ALBERT

Description: This article proposes a \({\Delta^{-1}}-T{V_0}\) energy function to fuse a multi-spectral image with a panchromatic image. The proposed energy function consists of two components, a \(TV_0\) component and a \(\Delta^{-1}\) component. The \(TV_0\) term uses the sparse priority to increase the detailed spatial information; while the \({\Delta ^{ - 1}}\) term removes the block effect of the multi-spectral image. Furthermore, as the proposed energy function is non-convex, we also adopt an alternative minimization algorithm and the \(L_0\) gradient minimization to solve it. Experimental results demonstrate the improved performance of the proposed method over existing methods.

Description: IJGI, Vol. 7, Pages 214: Trend Analysis of Relationship between Primary Productivity, Precipitation and Temperature in Inner Mongolia ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information doi: 10.3390/ijgi7060214 Authors: Tianyang Chen Yichun Xie Chao Liu Yongfei Bai Anbing Zhang Lishen Mao Siyu Fan This study mainly examined the relationships among primary productivity, precipitation and temperature by identifying trends of change embedded in time-series data. The paper also explores spatial variations of the relationship over four types of vegetation and across two precipitation zones in Inner Mongolia, China. Traditional analysis of vegetation response to climate change uses minimum, maximum, average or cumulative measurements; focuses on a whole region instead of fine-scale regional or ecological variations; or adopts generic analysis techniques. We innovatively integrate Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) and Redundancy Analysis (RDA) to overcome the weakness of traditional approaches. The EMD filtered trend surfaces reveal clear patterns of Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), precipitation, and temperature changes in both time and space. The filtered data decrease noises and cyclic fluctuations in the original data and are more suitable for examining linear relationship than the original data. RDA is further applied to reveal partial effect of precipitation and temperature, and their joint effect on primary productivity. The main findings are as follows: (1) We need to examine relationships between the trends of change of the variables of interest when investigating long-term relationships among them. (2) Long-term trend of change of precipitation or temperature can become a critical factor influencing primary productivity depending on local environments. (3) Synchronization (joint effect) of precipitation and temperature in growing season is critically important to primary productivity in the study area. (4) Partial and joint effects of precipitation and temperature on primary productivity vary over different precipitation zones and different types of vegetation. The method developed in this paper is applicable to ecosystem research in other regions.

Description: Against the background of global warming, China has vowed to meet a series of carbon emissions reduction targets and plans to launch a national carbon emissions rights trading market by 2017. Therefore, from the provincial value chain perspective, using input-output tables from China in 2002, 2007, and 2010, this study constructs models to calculate the CO2 emissions responsibility of each province under the production, consumption, and value capture principles, respectively. Empirical results indicate that Shandong, Hebei, Jiangsu, Guangdong, and Henan bear the most responsibility for CO2 emissions under the three principles in China, while Hainan and Qinghai have the least responsibility. However, there is a great difference in the proportion of carbon emissions responsibility for each province during the same period under different principles or different periods under the same principle. For consumption-oriented areas such as Beijing, Tianjin, Zhejiang, Shanghai, and Guangdong, the production principle is more favorable, and the consumption principle is more beneficial for production-oriented provinces such as Hebei, Henan, Liaoning, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, and Shaanxi. However, the value capture principle strikes a compromise of the CO2 emissions responsibility of each province between the production and consumption principles, and it shares the CO2 emissions responsibility based on the actual value captured by each province in the provincial value chain. The value capture principle is conducive to the fair and reasonable division of CO2 emissions rights of each province by sectors, as well as the construction of a standardized carbon emissions rights trading market.

Description: In recent years, increasing concerns over climate change and transportation energy consumption have sparked research into the influences of urban form and land use patterns on motorized travel, notably vehicle miles traveled (VMT). However, empirical studies provide mixed evidence of the influence of the built environment on travel. In particular, the role of density after controlling for the confounding factors (e.g., land use mix, average block size, and distance from CBD) still remains unclear. The object of this study is twofold. First, this research provides additional insights into the effects of built environment factors on the work-related VMT, considering urban form measurements at both the home location and workplace simultaneously. Second, a cross-classified multilevel model using Bayesian approach is applied to account for the spatial heterogeneity across spatial units. Using Washington DC as our study area, the home-based work tour in the AM peak hours is used as the analysis unit. Estimation results confirmed the important role that the built environment at both home and workplace plays in affecting work-related VMT. In particular, the results reveal that densities at the workplace have more important roles than that at home location. These findings confirm that urban planning and city design should be part of the solution in stabilizing global climate and energy consumption.

Description: Remote Sensing, Vol. 9, Pages 1302: S-Band Doppler Wave Radar System Remote Sensing doi: 10.3390/rs9121302 Authors: Zezong Chen Zihan Wang Xi Chen Chen Zhao Fei Xie Chao He In this paper, a novel shore-based S-band microwave Doppler coherent wave radar (Microwave Ocean Remote SEnsor (MORSE)) is designed to improve wave measurements. Marine radars, which operate in the X band, have been widely used for ocean monitoring because of their low cost, small size and flexibility. However, because of the non-coherent measurements and strong absorption of X-band radio waves by rain, these radar systems suffer considerable performance loss in moist weather. Furthermore, frequent calibrations to modify the modulation transfer function are required. To overcome these shortcomings, MORSE, which operates in the S band, was developed by Wuhan University. Because of the coherent measurements of this sensor, it is able to measure the radial velocity of water particles via the Doppler effect. Then the relation between the velocity spectrum and wave height spectrum can be used to obtain the wave height spectra. Finally, wave parameters are estimated from the wave height spectra by the spectrum moment method. Comparisons between MORSE and Waverider MKIII are conducted in this study, and the results, including the non-directional wave height spectra, significant wave height and average wave period, are calculated and displayed. The correlation coefficient of the significant wave height is larger than 0.9, whereas that of the average wave period is approximately 0.4, demonstrating the effectiveness of MORSE for the continuous monitoring of ocean areas with high accuracy.