remote-sensing

The missing piece for an end-to-end data pipeline, entirely on AWS, from space. Camping in the North Cascades growing up, stargazing was a treasured pastime for me. My dad and I would often read between the lines of stars and planets to look for satellites... nowadays, they're so common, it's hard to stargaze WITHOUT seeing one (except here in New York... tragically, the stars are overshadowed by…

University of Utah researchers found satellite measurements of plant photosynthesis detected forest stress about two years before bark beetle mortality appeared in aerial surveys, suggesting a potential early-warning tool for forest managers.

One of the current limitations of reproducing the past evolution of the Greenland ice sheet with numerical models is the lack of a digital elevation model (DEM) prior to the year 2000 that can provide an initial state based on historical observations. Here we combine historical DEMs from aerial photography of the margins with laser altimetry data from the interior to reconstruct a complete DEM at…

Forest fires are a major threat to the ecosystem stability in the face of a growing global climate change; however, long-term post-fire recovery quantitative assessment is methodologically limited in mountainous terrain. In this study, OTSU-optimized differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) thresholds were integrated with multi-temporal Remote Sensing Ecological Index (RSEI) model to systematical…

A white-light lidar concept could measure ocean remote-sensing reflectance (Rrs) without relying on sunlight. Simulations show that broadband laser pulses spanning 400-720 nanometers can reconstruct the spectral signal used to estimate aquatic optical properties. The approach could extend ocean-color observations under difficult illumination and provide a new reference for calibrating and validat…

A white-light lidar concept could measure ocean remote-sensing reflectance (Rrs) without relying on sunlight. Simulations show that broadband laser pulses spanning 400-720 nanometers can reconstruct the spectral signal used to estimate aquatic optical properties. The approach could extend ocean-color observations under difficult illumination and provide a new reference for calibrating and validat…

Satellite remote sensing reveals how efficiently terrestrial ecosystems convert water loss into carbon gain, but product choice shapes the answer. By benchmarking 64 satellite-derived estimates against flux-tower observations, researchers identified reliable approaches, mapped global patterns from 2001 to 2015.

Over eight thousand distinct details, each resolved to less than three hundred micrometres, now appear in long-wave infrared images without reliance on traditional detectors. This demonstration of wide-field quantum imaging extends beyond previously achievable wavelengths of 4. 3m, opening new avenues for remote sensing and spectroscopy.

Scientific Reports, Published online: 01 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41598-026-68564-w Land subsidence hazard mapping using a federated learning architecture with satellite and local environmental data

The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission provides new opportunities for inland water monitoring by observing surface water extent and water surface elevation (WSE). However, the direct use of SWOT Level-2 HR Raster products for surface water mapping remains limited by fragmented water patterns, random noise, mixed pixels, and systematic stripe artifacts. To improve product usability,…

Nature Communications, Published online: 01 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41467-026-76234-8 Researchers created a global, multi-temporal map of road surfaces and widths from satellite imagery, covering 9.2 million km of roads. The dataset reveals infrastructure change, connectivity gaps, and resilience patterns worldwide.

IntroductionAbu Dhabi has experienced rapid urban growth in recent decades, raising concerns about changes in land surface temperature (LST) within its hyper-arid environment. This study assess the influence of urban expansion and vegetation growth on LST over time and examines the role of land-cover transitions in shaping local thermal conditions.MethodsLandsat 7 satellite imagery from 2001 to 2…

Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) change detection is fundamental for understanding landscape dynamics and supporting sustainable environmental management, particularly in ecologically sensitive and transboundary conservation areas such as Kruger National Park, South Africa. Rapid urban expansion, agricultural intensification, and environmental change have accelerated landscape transformation, highlight…

Scientific Reports, Published online: 29 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s41598-026-66299-2 A high-performance deep feature encoding network using GeoFusion-ChangeNet for land cover mapping and change detection in remote sensing imagery

Smallholder irrigation is crucial to livelihoods and growth in rural agro-economies. Identifying where it occurs provides valuable insights for agriculture extension, water management, infrastructure investments, marketing and energy provision. Remote sensing methods can aid but have been stymied by the small plot sizes, especially of irrigated plots. Humid tropical climates are characterized by …

Satellite-based precipitation products are widely used for hydrological modelling; however, temporal sampling uncertainty caused by infrequent satellite overpasses can significantly affect runoff estimation, particularly in mountainous and flood-prone watersheds. This study evaluates the influence of temporal sampling uncertainty in precipitation on runoff simulation using multi-sensor combinatio…

In the heart of northern China, Hebei Province—a region vital to the country’s agricultural output—faces an intensifying challenge: drought. For two decades, from 2001 to 2020, scientists tracked shifting dry spells using satellite data, zeroing in o

NASA’s Earth-observing satellite missions track dozens of features of a changing planet — aerosols, sea levels, land cover, cloud cover — over years and decades. Sustaining that record for the scientific and operational communities who depend on it requires more than engineering talent. It requires planning for an uncertain future: anticipating where a mission delay […] The post Building Foresigh…

Urban tree classification is still a challenge for remote sensing, particularly in heterogeneous urban environments where tree genera are highly diverse and existing inventories often provide incomplete coverage. In our new study, we explore the potential of very high-resolution remote sensing to complement urban tree cadasters and provide large-scale information on the composition and diversity …