Browsing by Author "Sheng, Yongwei"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    Current status of Landsat program, science, and applications
    Wulder, Michael A.; Loveland, Thomas R.; Roy, David P.; Crawford, Christopher J.; Masek, Jeffrey G.; Woodcock, Curtis E.; Allen, Richard G.; Anderson, Martha C.; Belward, Alan S.; Cohen, Warren B.; Dwyer, John; Erb, Angela; Gao, Feng; Griffiths, Patrick; Helder, Dennis; Hermosilla, Txomin; Hipple, James D.; Hostert, Patrick; Hughes, M. Joseph; Huntington, Justin; Johnson, David M.; Kennedy, Robert E.; Kilic, Ayse; Li, Zhan; Lymburner, Leo; McCorkel, Joel; Pahlevan, Nima; Scambos, Theodore A.; Schaaf, Crystal; Schott, John R.; Sheng, Yongwei; Storey, James; Vermote, Eric; Vogelmann, James E.; White, Joanne C.; Wynne, Randolph H.; Zhu, Zhe (Elsevier Inc., 2019-03-11)
    Formal planning and development of what became the first Landsat satellite commenced over 50 years ago in 1967. Now, having collected earth observation data for well over four decades since the 1972 launch of Landsat-1, the Landsat program is increasingly complex and vibrant. Critical programmatic elements are ensuring the continuity of high quality measurements for scientific and operational investigations, including ground systems, acquisition planning, data archiving and management, and provision of analysis ready data products. Free and open access to archival and new imagery has resulted in a myriad of innovative applications and novel scientific insights. The planning of future compatible satellites in the Landsat series, which maintain continuity while incorporating technological advancements, has resulted in an increased operational use of Landsat data. Governments and international agencies, among others, can now build an expectation of Landsat data into a given operational data stream. International programs and conventions (e.g., deforestation monitoring, climate change mitigation) are empowered by access to systematically collected and calibrated data with expected future continuity further contributing to the existing multi-decadal record. The increased breadth and depth of Landsat science and applications have accelerated following the launch of Landsat-8, with significant improvements in data quality. Herein, we describe the programmatic developments and institutional context for the Landsat program and the unique ability of Landsat to meet the needs of national and international programs. We then present the key trends in Landsat science that underpin many of the recent scientific and application developments and follow-up with more detailed thematically organized summaries. The historical context offered by archival imagery combined with new imagery allows for the development of time series algorithms that can produce information on trends and dynamics. Landsat-8 has figured prominently in these recent developments, as has the improved understanding and calibration of historical data. Following the communication of the state of Landsat science, an outlook for future launches and envisioned programmatic developments are presented. Increased linkages between satellite programs are also made possible through an expectation of future mission continuity, such as developing a virtual constellation with Sentinel-2. Successful science and applications developments create a positive feedback loop—justifying and encouraging current and future programmatic support for Landsat.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Lake-TopoCat: a global lake drainage topology and catchment database
    Sikder, Md Safat; Wang, Jida; Allen, George H.; Sheng, Yongwei; Yamazaki, Dai; Song, Chunqiao; Ding, Meng; Cretaux, Jean-Francois; Pavelsky, Tamlin M. (Copernicus, 2023-08-08)
    Lakes and reservoirs are ubiquitous across global landscapes, functioning as the largest repository of liquid surface freshwater, hotspots of carbon cycling, and sentinels of climate change. Although typically considered lentic (hydrologically stationary) environments, lakes are an integral part of global drainage networks. Through perennial and intermittent hydrological connections, lakes often interact with each other, and these connections actively affect water mass, quality, and energy balances in both lacustrine and fluvial systems. Deciphering how global lakes are hydrologically interconnected (or the so-called "lake drainage topology") is not only important for lake change attribution but also increasingly critical for discharge, sediment, and carbon modeling. Despite the proliferation of river hydrography data, lakes remain poorly represented in routing models, partially because there has been no global-scale hydrography dataset tailored to lake drainage basins and networks. Here, we introduce the global Lake drainage Topology and Catchment database (Lake-TopoCat), which reveals detailed lake hydrography information with careful consideration of possible multifurcation. Lake-TopoCat contains the outlet(s) and catchment(s) of each lake; the interconnecting reaches among lakes; and a wide suite of attributes depicting lake drainage topology such as upstream and downstream relationship, drainage distance between lakes, and a priori drainage type and connectivity with river networks. Using the HydroLAKES v1.0 (Messager et al., 2016) global lake mask, Lake-TopoCat identifies ĝ1/4ĝ1.46 million outlets for ĝ1/4ĝ1.43 million lakes larger than 10ĝha and delineates 77.5×106ĝkm2 of lake catchments covering 57ĝ% of the Earth's landmass except Antarctica. The global lakes are interconnected by ĝ1/4ĝ3 million reaches, derived from MERIT Hydro v1.0.1 (Yamazaki et al., 2019), stretching a total distance of ĝ1/410×106ĝkm, of which ĝ1/4ĝ80ĝ% are shorter than 10ĝkm. With such unprecedented lake hydrography details, Lake-TopoCat contributes towards a globally coupled lake-river routing model. It may also facilitate a variety of limnological applications such as attributing water quality from lake scale to basin scale, tracing inter-lake fish migration due to changing climate, monitoring fluvial-lacustrine connectivity, and improving estimates of terrestrial carbon fluxes. Lake-TopoCat is freely accessible at 10.5281/zenodo.7916729 (Sikder et al., 2023).
  • Thumbnail Image
    Satellites reveal hotspots of global river extent change
    Wu, Qianhan; Ke, Linghong; Wang, Jida; Pavelsky, Tamlin M.; Allen, George H.; Sheng, Yongwei; Duan, Xuejun; Zhu, Yunqiang; Wu, Jin; Wang, Lei; Liu, Kai; Chen, Tan; Zhang, Wensong; Fan, Chenyu; Yong, Bin; Song, Chunqiao (Nature Portfolio, 2023-03-22)
    Rivers are among the most diverse, dynamic, and productive ecosystems on Earth. River flow regimes are constantly changing, but characterizing and understanding such changes have been challenging from a long-term and global perspective. By analyzing water extent variations observed from four-decade Landsat imagery, we here provide a global attribution of the recent changes in river regime to morphological dynamics (e.g., channel shifting and anabranching), expansion induced by new dams, and hydrological signals of widening and narrowing. Morphological dynamics prevailed in ~20% of the global river area. Booming reservoir constructions, mostly skewed in Asia and South America, contributed to ~32% of the river widening. The remaining hydrological signals were characterized by contrasting hotspots, including prominent river widening in alpine and pan-Arctic regions and narrowing in the arid/semi-arid continental interiors, driven by varying trends in climate forcing, cryospheric response to warming, and human water management. Our findings suggest that the recent river extent dynamics diverge based on hydroclimate and socio-economic conditions, and besides reflecting ongoing morphodynamical processes, river extent changes show close connections with external forcings, including climate change and anthropogenic interference.