Vegetation Mapping by Using GPM/DPR over the Mongolian Land
1
Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tennoudai 1-1-1, Tsukuba 305-8572, Japan
2
Information and Research Institute of Meteorology, Hydrology, and Environment (IRIMHE), Juulchiny street-5, Ulaanbaatar 15160, Mongolia
3
Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tennoudai 1-1-1, Tsukuba 305-8572, Japan
4
Earth Observation Research Center, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Sengen 2-1-1, Tsukuba 305-8505, Japan
5
Remote Sensing Technology Center of Japan (RESTEC), Tennoudai 1-1-1, Tsukuba 305-8572, Japan
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(20), 2386; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11202386
Received: 31 August 2019 / Revised: 6 October 2019 / Accepted: 9 October 2019 / Published: 15 October 2019
(This article belongs to the Section Environmental Remote Sensing)
Mongolian steppe is one of the largest and important ecosystems. The degradation of grassland and the expansion of desert are occurring due to drought and desertification processes. We attempted monitoring of the broad-scale vegetation in Mongolia by a space-borne precipitation radar, which may complement typical approaches of vegetation monitoring (such as NDVI). We utilized the Global Precipitation Mission’s (GPM) dual-frequency precipitation radar (DPR). We characterized backscatter (σ0) of GPM/DPR’s two microwave bands (Ku and Ka) with respect to the dominant vegetation zones (forest, grassland, desert). Both Ku and Ka radars’ σ0 values were investigated for incidence angle dependency and the seasonal variation. As a result, the use of multi-angle, multi-band observations of GPM/DPR could help to characterize the vegetation zones. Especially, the σ0 at incidence angles between 1° and 8° represented useful characteristics of vegetation. Based on it, by using unsupervised clustering, we produced annual maps describing vegetation zones from 2014 to 2018. The result indicated that Mongolia experienced extensive changes in grassland and desert areas during the study years.
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Keywords:
vegetation mapping; Mongolia; GPM/DPR; backscatter; incidence angle
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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Nyamsuren, B.; Nasahara, K.N.; Kubota, T.; Masaki, T. Vegetation Mapping by Using GPM/DPR over the Mongolian Land. Remote Sens. 2019, 11, 2386. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11202386
AMA Style
Nyamsuren B, Nasahara KN, Kubota T, Masaki T. Vegetation Mapping by Using GPM/DPR over the Mongolian Land. Remote Sensing. 2019; 11(20):2386. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11202386
Chicago/Turabian StyleNyamsuren, Baasankhuu; Nasahara, Kenlo N.; Kubota, Takuji; Masaki, Takeshi. 2019. "Vegetation Mapping by Using GPM/DPR over the Mongolian Land" Remote Sens. 11, no. 20: 2386. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11202386
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