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Ionospheric Total Electron Content Estimation Using GNSS Carrier Phase Observations Based on Zero-Difference Integer Ambiguity: Methodology and Assessment

Precise extraction of ionospheric total electron content (TEC) observations with high precision is the precondition for establishing high-precision ionospheric TEC models. Nowadays, there are several ways to extract TEC observations, e.g., raw-code method (Raw-C), phase-leveled code method (PL-C), and undifferenced and uncombined precise point positioning method (UD-PPP); however, their accuracy is affected by multipath and noise. Considering the limitations of the three traditional methods, we try directly to use the phase observation based on zero-difference integer ambiguity to extract ionospheric observations, namely, PPP-Fixed method. The main goal of this work is to: 1) deduce the expression of ionospheric observables of these four extraction methods in a mathematical formula, especially the satellite and receiver hardware delays; 2) investigate the performance and precision of ionospheric observables extracted from different algorithms using two validation methods, i.e., the co-location experiment by calculating the single difference for each satellite, and the single-frequency PPP (SF-PPP) test by two co-location stations; and 3) use the short arc experiment to demonstrate the advantages of the PPP-Fixed method. The results show that single-difference mean errors of TEC extracted by PL-C, UD-PPP, and PPP-Fixed are 1.81, 0.59, and 0.15 TEC unit (TECU), respectively, and their corresponding maximum single-difference values are 5.12, 1.68, and 0.43 TECU, respectively. Compared with PL-C, the precision of the TEC observations extracted by the PPP-Fixed method is improved by 91.7%, while it is 67.3% for UD-PPP. The SF-PPP experiment shows that PPP-Fixed is the best among these methods in terms of convergence speed, correction accuracy, and reliability of positioning performance. Moreover, the PPP-Fixed method can achieve high accuracy even when the observed arc is short, e.g., within 40 mi- .

Coherent GNSS Reflection Signal Processing for High-Precision and High-Resolution Spaceborne Applications

This article presents an adaptive hybrid-tracking (AHT) algorithm designed to process GNSS-R signals with a sufficient coherent component. Coherent GNSS-R signals have the potential to enable high-precision and high-resolution carrier-phase measurements for altimetry, sea-level monitoring, soil-moisture monitoring, flood mapping, snow–water equivalent measurements, and so on. The AHT algorithm incorporates the model inputs typically used in the master–slave open-loop (MS-OL) architecture into a closed-phase lock loop. Raw IF data recorded by the CYGNSS satellites over in-land water, land, and open-ocean surface are used to demonstrate the performance of the AHT. The results show that the AHT algorithm achieves comparable robustness with the MS-OL implementation while maintaining centimeter-level accuracy and excellent carrier-phase continuity that can be achieved with a fine-tuned Kalman filter (KF)-based adaptive closed-loop (ACL) system. Moreover, the AHT is suitable for real-time implementation and is applicable to other radio signals-of-opportunity.

Tunnel Magnetic Resonance Tomography for 2-D Water-Bearing Structures Using Rotating Coil With Separated Loop Configuration

In tunnel construction, to prevent the occurrence of water inrush, the geological conditions of faults and underground rivers must be determined in advance. As a direct detection method of groundwater, magnetic resonance sounding (MRS) has been applied for the advanced detection of water-related hazards in tunnels and mines recently. However, the results of conventional 1-D MRS cannot correctly reflect the spatial distribution characteristics of complicated water-bearing structures. In this article, we propose a measurement scheme using a rotating coil with separated transmitter and receiver loop configuration (SEP) for the 2-D imaging of water-bearing structures, such as faults and conduits. In this scheme, the receiver coil rotates several times, while the transmitter coil, which is separated from the receiver coil by a certain distance, remains stationary. Moreover, all the observed data participate in the inversion to achieve the 2-D magnetic resonance tomography (MRT). Numerical simulations of water-bearing faults are performed, and we compare and analyze the 2-D sensitivity and inversion results of two measurement schemes for a rotating coil, i.e., an overlapping transmitter and receiver loop configuration (OVE) and SEP. The results showed that the imaging results of the SEP are better than those of the OVE because the OVE imaging has a symmetric artifact. Finally, we discuss the influence of the transceiver distance, the resistivity, and the environmental noise on the imaging results. Moreover, the imaging results of the water-bearing conduit at different locations were obtained to validate the effectiveness of the SEP rotating coil measurement scheme.

Tubal-Sampling: Bridging Tensor and Matrix Completion in 3-D Seismic Data Reconstruction

The 3-D seismic data reconstruction can be understood as an underdetermined inverse problem, and thus, some additional constraints need to be provided to achieve reasonable results. A prevalent scheme in 3-D seismic data reconstruction is to compute the best low-rank approximation of a formulated Hankel matrix by rank-reduction methods with a rank constraint. However, the predefined Hankel structure is easily damaged by the low-rank approximation, which leads to harming its recovery performance. In this article, we present a structured tensor completion (STC) framework to simultaneously exploit both the Hankel structure and the low-tubal-rank constraint to further enhance the performance. Unfortunately, under the assumption of elementwise sampling used by existing methods, STC is intractable to be solved since Hankel constraints cannot be expressed as linear tensor equations. Instead, tubal sampling is proposed to describe the missing trace behavior more accurately and further build a bridge between tensor and matrix completion (MC) to overcome the solving issue in two aspects: through the bridge from tensor to MC, STC can be solved efficiently using MC from random samplings of each frontal slice in the Fourier domain. Through the bridge from matrix to tensor completion, various tensor models within the framework can be developed from noise-specific MC to meet the need for data reconstruction in changeable noise environments. Moreover, alternating-minimization and alternating-direction methods of multipliers are developed to solve the proposed STC. The superior performance of STC is demonstrated in both synthetic and field seismic data.

Elastic Full Waveform Inversion With Angle Decomposition and Wavefield Decoupling

Full waveform inversion (FWI) is a powerful tool to understand the real complicated earth model. As FWI is a highly nonlinear problem and depends strongly on the initial model, how to effectively retrieve the large-scale background model is critical for the success of FWI. For elastic FWI (EFWI), the inversion challenge increases because the P-wave and S-wave are coupled together if no mode separation technologies are applied. In this article, we develop a new EFWI strategy, where we simultaneously implement the angle decomposition and mode separation for the wavefield. Based on the analysis of radiation patterns of different parameters and the fact that small scattering angles correspond to large-scale model perturbations, we can retrieve the large-scale background model of the P-wave velocity with pure small scattering angle P-P mode wavefield. On the other hand, the pure small scattering angle S-S, S-P, and P-S mode wavefields are used to estimate the large-scale background model of the S-wave velocity. The correctly retrieved large-scale background models further guarantee the success of subsequent fine structure retrieving for the P- and S-wave velocity models by using different wave modes. The proposed method is able to reduce the cycle-skipping problem and the multiparameter crosstalk problem simultaneously. Numerical examples show that the proposed method provides much improved inversion results than the conventional EFWI, which demonstrates the validity of the proposed method.

Primal–Dual Optimization Strategy With Total Variation Regularization for Prestack Seismic Image Deblurring

Seismic image, especially for the prestack image, performs a blurred version of the reflectivity image due to spatial aliasing, poor acquisition aperture, and nonuniform illumination. The blurring effects can be quantified by the point spread function (PSF). We herein adopt an explicit space-variant PSF formula, which can be defined as a sequential application of the modeling and migration operators with the asymptotic Green’s function. The deblurred images are restored using the nonstationary deconvolution with total variation regularization in which the blurred images are described by the convolution between the space-variant PSF and the reflectivity image. However, nonstationary deconvolution is computationally challenging. We introduce an extending primal–dual hybrid gradient (E-PDHG) method to decompose the complex problem into a sequence of simple subproblems that have closed-form solutions. Numerical results on synthetic data and field data demonstrate that the proposed E-PDHG method outperforms the basic PDHG method in the prestack seismic image deblurring.

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Nonlocal Graph Convolutional Networks for Hyperspectral Image Classification

Over the past few years making use of deep networks, including convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and recurrent neural networks (RNNs), classifying hyperspectral images has progressed significantly and gained increasing attention. In spite of being successful, these networks need an adequate supply of labeled training instances for supervised learning, which, however, is quite costly to collect. On the other hand, unlabeled data can be accessed in almost arbitrary amounts. Hence it would be conceptually of great interest to explore networks that are able to exploit labeled and unlabeled data simultaneously for hyperspectral image classification. In this article, we propose a novel graph-based semisupervised network called nonlocal graph convolutional network (nonlocal GCN). Unlike existing CNNs and RNNs that receive pixels or patches of a hyperspectral image as inputs, this network takes the whole image (including both labeled and unlabeled data) in. More specifically, a nonlocal graph is first calculated. Given this graph representation, a couple of graph convolutional layers are used to extract features. Finally, the semisupervised learning of the network is done by using a cross-entropy error over all labeled instances. Note that the nonlocal GCN is end-to-end trainable. We demonstrate in extensive experiments that compared with state-of-the-art spectral classifiers and spectral–spatial classification networks, the nonlocal GCN is able to offer competitive results and high-quality classification maps (with fine boundaries and without noisy scattered points of misclassification).

Sensitivity and Correlation Analysis of PROSPECT-D and ABM-B Leaf Models

Two leaf optical property models, PROSPECT-D and ABM-B, were compared to determine their respective parameter sensitivities and to correlate their parameters. ABM-B was used to generate 150 leaf spectra with various input parameters, and the inversion of PROSPECT-D was used to estimate leaf parameters from these spectra. Wavelength-specific sensitivities were described, and correlations were developed between the leaf pigments and structure parameters of the two models. Of particular importance was the correlation of PROSPECTD's structure parameter (N) which is a generalized parameter integrating several leaf-level and cell-level characteristics. At the leaf-level, N showed correlations with the leaf thickness and the mesophyll percentage, and at the cell-level, N was affected by the cell cap aspect ratios defined in ABM-B. The estimated value of N also varied substantially with changes in the angle of incidence specified in ABM-B. All of these correlations were nonlinear, and it is unclear how these parameters are combined to affect the final value for N. The correlations developed in this article indicate that additional structural parameters (possibly separated into leaf-level and cell-level) should be considered in future model development that aims to maintain inversion potential while providing more information about the leaf.

Ceilometer-Based Rain-Rate Estimation: A Case-Study Comparison With S-Band Radar and Disdrometer Retrievals in the Context of VORTEX-SE

Attenuated backscatter measurements from a Vaisala CL31 ceilometer and a modified form of the well-known slope method are used to derive the ceilometer extinction profiles during rain events, restricted to rainfall rates (RRs) below approximately 10 mm/h. RR estimates from collocated S-band radar and portable disdrometer are used to derive the RR-to-extinction correlation models for the ceilometer-radar and ceilometer-disdrometer combinations. Data were collected during an intensive observation period of the Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment Southeast (VORTEX-SE) conducted in northern Alabama. These models are used to estimate the RR from the ceilometer observations in similar situations that do not have collocated radar or the disdrometer. Such correlation models are, however, limited by the different temporal and spatial resolutions of the measured variables, measurement capabilities of the instruments, and the inherent assumption of a homogeneous atmosphere. An empirical method based on extinction and RR uncertainty scoring and covariance fitting are proposed to solve, in part, these limitations.

Prediction of Satellite-Based Column CO<sub>2</sub> Concentration by Combining Emission Inventory and LULC Information

In this article, we generate a regional mapping of space-borne carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration through a data fusion approach, including emission estimates and Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) information. NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) satellite measures the column-averaged CO2 dry air mole fraction (XCO2) as contiguous parallelogram footprints. A major hindrance of this data set, specifically with its Level-2 observations, is missing footprints at certain time instants and the sparse sampling density in time. This article aims to generate Level-3 XCO2 maps on a regional scale for different locations worldwide through spatial interpolation of the OCO-2 retrievals. To deal with the sparse OCO-2 sampling, the cokriging-based spatial interpolation methods are suitable, which models auxiliary densely-sampled variables to predict the primary variable. In this article, a cokriging-based approach is applied using auxiliary emission data sets and the principles of the semantic kriging (SemK) method. Two global high-resolution emission data sets, the Open-source Data Inventory for Anthropogenic CO2 (ODIAC) and the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR), are used here. The ontology-based semantic analysis of the SemK method quantifies the interrelationships of LULC classes for analyzing the local XCO2 pattern. Validations have been carried out in different regions worldwide, where the OCO-2 and the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) measurements coexist. It is observed that the modeling of auxiliary emission data sets enhances the prediction accuracy of XCO2. This article is one of the initial attempts to generate Level-3 XCO2 mapping of OCO-2 through a data fusion approach using emission data sets.

MS-RRFSegNet: Multiscale Regional Relation Feature Segmentation Network for Semantic Segmentation of Urban Scene Point Clouds

Semantic segmentation is one of the fundamental tasks in understanding and applying urban scene point clouds. Recently, deep learning has been introduced to the field of point cloud processing. However, compared to images that are characterized by their regular data structure, a point cloud is a set of unordered points, which makes semantic segmentation a challenge. Consequently, the existing deep learning methods for semantic segmentation of point cloud achieve less success than those applied to images. In this article, we propose a novel method for urban scene point cloud semantic segmentation using deep learning. First, we use homogeneous supervoxels to reorganize raw point clouds to effectively reduce the computational complexity and improve the nonuniform distribution. Then, we use supervoxels as basic processing units, which can further expand receptive fields to obtain more descriptive contexts. Next, a sparse autoencoder (SAE) is presented for feature embedding representations of the supervoxels. Subsequently, we propose a regional relation feature reasoning module (RRFRM) inspired by relation reasoning network and design a multiscale regional relation feature segmentation network (MS-RRFSegNet) based on the RRFRM to semantically label supervoxels. Finally, the supervoxel-level inferences are transformed into point-level fine-grained predictions. The proposed framework is evaluated in two open benchmarks (Paris-Lille-3D and Semantic3D). The evaluation results show that the proposed method achieves competitive overall performance and outperforms other related approaches in several object categories. An implementation of our method is available at: https://github.com/HiphonL/MS_RRFSegNet.

Modeling Microwave Emission of Corn Crop Considering Leaf Shape and Orientation Under the Physical Optics Approximation

The objective of this article is a systematic investigation of the sensitivity of C- and X-band emissions to leaf shape and orientation for various growth stages of corn. To simulate these effects, we used the model developed at Tor Vergata University (TOV model), which is based on a matrix doubling algorithm considering multiple scattering. Corn leaves have specific properties of shape, curvature, and orientation. We have compared different approaches, including segmented elliptical disk oriented following leaf curvature, unique elliptical disk per leaf, and segmented circular disk with size determined by the shorter leaf dimension and following the leaf curvature. Moreover, widespread leaf inclination angle distribution functions combined with in situ measurements of leaf inclination angle are adopted. The scatterers' phase matrix calculations are based on the physical optics approximation. Simulations are conducted with the ground-measured soil and vegetation properties as inputs and evaluated against the corresponding ground-based, multifrequency radiometer observations carried out in four different years over Chinese sites. The investigations show that in most cases the segmented circular disk assumption shows the best correspondence to the measurements over intermediate growth stages when the vegetation heights lie between 50 and 200 cm, and the unique elliptical disk model achieves the best correspondence for the later growth stages when the vegetation heights are larger than 200 cm with prefer-erectophile distribution of leaf orientation. The use of in situ leaf inclination angle measurements can improve the model accuracy by up to 25 K for tall vegetation heights compared with random distribution assumption.

Arctic Surface Properties and Their Impact on Microwave Satellite Water Vapor Column Retrievals

Wintertime Arctic surface emissivities are retrieved from Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) passive microwave measurements at 88.2, 165.5, and 183.31 GHz. Surface emitting layer temperatures are simultaneously retrieved at 183.31 GHz. Random errors in emissivities are estimated to be 2.0%, 2.0%, and 3.5% at 88.2, 165.5, and 183.31 GHz, respectively, and the random errors in surface emitting layer temperatures are 4.3 K. A series of tests on the retrieved products reveal that land and sea ice are Lambertian reflectors and ocean is a specular reflector. The retrieved emissivities show broad agreement with products from published databases, with differences partly due to the uncertainties in surface emitting layer temperatures. The geographical distribution of 165.5/183.31 GHz surface reflectance ratios over land and sea ice, which is important for the retrieval of microwave satellite water vapor column (WVC), is presented. Neglecting the geographical variations leads to random errors in retrieved wintertime Arctic WVCs of approximately 1.8% and 25% in the mid (1.5 - 9 kgm-2) and extended (8 - 15 kgm-2) slant column retrieval regimes, respectively. Choosing specular instead of Lambertian reflection in the surface emissivity retrievals over land and sea ice causes systematic WVC retrieval errors of up to -4.1%.

A New 3-D Geometry Reconstruction Method of Space Target Utilizing the Scatterer Energy Accumulation of ISAR Image Sequence

By analyzing the motion characteristics and the radar observation model of triaxial stabilized space targets, a new 3-D geometry reconstruction method is proposed based on the energy accumulation of inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) image sequence. According to the radar line of sight (LOS), we first construct the projection vectors of the 3-D geometry of a space target on the imaging planes. Then, by projecting the 3-D scatterer candidates on each imaging plane, we can accumulate the scattering energy of the corresponding 2-D projection position in each image. The 3-D scatterer candidates occupying the larger accumulated energy will be reserved as the real scatterers. To improve the efficiency, the real 3-D scatterers will be searched by using the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm one by one. Compared with traditional 3-D geometry reconstruction methods, the proposed one never needs the 2-D scatterer extraction and trajectory association, which remains the challenges in ISAR image processing. Experimental results based on the simulated point target and electromagnetic data are presented to validate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method.

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