Systems and Communications Commons^™

Issue 4: From The Guest Editor: Satellite Communication In Canada, W.M. (Mac) Evans

Online Journal of Space Communication

Welcome to the 4th edition of the Online Journal of Space Communications. This issue focuses on Satellite Communications in Canada, one of the leading countries in the development and use of Satellite Communications. In this issue you will discover why Satellite Communications is so important to Canada, what its major programs are, who the main players are and what the future directions are likely to be.

The Memoirs Of A Retooled Geoscientist Or How I Came To Know And Love Remote Sensing, Nicholas M. Short

Online Journal of Space Communication

Dr. Nicholas M. Short is a former employee at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and is the author of numerous books touching on the subject of remote sensing. He gained his B.S. from St. Louis University, an M.A. from Washington University, and received his PhD in 1958 from MIT.

Multispectral Imagery And Higher Level Products Available From The Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center, U.S. Geological Survey Eros Data Center, Paula F. Smit, Calli B. Jenkerson, Bhaskar Ramachandran

Online Journal of Space Communication

There are many types of multispectral imagery and higher level products available from the Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center at the U.S. Geological Survey EROS Data Center, including data produced from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on the Terra and Aqua satellites, the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus on Landsat 7, and the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer on Terra. Information on these various instruments and their respective data products is available on the World Wide Web. The data products can be obtained by using the NASA EOS Data Gateway.

Astronaut-Acquired Photography Of Earth: Its History And Continued Applicability In Quantitative Analyses, Jennifer Gebelein

Online Journal of Space Communication

Aerial and satellite photography has been used extensively in many different research efforts, for example, atmospheric studies, vegetation analysis, and change detection. Archives of historical aerial and satellite photography are a valuable resource to the science community.

There is currently an archive of over 450,000 photographs of Earth taken by United States astronauts dating back to the early 1960's. This archive covers the majority of the Earth's surface and offers imagery taken by a variety of camera configurations including film and digital, various lenses, different look angles, and changing solar illuminance. There is extensive repeat coverage over many regions of …

Pattern Of Forest Regeneration In Celaque National Park, Honduras, Alexis Aguilar

Online Journal of Space Communication

n/s

Web-Based Remote Sensing Applications And Java Tools For Environmental Monitoring, M. H. Tsou, L. Guo, D. Stow

Online Journal of Space Communication

This paper introduces a web-based remote sensing application which can provide advanced image comparison and processing functions for natural habitat conservation and environmental monitoring. This project is one of several NASA Affiliated Research Center (ARC) projects being developed at San Diego State University in response to NASA's Earth Science Enterprise (ESE) Focus Area program. This project utilized Java programming and commercial Internet Map Server technology to provide integrated web-based analytical capabilities to regional government agencies and park services.

A prototype website (http://map.sdsu.edu/arc) was established to demonstrate the on-line analytical functions and potential operational applications for environmental monitoring and …

Managing Protein In Spring Wheat With Aerial And Satellite Imagery, Dennis L. Wright Jr., Glen Ritchie, V. Philip Rasmussen, R. Douglas Ramsey, Doran Baker

Online Journal of Space Communication

Nitrogen fertilizer application can help wheat growers increase crop value and marketability by increasing grain quality. Nitrogen (N) is often applied at heading as a method of increasing protein content and therefore quality of wheat. Our objectives were to obtain spectral signatures of wheat under various N rates (0, 72, 180, 234 kg N ha-1), test various spectral methods of identifying crop stress, and observe the grain protein response to a midseason N application. Spectral data from satellite and aerial platforms were compared to preseason N treatments and flag-leaf tissue samples. Spectral data correlated well with preseason and flag leaf …

A Gis/Gps Approach For The Abondoned Mine Inventory Of The Monongahela National Forest Using Space Borne And Aerial Images For Basemap Selection, John R. Ferguson Ii, James O. Brumfield, Joseph Langdon

Online Journal of Space Communication

The Monongahela National Forest spans 10 counties in eastern central West Virginia. It has been an area of high mining and timbering activities throughout much of the early to mid twentieth century. As a result, the United States Forest Service (USFS) has focused reclamation and remediation efforts on the abandoned mine land areas. Much of the area has been subjected to mining after effects such as acid mine drainage, structural remains, gob/spoil piles, garbage piles, mine portals, and highwalls. In 1998 the USFS contracted with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to provide a detailed georeferenced inventory with a …

Scientific Visualization Production For The Media, Gregory Shirah

Online Journal of Space Communication

Code 935's Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS) at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center is a leader in the NASA community at producing scientific visualizations of Earth and space science results based on NASA research. The SVS specializes in using science data to produce visualizations for viewing by the public primarily through television. The SVS also produces visualization software systems; however, the focus of this section is on visualization productions.

Hierarchical Image Segmentation, James Tilton

Online Journal of Space Communication

Segmentation, the partitioning of image data into related sections or regions, is a key first step in a number of approaches to data analysis and compression. In image analysis, the group of image data points contained in each region provides a statistical sampling of image data values for more reliable labeling based on image feature values. In addition, the region shape can be analyzed as an additional clue for the appropriate labeling of the region. In data compression, the regions form a basis for compact representation of the image data. The quality of the prerequisite image segmentation is a key …

Optical Systems Characterization And Analysis Research Project, Richard G. Lyon

Online Journal of Space Communication

The Optical Systems Characterization and Analysis Research (OSCAR) project was formed in 1994 to look at advanced optical modeling methods, utilizing phase retrieval, to model the optical point spread function of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). OSCAR developed these techniques and accurately modeled the HST response and further developed maximum entropy deconvolution algorithms and mined the database and published seminal scientific manuscripts. OSCAR subsequently got involved in the Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST), now the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), and in JWST testbed development. OSCAR has further expanded to include interferometric and coronagraphic systems such as the Stellar Imager …

Commodity Computing Clusters At Goddard Space Flight Center, John E. Dorband, Josephine Palencia, Udaya Ranawake

Online Journal of Space Communication

The purpose of commodity cluster computing is to utilize large numbers of readily available computing components for parallel computing to obtaining the greatest amount of useful computations for the least cost. The issue of the cost of a computational resource is key to computational science and data processing at GSFC as it is at most other places, the difference being that the need at GSFC far exceeds any expectation of meeting that need. Therefore, Goddard scientists need as much computing resources that are available for the provided funds. This is exemplified in the following brief history of low-cost high-performance computing …

Multi-Sensor Image Registration, Fusion And Dimension Reduction, Jacqueline Le Moigne

Online Journal of Space Communication

With the development of future spacecraft formations comes a number of complex challenges such as maintaining precise relative position and specified attitudes, as well as being able to communicate with each other. More generally, with the advent of spacecraft formations, issues related to performing on-board and automatic data computing and analysis as well as decision planning and scheduling will figure among the most important requirements. Among those, automatic image registration, image fusion and dimension reduction represent intelligent technologies that would reduce mission costs,would enable autonomous decisions to be taken on-board, and would make formation flying adaptive, self-reliant, and cooperative. For …

Earth Satellite Direct Broadcast And Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Patrick Coronado

Online Journal of Space Communication

Direct Readout of directly broadcasted remote sensing data has become the driving force for real-time data processing and global data product distribution. Direct readout methods of aerial and spaceborne platforms carrying spectral imagers and profilers have allowed immediate local monitoring of our environment to support natural and man made hazards, bio-mass changes and urban and rural monitoring. This paper describes NASA's latest direct readout technologies necessary to undertake real-time aerial and spaceborne remote sensing for the next generation environmental satellites and uninhabited aerial vehicles.

Knowledge Base Data Mining And Machine Learning In A Parallel Computing Environment, William J. Campbell, Samir Chettri

Online Journal of Space Communication

The expectation of this research is to greatly broaden the use of remotely sensed imagery by providing a novitiate user, access to embedded information and knowledge without embarking upon a full-scale research project to complete the content extraction, storage and retrieval process. The intent of our approach is to develop an intelligent system that can adapt to changes or new information and learn from these changes. This will drastically alter the approach researchers take in using any digital imagery by opening the scientific discovery process, particularly to disciplines that have not traditionally used imagery due to the complexity of the …

Remote Sensing Of Informal Housing Settlements In Metropolitan Bangkok, Curtis N. Thomson

Online Journal of Space Communication

In 1988 the National Housing Authority of Thailand estimated that about 10 percent of the population was living in 1300 slum or squatter settlements (officially designated as 'congested communities) within the Bangkok metropolitan area. These settlements are located in a number of areas throughout the city, established on both public and private land and are consist of a variety of housing at very high densities (30 units per 1600 sq.m.). Due to the sometimes transient nature or these communities, or the speed with which they can develop, as well as the lack of information about the residents who occupy these …

Neighborhood Pattern Recognition From Mailing Information: Links With Satellite Imagery, Victor Mesev

Online Journal of Space Communication

The notorious difficulties of sensing urban areas remotely have traditionally limited accuracy and thematic detail to coarse generalizations. With the advent of very high spatial resolution satellite imagery comes the opportunity to generate much finer scale inventories of the geography of cities. However, urban reconstruction from imagery is still limited to the classification of physical land covers; and land use still, on the whole, is inferred from the spectral composition of land covers. What is needed to improve urban image pattern recognition and classification accuracy is for GIS to keep pace with the demand for finer spatial resolution ancillary data …

Introduction To Hyperspectral Image Analysis, Peg Shippert

Online Journal of Space Communication

The most significant recent breakthrough in remote sensing has been the development of hyperspectral sensors and software to analyze the resulting image data. Fifteen years ago only spectral remote sensing experts had access to hyperspectral images or software tools to take advantage of such images. Over the past decade hyperspectral image analysis has matured into one of the most powerful and fastest growing technologies in the field of remote sensing.

The "hyper" in hyperspectral means "over" as in "too many" and refers to the large number of measured wavelength bands. Hyperspectral images are spectrally overdetermined, which means that they provide …

Spectrometry And Hyperspectral Remote Sensing Of Urban Road Infrastructure, Martin Herold, Margaret E. Gardner, Val Noronha, Dar A. Roberts

Online Journal of Space Communication

Based on a comprehensive regional spectral library from spectrometer ground measurements and high-resolution hyperspectral AVIRIS data, this research investigates generic spectral characteristics, and related mapping capabilities and limitations for extracting roads of various types, delineating road centerlines, and surveying pavement quality within the urban environment. The methods are generally successful in identifying roads and road pavement types, but inaccuracies arise from spectral similarities between asphalt surfaces and specific roofing materials. Findings indicate that it is possible to spectrally characterize and estimate age of pavement and a few specific asphalt surface quality parameters (e.g. raveling). Finally, this research argues that the …

Introduction To Remote Sensing: Online Resources, Hugh Bloemer, Dale Quattrochi

Online Journal of Space Communication

Several quite useful online resources have been developed throughout the world. Below are links to some of these online Remote Sensing resources.