Hyperspectral remote sensing identification of marine oil emulsions based on the fusion of spatial and spectral features

Marine oil spill emulsions are difficult to recover,and the damage to the environment is not easy to eliminate.The use of remote sensing to accurately identify oil spill emulsions is highly important for the protection of marine environments.However,the spectrum of oil emulsions changes due to different water content.Hyperspectral remote sensing and deep learning can use spectral and spatial information to identify different types of oil emulsions.Nonetheless,hyperspectral data can also cause information redundancy,reducing classification accuracy and efficiency,and even overfitting in machine learning models.To address these problems,an oil emulsion deep-learning identification model with spatial-spectral feature fusion is established,and feature bands that can distinguish between crude oil,seawater,water-in-oil emulsion(WO),and oil-in-water emulsion(OW)are filtered based on a standard deviation threshold–mutual information method.Using oil spill airborne hyperspectral data,we conducted identification experiments on oil emulsions in different background waters and under different spatial and temporal conditions,analyzed the transferability of the model,and explored the effects of feature band selection and spectral resolution on the identification of oil emulsions.The results show the following.(1)The standard deviation–mutual information feature selection method is able to effectively extract feature bands that can distinguish between WO,OW,oil slick,and seawater.The number of bands was reduced from 224 to 134 after feature selection on the Airborne Visible Infrared Imaging Spectrometer(AVIRIS)data and from 126 to 100 on the S185 data.(2)With feature selection,the overall accuracy and Kappa of the identification results for the training area are 91.80%and 0.86,respectively,improved by 2.62%and 0.04,and the overall accuracy and Kappa of the identification results for the migration area are 86.53%and 0.80,respectively,improved by 3.45%and 0.05.(3)The oil emulsion identification model has a certain degree of transferability and can effectively identify oil spill emulsions for AVIRIS data at different times and locations,with an overall accuracy of more than 80%,Kappa coefficient of more than 0.7,and F1 score of 0.75 or more for each category.(4)As the spectral resolution decreasing,the model yields different degrees of misclassification for areas with a mixed distribution of oil slick and seawater or mixed distribution of WO and OW.Based on the above experimental results,we demonstrate that the oil emulsion identification model with spatial–spectral feature fusion achieves a high accuracy rate in identifying oil emulsion using airborne hyperspectral data,and can be applied to images under different spatial and temporal conditions.Furthermore,we also elucidate the impact of factors such as spectral resolution and background water bodies on the identification process.These findings provide new reference for future endeavors in automated marine oil spill detection.

CrossFormer Embedding DeepLabv3+ for Remote Sensing Images Semantic Segmentation

High-resolution remote sensing image segmentation is a challenging task. In urban remote sensing, the presenceof occlusions and shadows often results in blurred or invisible object boundaries, thereby increasing the difficultyof segmentation. In this paper, an improved network with a cross-region self-attention mechanism for multi-scalefeatures based onDeepLabv3+is designed to address the difficulties of small object segmentation and blurred targetedge segmentation. First,we use CrossFormer as the backbone feature extraction network to achieve the interactionbetween large- and small-scale features, and establish self-attention associations between features at both large andsmall scales to capture global contextual feature information. Next, an improved atrous spatial pyramid poolingmodule is introduced to establish multi-scale feature maps with large- and small-scale feature associations, andattention vectors are added in the channel direction to enable adaptive adjustment of multi-scale channel features.The proposed networkmodel is validated using the PotsdamandVaihingen datasets. The experimental results showthat, compared with existing techniques, the network model designed in this paper can extract and fuse multiscaleinformation, more clearly extract edge information and small-scale information, and segment boundariesmore smoothly. Experimental results on public datasets demonstrate the superiority of ourmethod compared withseveral state-of-the-art networks.

Remote sensing of quality traits in cereal and arable production systems:A review

Cereal is an essential source of calories and protein for the global population.Accurately predicting cereal quality before harvest is highly desirable in order to optimise management for farmers,grading harvest and categorised storage for enterprises,future trading prices,and policy planning.The use of remote sensing data with extensive spatial coverage demonstrates some potential in predicting crop quality traits.Many studies have also proposed models and methods for predicting such traits based on multiplatform remote sensing data.In this paper,the key quality traits that are of interest to producers and consumers are introduced.The literature related to grain quality prediction was analyzed in detail,and a review was conducted on remote sensing platforms,commonly used methods,potential gaps,and future trends in crop quality prediction.This review recommends new research directions that go beyond the traditional methods and discusses grain quality retrieval and the associated challenges from the perspective of remote sensing data.

Remote sensing of air pollution incorporating integrated-path differential-absorption and coherent-Doppler lidar

An innovative complex lidar system deployed on an airborne rotorcraft platform for remote sensing of atmospheric pollution is proposed and demonstrated.The system incorporates integrated-path differential absorption lidar(DIAL) and coherent-doppler lidar(CDL) techniques using a dual tunable TEA CO_(2)laser in the 9—11 μm band and a 1.55 μm fiber laser.By combining the principles of differential absorption detection and pulsed coherent detection,the system enables agile and remote sensing of atmospheric pollution.Extensive static tests validate the system’s real-time detection capabilities,including the measurement of concentration-path-length product(CL),front distance,and path wind speed of air pollution plumes over long distances exceeding 4 km.Flight experiments is conducted with the helicopter.Scanning of the pollutant concentration and the wind field is carried out in an approximately 1 km slant range over scanning angle ranges from 45°to 65°,with a radial resolution of 30 m and10 s.The test results demonstrate the system’s ability to spatially map atmospheric pollution plumes and predict their motion and dispersion patterns,thereby ensuring the protection of public safety.

Untethered Micro/Nanorobots for Remote Sensing:Toward Intelligent Platform

Untethered micro/nanorobots that can wirelessly control their motion and deformation state have gained enormous interest in remote sensing applications due to their unique motion characteristics in various media and diverse functionalities.Researchers are developing micro/nanorobots as innovative tools to improve sensing performance and miniaturize sensing systems,enabling in situ detection of substances that traditional sensing methods struggle to achieve.Over the past decade of development,significant research progress has been made in designing sensing strategies based on micro/nanorobots,employing various coordinated control and sensing approaches.This review summarizes the latest developments on micro/nanorobots for remote sensing applications by utilizing the self-generated signals of the robots,robot behavior,microrobotic manipulation,and robot-environment interactions.Providing recent studies and relevant applications in remote sensing,we also discuss the challenges and future perspectives facing micro/nanorobots-based intelligent sensing platforms to achieve sensing in complex environments,translating lab research achievements into widespread real applications.

Experimental study on the variation of optical remote sensing imaging characteristics of internal solitary waves with wind speed

Optical remote sensing has been widely used to study internal solitary waves(ISWs).Wind speed has an important effect on ISW imaging of optical remote sensing.The light and dark bands of ISWs cannot be observed by optical remote sensing when the wind is too strong.The relationship between the characteristics of ISWs bands in optical remote sensing images and the wind speed is still unclear.The influence of wind speeds on the characteristics of the ISWs bands is investigated based on the physical simulation experiments with the wind speeds of 1.6,3.1,3.5,3.8,and 3.9 m/s.The experimental results show that when the wind speed is 3.9 m/s,the ISWs bands cannot be observed in optical remote sensing images with the stratification of h_(1)∶h_(2)=7∶58,ρ_(1)∶ρ_(2)=1∶1.04.When the wind speeds are 3.1,3.5,and 3.8 m/s,which is lower than 3.9 m/s,the ISWs bands can be obtained in the simulated optical remote sensing image.The location of the band’s dark and light extremum and the band’s peak-to-peak spacing are almost not affected by wind speed.More-significant wind speeds can cause a greater gray difference of the light-dark bands.This provided a scientific basis for further understanding of ISW optical remote sensing imaging.

Remote sensing image encryption algorithm based on novel hyperchaos and an elliptic curve cryptosystem

Remote sensing images carry crucial ground information,often involving the spatial distribution and spatiotemporal changes of surface elements.To safeguard this sensitive data,image encryption technology is essential.In this paper,a novel Fibonacci sine exponential map is designed,the hyperchaotic performance of which is particularly suitable for image encryption algorithms.An encryption algorithm tailored for handling the multi-band attributes of remote sensing images is proposed.The algorithm combines a three-dimensional synchronized scrambled diffusion operation with chaos to efficiently encrypt multiple images.Moreover,the keys are processed using an elliptic curve cryptosystem,eliminating the need for an additional channel to transmit the keys,thus enhancing security.Experimental results and algorithm analysis demonstrate that the algorithm offers strong security and high efficiency,making it suitable for remote sensing image encryption tasks.

Integrating a novel irrigation approximation method with a process-based remote sensing model to estimate multi-years'winter wheat yield over the North China Plain

Accurate estimation of regional winter wheat yields is essential for understanding the food production status and ensuring national food security.However,using the existing remote sensing-based crop yield models to accurately reproduce the inter-annual and spatial variations in winter wheat yields remains challenging due to the limited ability to acquire irrigation information in water-limited regions.Thus,we proposed a new approach to approximating irrigations of winter wheat over the North China Plain(NCP),where irrigation occurs extensively during the winter wheat growing season.This approach used irrigation pattern parameters(IPPs)to define the irrigation frequency and timing.Then,they were incorporated into a newly-developed process-based and remote sensing-driven crop yield model for winter wheat(PRYM–Wheat),to improve the regional estimates of winter wheat over the NCP.The IPPs were determined using statistical yield data of reference years(2010–2015)over the NCP.Our findings showed that PRYM–Wheat with the optimal IPPs could improve the regional estimate of winter wheat yield,with an increase and decrease in the correlation coefficient(R)and root mean square error(RMSE)of 0.15(about 37%)and 0.90 t ha–1(about 41%),respectively.The data in validation years(2001–2009 and 2016–2019)were used to validate PRYM–Wheat.In addition,our findings also showed R(RMSE)of 0.80(0.62 t ha–1)on a site level,0.61(0.91 t ha–1)for Hebei Province on a county level,0.73(0.97 t ha–1)for Henan Province on a county level,and 0.55(0.75 t ha–1)for Shandong Province on a city level.Overall,PRYM–Wheat can offer a stable and robust approach to estimating regional winter wheat yield across multiple years,providing a scientific basis for ensuring regional food security.

Land Use Land Cover Analysis for Godavari Basin in Maharashtra Using Geographical Information System and Remote Sensing

The dynamic transformation of land use and land cover has emerged as a crucial aspect in the effective management of natural resources and the continual monitoring of environmental shifts. This study focused on the land use and land cover (LULC) changes within the catchment area of the Godavari River, assessing the repercussions of land and water resource exploitation. Utilizing LANDSAT satellite images from 2009, 2014, and 2019, this research employed supervised classification through the Quantum Geographic Information System (QGIS) software’s SCP plugin. Maximum likelihood classification algorithm was used for the assessment of supervised land use classification. Seven distinct LULC classes—forest, irrigated cropland, agricultural land (fallow), barren land, shrub land, water, and urban land—are delineated for classification purposes. The study revealed substantial changes in the Godavari basin’s land use patterns over the ten-year period from 2009 to 2019. Spatial and temporal dynamics of land use/cover changes (2009-2019) were quantified using three Satellite/Landsat images, a supervised classification algorithm and the post classification change detection technique in GIS. The total study area of the Godavari basin in Maharashtra encompasses 5138175.48 hectares. Notably, the built-up area increased from 0.14% in 2009 to 1.94% in 2019. The proportion of irrigated cropland, which was 62.32% in 2009, declined to 41.52% in 2019. Shrub land witnessed a noteworthy increase from 0.05% to 2.05% over the last decade. The key findings underscored significant declines in barren land, agricultural land, and irrigated cropland, juxtaposed with an expansion in forest land, shrub land, and urban land. The classification methodology achieved an overall accuracy of 80%, with a Kappa Statistic of 71.9% for the satellite images. The overall classification accuracy along with the Kappa value for 2009, 2014 and 2019 supervised land use land cover classification was good enough to detect the changing scenarios of Godavari River basin under study. These findings provide valuable insights for discerning land utilization across various categories, facilitating the adoption of appropriate strategies for sustainable land use in the region.

Extensive identification of landslide boundaries using remote sensing images and deep learning method

The frequent occurrence of extreme weather events has rendered numerous landslides to a global natural disaster issue.It is crucial to rapidly and accurately determine the boundaries of landslides for geohazards evaluation and emergency response.Therefore,the Skip Connection DeepLab neural network(SCDnn),a deep learning model based on 770 optical remote sensing images of landslide,is proposed to improve the accuracy of landslide boundary detection.The SCDnn model is optimized for the over-segmentation issue which occurs in conventional deep learning models when there is a significant degree of similarity between topographical geomorphic features.SCDnn exhibits notable improvements in landslide feature extraction and semantic segmentation by combining an enhanced Atrous Spatial Pyramid Convolutional Block(ASPC)with a coding structure that reduces model complexity.The experimental results demonstrate that SCDnn can identify landslide boundaries in 119 images with MIoU values between 0.8and 0.9;while 52 images with MIoU values exceeding 0.9,which exceeds the identification accuracy of existing techniques.This work can offer a novel technique for the automatic extensive identification of landslide boundaries in remote sensing images in addition to establishing the groundwork for future inve stigations and applications in related domains.

Quantifying River Bank Erosion and Accretion Patterns along the Gorai River in Kushtia, Bangladesh: A Geospatial Analysis Utilizing GIS and Remote Sensing Techniques

River bank erosion is a natural process that occurs when the water flow of a river exceeds the bank’s ability to withstand it. It is a common phenomenon that causes extensive land damage, displacement of people, loss of crops, and infrastructure damage. The Gorai River, situated on the right bank of the Ganges, is a significant branch of the river that flows into the Bay of Bengal via the Mathumati and Baleswar rivers. The erosion of the banks of the Gorai River in Kushtia district is not a recent occurrence. Local residents have been dealing with this issue for the past hundred years, and according to the elderly members of the community, the erosion has become more severe activities. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to quantify river bank erosion and accretion and bankline shifting from 2003 to 2022 using multi-temporal Landsat images data with GIS and remote sensing technique. Bank-line migration occurs as a result of the interplay and interconnectedness of various factors such as the degree of river-related processes such as erosion, transportation, and deposition, the amount of water in the river during the high season, the geological and soil makeup, and human intervention in the river. The results show that the highest eroded area was 4.6 square kilometers during the period of 2016 to 2019, while the highest accreted area was 7.12 square kilometers during the period of 2013 to 2016. However, the erosion and accretion values fluctuated from year to year.

Using remote sensing technology to monitor salt lake changes caused by climate change and melting glaciers:insights from Zabuye Salt Lake in Xizang

Zabuye Salt Lake(ZSL)in Xizang is the only saline lake in the world with natural crystalline lithium carbonate.As it is an important lithium production base in China,any changes of this lake are concerning.Global climate change(CC)has affected the hydrological conditions of glaciers,lakes,and ecosystems in the Tibetan Plateau(TP).With the aim of monitoring dynamic hydrological changes in ZSL and Lunggar Glaciers(LG)to identify factors governing lake changes,and to estimate the potential damage to grasslands and salt pans,Landsat remote sensing(RS)and meteorological data were used to do a series of experiments and analysis.Firstly,according to the spectral characteristics(SC),salt lake,glaciers,grasslands,and salt pans around the salt lake were extracted by band calculation(BC).Secondly,basin and water areas of the expanded lake were estimated using a shuttle radar topography mission(SRTM)digital elevation model(DEM).Thirdly,comprehensive analyses of lake and glacier area changes,and regional meteorological factors(annual average temperature,annual precipitation,and evaporation)were performed,and the results show that ZSL expanded at a rate of 5.28 km^(2)/a,it is likely to continue expanding.Expansion was closely related to the large-scale melting of a glacier caused by rising temperatures.Continued lake expansion(LE)will exert different effects on surrounding grasslands and salt pans,7.84 km^(2)of grassland and 2.7 km^(2)of salt pan will be submerged with every meter of water increase in the lake.Similar prediction methods was used to monitor other lakes on the TP.Mami Co,Selin Co,and Chaerhan salt lakes all expanded at different rates,and may potentially cause different levels of potential harm to surrounding grasslands and roads.Our study contributes to salt lake research and demonstrates the superiority of RS technology for monitoring saline lakes.

Delineation of groundwater potential zones using remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems(GIS)in Kadaladi region,Southern India

The primary objective of this research is to delineate potential groundwater recharge zones in the Kadaladi taluk of Ramanathapuram,Tamil Nadu,India,using a combination of remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems(GIS)with the Analytical Hierarchical Process(AHP).Various factors such as geology,geomorphology,soil,drainage,density,lineament density,slope,rainfall were analyzed at a specific scale.Thematic layers were evaluated for quality and relevance using Saaty's scale,and then inte-grated using the weighted linear combination technique.The weights assigned to each layer and features were standardized using AHP and the Eigen vector technique,resulting in the final groundwater potential zone map.The AHP method was used to normalize the scores following the assignment of weights to each criterion or factor based on Saaty's 9-point scale.Pair-wise matrix analysis was utilized to calculate the geometric mean and normalized weight for various parameters.The groundwater recharge potential zone map was created by mathematically overlaying the normalized weighted layers.Thematic layers indicating major elements influencing groundwater occurrence and recharge were derived from satellite images.2 Results indicate that approximately 21.8 km of the total area exhibits high potential for groundwater recharge.Groundwater recharge is viable in areas with moderate slopes,particularly in the central and southeastern regions.

Multidisciplinary Modeling and Optimization Method of Remote Sensing Satellite Parameters Based on SysML-CEA

To enhance the efficiency of system modeling and optimization in the conceptual design stage of satellite parameters,a system modeling and optimization method based on System Modeling Language and Co-evolutionary Algorithm is proposed.At first,the objectives of satellite mission and optimization problems are clarified,and a design matrix of discipline structure is constructed to process the coupling relationship of design variables and constraints of the orbit,payload,power and quality disciplines.In order to solve the problem of increasing nonlinearity and coupling between these disciplines while using a standard collaborative optimization algorithm,an improved genetic algorithm is proposed and applied to system-level and discipline-level models.Finally,the CO model of satellite parameters is solved through the collaborative simulation of Cameo Systems Modeler(CSM)and MATLAB.The result obtained shows that the method proposed in this paper for the conceptual design phase of satellite parameters is efficient and feasible.It can shorten the project cycle effectively and additionally provide a reference for the optimal design of other complex projects.

Preliminary report of coseismic surface rupture(part)of Türkiye's M_(W)7.8 earthquake by remote sensing interpretation

Both M_(W) 7.8 and M_(W) 7.5 earthquakes occurred in southeastern Türkiye on February 6,2023,resulting in numerous buildings collapsing and serious casualties.Understanding the distribution of coseismic surface ruptures and secondary disasters surrounding the epicentral area is important for post-earthquake emergency and disaster assessments.High-resolution Maxar and GF-2 satellite data were used after the events to extract the location of the rupture surrounding the first epicentral area.The results show that the length of the interpreted surface rupture zone(part of)is approximately 75 km,with a coseismic sinistral dislocation of 2-3 m near the epicenter;however,this reduced to zero at the tip of the southwest section of the East Anatolia Fault Zone.Moreover,dense soil liquefaction pits were triggered along the rupture trace.These events are in the western region of the Eurasian Seismic Belt and result from the subduction and collision of the Arabian and African Plates toward the Eurasian Plate.The western region of the Chinese mainland and its adjacent areas are in the eastern section of the Eurasian Seismic Belt,where seismic activity is controlled by the collision of the Indian and Eurasian Plates.Both China and Türkiye have independent tectonic histories.

Hyperspectral Remote Sensing Image Classification Using Improved Metaheuristic with Deep Learning

Remote sensing image(RSI)classifier roles a vital play in earth observation technology utilizing Remote sensing(RS)data are extremely exploited from both military and civil fields.More recently,as novel DL approaches develop,techniques for RSI classifiers with DL have attained important breakthroughs,providing a new opportunity for the research and development of RSI classifiers.This study introduces an Improved Slime Mould Optimization with a graph convolutional network for the hyperspectral remote sensing image classification(ISMOGCN-HRSC)model.The ISMOGCN-HRSC model majorly concentrates on identifying and classifying distinct kinds of RSIs.In the presented ISMOGCN-HRSC model,the synergic deep learning(SDL)model is exploited to produce feature vectors.The GCN model is utilized for image classification purposes to identify the proper class labels of the RSIs.The ISMO algorithm is used to enhance the classification efficiency of the GCN method,which is derived by integrating chaotic concepts into the SMO algorithm.The experimental assessment of the ISMOGCN-HRSC method is tested using a benchmark dataset.

Study on Ecological Change Remote Sensing Monitoring Method Based on Elman Dynamic Recurrent Neural Network

In this paper, Hailin City of Heilongjiang Province, China is taken as the research area. As an important city in Heilongjiang Province, China, the sustainable development of its ecological environment is related to the opening up, economic prosperity and social stability of Northeast China. In this paper, the remote sensing ecological index (RSEI) of Hailin City in recent 20 years was calculated by using Landsat 5/8/9 series satellite images, and the temporal and spatial changes of the ecological environment in Hailin City were further analyzed and the influencing factors were discussed. From 2003 to 2023, the mean value of RSEI in Hailin City decreased and increased, and the ecological environment decreased slightly as a whole. RSEI declined most significantly from 2003 to 2008, and it increased from 2008 to 2013, decreased from 2013 to 2018, and increased from 2018 to 2023 again, with higher RSEI value in the south and lower RSEI value in the northwest. It is suggested to appropriately increase vegetation coverage in the northwest to improve ecological quality. As a result, the predicted value of Elman dynamic recurrent neural network model is consistent with the change trend of the mean value, and the prediction error converges quickly, which can accurately predict the ecological environment quality in the future study area.

High-Resolution Remote Sensing Imagery for the Recognition of Traditional Villages

Traditional Chinese villages,vital carriers of traditional culture,have faced significant alterations due to urbanization in recent years,urgently necessitating artificial intelligence data updates.This study integrates high spatial resolution remote sensing imagery with deep learning techniques,proposing a novel method for identifying rooftops of traditional Chinese village buildings using high-definition remote sensing images.Using 0.54 m spatial resolution imagery of traditional village areas as the data source,this method analyzes the geometric and spectral image characteristics of village building rooftops.It constructs a deep learning feature sample library tailored to the target types.Employing a semantically enhanced version of the improved Mask R-CNN(Mask Region-based Convolutional Neural Network)for building recognition,the study conducts experiments on localized imagery from different regions.The results demonstrated that the modified Mask R-CNN effectively identifies traditional village building rooftops,achieving an of 0.7520 and an of 0.7400.It improves the current problem of misidentification and missed detection caused by feature heterogeneity.This method offers a viable and effective approach for industrialized data monitoring of traditional villages,contributing to their sustainable development.

Spatiotemporal variations of drought and driving factors based on multiple remote sensing drought indices:A case study in karst areas of southwest China

Droughts are recurrent in southwest China due to the fragility and sensitivity of the karst environment.These events have serious impacts on local agricultural output,ecological diversity,and social stability.Understanding spatiotemporal variations and driving factors of drought in this area is of extreme importance for effective mitigation measures.The karst areas situated in southwest China were spatially divided into seven sub-regions according to the topography and degree of karst development.Drought indices,including vegetation condition index(VCI),temperature condition index(TCI),vegetation health index(VHI),normalized vegetation water supply index(NVSWI),and temperature vegetation drought index(TVDI),were calculated from MODIS data during 2000 and 2018for each sub-region,and drought patterns were examined.The results show that droughts were found to be concentrated in sub-regions such as karst basin,karst plateau,karst gorge,and karst depression areas.Furthermore,there were more drought conditions in karst areas than in non-karst areas.In addition,improvements to drought situation in the study period are significant(p<0.05),and mitigation areas respectively account for 80.1%(NVSWI),74.2%(VCI),74.2%(VHI),30.1%(TCI)and 33.2%(TVDI)of the study area,while drought expands slightly(<3.4%)in areas undergoing urban construction.Pearson's correlation coefficients between drought indices and temperature are generally above 0.5 in all sub-regions.However,the correlation coefficients between drought indices and precipitation mostly fall within the range of 0.3-0.4,indicating a weaker correlation.Our explanation for the spatiotemporal patterns of drought is that karst phenomena are the natural basis of drought and agricultural production is one of important driving forces.Positive changes of drought conditions have benefited from efforts to control rocky desertification and restore ecosystems over the past years.

Remote sensing of subtropical tree diversity:The underappreciated roles of the practical definition of forest canopy and phenological variation

Tree species diversity is vital for maintaining ecosystem functions,yet our ability to map the distribution of tree diversity is limited due to difficulties in traditional field-based approaches.Recent developments in spaceborne remote sensing provide unprecedented opportunities to map and monitor tree diversity more efficiently.Here we built partial least squares regression models using the multispectral surface reflectance acquired by Sentinel-2 satellites and the inventory data from 74 subtropical forest plots to predict canopy tree diversity in a national natural reserve in eastern China.In particular,we evaluated the underappreciated roles of the practical definition of forest canopy and phenological variation in predicting tree diversity by testing three different definitions of canopy trees and comparing models built using satellite imagery of different seasons.Our best models explained 42%–63%variations in observed diversities in cross-validation tests,with higher explanation power for diversity indices that are more sensitive to abundant species.The models built using imageries from early spring and late autumn showed consistently better fits than those built using data from other seasons,highlighting the significant role of transitional phenology in remotely sensing plant diversity.Our results suggested that the cumulative diameter(60%–80%)of the biggest trees is a better way to define the canopy layer than using the subjective fixeddiameter-threshold(5–12 cm)or the cumulative basal area(90%–95%)of the biggest trees.Remarkably,these approaches resulted in contrasting diversity maps that call attention to canopy structure in remote sensing of tree diversity.This study demonstrates the potential of mapping and monitoring tree diversity using the Sentinal-2 data in species-rich forests.