Global mapping of urban built-up areas of year 2014 by combining MODIS multispectral data with VIIRS nighttime light data

An improved methodology for the extraction and mapping of urban built-up areas at a global scale is presented in this study.The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS)-based multispectral data were combined with the Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite(VIIRS)-based nighttime light(NTL)data for robust extraction and mapping of urban built-up areas.The MODIS-based newly proposed Urban Built-up Index(UBI)was combined with NTL data,and the resulting Enhanced UBI(EUBI)was used as a single master image for global extraction of urban built-up areas.Due to higher variation of the EUBI with respect to geographical regions,a region-specific threshold approach was used to extract urban built-up areas.This research provided 500-m-resolution global urban built-up map of year 2014.The resulted map was compared with three existing moderate-resolution global maps and one high-resolution map in the United States.The comparative analysis demonstrated finer details of the urban built-up cover estimated by the resultant map.

Building a Post-Layout Simulation Performance Model with Global Mapping Model Fusion Technique

Building a post-layout simulation performance model is essential in closing the loop of analog circuits, but it is a challenging task because of the high-dimensional space and expensive simulation cost. To facilitate efficient modeling, this paper proposes a Global Mapping Model Fusion(GMMF) technique. The key idea of GMMF is to reuse the schematic-level model trained by the Artificial Neural Network(ANN) algorithm, and combine it with few mapping coefficients to build the post-simulation model. Furthermore, as an efficient global optimization algorithm,differential evolution is applied to determine the optimal mapping coefficients with few samples. In GMMF, only a small number of mapping coefficients are unknown, so the number of post-layout samples needed is significantly reduced. To enhance practical utility of the proposed GMMF technique, two specific mapping relations, i.e., linear or weakly no-linear and nonlinear, are carefully considered in this paper. We conduct experiments on two topologies of two-stage operational amplifier and comparator in different commercial processes. All the simulation data for modeling are obtained from a parametric design framework. A more than 5 runtime speedup is achieved over ANN without surrendering any accuracy.

Outlines of New Global Geochemical Mapping Program

Since 1988,great efforts and enthusiasm had been paid by applied geochemists in the implementation of global geochemical mapping through the International Geological Correlation Program＇s Projects 259 and 360,and the Task Group on‘Global Geochemical Baselines＇ established by the International Union of Geological Sciences（IUGS）,in collaboration with the International Association of Geochemistry（IAGC）.But how to use extremely low-density sampling to obtain a global picture of the distribution of most elements in the periodic table in a reasonably short time is still a great challenge faced by the applied geochemistry community.It will depend on the continuous development of new mapping concept,and the advisable and courageous innovation of methodology for searching other suitable sample media and sampling layout.Based on the encouragement results obtained from the representativeness study of delta sediments conducted at the mouth of Yangtze River,and at the mouths of its four major tributary,it is expected to broadly apply the geochemical fractal self-similarity nature to main rivers and their estuaries with catchments up to hundreds of thousands or over a million square kilometers in the world.With this new mapping concept,a new outlines of a Global Geochemical Mapping Program was advanced and the establishment of an International Research Center of Global Geochemical Mapping was also suggested to facilitate the programs implementations.

The global rainforest mapping project JERS-1: a paradigm of international collaboration for monitoring land cover change

The Global Rainforest Mapping (GRFM) project was initiated in 1995 and, through a dedicated data acquisition policy by the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA), data acquisitions could be completed within a 1.5-year period, resulting in a spatially and temporally homogeneous coverage to contain the entire Amazon Basin from the Atlantic to the Pacific; Central America up to the Yucatan Peninsular in Mexico; equatorial Africa from Madagascar and Kenya in the east to Sierra Leone in the west; and Southeast Asia, including Papua New Guinea. To some extent, GRFM project is an international endeavor led by NASDA, with the goal of producing spatially and temporally contiguous Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data sets over the tropical belt on the Earth by use of the JERS-1 L-band SAR, through the generation of semi-continental, 100m resolution, image mosaics. The GRFM project relies on extensive collaboration with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Joint Research Center of the European Commission (JRC) and the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) for data acquisition, processing, validation and product generation. A science program is underway in parallel with product generation. This involves the agencies mentioned above, as well as a large number of international organizations, universities and individuals to perform field activities and data analysis at different levels.

Assessment of International GNSS Service Global Ionosphere Map products over China region based on measurements from the Crustal Movement Observation Network of China

The global ionosphere maps(GIM)provided by the International GNSS Service(IGS)are extensively utilized for ionospheric morphology monitoring,scientific research,and practical application.Assessing the credibility of GIM products in data-sparse regions is of paramount importance.In this study,measurements from the Crustal Movement Observation Network of China(CMONOC)are leveraged to evaluate the suitability of IGS-GIM products over China region in 2013-2014.The indices of mean error(ME),root mean square error(RMSE),and normalized RMSE(NRMSE)are then utilized to quantify the accuracy of IGS-GIM products.Results revealed distinct local time and latitudinal dependencies in IGS-GIM errors,with substantially high errors at nighttime(NRMSE:39%)and above 40°latitude(NRMSE:49%).Seasonal differences also emerged,with larger equinoctial deviations(NRMSE:33.5%)compared with summer(20%).A preliminary analysis implied that the irregular assimilation of sparse IGS observations,compounded by China’s distinct geomagnetic topology,may manifest as error variations.These results suggest that modeling based solely on IGS-GIM observations engenders inadequate representations across China and that a thorough examination would proffer the necessary foundation for advancing regional total electron content(TEC)constructions.

First Global Carbon Dioxide Maps Produced from Tan Sat Measurements

1.The need for global carbon monitoring from space and the TanSat mission Global warming is a major problem,for which carbon dioxide（CO2 ）is the main greenhouse gas involved in heating the troposphere.However,the poor availability of global CO2 measurements makes it difficult to estimate CO2 emissions accurately.

Global land mapping of satellite-observed CO_(2)total columns using spatio-temporal geostatistics

This study presents an approach for generating a global land mapping dataset of the satellite measurements of CO_(2)total column(XCO_(2))using spatio-temporal geostatistics,which makes full use of the joint spatial and temporal dependencies between observations.The mapping approach considers the latitude-zonal seasonal cycles and spatio-temporal correlation structure of XCO_(2),and obtains global land maps of XCO_(2),with a spatial grid resolution of 1°latitude by 1°longitude and temporal resolution of 3 days.We evaluate the accuracy and uncertainty of the mapping dataset in the following three ways:(1)in cross-validation,the mapping approach results in a high correlation coefficient of 0.94 between the predictions and observations,(2)in comparison with ground truth provided by the Total Carbon Column Observing Network(TCCON),the predicted XCO_(2)time series and those from TCCON sites are in good agreement,with an overall bias of 0.01 ppm and a standard deviation of the difference of 1.22 ppm and(3)in comparison with model simulations,the spatio-temporal variability of XCO_(2)between the mapping dataset and simulations from the CT2013 and GEOS-Chem are generally consistent.The generated mapping XCO_(2)data in this study provides a new global geospatial dataset in global understanding of greenhouse gases dynamics and global warming.

A Novel Multivalued Associative Memory System

Globally coupled map (GCM) model can evolve through chaotic searching into several stable periodic orbits under properly controlled parameters. This can be exploited in information processing such as associative memory and optimization. In this paper, we propose a novel covariance learning rule for multivalue patterns and apply it in memorization of gray scale images based on modified GCM model (S GCM). Analysis of retrieval results are given finally.

Discovering forest height changes based on spaceborne lidar data of ICESat-1 in 2005 and ICESat-2 in 2019:a case study in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region of China

Background:The assessment of change in forest ecosystems,especially the change of canopy heights,is essential for improving global carbon estimates and understanding effects of climate change.Spaceborne lidar systems provide a unique opportunity to monitor changes in the vertical structure of forests.NASA’s Ice,Cloud and Land Elevation Satellites,ICESat-1 for the period 2003 to 2009,and ICESat-2(available since 2018),have collected elevation data over the Earth’s surface with a time interval of 10 years.In this study,we tried to discover forest canopy changes by utilizing the global forest canopy height map of 2005(complete global coverage with 1 km resolution)derived from ICESat-1 data and the ATL08 land and vegetation products of 2019(sampling footprints with 17 m diameter)from ICESat-2.Results:Our study revealed a significant increase in forest canopy heights of China’s Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.Evaluations of unchanging areas for data consistency of two products show that the bias values decreased significantly from line-transect-level(−8.0 to 6.2 m)to site-level(^(−1).5 to 1.1 m),while RMSE values are still relatively high(6.1 to 15.2 m,10.2 to 12.0 m).Additionally,58%of ATL08 data are located in‘0m’pixels with an average height of 7.9 m,which are likely to reflect the ambitious tree planting programs in China.Conclusions:Our study shows that it is possible,with proper calibrations,to use ICESat-1 and-2 products to detect forest canopy height changes in a regional context.We expect that the approach presented in this study is potentially suitable to derive a fine-scale map of global forest change.

Global land 1° mapping dataset of XCO_(2) from satellite observations of GOSAT and OCO-2 from 2009 to 2020

A global mapping data of atmospheric carbon dioxide(CO_(2))concen-trations can help us to better understand the spatiotemporal varia-tions of CO_(2) and the driving factors of the variations to support the actions for emissions reduction and control.Greenhouse gases satel-lites that measure atmospheric CO_(2),such as the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite(GOSAT)and Orbiting Carbon Observatory(OCO-2),have been providing global observations of the column averaged dry-air mole fractions of CO_(2)(XCO_(2))since 2009.However,these XCO_(2) retrievals are irregular in space and time with many gaps.In this paper,we mapped a global spatiotemporally continuous XCO_(2) data-set(Mapping-XCO_(2))using the XCO_(2) retrievals from GOSAT and OCO-2 during the period from April 2009 to December 2020 based on a geostatistical approach that fills those data gaps.The dataset covers a geographic range from 56°S to 65°N and 169°W to 180°E for a 1°grid interval in space and 3-day time interval.The uncer-tainties of the mapped XCO_(2) values are generally less than 1.5 parts per million(ppm).The spatiotemporal characteristics of global XCO_(2) that are revealed by the Mapping-XCO_(2) are similar to the model data obtained from CarbonTracker.Compared to the ground observa-tions,the overall standard bias is 1.13 ppm.The results indicate that this long-term Mapping-XCO_(2) dataset can be used to investigate the spatiotemporal variations of global atmospheric XCO_(2) and can support studies related to the carbon cycle and anthropogenic CO_(2) emissions.The dataset is available at http://www.doi.org/10.7910/DVN/4WDTD8 and https://www.scidb.cn/en/detail?dataSetId=c2c3111b421043fc8d9b163c39e6f56e.

Ionospheric total electron content disturbance associated with May 12, 2008,Wenchuan earthquake

Possible ionospheric disturbances relating to the May 12, 2008, MsS.0 Wenchuan earthquake were identified by Global Positioning System （GPS）-derived total electron content （TEC）, ion- osonde observations, the global ionospheric map （GIM）, and electron density profiles detected by the Constellation Observation System for Meteorology Ionosphere and Climate （COSMIC）. We applied a statistical test to detect anomalous TEC signals and found that a unique enhancement in TEC, recorded at 16 GPS stations, appeared on May 9, 2008. The critical fre- quency at F2 peak （foF2）, observed by the Chinese ionosondes, and maximal plasma frequency, derived from COSMIC data, revealed a characteristic similar to GPS TEC variations. The GIM showed that the anomalous variations of May 9 were located southeast of the epicenter. Using GPS data from 13 stations near the epicenter, we analyzed the TEC variations of satellite orbit traces during 04：00-11：00 UT. We found that TEC decreased to the east and increased to the southeast of the epicenter during this period. Results showed that the abnormal disturbance on May 9 was probably an ionosphenc precursor of the Wenchuan earthquake of May 12, 2008.

Determination of nighttime VTEC average in the Klobuchar ionospheric delay model

The Klobuchar model has been widely used to correct the ionospheric delay in applications. However, the NVTEC(Nighttime Vertical Total Electron Content) of the Klobuchar model employs an empirical constant of 9 TECU(Total Electron Content Unit) at L1 frequency. In this paper, the rationality and reliability of the nighttime constant setting are investigated using the GIM(Global Ionosphere Map) product of the IGS(International GNSS Service) from 1998 to 2015. Our study indicates that the suitable time span of NVTEC average in nighttime should be between 20:00 and 06:00 LT(local time). The NVTEC is highly correlated with seasons, having positive extremes in spring and autumn and negative extremes in summer through the mean values in all latitudes. In addition to seasonal dependence, solar activity in the solar cycle 23 strongly influences NVTEC as well and leads to its variation within a range between 25 and30 TECU in spring and autumn at solar maximum, which is about 1.5 times greater than that in summer and winter. The NVTEC also has a dependence on the latitude at solar maximum, with the mean value from 30 TECU in low latitudinal regions to 15 TECU in high latitudinal regions. Therefore, these results demonstrate that the nighttime VTEC has much greater deviations from the imperial constant in the Klobuchar model, and the newly estimated constant is expected to bring improvement to the predictability of the Klobuchar ionospheric delay model in nighttime.

Comparison of TEC prediction methods in mid-latitudes with GIM maps

There are many long-term and short-term prediction methods of Total Electron Content(TEC) that need to be tested for each specific region. Recently, much attention has been paid to testing TEC models in high-, low-latitude and equatorial regions. This paper compares the TEC prediction methods in the midlatitude zone according to the data of the Juliusruh, Rostov, Manzhouli stations in 2008 and 2015. For a long-term prediction, the IRI-Plas and Ne Quick models are compared with the Global Ionospheric Maps(GIM) presented by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory(JPL) and the Technical University of Catalonia(UPC).For a short-term prediction, the Standard Persistence Model(SPM) method, a 27 day median model, and the proposed short-term prediction method are compared for one day ahead. It is shown that for all stations the IRI-Plas model provides better compliance with GIM maps than the Ne Quick model irrespective of a solar activity level. An average absolute error lays in the range of 3 e3.5 TECU, relative root square mean(RMS) error in the range of 22 e27% in 2015 and 1.7 e2 TECU, 20 e25% in 2008. For the Ne Quick model, these estimates were 6.7 e8.2 TECU and 42 e45% in 2015 and 2.2 e3.6 TECU, 30 e37% in2008. For the short-term forecast, the best results were obtained by the SPM method with an average absolute error in the range of 1.95 e2.15 TECU in 2015 and 0.59 e0.98 TECU in 2008, a relative RMS error in the range of 17 e21% in 2015, 11.5 e15% in 2008. For the proposed short-term prediction method, these errors were 2.04 e2.2 TECU and 12 e14% in 2015 and 0.7 e1.0 TECU, 7 e11% in 2008. Using medians, the errors were 3.1 e3.4 TECU and 17 e21% in 2015 and 1.0 e1.3 TECU, 10 e15% in 2008. The dependence of results on the Dst-index was obtained.

The Phase Transition during Post Annealing

We have studied why PA （post-annealing） takes a long time to restore damaged crystallinity, which corresponds to repeat 10 10 times of lattice vibrations. Using a MD （molecular dynamics） simulation, we monitored the time-series of the LRO （long-range order） parameter as LRO pattern, in the case of a type IIa diamond, from the beginning of ion impact by a sub-keV N2 beam implantation to a few nanoseconds, i.e., close to the feasible time limit for MD simulations. Due to the ion impact, the LRO parameter changed gradually from ＂LRO = 1＂ （crystal） to ＂LRO = 0＂ （amorphous）, showing the so-called critical slowing-down phenomenon. However, since PA was started the LRO pattern was not unique. The LRO patterns were grouped into more than three types of phases and the transition between them was also found. From the viewpoint of statistical dynamics, such chaotic variations in the LRO pattern may present that the system is a GCM （globally coupled map） of a complex system in a closed system. A GCM composed of coupled oscillators develops slowly to exhibit several different phases or ‘chaotic itinerancy＇ over time. Therefore, the long duration required for PA may be attributable to the nature of a complex system.

China’s high-resolution optical remote sensing satellites and their mapping applications

Since the beginning of the twenty-first century,several countries have made great efforts to develop space remote sensing for building a high-resolution earth observation system.Under the great attention of the government and the guidance of the major scientific and technological project of the high-resolution earth observation system,China has made continuous breakthroughs and progress in high-resolution remote sensing imaging technology.The development of domestic high-resolution remote sensing satellites shows a vigorous trend,and consequently,a relatively stable and perfect high-resolution earth observation system has been formed.The development of high-resolution remote sensing satellites has greatly promoted and enriched modern mapping technologies and methods.In this paper,the development status,along with mapping modes and applications of China’s high-resolution remote sensing satellites are reviewed,and the development trend in high-resolution earth observation system for global and ground control-free mapping is discussed,providing a reference for the subsequent development of high-resolution remote sensing satellites in China.

Global characterization and monitoring of forest cover using Landsat data: opportunities and challenges

The compilation of global Landsat data-sets and the ever-lowering costs of computing now make it feasible to monitor the Earth’s land cover at Landsat resolutions of 30 m.In this article,we describe the methods to create global products of forest cover and cover change at Landsat resolutions.Nevertheless,there are many challenges in ensuring the creation of high-quality products.And we propose various ways in which the challenges can be overcome.Among the challenges are the need for atmospheric correction,incorrect calibration coefficients in some of the data-sets,the different phenologies between compila-tions,the need for terrain correction,the lack of consistent reference data for training and accuracy assessment,and the need for highly automated character-ization and change detection.We propose and evaluate the creation and use of surface reflectance products,improved selection of scenes to reduce phenological differences,terrain illumination correction,automated training selection,and the use of information extraction procedures robust to errors in training data along with several other issues.At several stages we use Moderate Resolution Spectro-radiometer data and products to assist our analysis.A global working prototype product of forest cover and forest cover change is included.

FROM-GC: 30 m global cropland extent derived through multisource data integration

We report on a global cropland extent product at 30-m spatial resolution developed with two 30-m global land cover maps(i.e.FROM-GLC,Finer Resolution Observation and Monitoring,Global Land Cover;FROM-GLC=agg)and a 250-m cropland probability map.A common land cover validation sample database was used to determine optimal thresholds of cropland probability in different parts of the world to generate a cropland/noncropland mask according to the classification accuracies for cropland samples.A decision tree was then applied to combine two 250-m cropland masks:one existing mask from the literature and the other produced in this study,with the 30-m global land cover map FROM-GLC-agg.For the smallest difference with country-level cropland area in Food and Agriculture Organization Corporate Statistical(FAOSTAT)database,a final global cropland extent map was composited from the FROM-GLC,FROM-GLC-agg,and two masked crop=land layers.From this map FROM-GC(Global Cropland),we estimated the global cropland areas to be 1533.83 million hectares(Mha)in 2010,which is 6.95 Mha(0.45%)less than the area reported by the Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO)of the United Nations for the year 2010.A country-by=country comparison between the map and the FAOSTAT data showed a linear relationship(FROM-GC=1.05*FAOSTAT-1.2(Mha)with R^(2)=0.97).Africa,South America,Southeastern Asia,and Oceania are the regions with large discrepancies with the FAO survey.

Assessing the suitability of GlobeLand30 for mapping land cover in Germany

Global land cover(LC)maps have been widely employed as the base layer for a number of applications including climate change,food security,water quality,biodiversity,change detection,and environmental planning.Due to the importance of LC,there is a pressing need to increase the temporal and spatial resolution of global LC maps.A recent advance in this direction has been the GlobeLand30 dataset derived from Landsat imagery,which has been developed by the National Geomatics Center of China(NGCC).Although overall accuracy is greater than 80%,the NGCC would like help in assessing the accuracy of the product in different regions of the world.To assist in this process,this study compares the GlobeLand30 product with existing public and online datasets,that is,CORINE,Urban Atlas(UA),OpenStreetMap,and ATKIS for Germany in order to assess overall and per class agreement.The results of the analysis reveal high agreement of up to 92%between these datasets and GlobeLand30 but that large disagreements for certain classes are evident,in particular wetlands.However,overall,GlobeLand30 is shown to be a useful product for characterizing LC in Germany,and paves the way for further regional and national validation efforts.

Status of CAS global ionospheric maps after the maximum of solar cycle 24

As a new Ionosphere Associate Analysis Center(IAAC)of the International GNSS Service(IGS),Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS)started the routine computation of the real-time,rapid,and final Global Ionospheric Maps(GIMs)in 2015.The method for the generation of CAS rapid and final GIMs and recent updates are presented in the paper.The quality of CAS post-processed GIMs is assessed during 2015-2018 after the maximum of solar cycle 24.To perform an independent and fair assessment,Jason-2/3 Vertical Total Electron Contents(VTEC)are first used as the references over the ocean.GPS differential Slant TECs(dSTEC)generated from 55 Multi-GNSS Experimental(MGEX)stations of the IGS are also employed,which provides a complementing way to evaluate the ability of electron content models to reproduce the spatial and temporal gradients in the ionosphere.During the test period,Jet Propulsion Laboratory(JPL)GIMs present significantly positive deviations compared to the Jason VTEC and GPS dSTEC.Technical University of Catalonia(UPC)rapid GIM UQRG exhibits the best performance in both Jason VTEC and GPS dSTEC analysis.The CAS GIMs show comparable performance with the results of the first four IAACs of the IGS.As expected,the poor performance of all GIMs is in equatorial regions and the high latitudes of the southern hemisphere.The consideration of generating multi-layer or three-dimensional ionospheric maps is emphasized to mitigate the inadequacy of ionospheric single-layer assumption in the presence of pronounced latitudinal gradients.The use of ionospheric observations from the new GNSS constellations and other space-or ground-based observation techniques is also suggested in the generation of future GIMs,given the sparse GPS/GLONASS stations in the southern hemisphere.

Accuracies of Global Land Cover Maps Checked against Fluxnet Sites

Global land cover data products are key sources of information in understanding the complex interactions between human activities and global change. They play a critical role in improving performances of ecosystem, hydrological and atmospheric models. Three freely available global land cover products developed in the United States are popularly used by the scientific community. These include two global maps developed separately by the United States Geological Survey （USGS） and the University of Maryland （UMD） with NOAA Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer （ AVHRR ） data, and one developed by Boston University with the EOS Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer （ MODIS） data. They are compared with known land cover types at 250 available Fluxnet sites around the world. The overall accuracies are 37%, 36% and 42%, respectively for the USGS, UMD and Boston global land cover maps, Some future global land cover mapping strategies are suggested.