Satellite Environmental Monitoring / Request for Site Nominations

Introduction As part of Public Lab’s Google Summer of Code program, software tools (Image Sequencer/MapKnitter). will be enhanced to display and process satellite imagery. This note request locations of sites of interest that will be used as test images.

Program Description : This project seeks to increase environmental awareness by demonstrating the different ways to collect, process and combine satellite imagery with neighborhood environmental data. Areas nominated by the Public Lab community will be selected for analysis. Ideally, the same locations will also be observed by Public Lab Balloon/Kite cameras and other ground sensors. The objective is to develop ground truth monitoring to assist satellite measurements and for satellite sensing to guide ‘near earth’ based measurements. Three sites will be selected for analysis using Planet and LandSat 8 satellite data from May 27 to August 1. At the end of the project, the tools will be available for any and all sites that people wish to analyze.

Ares of interest will be selected based on:

• Environmental benefit
• Supplemental ‘near earth’ based high resolution imagery from balloon/kite cameras or other measurements that help calibrate satellite imagery.
• Interest in helping interpret satellite images with respect to environmental science.

How to nominate: Provide comments to this post with the following info:

• Provide latitude and longitude (image center).
• Geometry of image area (coastal linear strip, square, etc)
• Brief description of reason for study (pollution monitoring, restoration, agriculture, deforestation, global warming, red tide/algal blooms, etc)
• Contact info (Ideally by Public Lab, @ name)
• Optional: List prior Public Lab work
• Optional: Possible supporting measurements/references

Satellite Description:

LandSat 8 and Planet satellite systems provide medium resolution images and have global coverage. Comparison of Planet and LandSat 8 satellite features are provided below:

Example satellite images Representative satellite images are posted of the Bayou Sauvage Wildlife Preservation in Louisiana. The images display initial display/processing options for the same scene. Please recommend more advanced processing options as potential program upgrades.

• Planet Multiband Display / NDVI processing
• LandSat 8 Multiband Display
• Planet time analysis useful for change detection:
• Other examples available at: https://mapknitter.org/profile/maggpi

Example nomination:

• Location: Bayou Sauvage Wildlife Preserve, LA
• Latitude: 30.0502715433
• Longitude: -89.8365047898
• Geometry: Square area, outline of preserve, 10km x 10 km
• Goal: monitor restoration progress
• Contact info: @name (public lab) or email

• Public Lab measurements: https://publiclab.org/notes/eustatic/04-01-2019/mapknitter-map-of-usfws-restoration-wildlife-habitat-bayou-sauvage-linear-planting and https://publiclab.org/notes/eustatic/6-23-2012/h2s-strip-placement-bayou-sauvage-nwr-orleans-parish-la

• Reference: https://lacoast.gov/new/Projects/Info.aspx?num=PO-16

Additional Information:

• LandSat 8
• Planet
• GSoC Proposal