Icesat Full Waveform Altimetry Compared to Airborne Laser Altimetry over the Netherlands
نویسندگان
چکیده
Since 2003 the spaceborne laser altimetry system on board of NASA’s Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) has acquired a large world-wide database of full waveform data organized in 15 products. In this research three products are evaluated over The Netherlands. For this purpose the raw full waveform product, the derived Gaussian decomposition product and the global land evaluation product are compared to laser data from the Dutch national airborne laser altimetry archive AHN. Using the CORINE land cover 2000 database allows us to compare ICESat to AHN elevation profiles with respect to the land cover classes forest, urban, bare land/low vegetation and water. This comparison shows that a large average height difference of 5.7 m occurs over forest, while much smaller differences of 1.24 m over urban areas, of 0.43 m over bare land/low vegetation and of 0.07 m over water are found. The reason for this large difference over forests is that the standard processing of NASA does not take the position of the last Gaussian mode of the waveform into account. Incorporating results from a full waveform processing procedure allows us to determine improved ICESat profiles. Comparing the improved profiles shows that the average difference with the AHN profiles over forest is reduced to -0.38 m, while the average differences for the other land cover classes do not exceed -0.75 m. Encountered limitations are discussed in the conclusions.
منابع مشابه
A Survey of ICESat Coastal Altimetry Applications: Continental Coast, Open Ocean Island, and Inland River
ICESat satellite laser altimetry provides an unprecedented set of global elevation measurements of the Earth, yielding great detail over ice, land and ocean surfaces. Coastal regions in particular, including seamless land-water transitions, benefit from the small footprint (50 to 90 m), high resolution (40 Hz, ~170 m along-track), and high precision (2 to 3 cm) of ICESat. We discuss the perform...
متن کاملFull Waveform Analysis: Icesat Laser Data for Land Cover Classification
Analysis of the full waveform return pulse of laser altimeter systems is expected to increase the possibilities and accuracy in well-known applications of laser altimetry like DTM generation, forestry and earth surface analysis. NASA’s ICESat Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) was launched in 2003 and acquires full waveform data along profiles covering the entire earth. In this study, the...
متن کاملLaser altimetry sampling strategies over sea ice
With the conclusion of the science phase of the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) mission in late 2009, and the planned launch of ICESat-2 in late 2015, NASA has recently established the IceBridge program to provide continuity between missions. A major goal of IceBridge is to obtain a sea-ice thickness time series via airborne surveys over the Arctic and Southern Oceans. Typicall...
متن کاملSensitivity Analysis of Brown Model Waveform in Radar Altimetry
In satellite altimetry (radar altimetry), the altimeter emits a pulse, with known power, to the earth surface and receives it back continuously to determine of the sea surface height. The time series of the mean returned power is recorded individually at satellite as the so-called waveform. Analytical model for the waveform is first introduced by Brown, which consists of six parameters: signif...
متن کاملLe développement de LiDAR satellitaire multifonctions. Analyse exploratoire du potentiel de capteurs LiDAR pour le suivi altimétrique et bathymétrique des surfaces en eau continentales et côtières
Possessing accurate, spatial and current data on the water levels and the depths are necessary for anticipation and better management of coastal and continental waters. Among the remote sensing techniques to monitor the water bathymetry and altimetry, the LIDAR appears as an adapted and promising technique, already proven on airborne platforms, because of its potential accuracy, spatial resolut...
متن کامل