Remote Sensing Applications in Global Change Studies

What is Global Change?

1. Global warming: (1) growing season change plant growth change (2) increase in temp plant growth (3) increase in temp increase evaporation plant growth2. Increasing adverse weather conditions: (1) drought (2) hurricanes3. Land-cover/land-use change (1) urbanization (2) deforestation (3) agricultural expansion (4) loss of wetland4. Increasing invasive species5. Increasing population demand of resources …

Monitoring Global land-cover/land-use changes

Landsat provides the longest time series of archived land surface conditions: 1972-1984: Landsat MSS at 78x78 m spatial resolution 1984-2008: Landsat 4, 5 and 7 at 30x30 meter spatial resolution

Landsat 5 TM image on Dec 10,1988 at Shenzhen special econ. zone, China (RGB=432)

Landsat 5 TM image on Dec 30,1995 at Shenzhen special econ. zone, China (RGB=432)

AVHRR Global NDVI time series data: 1x1 km with daily coverage

Tucker et al., 1985, 227: 369-375.

MODIS LST ProductGlobal browse image at 5km resolution of the daytime 1km LST product from first B-side MODIS data

Courtesy of MODAPS, MODLAND, and LDOPE

250K 340K

A2000306 (11/01/2000)

Z. Wan -2-

1km daily L2/L3 LSTs since late July 2000 1km 8-day L3 LST since late August, 2000

MODLAND/Wan

MODIS Global Fire BrowseNovember 29, 2000

Available at 20km and 5km at http://modland.nascom.nasa.gov/browse/

MODLAND/Justice et al

Remote Sensing of Aerosols

Aerosols, the floating particles in the air can absorb radiation cooling the surface and warming the atmosphere, impact hydrological cycle through changes in cloud cover, cloud properties and precipittion.

Kaufman et al., 2002. Nature, 419: 215-223.

Fine Aerosol optical thickness from MODIS (Sept 2000)

Fine aerosols in Europe and north American: a & cPollution: eFire: b & d

Kaufman et al., 2002. Nature, 419: 215-223.

Global Composite Map of Nadir BRDF-Adjusted Reflectance (NBAR)Sept. 29 - Oct. 30, 2000

Red (0-0.20) Green(0-0.20) Blue(0-0.20), 10 km resolution, Hammer-Aitoff projection,produced by MODIS BRDF/Albedo Team

no data

MODLAND/Strahler et al.

Global Broadband White-Sky Albedo (0.3-5.0µm)Sept. 29 - Oct. 30, 2000

10 km resolution, Hammer-Aitoff projection,produced by MODIS BRDF/Albedo Team

no data 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5

MODLAND/Strahler et al.

Percent tree cover map of the U. S. from 250 meter MODIS datausing maximum NDVI composite for summer 2000 acquisitions

Tree cover 0%

100%

500 km

MODLAND/Townshend et al

MODIS LAI

MODIS FPAR

MODLAND/Myneni et al.

MODIS GPP Product

MODLAND/Running et al.

Global net primary production as as seen from AVHRR imagery

Nemani et al., 2003, Science, 300:1560-1563

Change in Growing Season Length

Myneni et al., 1997. Nature, 386:698-702.