Earth Sciences Commons^™

A Remote Sensing Based Early Warning System For Algal Blooms In Kuwait Bay And Coastal Waters, Cameron Manche

Masters Theses

The Kuwait Bay and its coastal waters are being threatened by a perpetual hazard, the proliferation of harmful algal blooms (HABS). The frequency of HAB occurrences is a growing problem that is only reported subsequent to the onset of a HAB event. Little effort has been invested in investigating the spatial and temporal distribution of these events in Kuwait Bay and even less is known about their controlling factors. All previous studies within the Kuwait Bay have focused either on measuring nutrient availability and the biodiversity of algal species.

The overall study objective is four-fold: (1) to monitor the spatial …

Hyperspectral Measurements Of Wet, Dry And Saline Soils From The Mcmurdo Dry Valleys: Soil Moisture Properties From Remote Sensing, Joseph S. Levy, Anne Nolin, Andrew G. Fountain, James W. Head

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Soil moisture is a spatially heterogeneous quantity in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica that exerts a large influence on the biological community and on the thermal state of Dry Valleys permafrost. The goal of this project was to determine whether hyperspectral remote sensing techniques could be used to determine soil moisture conditions in the Dry Valleys. We measured the spectral reflectance factors of wetted soil samples from the Dry Valleys under natural light conditions and related diagnostic spectral features to surface layer soil moisture content. Diagnostic water absorption features in the spectra at 1.4 mu m and 1.9 mu …

Porphyry Copper Exploration Of The Hualapai Mountains, Mohave County, Arizona, Usa: A Multi-Faceted Approach, Patrick Kevin Meazell

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

A variety of exploration methods including geologic mapping, trace- and major-level geochemical analyses, fluid inclusion petrography, remote sensing, and SWIR clay spectroscopy were used to investigate the potential for porphyry Cu-Mo mineralization at the Wikieup prospect, in the southern Hualapai Mountains of northwestern Arizona. Aspects of the Mineral Park mine were used as an analogue to guide exploration due to the proximity and similar geology of the area.

The Hualapai Mountains are a series of northwest-trending Precambrian gneisses, schists, granitoids and amphibolites that have been cut by younger intrusive rocks. Within the Wikieup study area, the intrusive rocks include aplite …

Predictive Modeling In The Search For Vertebrate Fossils: Geographic Object Based Image Analysis (Geobia) In The Eocene Of Wyoming, Bryan Bommersbach

Masters Theses

The development and testing of predictive models for identifying productive fossil localities represents a promising interdisciplinary endeavor among geographic information scientists, paleoanthropologists, and vertebrate paleontologists. This thesis analyzed high resolution (2m spatial resolution) commercial satellite imagery from the Worldview-2 satellite of five areas of the Great Divide Basin using a GEographic Object-Based Image Analysis (GEOBIA) technique, which segments the image into spectrally homogeneous, multi-pixel image objects. In addition to allowing statistical analysis of the spectral characteristics of the image objects, GEOBIA techniques also let analysts incorporate expert knowledge and contextual information to improve classification accuracy. The spectral characteristics of the …

Melt Water Input From The Bering Glacier Watershed Into The Gulf Of Alaska, Edward G. Josberger, Robert Shuchman, Liza K. Jenkins, K. A. Endsley

Michigan Tech Research Institute Publications

The annual runoff from the melting of large glaciers and snow fields along the northern perimeter of the Gulf of Alaska is a critical component of marine physical and biological systems; yet, most of this freshwater is not measured. Here we show estimates of melt for the watershed that contains the largest and longest glacier in North America, the Bering Glacier. The procedure combines in situ observations of snow and ice melt acquired by a long-term monitoring program, multispectral satellite observations, and nearby temperature measurements. The estimated melt is 40 km3 per melt season, ± 3.0 km3, observed over the …

Application Of A Hillslope-Scale Soil Moisture Data Assimilation System To Military Trafficability Assessment, Alejandro N. Flores, Dara Entekhabi, Rafael L. Bras

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Soil moisture is an important environmental variable that impacts military operations and weapons systems. Accurate and timely forecasts of soil moisture at appropriate spatial scales, therefore, are important for mission planning. We present an application of a soil moisture data assimilation system to military trafficability assessment. The data assimilation system combines hillslope-scale (e.g., 10s to 100s of m) estimates of soil moisture from a hydrologic model with synthetic L-band microwave radar observations broadly consistent with the planned NASA Soil Moisture Active–Passive (SMAP) mission. Soil moisture outputs from the data assimilation system are input to a simple index-based model for vehicle …

A Remote Sensing Investigation Of Elevated Sub-Horizontal Topographic Surfaces In The Wichita Mountains, Oklahoma, Liang Xue

Masters Theses

"Multiple elevated horizontal to sub-horizontal topographic surfaces are present in the Wichita Mountains, Oklahoma. Elevated topographic surfaces, developed primarily on granite bedrock with gentle slopes of 0.5 to 7⁰,were investigated using 1) Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) extracted from NAD 27 UTM coordinates, 2) Google Earth imagery, and 3) USGS topographic maps. In the western Wichita Mountains prominent topographic surfaces at elevations of 720 ± 5 m, 685 ± 5 m, and 660 ± 5 m are well preserved on at least four different mountains (e.g., Solder's Peak, King Mt.) and can be correlated with similar surfaces on at least seven …

Daily Area Of Snow Melt Onset On Arctic Sea Ice From Passive Microwave Satellite Observations 1979–2012, Angela C. Bliss, Mark R. Anderson

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Variability in snow melt onset (MO) on Arctic sea ice since 1979 is examined by determining the area of sea ice experiencing the onset of melting during the melt season on a daily basis. The daily MO area of the snow and ice surface is determined from passive microwave satellite-derived MO dates for the Arctic Ocean and sub-regions. Annual accumulations of MO area are determined by summing the time series of daily MO area through the melt season. Daily areas and annual accumulations of MO area highlight inter-annual and regional variability in the timing of MO area, which is sensitive …

Merging Remote Sensing Data And National Agricultural Statistics To Model Change In Irrigated Agriculture, Jesslyn F. Brown, Md Shahriar Pervez

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Over 22 million hectares (ha) of U.S. croplands are irrigated. Irrigation is an intensified agricultural land use that increases crop yields and the practice affects water and energy cycles at, above, and below the land surface. Until recently, there has been a scarcity of geospatially detailed information about irrigation that is comprehensive, consistent, and timely to support studies tying agricultural land use change to aquifer water use and other factors. This study shows evidence for a recent overall net expansion of 522 thousand ha across the U.S. (2.33%) and 519 thousand ha (8.7%) in irrigated cropped area across the High …

Numerical Simulation Of “An American Haboob”, A. Vukovic, M. Vujadinovic, G. Pejanovic, J. Andric, M. J. Kumjian, V. Djurdjevic, M. Dacic, Anup K. Prasad, Hesham El-Askary, B. C. Paris, S. Petkovic, W. Sprigg, S. Nickovic

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

A dust storm of fearful proportions hit Phoenix in the early evening hours of 5 July 2011. This storm, an American haboob, was predicted hours in advance because numerical, land–atmosphere modeling, computing power and remote sensing of dust events have improved greatly over the past decade. High-resolution numerical models are required for accurate simulation of the small scales of the haboob process, with high velocity surface winds produced by strong convection and severe downbursts. Dust productive areas in this region consist mainly of agricultural fields, with soil surfaces disturbed by plowing and tracks of land in the high Sonoran Desert …

Atmospheric Methane Over The Arctic Ocean: Thermal Ir Satellite And Ship- Based Observations, Leonid Yurganov

Leonid Yurganov

Recent warming of the Arctic stimulated speculations about dissociation of methane hydrates in the Arctic seabed and a new climatic positive feedback. Here, for the first time, methane low tropospheric satellite retrievals over the Arctic from two instruments: AIRS (Atmospheric IR Sounder) and IASI (Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer) were analyzed. Analyzed are data for areas over open water with high values of the vertical thermal contrast (ThC, defined here as the temperature difference between the surface and altitude of 4 km); they have been found to be reliable. The seasonal cycles of the data well correlate with the cycles measured …