The OKEAN series of satellites provide oceanagraphic monitoring including measurements of arctic ice. ESAs Sentinel-3 satellite will be dedicated to providing operational oceanographic services. ESAs Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission has been designed to observe soil moisture over the Earths landmasses and salinity over the oceans. The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) is a mission designed to monitor and study tropical rainfall. The TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) is a passive microwave sensor designed to provide quantitative rainfall information over a wide swath under the TRMM satellite.

NPP & NPOES

OKEAN-1 Sentinel-3 SMOS TRMM

www.nasa.gov

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Capabilities of Space-Based Sensing

Societal Benefit Three: Understanding climate variability and change.

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National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Capabilities of Space-Based Sensing

Societal Benefit Eight: Improving terrestrial, coastal, and marine ecosystems..

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National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Capabilities of Space-Based Sensing

Societal Benefit Eight: Improving terrestrial, coastal, and marine ecosystems..

www.nasa.gov
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National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Capabilities of Space-Based Sensing

Societal Benefit Three: Understanding climate variability and change.

www.nasa.gov
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National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Capabilities of Space-Based Sensing

Societal Benefit One: Reducing loss of life and property from disasters.. Prediction
www.nasa.gov
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National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Capabilities of Space-Based Sensing

Societal Benefit One: Reducing loss of life and property from disasters.. Prediction
www.nasa.gov
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National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Capabilities of Space-Based Sensing

Societal Benefit One: Reducing loss of life and property from disasters.. Prediction, Disaster Event Assessment, Monitoring
www.nasa.gov
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