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Unravelling remote sensing signatures of plants contaminated with gasoline and diesel: An approach using the red edge spectral feature

Pipeline systems used to transport petroleum products represent a potential source of soil pollution worldwide. The design of new techniques that may improve current monitoring of pipeline leakage is imperative. This paper assesses the remote detection of small leakages of liquid hydrocarbons indirectly, through the analysis of spectral features of contaminated plants. Leaf and canopy [...]

Ecosystem functional units characterized by satellite observed phenology and productivity gradients: A case study for Europe

The present study demonstrates remote sensing derived phenological and productivity indicators of ecosystem functional dynamism. The indices were derived from SPOT VEGETATION NDVI data on 1 km spatial resolution across the pan-European continent using the Phenolo approach. The phenological and productivity indices explained 78% of the variance in the European ecosystem gradient measured by bio-climatic [...]

Seafloor Explorer Allows Non-specialists to Help Map Sea Life

Identify species and ground cover in images of the seafloor, and help create a library of seafloor life in the habitats along the northeast continental shelf. Seafloor Explorer

Space-based observations of megacity carbon dioxide: Los Angeles and Mumbai

Urban areas now house more than half the world’s population, and are estimated to contribute over 70% of global energy-related CO2 emissions. Many cities have emission reduction policies in place, but lack objective, observation-based methods for verifying their outcomes. Here we demonstrate the potential of satellite-borne instruments to provide accurate global monitoring of megacity CO2 [...]

India’s forest area in doubt due to inaccurate remote sensing

To judge from India’s official surveys, the protection of its forests is a success. Somehow, this resource-hungry country of 1.2 billion people is managing to preserve its rich forests almost intact in the face of growing demands for timber and agricultural land.But a senior official responsible for assessing the health of the nation’s forests says [...]

Quantifying forest cover loss in Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2000–2010, with Landsat ETM+ data

Forest cover and forest cover loss for the last decade, 2000–2010, have been quantified for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) using Landsat time-series data set. This was made possible via an exhaustive mining of the Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM +) archive. A total of 8881 images were processed to create multi-temporal [...]

Quantifying and Mapping Ecosystem Services Supplies and Demands: A Review of Remote Sensing Applications

Ecosystems provide services necessary for the livelihoods and well-being of people. Quantifying and mapping supplies and demands of ecosystem services is essential for continuous monitoring of such services to support decision-making. Area-wide and spatially explicit mapping of ecosystem services based on extensive ground surveys is restricted to local scales and limited due to high costs. [...]

Comparing illicit drug use in 19 European cities through sewage analysis

The analysis of sewage for urinary biomarkers of illicit drugs is a promising and complementary approach for estimating the use of these substances in the general population. For the first time, this approach was simultaneously applied in 19 European cities, making it possible to directly compare illicit drug loads in Europe over a 1-week period. [...]

State of the art satellite and airborne marine oil spill remote sensing: Application to the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill

The vast and persistent Deepwater Horizon (DWH) spill challenged response capabilities, which required accurate, quantitative oil assessment at synoptic and operational scales. Although experienced observers are a spill response’s mainstay, few trained observers and confounding factors including weather, oil emulsification, and scene illumination geometry present challenges. DWH spill and impact monitoring was aided by extensive [...]

Global nutrient limitation in terrestrial vegetation

Most vegetation is limited in productivity by nutrient availability, but the magnitude of limitation globally is not known. Nutrient limitation is directly relevant not only to ecology and agriculture, but also to the global carbon cycle by regulating how much atmospheric CO2 the terrestrial biosphere can sequester. We attempt to identify total nutrient limitation in [...]