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The problem of accurately measuring the motion parameters of low radar cross-section (RCS) maneuvering targets has long been a hurdle in the radar technology landscape. Small targets, due to their elusive characteristics, are particularly difficult to detect with conventional radar systems. In this paper, we investigate the capabilities of dechirp-receiving stepped-frequency radar, a modern system using a linear frequency modulation signal for downconversion. This permits the radar to function at reduced sampling rates while maintaining the transmission of large-bandwidth signals and achieving synthetic imaging. Our primary contribution is introducing the stepped dechirp generalized Radon–Fourier transform (stepped DGRFT) algorithm. This novel approach allows the radar system to perform coherent accumulation, enhancing the accuracy of motion parameter estimates for low-RCS maneuvering targets. Results from our simulations and measured data analysis validate the effectiveness of our proposed algorithm, demonstrating its superiority over other methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most applications of land cover maps that have been derived from satellite data over the Arctic require higher thematic detail than available in current global maps. A range of application studies has been reviewed, including up-scaling of carbon fluxes and pools, permafrost feature mapping and transition monitoring. Early land cover mapping studies were driven by the demand to characterize wildlife habitats. Later, in the 1990s, up-scaling of in situ measurements became central to the discipline of land cover mapping on local to regional scales at several sites across the Arctic. This includes the Kuparuk basin in Alaska, the Usa basin and the Lena Delta in Russia. All of these multi-purpose land cover maps have been derived from Landsat data. High resolution maps (from optical satellite data) serve frequently as input for the characterization of periglacial features and also flux tower footprints in recent studies. The most used map to address circumpolar issues is the CAVM (Circum Arctic Vegetation Map) based on AVHRR (1 km) and has been manually derived. It provides the required thematic detail for many applications, but is confined to areas north of the treeline, and it is limited in spatial detail. A higher spatial resolution circumpolar land cover map with sufficient thematic content would be beneficial for a range of applications. Such a land cover classification should be compatible with existing global maps and applicable for multiple purposes. The thematic content of existing global maps has been assessed by comparison to the CAVM and regional maps. None of the maps provides the required thematic detail. Spatial resolution has been compared to used classes for local to regional applications. The required thematic detail increases with spatial resolution since coarser datasets are usually applied over larger areas covering more relevant landscape units. This is especially of concern when the entire Arctic is addressed. A spatial resolution around 30 m has been shown to be suitable for a range of applications. This implies that the current Landsat-8, as well as Sentinel-2 missions would be adequate as input data. Recent studies have exemplified the value of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) in tundra regions. SAR missions may be therefore of added value for large-scale high latitude land cover mapping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extreme rainfall has caused severe road damage and landslide disasters in mountainous areas. Rainfall forecasting derived from remote sensing data has been widely adopted for disaster prevention and early warning as a trend in recent years. By integrating high-resolution radar rain data, for example, the QPESUMS (quantitative precipitation estimation and segregation using multiple sensors) system provides a great opportunity to establish the extreme climate-based landslide susceptibility model, which would be helpful in the prevention of hillslope disasters under climate change. QPESUMS was adopted to obtain spatio-temporal rainfall patterns, and further, multi-temporal landslide inventories (2003–2018) would integrate with other explanatory factors and therefore, we can establish the logistic regression method for prediction of landslide susceptibility sites in the Laonong River watershed, which was devastated by Typhoon Morakot in 2009. Simulations of landslide susceptibility under the critical rainfall (300, 600, and 900 mm) were designed to verify the model's sensitivity. Due to the orographic effect, rainfall was concentrated at the low mountainous and middle elevation areas in the southern Laonong River watershed. Landslide change analysis indicates that the landslide ratio increased from 1.5% to 7.0% after Typhoon Morakot in 2009. Subsequently, the landslide ratio fluctuated between 3.5% and 4.5% after 2012, which indicates that the recovery of landslide areas is still in progress. The validation results showed that the calibrated model of 2005 is preferred in the general period, with an accuracy of 78%. For extreme rainfall typhoons, the calibrated model of 2009 would perform better (72%). This study presented that the integration of multi-temporal landslide inventories in a logistic regression model is capable of predicting rainfall-triggered landslide risk under climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a dual-polarimetric radar observation operator is established and modified for the Taiwan area for the purpose of model verification. A severe squall line case during the Southwest Monsoon Experiment Intensive Observing Period 8 (SoWMEX IOP#8) on 14 June 2008, is selected and examined. Because the operator is adopted from the use of the midlatitude region, sensitivity tests are performed to obtain the optimal setting of the operator in the subtropical region. To accurately capture the dynamic structure of the squall lines, the ensemble-based data assimilation system, which assimilates both radial wind and reflectivity data, is used to obtain the optimal analysis field on the mesoscale for evaluating the performance of model simulation. The characteristics of two microphysics schemes are investigated, and the results obtained using the schemes are compared with the S-band dual-polarimetric radar observations. The horizontal and vertical cross-sections show that the analyses resemble the observations. Both schemes can replicate the polarimetric parameter signature such as Z D R and K D P columns. When comparing model simulation with polarimetric parameters through the drawing of contour frequency by altitude diagrams (CFADs), the results reveal that the single moment microphysics scheme performs better than the double moment scheme in this case. However, the reflectivity field in the stratiform area is more accurately captured when using the double moment scheme. Furthermore, validation with polarimetric variables ( Z H , Z D R and K D P ) histograms shows underestimation of the K D P field in both schemes. Overall, this study indicates the benefit of assimilating radial wind and reflectivity data for the analyses of severe precipitation systems and the necessity of assimilating polarimetric parameters for the accuracy of microphysical processes, especially complex microphysics schemes in subtropical region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radar-based classification of human activities and gait have attracted significant attention with a large number of approaches proposed in terms of features and classification algorithms. A common approach in activity classification attempts to find the algorithm (features plus classifier) that can deal with multiple activities analysed in one study such as walking, sitting, drinking and crawling. However, using the same set of features for multiple activities can be suboptimal per activity and not take into account the diversity of kinematic movements that could be captured by diverse features. In this paper, we propose a hierarchical classification approach that uses a large variety of features including but not limited to energy features like entropy and energy curve, physical features like centroid and bandwidth, image-based features like skewness extracted from multiple radar data domains. Feature selection is used at each step of the hierarchical model to select the best set of features to discriminate the target activity from the others, showing improvements with respect to the more conventional approach of using a multiclass model. The proposed approach is validated on a large dataset with 1078 recorded samples of varying length from 5 s to 10 s of experimental data, yielding 95.4% accuracy to classify six activities. The approach is also validated on a personnel recognition task to identify individual subjects from their walking gait, yielding 83.7% accuracy for ten subjects and 68.2% for a significantly larger group of subjects, i.e., 60 people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coastal zone offers among the world's most productive and valuable ecosystems and is experiencing increasing pressure from anthropogenic impacts: human settlements, agriculture, aquaculture, trade, industrial activities, oil and gas exploitation and tourism. Earth observation has great capability to deliver valuable data at the local, regional and global scales and can support the assessment and monitoring of land- and water-related applications in coastal zones. Compared to optical satellites, cloud-cover does not limit the timeliness of data acquisition with spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensors, which have all-weather, day and night capabilities. Hence, active radar systems demonstrate great potential for continuous mapping and monitoring of coastal regions, particularly in cloud-prone tropical and sub-tropical climates. The canopy penetration capability with long radar wavelength enables L-band SAR data to be used for coastal terrestrial environments and has been widely applied and investigated for the following geoscientific topics: mapping and monitoring of flooded vegetation and inundated areas; the retrieval of aboveground biomass; and the estimation of soil moisture. Human activities, global population growth, urban sprawl and climate change-induced impacts are leading to increased pressure on coastal ecosystems causing land degradation, deforestation and land use change. This review presents a comprehensive overview of existing research articles that apply spaceborne L-band SAR data for geoscientific analyses that are relevant for coastal land applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]