GIS Remote Sensing
GIS Remote Sensing
GIS Remote Sensing
Graph illustrating the change in global surface temperature relative to 1951-1980 average
temperatures, with the year 2020 tying with 2016 for warmest on record (Source:
https://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/ )
Earth's climate has changed continuously throughout its history. In the last 650,000 years,
there have been seven cycles of glacial advance and retreat, with the abrupt end of the last ice
age about 11,700 years ago, marking the beginning of the modern climate era—and of human
civilization. The current warming trend is of particular significance because has been
accelerated by human activity since the mid-20th century.
Climate scientists’ separate factors that affect climate change into three categories: forcing,
feedbacks, and tipping points.
Forcing: The initial drivers of climate
o Solar Irradiance
o Greenhouse Gas Emissions
o Aerosols, Dust, Smoke, and Soot
Feedbacks: Processes that can either amplify or diminish the effects of climate
forcing.
o Clouds
o Precipitation
o Greening of the Forests
o Ice Albedo
Climate Tipping Points: When Earth’s climate abruptly moves between relatively stable
states.
o Ocean Circulation
o Ice Loss
o Rapid Release of Methane
The Global Climate Indicators are a set of parameters that describe the changing climate,
looking beyond temperature as the only indication of climate change. They comprise key
information for the most relevant domains of climate change: temperature and energy,
atmospheric composition, ocean and water as well as the cryosphere. These indicators
provide additional information and allow a more detailed picture of changes to our climate.
In August 2019, the Met Office Hadley Centre produced a set of UK- focused sea level
projections for a report which was published by the Environment Agency. The projections
demonstrated that under all emissions scenarios, sea levels would continue to rise well
beyond the year 2100, although the rate and severity of the rise would depend on the level of
emissions.
Figure 1. Time series of the time-mean relative sea level change for UK capital cities based
on the nearest Class A tide gauge location (indicated in brackets). Notes: Solid lines indicate
the central estimate and dashed lines indicate the 5th to 95th percentile range for each RCP
scenario as indicated in the legend (top left panel). All projections are presented relative to a
baseline period of 1981 to 2000.
Major infrastructure close to the sea such as the main Devon to Cornwall rail link at
Dawlish will be increasingly vulnerable to rising sea levels and storm surges.
The AIRS instrument is the most advanced water vapor sensor ever built (60% of the
greenhouse effect of the global atmosphere comes from water vapor). It observes trace gases
in the atmosphere, such as ozone, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and methane.
The AMSR instrument measured geophysical parameters including precipitation, oceanic
water vapor, cloud water, near-surface wind speed, sea surface temperature, soil moisture,
snow cover, and sea ice parameters.
The Clouds and Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) instrument measures both solar-
reflected and Earth-emitted radiation from the top of the atmosphere to the Earth’s surface
providing measurements of the spatial and temporal distribution of Earth’s radiation budget.
Increases in greenhouse gases trap emitted thermal radiation from the surface and reduce how
much is lost to space, resulting in a net surplus of energy into the Earth system.
With the dawn of September, Punjab faced one of the deadliest monsoon floods in its
history. Punjab Information Technology Board, therefore, rose to the occasion and
helped the government by creating a real time flood monitoring dashboard. The
system not only keeps a track of the latest flood development but also keeps the
concerned departments informed and in close collaboration; which further assists in
managing the disaster in the shortest possible time span.
The dashboard is designed in a way where PITB in alliance with various other
government departments, updates the dashboard with an hourly based disaster
bulletin. The bulletin reveals the most recent flood story by giving details about the
flood effected areas, the injuries and the death toll. Moreover, it also highlights the
development at the water works, i.e. either the water flow is normal or on an alert,
along with situation of the roads. The Inundation Map, further, reveals the overall
flood hit areas.
Furthermore, where the monitoring system has facilitated the government to keep a track
record of the flood condition, it has also assisted the government in taking real time relief and
evacuation measures; thus, minimizing the possible chaos in such disastrous circumstances .
Satellite remote sensing is currently capable of: creating models for climate and hydrological
applications based on images (pre-fire); detecting forest fires based on vegetation (pre-fire);
actively monitoring fires (during the fire); smoke modelling and forecasting; Earth system
modelling for climate and hydrological applications (post-fire); detecting forest fires based on
vegetation data (post-fire).
Satellite remote sensing can confidently detect forest fires in areas ranging from 10–15
hectares when the fire area is not covered by clouds. The main task of satellite forest fire
monitoring is to provide forest management authorities in the subjects of the Russian
Federation with operational information on the forest fire situation.
Forest land, where satellite monitoring of forest fires is carried out, is divided into two levels:
1st level – remote areas (11% of forest land), where planned aviation patrolling is not
carried out, and ground and aviation zones are not allocated. Extinguishing forest fires
can be done using aviation forces and means. Patrol flights are recommended for
areas with high fire hazard levels across the entire protected territory;
2nd level – remote and hard-to-reach areas (38.5% of forest land), where aviation
patrolling is not carried out, and extinguishing forest fires is only done when there is a
clear threat to settlements or economic facilities. The main method of detecting forest
fires is the data from the ISDM–Rosleskhoz.
The colours are based on the count of fires (not size) observed in an area of 1000 square kilometres.
White pixels indicate the upper limit of the count — up to 30 fires in the area of 1000 square
kilometres per day. Orange pixels show up to 10 ignitions, and red areas represent only 1 ignition per
day.
Some global patterns that emerge on fire maps over time are the result of natural cycles of
rain, drought, and lightning. For example, natural fires often occur in the boreal forests of
Canada during the summer. In other parts of the world, patterns result from human activity.
For instance, intense burning in the heart of South America from August to October is the
result of human-caused fires, both intentional and accidental, in the tropical forests of the
Amazon and the Cerrado (a pasture/savannah ecosystem) to the south. Across Africa, a belt
of widespread agricultural fires sweeps from north to south across the continent as the dry
season sets in each year. Agricultural burnings occur annually in late winter and early spring
in Southeast Asia.