Two large cracks, Chasm 1 and the ‘Halloween Crack’, are growing on the Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica and when they meet, a large iceberg around 3 times the size of Leeds (1,594 km2) will break off.
For inquiries of a scientific nature, please contact Dr. Anna Hogg, for inquiries related to web site operations please contact: Alan Muir at a.muir@ucl.ac.uk.
Where the Brunt Ice Shelf, growing inexorably from the edge of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, meets a obstacle protruding from the sea floor, the McDonald Ice Rumples are formed – a region of ice deformation, rift generation and shelf fracture. The animation combines images every week or so from the ESA Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellites.
In recent years fracturing has increased and Brunt Ice Shelf will soon lose an area the size of Greater London to a large calving event. Although significant in the known history of this ice shelf, this is believed to be a natural part of the cycle of growth and decay (de Rydt et al., 2019).
Please feel free to download and use this animated GIF.
Canada’s RADARSAT-1 was the first operational radar-based Earth Observation Satellite. RADARSAT-1 acquired numerous data collections from 1995 to 2013. The historical value of this data is clear as it allows making comparisons using images of the same region acquired over the years: for example, to study climate change effects.
The Canadian Space Agency has recently released over 37 000 RADARSAT-1 images for public use, free of charge; you can download them here. In light of this initiative, we are evaluating the feasibility of opening up more RADARSAT-1 data over Canada and internationally. Please answer the survey before 2019-06-28, by (Clicking here) in order to help us better understand your needs and preferences with respect to RADARSAT-1 data.
If you have already filled out this survey, please ignore this email. If you know other people who would like to fill out the survey, please provide them with this link: https://forms.gle/QRpso98XpTj2fnHF6. For any questions please contact julie.claveau@canada.ca
I was able to develop and test a code in R software using a simple pan sharpening formula (described here ) to create Pansharpened image of WorldView-2 (WV2) Multi-Spectral (MS) bands with high resolution Panchromatic (Pan) band. I have created a gif as shown in the figure above with Pan and MS ( a vegetation composite NIR2 in red, Yellow in green and Coastal in blue) images (data credit: esa).
Pansharpening is a process that merges/fuses high-resolution Pan data with medium-resolution MS data to create a high-resolution MS image (USGS).
WV2 is an imaging satellite of DigitalGlobe Inc., USA (a follow-on to WorldView-1 – WV1). WV2 sensor offers high resolution images in Pan 0.46 cm and unique MS 1.8 m at nadir. The MS bands are listed in the table below (credit: DigitalGlobe):
Band Name
Wavelength
Detail
Coastal Blue
400 – 450 nm
New band Absorbed by chlorophyll in healthy plants and aids in conducting vegetative analysis Least absorbed by water, and will be very useful in bathymetric studies Substantially influenced by atmospheric scattering and has the potential to improve atmospheric correction techniques
Blue
450 – 510 nm
Identical to QuickBird Readily absorbed by chlorophyll in plants Provides good penetration of water Less affected by atmospheric scattering and absorption compared to the Coastal Blue band
Green
510 – 580 nm
Narrower than the green band on QuickBird Able to focus more precisely on the peak reflectance of healthy vegetation Ideal for calculating plant vigor Very helpful in discriminating between types of plant material when used in conjunction with the Yellow band
Yellow
585 – 625 nm
New band Very important for feature classification Detects the “yellowness” of particular vegetation, both on land and in the water
Red
630 – 690 nm
Narrower than the red band on QuickBird and shifted to longer wavelengths Better focused on the absorption of red light by chlorophyll in healthy plant materials One of the most important bands for vegetation discrimination Very useful in classifying bare soils, roads, and geological features
Red-Edge
705 – 745 nm
New band Centered strategically at the onset of the high reflectivity portion of vegetation response Very valuable in measuring plant health and aiding in the classification of vegetation
NIR1
770 – 895 nm
Narrower than the NIR1 band on QuickBird to provide more separation between it and the Red-Edge sensor Very effective for the estimation of moisture content and plant biomass Effectively separates water bodies from vegetation, identifies types of vegetation and also discriminates between soil types
NIR2
860 – 1040 nm
New band Overlaps the NIR1 band but is less affected by atmospheric influence Enables broader vegetation analysis and biomass studies
I have also created a gif as shown in the figure above with Pan and MS ( a shadow composite NIR2 in red, Red Edge in green and Yellow in blue) images to compare results.
Panchromatic BandComposite NIR2, Yellow and Blue (Before Pansharpening)Composite NIR2, Yellow and Blue (After Pansharpening)
Sentinel 5P March 01 to 05, 2019 are mapped using R software. Darker red areas are high levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) as shown over East of China, a highly industrialized populated area. Sentinel-5P have spatial resolution of 7 x 3.5 KM.
The Copernicus Sentinel-5P (S5P) data is available (here) for download since July 2018 to monitor air quality and changes in ozone over Antarctica. The TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) is the single sensor on board of the S5P satellite. The S5P is the first of the atmospheric composition Sentinels (operational satellite missions supporting the Copernicus programme), launched in 2017, for a nominal lifetime of 7 years. S5P, is a gap-filler and a preparatory programme covering products and applications for Sentinel-5. The S5P mission will fill the gap between the end of the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) and SCIAMACHY exploitation and the Sentinel-5 mission (credit: ESA).
This high spatial resolution data is useful for air pollution to locate origin of key pollutants (trace gases such as sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere) and finding pollution hotspots. Measurements of atmospheric ozone from the Copernicus S5P satellite are now being used in daily forecasts of air quality.
List of Sentinel-5P level 2 products are show in the table (credit: KNMI):
European Space Agency (ESA) – Sentinel-5P (credit ESA)
Data Download
The S5P data in “pre ops” phase can be downloaded from the scihub https://scihub.copernicus.eu/ . I downloaded a level 2 NO2 file in netCDF format (.nc files).
search results are shown
Data visualization
The downloaded netcdf file first imported into “Panoply netCDF Visualization Software”
The browser shows contents (variables) of the netcdf file.
The user can easily create a line plot.
2D plot with several map projections options
Copyright/Credit contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2018), processed by DLR/BIRA
One added value of Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) ozone products compared to satellite total column retrievals is that CAMS provides 3D global fields. This allows structures like the Antrctic ozone hole to be viewed in a different way. This animation shows a cross section of the ozone layer (in partial pressure) over the South Pole from 1 July to 25 November 2018 and illustrates the development and recovery of the ozone hole.
Copyright/Credit Processed by CAMS/ECMWF
The reduction of ozone concentrations in the stratosphere and the formation of the ozone hole each year are caused by complex meteorological and chemical processes. Changes in the ozone between 7 July and 22 November 2018 are displayed here as a 3D rendered animation.
Copyright/Credit processed by CAMS/ECMWF
More Information available:
Tropomi.eu (KNMI R&D Satellite Observations here )
What a beauty can be found in NO2 animated map. Thanks to @CopernicusECMWF for their forecast. Look closely, even oil platforms are clearly visible. pic.twitter.com/70v35zeOPt
We’re in Milan for #LPS19 and the latest science from Europe’s Sentinel satellites… like the new #Sentinel5P, which returns daily views of pollution. It shows nitrogen dioxide, mostly from fossil-fuel burning. This is data averaged for March 2019. pic.twitter.com/H2xXJZaNFX
