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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Drinking Water Infrastructure Assessment With Teleconnection Signals, Satellite Data Fusion And Mining, Sanaz Imen Jan 2015

Drinking Water Infrastructure Assessment With Teleconnection Signals, Satellite Data Fusion And Mining, Sanaz Imen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Adjustment of the drinking water treatment process as a simultaneous response to climate variations and water quality impact has been a grand challenge in water resource management in recent years. This desired and preferred capability depends on timely and quantitative knowledge to monitor the quality and availability of water. This issue is of great importance for the largest reservoir in the United States, Lake Mead, which is located in the proximity of a big metropolitan region - Las Vegas, Nevada. The water quality in Lake Mead is impaired by forest fires, soil erosion, and land use changes in nearby watersheds …


A Roughness Correction For Aquarius Ocean Brightness Temperature Using The Conae Microwave Radiometer, Yazan Hejazin Jan 2015

A Roughness Correction For Aquarius Ocean Brightness Temperature Using The Conae Microwave Radiometer, Yazan Hejazin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Aquarius/SAC-D is a joint NASA/CONAE (Argentine Space Agency) Earth Sciences satellite mission to measure global sea surface salinity (SSS), using an L-band radiometer that measures ocean brightness temperature (Tb). The application of L-band radiometry to retrieve SSS is a difficult task, and therefore, precise Tb corrections are necessary to obtain accurate measurements. One of the major error sources is the effect of ocean roughness that "warms" the ocean Tb. The Aquarius (AQ) instrument (L-band radiometer/scatterometer) baseline approach uses the radar scatterometer to provide this ocean roughness correction, through the correlation of radar backscatter with the excess ocean emissivity. In contrast, …


Integrated Remote Sensing And Forecasting Of Regional Terrestrial Precipitation With Global Nonlinear And Nonstationary Teleconnection Signals Using Wavelet Analysis, Lee Mullon Jan 2014

Integrated Remote Sensing And Forecasting Of Regional Terrestrial Precipitation With Global Nonlinear And Nonstationary Teleconnection Signals Using Wavelet Analysis, Lee Mullon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Global sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies have a demonstrable effect on terrestrial climate dynamics throughout the continental U.S. SST variations have been correlated with greenness (vegetation densities) and precipitation via ocean-atmospheric interactions known as climate teleconnections. Prior research has demonstrated that teleconnections can be used for climate prediction across a wide region at sub-continental scales. Yet these studies tend to have large uncertainties in estimates by utilizing simple linear analyses to examine chaotic teleconnection relationships. Still, non-stationary signals exist, making teleconnection identification difficult at the local scale. Part 1 of this research establishes short-term (10-year), linear and non-stationary teleconnection signals …


Remote Sensing With Computational Intelligence Modelling For Monitoring The Ecosystem State And Hydraulic Pattern In A Constructed Wetland, Golam Mohiuddin Jan 2014

Remote Sensing With Computational Intelligence Modelling For Monitoring The Ecosystem State And Hydraulic Pattern In A Constructed Wetland, Golam Mohiuddin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Monitoring the heterogeneous aquatic environment such as the Stormwater Treatment Areas (STAs) located at the northeast of the Everglades is extremely important in understanding the land processes of the constructed wetland in its capacity to remove nutrient. Direct monitoring and measurements of ecosystem evolution and changing velocities at every single part of the STA are not always feasible. Integrated remote sensing, monitoring, and modeling technique can be a state-of-the-art tool to estimate the spatial and temporal distributions of flow velocity regimes and ecological functioning in such dynamic aquatic environments. In this presentation, comparison between four computational intelligence models including Extreme …


Integrated Data Fusion And Mining (Idfm) Technique For Monitoring Water Quality In Large And Small Lakes, Benjamin Vannah Jan 2013

Integrated Data Fusion And Mining (Idfm) Technique For Monitoring Water Quality In Large And Small Lakes, Benjamin Vannah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Monitoring water quality on a near-real-time basis to address water resources management and public health concerns in coupled natural systems and the built environment is by no means an easy task. Furthermore, this emerging societal challenge will continue to grow, due to the ever-increasing anthropogenic impacts upon surface waters. For example, urban growth and agricultural operations have led to an influx of nutrients into surface waters stimulating harmful algal bloom formation, and stormwater runoff from urban areas contributes to the accumulation of total organic carbon (TOC) in surface waters. TOC in surface waters is a known precursor of disinfection byproducts …


Forecasting Volcanic Activity Using An Event Tree Analysis System And Logistic Regression, William N. Junek Jan 2012

Forecasting Volcanic Activity Using An Event Tree Analysis System And Logistic Regression, William N. Junek

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Forecasts of short term volcanic activity are generated using an event tree process that is driven by a set of empirical statistical models derived through logistic regression. Each of the logistic models are constructed from a sparse and geographically diverse dataset that was assembled from a collection of historic volcanic unrest episodes. The dataset consists of monitoring measurements (e.g. seismic), source modeling results, and historic eruption information. Incorporating this data into a single set of models provides a simple mechanism for simultaneously accounting for the geophysical changes occurring within the volcano and the historic behavior of analog volcanoes. A bootstrapping …


Incorporating Remotely Sensed Data Into Coastal Hydrodynamic Models: Parameterization Of Surface Roughness And Spatio-Temporal Validation Of Inundation Area, Stephen Conroy Medeiros Jan 2012

Incorporating Remotely Sensed Data Into Coastal Hydrodynamic Models: Parameterization Of Surface Roughness And Spatio-Temporal Validation Of Inundation Area, Stephen Conroy Medeiros

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the use of remotely sensed data in coastal tide and inundation models, specifically how these data could be more effectively integrated into model construction and performance assessment techniques. It includes a review of numerical wetting and drying algorithms, a method for constructing a seamless digital terrain model including the handling of tidal datums, an investigation into the accuracy of land use / land cover (LULC) based surface roughness parameterization schemes, an application of a cutting edge remotely sensed inundation detection method to assess the performance of a tidal model, and a preliminary investigation into using 3-dimensional airborne …


A Microwave Radiometer Roughness Correction Algorithm For Sea Surface Salinity Retrieval, Yazan Henry Hejazin Jan 2012

A Microwave Radiometer Roughness Correction Algorithm For Sea Surface Salinity Retrieval, Yazan Henry Hejazin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Aquarius/SAC-D is an Earth Science remote sensing satellite mission to measure global Sea Surface Salinity (SSS) that is sponsored by the NASA and the Argentine Space Agency (CONAE). The prime remote sensor is the Aquarius (AQ) L-band radiometer/scatterometer, which measures the L-band emitted blackbody radiation (brightness temperature) from the ocean. The brightness temperature at L-band is proportional to the ocean salinity as well as a number of physical parameters including ocean surface wind speed. The salinity retrieval algorithm make corrections for all other parameters before retrieving salinity, and the greatest of these is the increased brightness temperature due to …


Engineering Evaluation Of Multi-Beam Satellite Antenna Boresight Pointing Using Land/Water Crossings, Catherine Susan May Jan 2012

Engineering Evaluation Of Multi-Beam Satellite Antenna Boresight Pointing Using Land/Water Crossings, Catherine Susan May

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Microwave Radiometer (MWR) on the Aquarius/SAC-D mission measures microwave radiation from earth and intervening atmosphere in terms of brightness temperature (Tb). It takes measurements in a push-broom fashion at K (23.8GHz) and Ka (36.5 GHz) band frequencies using two separate antenna systems, each producing eight antenna beams. Pre-launch knowledge of the alignment of these beams with respect to the space-craft is used to geolocate the antenna footprints on ground. As a part of MWR’s on-orbit engineering check-out, the verification of MWR’s pointing accuracy is discussed here. The technique used to assess MWR’s pointing involved comparing the radiometer image of …


An Improved Ocean Vector Winds Retrieval Approach Using C- And Ku-Band Scatterometer And Multi-Frequency Microwave Radiometer Measurements, Suleiman Odeh Alsweiss Jan 2011

An Improved Ocean Vector Winds Retrieval Approach Using C- And Ku-Band Scatterometer And Multi-Frequency Microwave Radiometer Measurements, Suleiman Odeh Alsweiss

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation will specifically address the issue of improving the quality of satellite scatterometer retrieved ocean surface vector winds (OVW), especially in the presence of strong rain associated with tropical cyclones. A novel active/passive OVW retrieval algorithm is developed that corrects Ku-band scatterometer measurements for rain effects and then uses them to retrieve accurate OVW. The rain correction procedure makes use of independent information available from collocated multi-frequency passive microwave observations provided by a companion sensor and also from simultaneous C-band scatterometer measurements. The synergy of these active and passive measurements enables improved correction for rain effects, which enhances the …


An Improved Hurrican Wind Vector Retrieval Algorithm Using Sea Winds Scatterometer, Peth Laupattarakasem Jan 2009

An Improved Hurrican Wind Vector Retrieval Algorithm Using Sea Winds Scatterometer, Peth Laupattarakasem

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over the last three decades, microwave remote sensing has played a significant role in ocean surface wind measurement, and several scatterometer missions have flown in space since early 1990's. Although they have been extremely successful for measuring ocean surface winds with high accuracy for the vast majority of marine weather conditions, unfortunately, the conventional scatterometer cannot measure extreme winds condition such as hurricane. The SeaWinds scatterometer, onboard the QuikSCAT satellite is NASA's only operating scatterometer at present. Like its predecessors, it measures global ocean vector winds; however, for a number of reasons, the quality of the measurements in hurricanes are …


Hurricane Wind Retrieval Algorithm Development For An Airborne Conical Scanning Scatterometer, Santhosh Vasudevan Jan 2006

Hurricane Wind Retrieval Algorithm Development For An Airborne Conical Scanning Scatterometer, Santhosh Vasudevan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Reliable ocean wind vector measurements can be obtained using active microwave remote sensing (scatterometry) techniques. With the increase in the number of severe hurricanes making landfall in the United States, there is increased emphasis on operational monitoring of hurricane winds from aircraft. This thesis presents a data processing algorithm to provide real-time hurricane wind vector retrievals (wind speed and direction) from conically scanning airborne microwave scatterometer measurements of ocean surface backscatter. The algorithm is developed to best suit the specifications for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Hurricane Research Division's airborne scatterometer – Integrated Wind and Rain Airborne Profiler …


Raindrop Size Distribution Retrieval And Evaluation Using An S-Band Radar Profiler, Fang Fang Jan 2004

Raindrop Size Distribution Retrieval And Evaluation Using An S-Band Radar Profiler, Fang Fang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Vertical pointing Doppler radar profilers are used to explore the vertical structure of precipitation cloud systems and to provide validation information for use in weather research. In this thesis, a theoretical radar rain-backscatter model was developed to simulate profiler Doppler spectra as a function of assumed rain parameters, of which the raindrop size distribution (DSD) is the fundamental quantity used to describe the characteristics of rain. Also, profiler observations during stratiform rain are analyzed to retrieve the corresponding rain DSD’s. In particular, a gamma distribution model is introduced, which uses Rayleigh scattering portion of the Doppler velocity spectrum to estimate …


A Liquid Crystal Light Valve Used In A Remote Sensor, William Alexander Kownacki Jan 1977

A Liquid Crystal Light Valve Used In A Remote Sensor, William Alexander Kownacki

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

A nematic liquid crystal cell is used in conjunction with a mirror retro-reflector to modulate a low-power laser beam. The object is to determine the feasibility of the combination in transmitting information from a remote sensor without a large energy source at that sensor. Analog modulation does not appear workable, but a digitally-encoded scheme is feasible.


Remote Sensing Of Earth Resources System Capabilities V.S. Design Constraints, William Howard Grisham Jul 1973

Remote Sensing Of Earth Resources System Capabilities V.S. Design Constraints, William Howard Grisham

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

There is new evidence that global earth resources satellite net will be practical. This paper weighs recent advances in remote sensing to pinpoint the dominant constraints. The data and sensor systems interfacing requirements are critically reviewed. It is shown that conventional optics constraints can be relaxed, with the newer systems, based on multi-spectral imagery and statistical processing methods. The most powerful computational methods use algorithms based on a Gaussian assumption for the species vector in feature space, but biases in the imagery limit their efficiency. A rationale is proposed: improving the observational network calibrating efficiency will also improve the photogrammetric …


Remote Sensing Of Environmental Parameters, Wendell Princeton Perkins Jan 1972

Remote Sensing Of Environmental Parameters, Wendell Princeton Perkins

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

Atmospheric pollution in some degree has been around since time began. In recent times it has reached levels in some areas which proved to be harmful to man's health. A brief history review of these occurrences is presented. Laws have been enacted to combat this threat. A brief review of these laws is presented. Instruments for remote sensing of polluting sources are being developed to monitor ambient air quality and aid in enforcing these laws. A review of the techniques employed and the present state of the art is explored. Available instruments are presented in section III-5.