Nowadays, advanced remote sensing technology plays tremendous roles to build a quantitative and comprehensive understanding of how the Earth system operates. The advanced remote sensing technology is also used widely to monitor and survey the natural disasters and man-made pollution. Our planet is nowadays continuously monitored by powerful remote sensors operating in wide portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Geoscience, or earth science, covers all areas of sciences that relate to planet Earth. Such fields include soil science, atmospheric science, climate science, geochemistry, geobiology, geology and oceanography, to name just a few. Research into the area of geosciences allows us to better understand the Earth's past, present and future. This is particularly important now as many parts of the planet, and the interactions between them, are changing at a rapid rate, for example oceans, landscapes the atmosphere and climate. Remote sensing is a tool with the potential to improve research within this area due advantages such as the possibility to cover large areas at a high spatial resolution, repeatability of measurements allowing for the monitoring through time, non-intrusiveness of measurements and that data can be obtained/measured quickly compared to manual data collection equivalents. This book, Advanced Geoscience Remote Sensing, presents research topics that make use of remote sensing to investigate key topics within the area of geosciences, for example glacial changes and mapping, land-cover change, carbon stock estimation, model verification, the mapping and monitoring of dust storms, shoreline changes, evaluating impacts of heavy rainfall, impacts of urbanization on vegetation and water resources, tree mortality rates, snow depth estimates, changes in desert sand dunes and thermal mapping of volcanoes. Remote sensing data types and techniques used for the above studies include multispectral satellite imagery (e.g. Landsat, MODIS, ASTER and SPOT), data captured using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), radar imagery, the generation of DEMs and clustering methods. While rigorous enough for the most experienced of scientists, the techniques are well designed and integrated, making the book's content intuitive, clearly presented, and practical in its implementation. It also identifies that there should be a carefully planned effort on research and application development for the advanced geoscience and related engineering remote sensing techniques. An overview of the most advanced remote sensing systems and algorithms is presented and introduces the most advanced image technologies and their applications for both classification and analysis with up-to-date examples of successful projects and case studies. Chapters are contributed by renowned global scientists and experts in the remote sensing field. Techniques used in geologic mapping and mineral and hydrocarbon exploration, image analysis used in mine development and petroleum exploitation, site evaluation, ground water development, surface water monitoring and geothermal resource exploitation are emphasized. It also exhibits how imagery is used to establish environmental baselines; monitor land, air, and water quality; map hazards; and determine the effects of global warming. This book will be of valuable for students, researchers and practitioners, as well as working professionals in petroleum, mining, groundwater, surface water, engineering, and environmental projects.

Ecology and conservation are both equally important fields of research. With concerns such as the changing climate, and the decline in biodiversity, the need to improvement our understanding of these two subject areas is always ongoing. Particularly so that natural resources and ecosystems can be managed in an efficient way and the sustainability of biodiversity can be maintained. In, general the study of these two areas requires manually collecting data in the field. Although this type of data collection is considered as highly accurate, it can be costly in terms of labour and time, and there can also exist restrictions in accessibility to target areas, therefore this approach is not considered practical for large scale studies. Remote sensing can overcome these restrictions, for example, remote sensing measurements are non-intrusive, the problem of accessibility is eliminated and measurements can be quick and made at large scales. With their constant development and improvement in technologies and data analysis, remote sensing techniques can be key in the areas of ecology and conservation. Further in this book, the ways in which remote sensing is used as a tool are presented, for example, land classification, the derivation of vegetation and other spectral indices, the mapping and monitoring of numerous processes (such as habitat use and erosion) and time series of various processes and temporal dynamics of landscapes (such as vegetation phenology). Numerous remote sensing data types are described as the inputs for the above techniques, such as multispectral spaceborne imagery, radar datasets, airborne LiDAR and hyperspectral imagery.

The occurrence of natural and man-made disasters around the world has always been an issue of high importance. The size and frequency of disasters is on the rise, mainly due to the changing climate; hence such events are increasingly dangerous. Impacts include social, environmental and economic, and more specifically the loss of lives and injuries to humans and animals, and the damage and destruction of urban and rural areas, as well as communication services. Natural disasters cannot be prevented, however they can be managed, with the aim of minimizing their effects. Methodologies and tools for disaster management need to keep up with the increase in size and occurrence. Remote sensing has proven to be very useful in the management of disasters such as cyclones, large wildfires, earthquakes and tsunamis, for example during the warning phase of an event, during the observation and action period, or during relief and reconstruction activities. Remote sensing has the benefit of being able to quickly provide high temporal and high spatial resolution data of large target areas. This book presents numerous studies that have used/proposed remote sensing as a disaster management tool in some form. Disasters covered include typhoons, snow disasters, erosion, landslides, earthquakes, tsunamis, forest fires, sandstorms, oil spills and earthquakes. Also included is the application of spaceborne remote sensing data for risk management of urbanisation on land degradation and geo-hazards, and remotely sensed nightlight data to map hydrometeorological hazards. Several studies have been included that focus on the technical side of combining remote sensing data with strong computer processing and modelling tools. The power of remote sensing data as a disaster management tool increases when it is combined with other types of data and tools, to provide a pipeline for pre and post disaster management.

The terrestrial water cycle incorporates the transportation of water (solid/liquid/water vapour) within all land and atmospheric processes on the Earth. This includes precipitation, surface run-off, river flow, surface-water and groundwater storage and fluxes, and evapotranspiration, to name just a few. The study of this subject is key to many research areas, for example impacts on climate change, agriculture, ecology and biogeochemistry, as well as to practical human needs, such as irrigation and hydroelectricity. The processes involved in the terrestrial water cycle are highly complicated, as well as extremely variable. Standard in-situ measurements are often unable to capture this variability, as they are usually point measurements. Remote sensing offers the potential for large scale, high-resolution, multi-temporal, multi-sensor measurements, with the possibility of large amounts of data stretching over space and time. When combined with rapidly developing computational and modelling resources, remote sensing is an invaluable tool. This book presents numerous examples of how remote sensing can be applied in a way to aid in the study of some areas of the terrestrial water cycle. Specific topics covered include soil moisture, water vapour content, storm structure, sea surface temperature, precipitation, ocean colour, river dynamics, water clarity, ocean outfall plumes, diatom ocean phenology, river discharge, black water events and ocean signals. Remote sensing data types and techniques that are described include the derivation of spectral indices from multispectral satellite imagery, the use of data derived from satellite imagery as inputs for atmospheric correction, radar and lidar data, microwave and scatterometer data, spatial analysis of ocean properties and feature extraction and change detection.

In many respects, this book is an ideal text book for beginners. It combines a clear approach and well-rounded explanations with plenty of practice. It makes an ideal companion for those students beginning a course in applied and numerical methods, differential equations and mechanics at school, or for undergraduate courses in mathematics, engineering or physics. The study of differential equations is an extensive subject in pure and applied mathematics, physics, and engineering. All of these disciplines deal with the properties of differential equations of different types. Pure mathematics has an emphasis on the life and incomparability of solutions, while applied mathematics emphasizes the rigorous methods of approximating solutions. Differential equations are an important tool in modeling virtually every physical, technical, or biological process, from celestial motion, to bridge design, to interactions between neurons. Differential equations, such as those used to solve real-life problems, may not necessarily be directly solvable, i.e. do not have closed example solutions. Instead, solutions can be approximated using numerical methods. Many fundamental laws of physics can be formulated as differential equations. In biology and economics, differential equations are used to model complex systems. Likewise, mechanics and numerical methods are of much importance. They play an important role in mathematical problems.

This book introduces trigonometry, including triangles, square roots, and the Pythagorean Theorem, with problem solving techniques and many examples. Includes concepts that have both a geometric and an algebraic component. This book is to prepare you for a course in calculus by directing your attention away from particular values of a function to a study of the function as an object in itself.