Explaining neural networks for detection of tropical cyclones and atmospheric rivers in gridded atmospheric simulation data
Tim Radke, Susanne Fuchs, Christian Wilms, Iuliia Polkova, and Marc Rautenhaus
Geosci. Model Dev. Discuss., https//doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2024-60,2024
Preprint under review for GMD (discussion: open, 0 comments)
In our study, we built upon previous work to investigate the patterns artificial intelligence (AI) learns to detect atmospheric features like tropical cyclones (TCs) and atmospheric rivers (ARs). As primary objective, we adopt a method to explain the used AI and investigate the plausibility of learned patterns. We find that plausible patterns are learned for both TCs and ARs. Hence, the chosen method is very useful for gaining confidence in the AI-based detection of atmospheric features.
Selecting CMIP6 GCMs for CORDEX Dynamical Downscaling over Southeast Asia Using a Standardised Benchmarking Framework
Phuong Loan Nguyen, Lisa V. Alexander, Marcus J. Thatcher, Son C. H. Truong, Rachael N. Isphording, and John L. McGregor
Geosci. Model Dev. Discuss., https//doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2024-84,2024
Preprint under review for GMD (discussion: open, 0 comments)
We apply a comprehensive approach to select a subset of CMIP6 that is suitable for dynamical downscaling over Southeast Asia by considering model performance, model independence, data availability, and future climate change spread. The standardised benchmarking framework is applied to identify a subset of models through two stages of assessment: statistical-based and process-based metrics. We finalize a sub-set of two independent models for dynamical downscaling over Southeast Asia.
Design, evaluation and future projections of the NARCliM2.0 CORDEX-CMIP6 Australasia regional climate ensemble
Giovanni Di Virgilio, Jason Evans, Fei Ji, Eugene Tam, Jatin Kala, Julia Andrys, Christopher Thomas, Dipayan Choudhury, Carlos Rocha, Stephen White, Yue Li, Moutassem El Rafei, Rishav Goyal, Matthew Riley, and Jyothi Lingala
Geosci. Model Dev. Discuss., https//doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2024-87,2024
Preprint under review for GMD (discussion: open, 1 comment)
We introduce new climate models that simulate Australia’s future climate at regional scales, including at an unprecedented resolution of 4 km for 1950–2100. We describe the model design process used to create these new climate models. We show how the new models perform relative to previous-generation models, and compare their climate projections. This work is of national and international relevance as it can help guide climate model design and the use and interpretation of climate projections.
DEUCE v1.0: a neural network for probabilistic precipitation nowcasting with aleatoric and epistemic uncertainties
Bent Harnist, Seppo Pulkkinen, and Terhi Mäkinen
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 3839–3866, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-3839-2024, 2024
Probabilistic precipitation nowcasting (local forecasting for 0–6 h) is crucial for reducing damage from events like flash floods. For this goal, we propose the DEUCE neural-network-based model which uses data and model uncertainties to generate an ensemble of potential precipitation development scenarios for the next hour. Trained and evaluated with Finnish precipitation composites, DEUCE was found to produce more skillful and reliable nowcasts than established models.
Evaluation of multi-season convection-permitting atmosphere – mixed-layer ocean simulations of the Maritime Continent
Emma Howard, Steven Woolnough, Nicholas Klingaman, Daniel Shipley, Claudio Sanchez, Simon C. Peatman, Cathryn E. Birch, and Adrian J. Matthews
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 3815–3837, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-3815-2024, 2024
This paper describes a coupled atmosphere–mixed-layer ocean simulation setup that will be used to study weather processes in Southeast Asia. The set-up has been used to compare high-resolution simulations, which are able to partially resolve storms, to coarser simulations, which cannot. We compare the model performance at representing variability of rainfall and sea surface temperatures across length scales between the coarse and fine models.
Результаты отбора организаций для включения в реестр организаций, имеющих право на получение субсидий на возмещение части затрат на уплату процентов по кредитам, полученным в российских кредитных организациях и в государственной корпорации развития «ВЭБ.РФ» в 2009–2023 годах, а также на уплату лизинговых платежей по договорам лизинга, заключенным в 2009–2023 годах с российскими лизинговыми компаниями на приобретение гражданских судов
Посмотреть документацию Опубликовано:01.03.22
Объявление o проведении Министерством промышленности и торговли Российской Федерации отбора на право получения субсидий из федерального бюджета российскими организациями на возмещение части затрат на приобретение (строительство) новых гражданских судов взамен судов, сданных на утилизацию в соответствии с постановлением Правительства Российской Федерации от 27 апреля 2017 года № 502
Посмотреть документацию Опубликовано:28.02.22
Приказ Минпромторга России № 606 от 28 февраля 2022 г.
О проведении Министерством промышленности и торговли Российской Федерации отбора на право получения субсидий из федерального бюджета российскими организациями на возмещение части затрат на приобретение (строительство) новых гражданских судов взамен судов, сданных на утилизацию Посмотреть документацию Опубликовано:28.02.22
Presents the front cover for this issue of the publication.
Presents a listing of the editorial board, board of governors, current staff, committee members, and/or society editors for this issue of the publication.
Presents the table of contents for this issue of the publication.
In this article, a theoretical study is carried out to seek an approach to remotely measure the thickness of the oil film. It is known that it is difficult to probe the oil thickness using a microwave radar due to the fact the dielectric constant of oil is very small compared with seawater for microwave frequencies. While in the range of terahertz (THz) electromagnetic (EM) wave frequency, the dielectric constants of oil and seawater are comparable, resulting in the THz EM fields scattered from the air–oil interface and those from the oil–water interface can produce constructive and destructive interference with the variation in the oil film thickness. Based on this principle, the sensitivity of the THz EM wave to the oil thickness is investigated in this work. First, the oil–seawater two-layer medium is equivalent to a single-layer medium by an equivalent dielectric constant model. Then, the THz EM scattering from the oil-covered sea surface is simulated using the first-order small slope approximation method (SSA-1) and the obtained equivalent dielectric constant. Meanwhile, the influences caused by the damping effect of the oil film, the reduction for friction velocity, and the change in equivalent permittivity on the normalized radar cross section (NRCS) are analyzed. The numerical results show that the NRCSs of THz frequencies are more sensitive to the change in oil thickness than that of microwave frequencies. This property makes the THz EM wave have the potential to probe the thickness of the oil film.
Deep learning has achieved great success in recent years, among which the convolutional neural network (CNN) method is outstanding in image segmentation and image recognition. It is also widely used in satellite imagery road extraction and, generally, can obtain accurate and extraction results. However, at present, the extraction of roads based on CNN still requires a lot of manual preparation work, and a large number of samples can be marked to achieve extraction, which has to take long drawing cycle and high production cost. In this article, a new CNN sample set production method is proposed, which uses the GPS trajectories of floating car as training set (GPSTasST), for the multilevel urban roads extraction from high-resolution remote sensing imagery. This method rasterizes the GPS trajectories of floating car into a raster map and uses the processed raster map to label the satellite image to obtain a road extraction sample set. CNN can extract roads from remote sensing imagery by learning the training set. The results show that the method achieves a harmonic mean of precision and recall higher than road extraction method from single data source while eliminating the manual labeling work, which shows the effectiveness of this work.
Modern lightning location systems (LLSs) remotely detect propagated electromagnetic fields and geolocate them for a better understanding of the lightning phenomenon. In recent years, they have become powerful tools for assessing situations where lightning may be the cause of damage. However, due to the random errors that occur in the remote sensing of electromagnetic propagation, such systems have median location accuracies between 50 and 100 m. This means that there is always some uncertainty in reported geolocations of lightning flashes. To date, there is no effective or standardized method for quantifying this uncertainty and using LLS reports as evidence. This article presents a unique solution to this problem by developing a Bayesian framework. In the field of forensic investigation and engineering, the Bayesian approaches to reporting evidence are widely accepted in legal forums. This article describes the necessary prior probability and likelihood functions (Gaussian mixture model, bivariate Gaussian, and Students’ t-distributions, respectively), and the framework is assessed by comparison with ground-truth events—photographed lightning events to a known location, the Brixton Tower in Johannesburg, South Africa. The framework has a true positive rate between 97% and 99% and 66% and 100% and a true negative rate between 98% and 99% using the bivariate Gaussian and Students’ t-likelihood functions, respectively. Utilizing the bivariate Students’ t-likelihood function achieves a much lower false-positive rate (0.05% to 0.2%) than the bivariate Gaussian likelihood function (0.7%–2%).
The Sentinel-1 satellites equipped with synthetic aperture radars (SARs) provide near-global coverage of the world’s oceans every six days. We curate a data set of collocations between SAR and altimeter satellites and investigate the use of deep learning to predict significant wave height from SAR. While previous models for predicting geophysical quantities from SAR rely heavily on feature-engineering, our approach learns directly from low-level image cross-spectra. Training on collocations from 2015 to 2017, we demonstrate on test data from 2018 that deep learning reduces the state-of-the-art root mean squared error by 50%, from 0.6 to 0.3 m when compared to altimeter data. Furthermore, we isolate the contributions of different features to the model performance.
We propose a lightweight radar that autonomously measures snow depth over sea ice from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Development of this snow radar and its integration with an octocopter UAV is presented. Field trials of the UAV-mounted snow radar, conducted in Antarctica during the summer season of 2017/2018, are also described. The radar allows measurements of snow depths on sea ice between 10 and 100 cm. Additional reflections due to internal layers within the snow are evident at a few measurement points. The snow radar is evaluated for various flight parameters: stationary; flying at speeds between 1 and 3 m/s, and at heights from 5 to 15 m. Evaluation of snow-depth results indicates that a depth accuracy of ±3.2 cm is achieved with stationary measurements, and of ±9.1 cm with measurements at the various flight speeds.
Snow-depth retrieval from passive microwave observations without a priori information is a highly undetermined problem. Achieving accurate snow-depth retrievals requires a priori information on the snowpack properties, such as grain size, density, physical temperature, and stratigraphy. On a practical level, however, retrieval algorithms must consider prior information, while minimizing the dependence on it, as accurate ancillary data are not globally available. In this study, we build on the previously published Bayesian Algorithm for Snow Water Equivalent Estimation (BASE) to retrieve snow depth using an airborne passive microwave data set over the tundra snow in the Eureka region. The method computes the optimal estimates of snow depth, density, grain size, and other variables, given the brightness temperature observations and prior information, using Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC). The airborne data set includes passive microwave brightness temperature ( $T_{b}$ ) at 18.7 and 36.5 GHz. The in situ measurements of the snow depth provide validation data for 464 sensor footprints. The microwave radiative transfer (RT) model used is the Dense Media RT-Multilayered (DMRT-ML) model. We use a two-layer wind slab and depth hoar assumption based on the local snow cover knowledge from the previous research on the study area. To improve our understanding of the results using the airborne $T_{b}text{s}$ , the inversion was also applied using the synthetic observations, where $T_{b}text{s}$ were generated from the RT model. For the case with synthetic observations, the snow-depth RMSE was 0.07 cm. When the airborne $T_{b}text{s}$ are us-
d, the snow-depth RMSE was 21.8 cm. This discrepancy is due to the large spatial variability in the MagnaProbe snow-depth measurements and the fact that not all physical processes affecting the airborne $T_{b}textrm {s}$ are represented in the RT model. Our work verifies the feasibility and applicability of the proposed methodology regionally for the airborne retrievals and reinforces the tractable applicability of a physics-based RT model in the SWE retrievals.
With a growing number of different satellite sensors, data fusion offers great potential in many applications. In this work, a convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture is presented for fusing Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery and the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) data. The CNN is applied to the prediction of Arctic sea ice for marine navigation and as input to sea ice forecast models. This generic model is specifically well suited for fusing data sources where the ground resolutions of the sensors differ with orders of magnitude, here 35 km $times62$ km (for AMSR2, 6.9 GHz) compared with the 93 m $times87$ m (for sentinel-1 IW mode). In this work, two optimization approaches are compared using the categorical cross-entropy error function in the specific application of CNN training on sea ice charts. In the first approach, concentrations are thresholded to be encoded in a standard binary fashion, and in the second approach, concentrations are used as the target probability directly. The second method leads to a significant improvement in $R^{2}$ measured on the prediction of ice concentrations evaluated over the test set. The performance improves both in terms of robustness to noise and alignment with mean concentrations from ice analysts in the validation data, and an $R^{2}$ value of 0.89 is achieved over the independent test set. It can be concluded that CNNs are suitable for multisensor fusion even with sensors that differ in resolutions by large factors, such as in the case of Sentinel-1 SAR and AMSR2.
Based on the spatiotemporally weighted two-step method (STW-TSM), the spatiotemporal characteristics of the residual microwave brightness temperature (MBT) with the Mw7.9 Wenchuan earthquake on May 12, 2008 are revealed by satellite data from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) sensor. Two significant MBT positive anomalies are found to be exactly in spatial accordance with two geological Quaternary zones, and the detailed geometric information of the MBT positive anomaly is found to be correlated with the microwave frequencies. After eliminating other possible influential factors, including surface temperature, vegetation index, land-surface roughness, and surface soil moisture under the conditions of space, time, and magnitude, and according to the microwave radiative transfer model, the dielectric variation in the ground surface is suggested to be the primary contributor of the MBT positive anomaly. The positive-hole (P-hole) theory is applied to interpret the geological preference of the MBT positive anomalies through a chain process: crustal stress enhancing—P-hole producing and flowing down stress gradients—surface P-hole accumulating—dielectric constant decreasing—and microwave radiation increasing. The stress-resulting effect of the dielectric decrease on MBT the increase provides a novel mechanism for microwave remote-sensing monitoring of crustal stress field alteration, earthquake preparation, and upcoming shocks. This research has a particular significance for searching potential georelations between the tectonic earthquake preparation and the abnormal satellite MBT.
Building change detection (CD), important for its application in urban monitoring, can be performed in near real time by comparing prechange and postchange very-high-spatial-resolution (VHR) synthetic-aperture-radar (SAR) images. However, multitemporal VHR SAR images are complex as they show high spatial correlation, prone to shadows, and show an inhomogeneous signature. Spatial context needs to be taken into account to effectively detect a change in such images. Recently, convolutional-neural-network (CNN)-based transfer learning techniques have shown strong performance for CD in VHR multispectral images. However, its direct use for SAR CD is impeded by the absence of labeled SAR data and, thus, pretrained networks. To overcome this, we exploit the availability of paired unlabeled SAR and optical images to train for the suboptimal task of transcoding SAR images into optical images using a cycle-consistent generative adversarial network (CycleGAN). The CycleGAN consists of two generator networks: one for transcoding SAR images into the optical image domain and the other for projecting optical images into the SAR image domain. After unsupervised training, the generator transcoding SAR images into optical ones is used as a bitemporal deep feature extractor to extract optical-like features from bitemporal SAR images. Thus, deep change vector analysis (DCVA) and fuzzy rules can be applied to identify changed buildings (new/destroyed). We validate our method on two data sets made up of pairs of bitemporal VHR SAR images on the city of L’Aquila (Italy) and Trento (Italy).
