A Multi-Sensor Unoccupied Aerial System Improves Characterization of Vegetation Composition and Canopy Properties in the Arctic Tundra

作者：Dedi Yang, Ran Meng, Bailey D. Morrison, Andrew McMahon, Wouter Hantson, Daniel J. Hayes, Amy L. Breen, Verity Gale Salmon, Shawn Paul Serbin · 发表于：Remote Sensing · 年份：2020 · DOI：10.3390/rs12162638 · 被引用次数：49 · 研究领域：Climate change and permafrost、Cryospheric studies and observations、Polar Research and Ecology

Changes in vegetation distribution, structure, and function can modify the canopy properties of terrestrial ecosystems, with potential consequences for regional and global climate feedbacks. In the Arctic, climate is warming twice as fast as compared to the global average (known as ‘Arctic amplification’), likely having stronger impacts on arctic tundra vegetation. In order to quantify these changes and assess their impacts on ecosystem structure and function, methods are needed to accurately characterize the canopy properties of tundra vegetation types. However, commonly used ground-based measurements are limited in spatial and temporal coverage, and differentiating low-lying tundra plant species is challenging with coarse-resolution satellite remote sensing. The collection and processing of multi-sensor data from unoccupied aerial systems (UASs) has the potential to fill the gap between ground-based and satellite observations. To address the critical need for such data in the Arctic, we developed a cost-effective multi-sensor UAS (the ‘Osprey’) using off-the-shelf instrumentation. The Osprey simultaneously produces high-resolution optical, thermal, and structural images, as well as collecting point-based hyperspectral measurements, over vegetation canopies. In this paper, we describe the setup and deployment of the Osprey system in the Arctic to a tundra study site located in the Seward Peninsula, Alaska. We present a case study demonstrating the processing and application ...