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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Remote Sensing Of Icebergs In Greenland's Fjords And Coastal Waters, Jessica Scheick Dec 2018

Remote Sensing Of Icebergs In Greenland's Fjords And Coastal Waters, Jessica Scheick

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Increases in ocean water temperature are implicated in driving recent accelerated rates of mass loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet. Icebergs provide a key tool for gaining insight into ice-ocean interactions and until recently have been relatively understudied. Here we develop several methods that exploit icebergs visible in optical satellite imagery to provide insight on the ice--ocean environment and explore how iceberg datasets can be used to examine the physics of iceberg decay and parent glacier properties. First, a semi-automated algorithm, which includes a machine learning-based cloud mask, is applied to six years (2000-2002 and 2013-2015) of the Landsat archive …


Multispectral Classification Of Gulf Of Maine Surface Waters: Seasonal And Interannual Variability, Brianna M. King Dec 2018

Multispectral Classification Of Gulf Of Maine Surface Waters: Seasonal And Interannual Variability, Brianna M. King

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Bio-optically, surface waters of the northeastern US continental shelf are strongly heterogeneous, exhibiting highly variable distributions in both time and space of suspended sediment, colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM), and phytoplankton concentration and community structure. These render the standard global NASA satellite chlorophyll algorithm suspect. However, spectral signatures of the water are well quantified by the actual satellite-based multispectral reflectance (Rrs) measurements. Here, we use 6 bands of Rrs measurements from 19 years (1998-2016) of monthly composite SeaWiFS and MODIS data to identify the spectral signatures of dominant water types present over the northeast shelf. A merged multivariate clustering approach …


Environmental Controls On Depositional Patterns Of Isolated Carbonate Platforms, Jeremy M. Kerr Aug 2018

Environmental Controls On Depositional Patterns Of Isolated Carbonate Platforms, Jeremy M. Kerr

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the influence of the environment on the lateral spatial patterning of facies in modern isolated carbonate platforms through six studies. The first study describes the creation of a database of benthic habitat and bathymetric maps derived from multispectral satellite imagery and the field data used calibrate and validate the mapping algorithms. The second study develops and assesses a new approach for remotely-deriving water depth from multispectral satellite imagery without the need for ground-truth information. The third study identifies a criterion for distinguishing between facies belts and mosaics and deploys the criterion to investigate the co-occurrence of these …


Spatial And Temporal Distributions Of Pelagic Sargassum In The Intra-Americas Sea And Atlantic Ocean, Mengqiu Wang Jul 2018

Spatial And Temporal Distributions Of Pelagic Sargassum In The Intra-Americas Sea And Atlantic Ocean, Mengqiu Wang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Pelagic Sargassum is one type of marine macroalgae that is known to be abundant in the Gulf of Mexico and Sargasso Sea. It is also known to serve as a critical habitat for many marine animals. In the past few years, large amounts of Sargassum have been reported in the Tropical Atlantic and Caribbean Sea (CS), causing significant environmental and economic problems. The goal of this study is to improve the understanding of Sargassum distributions, quantity, transport pathways, and bloom mechanisms in the CS and Tropic Atlantic through combining a variety of techniques including satellite remote sensing, field and laboratory …


Statistical Analysis And Comparison Of Optical Classification Of Atmospheric Aerosol Lidar Data, Kwasi Gyening Afrifa May 2018

Statistical Analysis And Comparison Of Optical Classification Of Atmospheric Aerosol Lidar Data, Kwasi Gyening Afrifa

Electrical & Computer Engineering Projects for D. Eng. Degree

This dissertation presents a new study for the analysis and classification of atmospheric aerosols in remote sensing LIDAR data. Information on particle size and associated properties are extracted from these remote sensing atmospheric data which are collected by a ground-based LIDAR system. This study first considers optical LIDAR parameter-based classification methods for clustering and classification of different types of harmful aerosol particles in the atmosphere. Since accurate methods for aerosol prediction behaviors are based upon observed data, computational approaches must overcome design limitations, and also consider appropriate calibration and estimation accuracy. Consequently, two statistical methods based on generalized linear models …


Methodology To Analyze Tropical Cyclone Intensity From Microwave Imagery, Matthew W. Perkins Mar 2018

Methodology To Analyze Tropical Cyclone Intensity From Microwave Imagery, Matthew W. Perkins

Theses and Dissertations

Satellites with microwave remote sensing capabilities can be utilized to study atmospheric phenomena through high-level cloud cover (particularly cirrus), an advantage over visible and infrared bands, which only sense cloud tops. This unique capability makes microwave imagery ideal for studying the cloud structures of tropical cyclones (TCs) in detail, and relating these features to TC intensity. Techniques to estimate the intensity of TCs using infrared imagery, such as the Dvorak technique, have been used in TC forecasting for 40 years. However, due to the inherent temporal limitations of microwave imagery, no such similar technique exists for the microwave spectrum. This …