CIVL1180

Monitoring Changing Climate From Space

Prof. Hui Su
Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering

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18 October, 2023
 Mid-term Review
• History of remote sensing programs and climate science research
• Basic concepts of how remote sensing works and the underlying science
• Remote sensing methods and technologies Remote
Sensing Basics
• Satellite mission design
• Characteristics of satellite data and satellite data analysis methods
• Basics science of climate change
• Observations of climate change: atmosphere
Observing
• Observations of climate change: land Changing
• Observations of climate change: ocean Climate
• Observations of climate change: cryosphere
• Climate change mitigation and adaptation Climate
• Use of satellite data to constrain climate models Change
• Future perspectives Predictions
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 Mid-term Review
• What is remote sensing?
Using artificial devices to observe or measure an object from a distance without
making physical contact with the object.
• Benefits of satellite remote sensing compared to ground-based instruments:
• Wide coverage: Satellites can cover large areas of the Earth's surface, providing a more comprehensive view of
the environment. Ground-based measurements are limited to the location of the measurement instrument.
• Consistency: Satellites can provide consistent measurements over time, which is important for monitoring
changes in the environment. Ground-based measurements can be affected by changes in the location of the
instrument, instrument calibration, and other factors.
• Accessibility: Satellites can access remote and inaccessible areas, such as the polar regions or the middle of
oceans, which are difficult or impossible to reach with ground-based instruments.
• Cost-effective: Satellite remote sensing can be more cost-effective than ground-based measurements,
especially for large-scale monitoring programs. Ground-based measurements can be expensive to install and
maintain, while satellites can provide continuous data at a lower cost.
• Timeliness: Satellite data can be obtained quickly and in near real-time, which is important for monitoring and
responding to environmental events such as wildfires, floods, and hurricanes. Ground-based measurements
may take longer to obtain and analyze. 3
• The first artificial satellite in the world, in the US and in China

Soviet Space
USA China HKUST
Program

Sputnik 1 Explorer 1 Dong Fang Hong 1 HKUST-FYBB #1

4 October 1957 31 January 1958 24 April 1970 25 August 2023

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• Differences between weather and climate
Weather refers to short-term atmospheric conditions at a specific location,
while climate refers to long-term patterns of atmospheric conditions over a
larger region.
ØTime scale: Weather refers to short-term atmospheric conditions, such as
temperature, precipitation, wind, and humidity, over a period of hours to
days. Climate, on the other hand, refers to long-term patterns of
atmospheric conditions, typically over a period of years to decades.
ØSpatial scale: Weather is typically measured at a specific location or
point, while climate is measured over a larger region or area.
ØVariability: Weather can vary widely from day to day or even hour to hour,
while climate is characterized by more gradual changes and trends over
time.

10/18/23 5
• What is climate change?
Climate change is significant changes in global temperature,
precipitation, wind patterns and other measures of climate that
occur over several decades or longer.
• Global average temperature record

10/18/23 6
• What is greenhouse gas effect?
The greenhouse gas effect is the warming of the earth when certain
atmospheric constituents absorb heat and re-emit heat.
• What are the top 4 greenhouse gases?
Water Vapor (H2O), Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4), Nitrous Oxide (N2O)

• What is the Keeling Curve?

The Keeling Curve is a graph of the accumulation of
carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere based on
continuous measurements taken at the Mauna Loa
Observatory on the island of Hawaii from 1958 to the
present day.

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 • What is the CO2 concentration in 2023?
~420 ppmv

• What is the CO2 concentration prior to the Industrial

Revolution?
~280 ppmv

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 Satellite Orbits
• Low Earth orbit: 180-2000 km, many Earth observing satellites
• Mid Earth Orbit: 2000-36000 km, navigation and specialty satellites
• High Earth Orbit: ≥ 36,000 km, weather and communications satellites

• Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO)

A nearly polar orbit around a planet, in which the satellite passes over any given
point of the planet's surface at the same local solar time.

• Non-sun-synchronous orbit
Its position relative to the Sun is not fixed.

• Geostationary orbit (GEO)

A geostationary orbit is a type of orbit around the Earth where a satellite orbits the
Earth at the same rate as the Earth's rotation, resulting in the satellite appearing to
remain stationary in the sky relative to a fixed point on the Earth's surface.

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 Orbit Speed and Speed

𝐯 = 𝟐𝛑𝐑/𝐓

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 Components of a Remote Sensing Stream
1. Energy source or illumination (A)
2. Radiation and the atmosphere (B)
3. Interaction with the target (C)
4. Energy recording by sensor (D)
5. Transmission, receiving, processing (E)
6. Interpretation and analysis (F)
7. Application (G)

Credit: EO4IM program

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 Remote Sensing by Electromagnetic Waves

Frequency and wavelength are inversely proportional to each other.

• f = C/l
f is frequency; C is the speed of light = 3x108 m/s;
l is the wavelength.
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Interaction between electromagnetic waves and matter
In general, a ray incident on an obstacle, or on the separation surface between
two different media, generates reflection, refraction and diffraction phenomena.
There are also absorption, scattering, and transmission.

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• The Law of Reflection: 𝜃! = 𝜃"

• The Law of Refraction (Snell’s Law)

𝒔𝒊𝒏𝜃# 𝒗𝟏 𝒏𝟐
= = 𝑛# 𝜈# = 𝑛$ 𝜈$ = C
𝒔𝒊𝒏𝜃$ 𝒗𝟐 𝒏𝟏
10/18/23 14
 Rainbow

èWhen a beam of sunlight enters the water drop at point A, the degree of refraction
of the different colors is variable.
èViolet light has higher frequency, and its refractivity is larger, therefore its degree of
refraction is also the greatest; red light has longer wavelength and has smallest
degree of refraction. Other lights fall between them.
èThe rainbow we saw is always violet on the inside and red on the outside.
èThe colors and width of a rainbow are affected by the size of the raindrops. The
bigger the raindrops, the narrower and more colorful the rainbow is. 15
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• What is the Doppler Effect?
The Doppler effect is the change in the frequency of a wave in relation to an
observer who is moving relative to the source of the wave.

10/18/23 16
• Flux density: the total energy per unit time per unit area transported by
EM radiation through a plane, expressed in units of watts per square
meter. It is the rate at which radiation is incident on, or passes through, a
flat surface.
• Absorptivity (a), Reflectivity (r), Transmissivity (t)
When radiation is incident on a surface, the fraction being absorbed is called
absorptivity (a), the fraction being reflected is called reflectivity (r), and
the fraction that passes through is called transmissivity (t). They are
dependent on wavelength (𝜆).

𝑎! + 𝑟! + 𝑟! = 1

10/18/23 17
• What is the Graybody Approximation?
When we ignore the dependence of absorptivity on exact wavelength and
use a single average absorptivity to represent the entire spectral band.
• A common application of the graybody approximation is to assign one
constant absorptivity asw to the entire shortwave or solar band, and another
constant absorptivity alw to the longwave or thermal IR band.

• What is albedo?
Albedo is the fraction of sunlight that a surface reflects.

• What is a blackbody?
A blackbody is a perfect absorber with absorptivity a = 1.
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 Examples of Reflectivity Spectra

Typical shortwave reflectivity spectra of surface types as a function of wavelength

(see Petty’s Book Fig. 5.2) 19
 Thermal Emission

• Planck’s Function Bl(T)=2hc2 / [l5 (ehc/klT - 1)]

• Wien’s Displacement Law: lmax = 2897 / T
• Stefan-Boltzmann law: F = sT4
• Kirchhoff’s law: el(𝜃, 𝜙) = al (𝜃, 𝜙)

Ø Note the dependence of emissivity and

absorptivity on wavelength and
incidence angle.

10/18/23 20
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 Atmospheric Scattering
!"#
• Size parameter 𝑥 ≡
$
æ 1 ö
• Rayleigh ç Il µ 4 ÷
è l ø
• Mie Scattering
• Non-selective Scattering
• Color of the sky, sunset, clouds
• Light Traveling in the Atmosphere

Water Approximated by ray-tracing

Scattering Droplets or geometric optics

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 Zenith Atmospheric Transmittance

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 Types of Remote Sensing
• A passive sensor is one which just ‘listens’ to what is happening, i.e.,
measures naturally available energy
- camera, radiometer
• An active sensor is one which transmits radiation towards the target and then
measures the response that comes back.
- radar, lidar

Figure by F. L. Ornelas
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doi:10.13140/RG.2.2.11855.43685
Satellite Data Processing Levels

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§ Components of the climate system:
Atmosphere, ocean, land, cryosphere, biosphere, lithosphere

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 Table 2.1
Atmosphere Typical time scales
Overall response time to heating months
Typical spin-down time of wind if nothing is forcing it days
Frontal system lifetime (1000s of km) days
Convective cloud lifetime (100m to km horizontal; hours
Time scale for typical upper level wind (20 m s-1) to days
cross continent (a few 1000 km)
Ocean
Response time of upper ocean (above thermocline) to months to years
heating
Response time of deep ocean to atmospheric changes decades to millennia
Ocean eddy lifetime (10s to 100 km) month
Ocean mixing in the surface layer hours to days
Time for typical ocean current (cm s-1) to cross ocean decade
(1000s of km)
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Neelin, 2011. Climate Change and Climate Modeling, Cambridge UP
 Cryosphere Typical time scales
Snow cover months
Sea ice (extent and thickness variations) months to years
Glaciers decades to centuries
Ice caps centuries to millennia
Land surface
Response time to heating hours
Response time of vegetation to oppose excess hours
evaporation
Soil moisture response time days to months
Biosphere
Ocean plankton response to nutrient changes weeks
Recovery time from deforestation years to decades
Lithosphere
Isostatic rebound of continents (after being 10,000s of years
depressed by weight of glacier)
Weathering, mountain building 1,000,000s of years
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Neelin, 2011. Climate Change and Climate Modeling, Cambridge UP
§ Global Mean Radiative Budget

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§ Energy Transport

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 Latitude structure of Atmospheric Circulation

Neelin, 2011. Climate Change and Climate Modeling, Cambridge UP