Requirements and new airborne sensors for monitoring coastal environment and resources

Conference · Fri Nov 01 00:00:00 EST 1996

OSTI ID:390840

Klemas, V ^[1]; Goodberlet, M; Swift, C ^[2]; Zaitzeff, J ^[3]

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1. Univ. of Delaware, Newark, DE (United States)
2. Quadrant Engineering, Inc., Amherst, MA (United States)
3. NOAA/NESDIS, Camp Springs, MD (United States)

Satellite sensors alone cannot provide the temporal and spatial resolutions required by coastal resource managers and scientists trying to understand, anticipate and mitigate undesirable environmental changes. The need for aircraft data becomes particularly evident when one reviews the requirements of land use, hydrodynamic, water quality and living resources models used in studies of non-point source pollutant run-off in coastal watersheds. Compared to satellites, aircraft can provide more frequent overflights at better spatial resolution. However, large four-engine aircraft are too expensive to be flown repeatedly and can now be replaced by smaller platforms, using remote sensors reduced in size by new technologies. A new sensor package is being developed which will fit on small aircraft at a ten-time reduction in operating cost. The sensor package includes a solid state video camera with spectral bands for monitoring water color, from which one can deduce the presence of chlorophyll, suspended sediment and certain pollutants. Another set of spectral bands can be used to map land use, wetlands, and other land features. A thermal infrared radiometer will measure surface temperature and a microwave radiometer, which has been reduced in size, will measure water salinity. Deployed with satellite sensors such as AVHRR, SeaWiFS, and LandsaVIM, these airborne sensors will be able to observe tidal, seasonal, annual variations and spatial distributions of phytoplankton blooms, sediment plumes, estuarine fronts, circulation patterns, and other estuarine phenomena. The airborne sensors are being developed by several companies with NOAA support. 1 tab.

• OSTI ID: 390840
• Report Number(s): CONF-960613-; TRN: 96:004291-0033
• Resource Relation: Conference: 2. international airborne remote sensing conference and exhibition, San Francisco, CA (United States), 24-27 Jun 1996; Other Information: PBD: 1996; Related Information: Is Part Of Proceedings of the second international airborne remote sensing conference and exhibition: Technology, measurement & analysis. Volume II; PB: 774 p.
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
44 INSTRUMENTATION
INCLUDING NUCLEAR AND PARTICLE DETECTORS
COASTAL REGIONS
AERIAL MONITORING
REMOTE VIEWING EQUIPMENT
PERFORMANCE
CAMERAS
SPECTRAL FUNCTIONS
MAPPING
INFRARED THERMOGRAPHY
RADIOMETERS
MICROWAVE EQUIPMENT
MULTISPECTRAL SCANNERS
LASERS
SYNTHETIC-APERTURE RADAR
ALTIMETERS
ACOUSTIC RADAR
ESTUARIES
AERIAL SURVEYING
LAND USE
POLLUTION SOURCES
RUNOFF
CHLOROPHYLL
SEDIMENTS
WATER POLLUTION