Remote sensing data
Overview of remote sensing data that may be useful for hydrological analysis
Spectrometer
| Institute | Satellite | Sensor | channels | launched | resolution | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ESA | ENVISAT | MERIS | 15 | March 2002 | 260x290m | Visible and Near Infrared spectrum (390 to 1040 nm), cloud cover, water bodies, frequency 3 days (higher at the poles) |
| NASA | TIROS-N | AVHRR | 4 | 1.09x1.09km | http://www.nsof.class.noaa.gov. Can be used for cloud cover (Bendix et al.), surface temperature (ref), delineation of water bodies (Zhou et al., 2000) | |
| NOAA | NOAA-7 | AVHRR | 5 | |||
| NOAA | NOAA-15 | AVHRR | 6 | May 1998 | ||
| NOAA | NOAA-16 | AVHRR | 6 | Sep 2000 | ||
| NOAA | NOAA-17 | AVHRR | 6 | Jun 2002 | ||
| NOAA | NOAA-18 | AVHRR | 6 | May 2005 | ||
| Eumetsat | METOP | AVHRR | ? | cloud cover, surface temperature | ||
| NASA | EOS AQUA | AMSR-E | ?? | |||
| ESA | MSG-1 (Meteosat-8) | SEVIRI | 12 | 2002 | Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager. Entire earth disk @ 15 minutes. 8 channels can be used for monitoring the earth surface. Channel 12 is a high resolution visible (hrv) channel. Resolution: 3 km at the sub-satellite point (5 – 6 km over Europe). Channel 12 has a resolution of 1 km at the sub-satellite point (1.5 – 2 km over Europe). | |
| NASA | TRMM | ?? | 25x25km (0.25°) | rainfall | ||
| NASA | ASTER | ?? | temperature, reflectance, elevation. On demand, and does not seem to exist for the tropical Andes | |||
| NASA | TERRA/AQUA | MODIS | 36 | 1999/2002 | see notes | http://www.landcover.org, spatial resolution: 250 m (bands 1-2) 500 m (bands 3-7) 1000 m (bands 8-36), temporal resolution 1 to 2 days, visible and near infrared (400 to 14400 nm) |
radar
| Institute | Satellite | Sensor | launched | resolution | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ESA | ENVISAT | ASAR | March 2002 | 30m | APG HH and HV -> delineation of water bodies |
| ESA | ENVISAT | Altimeter | March 2002 | 400m | altitude (only 1 dimension) |
| MDA | RADARSAT-1 | ASAR | November 1995 | 10m | commercial (Canadian private company) |
| MDA | RADARSAT-2 | ASAR | December 2007 | 3m | commercial (Canadian private company) |
| ASI | COSMO-SkyMed | SAR | June 2007 | Constellation of 4 satellites |
other
One that has not gone up yet: SWOT
Data aquisition
ESA
ESA is a very big engine and it is tricky to find what you are actually looking for or what you need but there is lots:
The following link is a shortcut to ESA's 'Resources' page that includes upcoming workshops, the ESA library, data samples and archives, and probably most useful for anyone working with ESA data, there are ESA-tailored software tools that run free-of-charge on Windows, linux and also MacOS (although mac versions are usually appearing a bit later than the other two!): http://earth.esa.int/resources/ P.S. I attended an ESA Land Training course in Lisbon in September 2007 on Flooding/Soil moisture and Forests and have lots of lecture notes on ASAR, ALOS and how to use these data with the BEST, BEAM and POLSARPRO packages (I have actually worked with an ALOS quadpol for tree height and soil moisture retrieval: amazing data!). If you want any of these notes or some help, just email me (guy.schumann@bristol.ac.uk) and I'll try to help!
There is a useful tool from the ESA website to search for available images (does ENVISAT and others):
To access online (last 7-10 days) data and submit CAT-1 (free data) proposals for projects:
http://earth.esa.int/dataproducts/accessingeodata/
To answer third party mission (from non-ESA satellites) calls: http://eopi.esa.int/esa/esa?type=10&cmd=aolist, and go to the 'TPM' link to the left of the page,
and AO (Announcement of Opportunities) calls: http://eopi.esa.int/esa/esa?type=10&cmd=aolist
ESA conferences and workshops
Anyone interested in this year's (2008) ESA summer school in August (4-14) at the ESRIN centre in Italy? Topic: Data assimilation, monitoring and modelling the Earth System. Have a look at: http://envisat.esa.int/envschool/
Detailed info on satellites
meteosat
The channels of SEVERI on board meteosat-8 (spectral band / μm)
(from http://las.physik.uni-oldenburg.de/eProceedings/vol05_1/05_1_de-ruyter1.pdf)
| Channel | min | max | description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0.635 | 0.56 | 0.71 visual |
| 2 | 0.81 | 0.74 | 0.88 visual |
| 3 | 1.64 | 1.50 | 1.78 near infrared |
| 4 | 3.90 | 3.48 | 4.36 infrared |
| 5 | 6.25 | 5.35 | 7.15 infrared (water vapour absorption) |
| 6 | 7.35 | 6.85 | 7.85 infrared (water vapour absorption) |
| 7 | 8.70 | 8.30 | 9.1 infrared |
| 8 | 9.66 | 9.38 | 9.94 infrared (ozone absorption) |
| 9 | 10.80 | 9.80 | 11.80 infrared |
| 10 | 12.00 | 11.00 | 13.00 infrared |
| 11 | 13.40 | 12.40 | 14.40 infrared (CO2 absorption) |
| 12 | 0.75 | 0.60 | 0.90 high resolution visual broadband (hrv) |
Envisat Altimeter
downscaling techniques
statistical
singular vector decomposition
Bretherton CS, Smith C, Wallace JM. 1992. An intercomparison of methods for finding coupled patterns in climate data. Journal of Wilks DS. 1995. Statistical Methods in the Atmospheric Sciences. Climate 5: 541–560