Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

How The Presence Of Plastic In The North Pacific Gyre Affects The Growth Of Thalassiosira Through Remote Sensing And Laboratory Replication, Jordynn Brennan, Hesham El-Askary

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Through the use of remote sensing, we are able to determine the approximate location of the garbage patch in the North Pacific Gyre. Though remote sensing does not penetrate the surface of the ocean, monthly satellite images can be analyzed to determine the rate of growth or rate of decrease of certain parameters, such as atmospheric gases, phytoplankton, and dissolved organic matter. Over the past decade, data from the Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (Giovanni program) has shown a significant increase in dissolved organic matter and chlorophyll a content in the area of the North Pacific Garbage …

Novel Deployment Of Elpasolites As A Dual Neutron / Gamma-Ray Directional Detector, Amber Lynn Guckes

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

At a time when upholding national security has never been more important, there exists a need for the advancement of radiation detection technologies. Neutron and photon detectors are essential to fulfilling mission areas including detection and localization of missing, stolen or smuggled radiological or nuclear materials, quantification of the effects of a radiological or nuclear event, and supporting nonproliferation efforts. The aim of this study was to evaluate a new radiation detector based on the scintillation elpasolite compound Cs2LiYCl6:Ce (CLYC) for simultaneous measurements of neutron and photon flux and the localization of radiation sources. Previous studies performed on the CLYC …

A Vegetation Analysis On Horn Island, Mississippi, Ca. 1940 Using Characteristic Dimensions Derived From Historical Aerial Photography, Guy Wilburn Jeter Jr.

Master's Theses

Horn Island is part of the MS/AL barrier island chain in the northern Gulf of Mexico located approximately 18kn off the coast of Mississippi. This island’s habitats have undergone many transitions over the last several decades. The goal of this study was to quantify habitat change over a seventy year period using historical black and white photography from 1940. Using present NAIP imagery from the USDA, habitat structure was estimated by using geo-statistics, and second order statistics, from a co-occurrence matrix, to characterize texture for habitat classification. Percent land cover was then calculated to determine overall land cover change over …

Mapping The Distribution Of Barrier Island Slash Pine Woodland And Determining Growth Responses Of Pinus Elliottii To Hurricane Katrina (2005) On Cat Island, Mississippi, William Richard Funderburk

Master's Theses

Barrier islands are ubiquitous features along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico North American coastline and are subjected disturbances such as extreme episodic events. The wind, waves, and storm surges of Hurricane Katrina heavily impacted the Mississippi–Alabama barrier island chain on August 29, 2005. Cat Island experienced a 7-m storm surge, the highest wind energy in the chain, but was estimated to have the least amount of forest mortality. The purpose of this study was to investigate the distribution of Pinus elliottii on Cat Island Mississippi and evaluate relationships of elevation with mean radial growth rate (mm y ̄ ˡ), …

Remote Sensing Based On Hyperspectral Data Analysis, Ershad Sharifahmadian

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In remote sensing, accurate identification of far objects, especially concealed objects is difficult. In this study, to improve object detection from a distance, the hyperspecral imaging and wideband technology are employed with the emphasis on wideband radar. As the wideband data includes a broad range of frequencies, it can reveal information about both the surface of the object and its content. Two main contributions are made in this study:

1) Developing concept of return loss for target detection: Unlike typical radar detection methods which uses radar cross section to detect an object, it is possible to enhance the process of …

A New Forensics: Developing Standard Remote Sensing Methodologies To Detect And Document Mass Atrocities, Nathaniel A. Raymond, Brittany L. Card, Isaac L. Baker

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Aim: The aim of this article is to highlight potential methods applicable to a standard forensic approach for the analysis of high-resolution satellite imagery that may contain evidence of alleged mass atrocities.

Methods: The primary method employed is the retrospective analysis of a case study involving the use of high-resolution satellite imagery analysis to document alleged mass atrocities. The case study utilized herein is the Satellite Sentinel Project’s reporting on the May 2011 sacking of Abyei Town by Government of Sudan-aligned armed actors. In the brief case study, categories of objects, patterns of activities, and types of alleged mass atrocity …

No More Hidden Secrets: Human Rights Violations And Remote Sensing, Tommy O'Connell, Stephen Young

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Aim: This study used both high resolution and medium resolution satellite imagery to test three semi-automated remote sensing methods, in an attempt to identify useful tools to support eye-witness testimony and reports on human rights violations. As huts are routinely burned down during attacks on a village, particularly in Sudan, the number of huts and villages burned can be used to corroborate on-the-ground reports.

Methods: Three remote sensing methods (Supervised Classification, Change Detection, and Feature Extraction) were performed on imagery from both before the attacks in February 2006 and after the attacks to examine any useful trends that could be …

Grid: A Methodology Integrating Witness Testimony And Satellite Imagery Analysis For Documenting Alleged Mass Atrocities, Brittany L. Card, Isaac L. Baker

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Aim: This article documents the development and initial use case of the GRID (Ground Reporting through Imagery Delivery) methodology by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI). GRID was created to support corroboration of witness testimony of mass atrocity related-events using satellite imagery analysis. A repeating analytic limitation of employing imagery for this purpose is that differences in the geographic knowledge of a witness and an imagery analyst can limit or impede corroboration.

Methods: The primary method used in this article is a case study of HHI’s development and use of GRID. The GRID methodology was designed during HHI’s work with the …

Integrated (Remote Sensing, Gis, And Modeling) Hydrological Investigation And Landslide Susceptibility Studies In The Arabian Shield, Talal Ghazi Alharbi

Dissertations

An integrated approach (remote sensing, geographical information systems [GIS], and modeling) was applied to conduct a number of hydrologic and environmental investigations in the Arabian Peninsula (AP) aimed at: (1) identifying the spatial and temporal climate change–related variations in precipitation over the AP using readily available, remotely acquired global precipitation data sets; (2) investigating the nature of the factors controlling the observed climatic variations; (3) estimating the partitioning of precipitation over the Red Sea Hills watersheds into runoff , recharge, and initial losses using calibrated continuous rainfall runoff models (Soil Water Assessment Tool [SWAT]); (4) identifying landslide (largely caused by …

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 …

Interannual Variations And Trends In Global Land Surface Phenology Derived From Enhanced Vegetation Index During 1982–2010, Xiaoyang Zhang, Bin Tan, Yunyue Yu

GSCE Faculty Publications

Land surface phenology is widely retrieved from satellite observations at regional and global scales, and its long-term record has been demonstrated to be a valuable tool for reconstructing past climate variations, monitoring the dynamics of terrestrial ecosystems in response to climate impacts, and predicting biological responses to future climate scenarios. This study detected global land surface phenology from the advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data from 1982 to 2010. Based on daily enhanced vegetation index at a spatial resolution of 0.05 degrees, we simulated the seasonal vegetative trajectory for each individual pixel …

Validation Of Satellite Rainfall Products For Western Uganda., Jeremy E. Diem, Joel N. Hartter, Sadie J. Ryan, Michael W. Palace

Geography

Central equatorial Africa is deficient in long-term, ground-based measurements of rainfall; therefore, the aim of this study is to assess the accuracy of three high-resolution, satellite-based rainfall products in western Uganda for the 2001–10 period. The three products are African Rainfall Climatology, version 2 (ARC2); African Rainfall Estimation Algorithm, version 2 (RFE2); and 3B42 from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, version 7 (i.e., 3B42v7). Daily rainfall totals from six gauges were used to assess the accuracy of satellite-based rainfall estimates of rainfall days, daily rainfall totals, 10-day rainfall totals, monthly rainfall totals, and seasonal rainfall totals. The northern stations had …

Geographic Analysis Of West Nile Virus In The Upper Minnesota River Valley: A Gis And Multi-Temporal Remote Sensing Approach, Matthew Moore

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Throughout human evolution civilizations have been faced with implications from infectious diseases caused by various environmental factors. This connection was recognized as far back as the 5th century by Hippocrates and since several key advances have been realized and will be addressed in this an environmental and physical geography of disease. Arthropod or vector-borne viruses are among the most common pathogens introduced into the modern human population. West Nile Virus is considered endemic in most parts of the world and appeared in the United States in 1999 with 62 confirmed cases in an urban New York location. Since its first …

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 …