Improving automated disturbance maps using snow-covered landsat time series stacks

Kirk M. Stueve; Ian W. Housman; Patrick L. Zimmerman; Mark D. D. Nelson; Jeremy Webb; Charles H. (Hobie) Perry; Robert A. Chastain; Dale D. Gormanson; Chengquan Huang; Sean P. Healey; Warren B. Cohen

Treesearch

Improving automated disturbance maps using snow-covered landsat time series stacks

Informally Refereed

Authors:

Kirk M. Stueve, Ian W. Housman, Patrick L. Zimmerman, Mark D. D. Nelson, Jeremy Webb, Charles H. (Hobie) Perry, Robert A. Chastain, Dale D. Gormanson, Chengquan Huang, Sean P. Healey, Warren B. Cohen

Year:

2012

Type:

Paper

Station:

Northern Research Station

Source:

In: Morin, Randall S.; Liknes, Greg C., comps. Moving from status to trends: Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) symposium 2012; 2012 December 4-6; Baltimore, MD. Gen. Tech. Rep. NRS-P-105. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station. [CD-ROM]: 137-142.

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Abstract

Snow-covered winter Landsat time series stacks are used to develop a nonforest mask to enhance automated disturbance maps produced by the Vegetation Change Tracker (VCT). This method exploits the enhanced spectral separability between forested and nonforested areas that occurs with sufficient snow cover. This method resulted in significant improvements in Vegetation Change Tracker outputs at the 95 percent confidence interval. An estimated 34 percent of the world's forests receive sufficient snowfall to use this method.

Parent Publication

Moving from status to trends: Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) symposium 2012

Keywords

statistics, estimation, sampling, modeling, remote sensing, forest health, data integrity, environmental monitoring, cover estimation, international forest monitoring

Citation

Stueve, Kirk M.; Housman, Ian W.; Zimmerman, Patrick L.; Nelson, Mark D.; Webb, Jeremy; Perry, Charles H.; Chastain, Robert A.; Gormanson, Dale D.; Huang, Chengquan; Healey, Sean P.; Cohen, Warren B. 2012. Improving automated disturbance maps using snow-covered landsat time series stacks. In: Morin, Randall S.; Liknes, Greg C., comps. Moving from status to trends: Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) symposium 2012; 2012 December 4-6; Baltimore, MD. Gen. Tech. Rep. NRS-P-105. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station. [CD-ROM]: 137-142.