Digital Commons Network^™

Wildfire Modeling With Data Assimilation, Andrew Johnston

Theses and Dissertations

Wildfire modeling is a complex, computationally costly endeavor, but with droughts worsening and fires burning across the western United States, obtaining accurate wildfire predictions is more important than ever. In this paper, we present a novel approach to wildfire modeling using data assimiliation. We model wildfire spread with a modification of the partial differential equation model described by Mandel et al. in their 2008 paper. Specifically, we replace some constant parameter values with geospatial functions of fuel type. We combine deep learning and remote sensing to obtain real-time data for the model and employ the Nelder-Mead method to recover optimal …

Geologic Mapping Of The Sparta 7.5-Minute Quadrangle In Northern Mississippi Via Remote Sensing, Traditional Geologic Survey, And Applied Geospatial Information Systems Methods, Rayford Dean Parnell

Theses and Dissertations

Traditional geologic mapping involves substantial time and labor in the field as geologic contacts are manually examined and interpreted. The processes of mapping geologic contacts can be condensed into a quicker and less laborious process using advances in remote sensing and GIS (geospatial information systems), including increased resolution and computerized data management and interpretation. Application of these advances reduces the costs and time of geologic mapping. The Sparta 7.5-minute quadrangle provides a mostly unaltered view of regional Paleocene and Upper Cretaceous geology due to its rural locale, lack of development, and stream topography. Recently LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) survey …

Hydrothermal Alteration Targeting And Geophysical Mineral Exploration Of Eureka And Sylvanite Mining Districts, Southwest New Mexico, Kenneth Singh

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

As part of the southwestern North American porphyry copper province, mining of natural resources in New Mexico has historically played a crucial role in economic development for over 150 years including this project area in the Little Hatchet Mountains. The northern half of the Little Hatchet Mountains lies in Grant County and includes the Eureka Mining District (EMD) whereas the southern half is in Hidalgo County and includes the Sylvanite Mining District (SMD), 38 miles southeast of Lordsburg. The EMD, a copper and silver-lead mining district from 1880-1961, had a total estimated production from the Laramide veins of 2.9 million …

Oam-Based Wavelets In A High Speed Optical Probing System For Measuring The Angular Decomposition Of The Environment, Justin Free

All Theses

This thesis presents the theoretical development of orbital angular momentum (OAM) based wavelets for the analysis of localized OAM information in space. An optical probing system for generating and detecting these wavelets is demonstrated; individual wavelets can scan the environment in 10µs or less. The probing system was applied to a three-dimensional atmospheric turbulence distribution to obtain a continuous wavelet transform of the angular information of the turbulent propagation path about a fixed radius. An entire continuous wavelet transform was measured in 3.8ms; the measurements are much faster than the turbulence and give insight into the short time scale of …

Fitting Solar Panel Brdf Parameters To Out-Of-Plane Empirical Data, Michael R. Gross

Theses and Dissertations

The bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) describes material reflectance by describing how incident irradiance reflects into all possible scatter angles as a function of incident angle. However, a solar panel has unique features that are not featured in any of these previously known models. A previous project at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) created a novel microfacet-like BRDF to model a solar panel with a prominent diffractive feature present which had not been previously modeled. This BRDF was coded into MATLAB for modeling purposes and C++ to test its speed with a MEX function call. A previous thesis …

Characterization Of Smoke Particles Toward Improved Remote Sensing Retrievals And Chemical Transport Modeling, Chenchong Zhang

McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Wildfires increase in extent, intensity, and frequency across the globe over the recent decades. The uncontrolled fires trigger cascading effects on local ecosystems and the fire emissions pose a higher risk to air quality and climate. Wildfire emissions contain a variety of trace gases and particulate matters. The particle-phase emissions, especially those light-absorbing species including black carbon (BC) and brown carbon (BrC), significantly affect the regional and global climate by modulating the radiative transfer phenomena in the atmosphere. A great discrepancy still exists between model- and observation-based estimates of aerosol-radiation interactions (ARI). The discrepancy is partially attributed to the mischaracterizations …

Quantifying Aboveground Biomass In A Tropical Forest Using A Lidar Waveform Weighted Allometric Model, Alejandro Rojas

Theses and Dissertations

Our knowledge of the distribution and amount of terrestrial above ground biomass (AGB) has increased using lidar technology. Recent advancements in satellite lidar has enabled global mapping of forest biomass and structure. However, there are large biases in satellite lidar estimates which impacts our understanding of carbon dynamics, particularly in tropical forests.

Ni-Meister et al. (2022) developed a lidar full waveform weighted height-based allometric model which produced very good results in temperate deciduous/conifer forest in the continental US. The purpose of this study was to evaluate this biomass model in an African tropical forest using the Land Vegetation and Ice …

Fan And Fracture Formation: Morphologic And Sedimentologic Characteristics Of Alluvial Fans On Earth And Mars, And Fracture Population Distributions On Europa, Claire A. Mondro

Doctoral Dissertations

Planetary science is inherently limited by the resolution and coverage of the currently available data. What can be observed in person, measured precisely in high-resolution data, or sampled for lab analysis in terrestrial investigations ca only be inferred, modeled, or hypothesized on other planetary bodies. The Earth remains our best tool for understanding the geologic systems of the rest of the Solar System. By applying what is known or can be measured about terrestrial systems, it is possible to determine how large-scale controls and observable features relate to geologic complexity that is beyond the resolution of planetary data. This dissertation …

Spatiotemporal Data Augmentation Of Modis-Landsat Water Bodies Using Generative Adversarial Networks, Ashit Neema

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The monitoring of the shape and area of a water body is an essential component for many Earth science and Hydrological applications. For this purpose, these applications require remote sensing data which provides accurate analysis of the water bodies. In this thesis the same is being attempted, first, a model is created that can map the information from one kind of satellite that captures the data from a distance of 500m to another data that is captured by a different satellite at a distance of 30m. To achieve this, we first collected the data from both of the satellites and …

Classifying The 2022 Status Of Tsuga Canadensis (Eastern Hemlock) Along The Kentucky Portion Of The Pine Mountain Wildlands Corridor., Grace M. Embree

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The invasion of the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA) (Adelges tsugae) has posed a continual threat in the United States to the Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) trees since the 1950s. HWA feed on eastern hemlock needles, reducing the amount of healthy photosynthesizing vegetative area. The use of satellite imagery has been instrumental in identifying areas of eastern hemlock presence. Satellite platforms like Landsat and AVIRIS are commonly used for identification, classification, and mapping of eastern hemlock. Sentinel-2 imagery was released in 2015 for free access. It has a finer spatial grain of with the majority of the …

Remote Sensing Of High Latitude Rivers: Approaches, Insights, And Future Ramifications, Merritt E. Harlan

Doctoral Dissertations

High latitude rivers across the pan-Arctic domain are changing due to changes in climate and positive Arctic feedback loops. Understanding and contextualizing these changes is challenging due to a lack of data and methods for estimating and modeling river discharge, and mapping rivers. Remote sensing, and the availability of satellite imagery can provide ways to overcome these challenges. Through combining various forms of fieldwork, modeling, deep learning, and remote sensing, we contribute methodologies and knowledge to three key challenges associated with better understanding high latitude rivers. In the first chapter, we combine field data that can be rapidly deployed with …

Models And Machine Learning Techniques For Improving The Planning And Operation Of Electricity Systems In Developing Regions, Santiago Correa Cardona

Doctoral Dissertations

The enormous innovation in computational intelligence has disrupted the traditional ways we solve the main problems of our society and allowed us to make more data-informed decisions. Energy systems and the ways we deliver electricity are not exceptions to this trend: cheap and pervasive sensing systems and new communication technologies have enabled the collection of large amounts of data that are being used to monitor and predict in real-time the behavior of this infrastructure. Bringing intelligence to the power grid creates many opportunities to integrate new renewable energy sources more efficiently, facilitate grid planning and expansion, improve reliability, optimize electricity …

Studying Suspended Sediment Concentrations In The South Chickamauga Creek Of Chattanooga, Tn Using Satellite Imagery, Digital Image Processing, And Numeric Modeling, Abigail Faxon

Honors Theses

In recent years, Hamilton County, TN has experienced extensive urban growth. According to US Census data, Hamilton County welcomed more than 33,000 new residents in the last decade. There is increased concern about the environmental sustainability of Chattanooga’s urban growth because significant impervious surface development has taken place along the South Chickamauga Creek. This leaves the creek subject to increased urban runoff, which often carries sediments with different municipal pollutants. Thus, monitoring turbidity in the stream water is important to determine the sustainability of urban development in Chattanooga, TN. In this research, we have compared the viability of using different …

Disaster Site Structure Analysis: Examining Effective Remote Sensing Techniques In Blue Tarpaulin Inspection, Madeline G. Miles

Theses

This thesis aimed to evaluate three methods of analyzing blue roofing tarpaulin (tarp) placed on homes in post natural disaster zones with remote sensing techniques by assessing the different methods- image segmentation, machine learning (ML), and supervised classification. One can determine which is the most efficient and accurate way of detecting blue tarps. The concept here was that using the most efficient and accurate way to locate blue tarps can aid federal, state, and local emergency management (EM) operations and homeowners. In the wake of a natural disaster such as a tornado, hurricane, thunderstorm, or similar weather events, roofs are …

Improving Asteroid Remote Sensing By Examining Past Martian Methods, James Dean King

Theses

Deep Space Remote Sensing is an ever-evolving field. The very first missions into deep space were explorations that utilized trial and error, as humanity faced a new frontier of unknowns. Over these 70 years of deep space exploration, much attention has been given to our three nearest celestial neighbors: the Moon, Venus, and Mars. Mars, in particular, has been the target of much observation and study due to it being a target for future colonization. Meanwhile, the areas beyond Mars have had comparatively less focus. Asteroids and objects beyond Mars offer many new horizons for humanity to study. By using …

Understanding The Relationship Between Urban Areas And The Boundary Layer Using Remote Sensing Methods, Gabriel A. Rios

Dissertations and Theses

The atmospheric boundary layer is crucial to the exchange in energy between the Earth's surface and the atmosphere. Within this layer, the majority of human activities are carried out, which makes understanding the boundary layer especially important for many of our interests. A key component of this energy exchange is found at the surface, was surface properties are the interface through which momentum, heat, moisture, and other fluxes are transferred between media. Not only does the surface act as an interface, but as an actor that influences the exchange efficiency and rates. This concept is the crux of atmospheric boundary …

Analysis Of Eelgrass In Padilla Bay, Washington Using An Uncrewed Aerial System, Hannah Hein

WWU Graduate School Collection

Eelgrass is an important part of coastal environments in the Pacific Northwest as it provides crucial habitat and moderates storm surge. Padilla Bay, Washington is home to one of the largest eelgrass meadows in North America and contains the native Zostera marina and the non-native Z. japonica. The relationship between these two species is of interest due to the influx of Z. japonica in previously unvegetated areas. I used an uncrewed aerial system (UAS) and a multispectral camera to study species dynamics. I compared the ability of values derived from the band data, two vegetation indices, and a principal …

Evaluation Of Tidal Fresh Forest Distributions And Tropical Storm Impacts Using Sentinel-2 Msi Imagery, Galen Costomiris

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Situated in the transitional zone between non-tidal forests upstream and tidal fresh marshes downstream, tidal fresh forests occupy a unique and increasingly precarious habitat. The threat of intensifying anthropogenic climate change, compounded by the effects of historical logging and drainage alterations, could reduce the extent of this valuable ecosystem. The overall goals of this project were to identify forest communities present in the Altamaha tidal fresh forest; develop satellite imagery-based classifications of tidal fresh forest and tidal marsh vegetation along the Altamaha River, Georgia; and to quantify changes in vegetation distribution in the aftermath of hurricanes Matthew and Irma. Based …

Fine Scale Mapping Of Laurentian Mixed Forest Natural Habitat Communities Using Multispectral Naip And Uav Datasets Combined With Machine Learning Methods, Parth P. Bhatt

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Natural habitat communities are an important element of any forest ecosystem. Mapping and monitoring Laurentian Mixed Forest natural communities using high spatial resolution imagery is vital for management and conservation purposes. This study developed integrated spatial, spectral and Machine Learning (ML) approaches for mapping complex vegetation communities. The study utilized ultra-high and high spatial resolution National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) datasets, and Digital Elevation Model (DEM). Complex natural vegetation community habitats in the Laurentian Mixed Forest of the Upper Midwest. A detailed workflow is presented to effectively process UAV imageries in a dense forest environment …

Changes In Lake Drainage In The Western Canadian Arctic, Dilshan Kariyawasam, Philip Marsh Dr

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Nearly half of all Pan-Arctic lakes are situated in the Canadian Arctic, with many of these lakes being of thermokarst origin. Thermokarst lakes are sensitive to changes in the surrounding environment, making them useful indicators to examine the condition of hydrological systems in response to rapid climate warming, a trend which has been well observed in the Canadian Western Arctic. In this study, we use aerial photography to quantify lake area and count changes for lakes in the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk region, between 1950 and 2004. A combination of aerial photography and Landsat imagery were used in identifying drained thermokarst lake basins …