The brand-new instrument GLORIA-Lite, developed by the Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research (IMKASF) at KIT in close collaboration with the institutes ICE4 and ZEA2 at Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ) was launched on board a large stratospheric balloon by a team of the Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) from the European Space and Sounding Rocket Range (ESRANGE, Swedish Space...
Atmospheric dynamics are composed largely of atmospheric circulations of different scales. One such circulation is the mesospheric pole-to-pole circulation, which gives rise to the intriguing phenomenon whereby the polar summer mesosphere, despite receiving 24 hours of sunlight, is the coldest region in the atmosphere. Circulations in general are governed by atmospheric waves, which again come...
Technological advances have led to the wide-spread adoption of Unoccupied aerial vehicles (UAV) as versatile platforms for a range of sensors in the domain of remote sensing. In particular, observation opportunities of the Earth's surface have multiplied. The field has already seen some specialisation into small, easy-to-use, off-the-shelf solutions versus heavier, high-end platforms and...
Since 2019, several countries and agencies have successfully launched a number of spaceborne imaging spectroscopy systems in orbit or on the International Space Station (ISS) such as DESIS, PRISMA, HISUI, GF-5, EnMAP and EMIT. Among these recent missions, the German Environmental Mapping and Analysis Program (EnMAP) stands for its long-term development, sophisticated design with on-board...
Spaceborne imaging spectroscopy has made significant progress over the last years, with missions such as DESIS, PRISMA, HISUI, EnMAP and EMIT providing a wealth of hyperspectral data for geoscientific applications. In this field, DLR has developed and is operating the ground segments for the partially commercial DESIS mission on the ISS, and the German EnMAP mission. This includes the...
Circumboreal forests are located primarily in Alaska, Canada, and Northern Eurasia representing close to 30% of all forested land areas and are strongly changing in response to climate and increasingly frequent disturbances such as fires and drought. Remote sensing applications for landcover in high latitudes are possible but remain challenging for optical satellite sensors due to long lasting...
Global Navigation Satellite System Reflectometry (GNSS-R), which exploits GNSS signals reflected off the Earth surface, is a novel remote sensing technique for monitoring surface properties such as ocean winds and soil moisture. Spaceborne GNSS-R employs cost-efficient receivers operating on Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites, providing abundant observations with broad coverage and improved...
The research explores the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to advance building information extraction and its 3D modeling through innovative computer vision techniques applied to 3D remote sensing. The primary goal is to enable detailed building information extraction and reconstruction from satellite imagery, supporting a wide range of applications such as enhancing OpenStreetMap (OSM) and...
The combined pressures of climate change and resource use on forests demand timely and accurate on forest responses to climate and disturbances. In this context, Earth observation has proven as a valuable tool for large scale, timely assessments. However, EO data always needs to be calibrated and validated based on reference observations. StrucNet aims to provide these reference observations...
Sporadic E layers are thin regions of enhanced electron density appearing in the E-region of Earth’s ionosphere. Due to their large vertical electron density gradients, the layer are strongly disturbing global communication and navigation signals. Their footprint appears as strong fluctuations in the Signal-to-Noise ratio profiles of GNSS radio occultation measurements.
In this study, we...
Every year, millions of people around the world are affected by natural and man-made disasters. To respond quickly and effectively, emergency responders and relief organizations need timely, comprehensive and accurate information about the extent of hazards, exposed assets and damage. For decades, emergency mapping has used remotely sensed data to support rescue operations. However, providing...
Global changes encompass human-driven alterations to the Earth system. These changes include increasing urbanisation and the frequent increase of exposure and vulnerability with respect to natural hazards such as earthquakes, tsunamis, or flood events. Existing models often allow solely a very coarse estimation of risks as they rely on either highly aggregated or outdated input data. This...
Remote sensing and earth observation (EO) data has long been used outside of academia in the agriculture and forestry sectors for monitoring and forecasting activities. The last 5 years has also seen important financial sectors such as environmental liability insurance and environmental regulatory compliance adopt remote sensing data into their workflows. This is pushing remote sensing and EO...
In November 2022 three airglow instruments, two SWIR-cameras (FAIM) and one SWIR-spectrometer (GRIPS) were deployed at Cerro Paranal (70.4°W, 24.6°S) in the Atacama Desert, Chile nearby ESO's (European Southern Observatory) Very Large Telescope (VLT) as part of the project OASIS (Observations of Airglow with Spectrometer and Imager Systems). The instruments observe hydroxyl (OH) airglow...
The GNSS radio occultation (RO) technique uses GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems) signals received aboard low Earth orbiting satellites for atmospheric limb sounding.
Refractivity and temperature profiles are derived with high vertical resolution. Due to its long-term stability, all-weather capability, and global coverage the GNSS RO technique offers the possibility for global...
The energy and water exchanges between the land surface and the lower atmosphere (i.e. land atmosphere interactions) plays an important role for the evolution of meteorological conditions and ecosystems. In the remote sensing department at UFZ, we aim to quantify the terrestrial water cycle dynamics from the integration of multi-source Earth observations and modelling framework across scales....
The offshore wind energy sector has grown massively over the last decade and research concerning the assessments of available power and potential environmental impacts is facing challenges to keep track with this unprecedented development. In this presentation we will focus on the big potential of satellite remote sensing to help making the offshore wind technology a success.
Satellite...
The cryosphere, which includes permafrost, snow, glaciers, and ice sheets, is a vital component of the Earth’s climate system. Monitoring these environments is essential for assessing the effects of climate change. SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) is a powerful tool for cryosphere research because it can provide large-scale information on both surface and subsurface properties, as well as track...
