Terrestrial net primary production (NPP) quantifies the amount of atmospheric carbon fixed by plants and accumulated as biomass. Previous studies have shown that climate constraints were relaxing with increasing temperature and solar radiation, allowing an upward trend in NPP from 1982 through 1999. The past decade (2000 to 2009) has been the warmest since instrumental measurements began, which could imply continued increases in NPP; however, our estimates suggest a reduction in the global NPP of 0.55 petagrams of carbon. Large-scale droughts have reduced regional NPP, and a drying trend in the Southern Hemisphere has decreased NPP in that area, counteracting the increased NPP over the Northern Hemisphere. A continued decline in NPP would not only weaken the terrestrial carbon sink, but it would also intensify future competition between food demand and proposed biofuel production.

Drought-Induced Reduction in Global Terrestrial Net Primary Production from 2000 Through 2009

For more information on the USGS—the Federal source for science about the Earth, its natural and living resources, natural hazards, and the environment, visit http://www.usgs.gov or call 1–888–ASK–USGS. For an overview of USGS information products, including maps, imagery, and publications, Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. Although this report is in the public domain, permission must be secured from the individual copyright owners to reproduce any copyrighted materials contained within this report. 10. Diagram showing the GMTED2010 layer extents (minimum and maximum latitude and longitude) are a result of the coordinate system inherited from the 1-arc-second SRTM

Global Multi-resolution Terrain Elevation Data 2010 (GMTED2010)

Deep learning in environmental remote sensing: Achievements and challenges

Incorporating gold nanowires into scaffolds used to create heart patches can improve electrical communication between cells and enhance the growth of tissues.

Nanowired three-dimensional cardiac patches

In situ soil moisture data from more than 200 stations located in Africa, Australia, Europe and the United States are used to determine the reliability of three soil moisture products, one analysis from the ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts) numerical weather prediction system (SM-DAS-2) and two remotely sensed soil moisture products, namely ASCAT (Advanced scatterometer) and SMOS (Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity). SM-DAS-2 is produced offline at ECMWF and relies on an advanced surface data assimilation system (Extended Kalman Filter) used to optimally combine conventional observations with satellite measurements. ASCAT remotely sensed surface soil moisture is provided in near real time by EUMETSAT. At ECMWF, ASCAT is used for soil moisture analyses in SM-DAS-2, also. Finally the SMOS remotely sensed soil moisture data level two product developed at CESBIO is used. Evaluation of the times series as well as of the anomaly values, shows good performances of the three products to capture surface soil moisture annual cycle and short term variability. Correlations with in situ data are very satisfactory over most of the investigated sites located in contrasted biomes and climate conditions with averaged values of 0.70 for SM-DAS-2, 0.53 for ASCAT and 0.54 for SMOS. Although radio frequency interference disturbs the natural microwave emission of the Earth observed by SMOS in several parts of the world, hence the soil moisture retrieval, performances of SMOS over Australia are very encouraging.

Evaluation of remotely sensed and modelled soil moisture products using global ground-based in situ observations

Recent flood events have demonstrated a demand for satellite-based inundation mapping in near real-time (NRT). Simulating and forecasting flood extent is essential for risk mitigation. While numerical models are designed to provide such information, they usually lack reference at fine spatiotemporal resolution. Remote sensing techniques are expected to fill this void. Unlike optical sensors, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) provides valid measurements through cloud cover with high resolution and increasing sampling frequency from multiple missions. This study reviews theories and algorithms of flood inundation mapping using SAR data, together with a discussion of their strengths and limitations, focusing on the level of automation, robustness, and accuracy. We find that the automation and robustness of non-obstructed inundation mapping have been achieved in this era of big earth observation (EO) data with acceptable accuracy. They are not yet satisfactory, however, for the detection of beneath-vegetation flood mapping using L-band or multi-polarized (dual or fully) SAR data or for urban flood detection using fine-resolution SAR and ancillary building and topographic data.

Inundation Extent Mapping by Synthetic Aperture Radar: A Review

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/inf2.12060

Physical sensors for skin-inspired electronics

Recently, electronic skin and smart textiles have attracted considerable attention. Flexible sensors, as a kind of indispensable components of flexible electronics, have been extensively studied. However, wearable airflow sensors capable of monitoring the environment airflow in real time are rarely reported. Herein, by mimicking the spider's fluff, an ultrasensitive and flexible all-textile airflow sensor based on fabric with in situ grown carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is developed. The fabric decorated with fluffy-like CNTs possesses exceptionally large contact area, endowing the airflow sensor with superior properties including ultralow detection limit (≈0.05 m s-1 ), multiangle airflow differential response (0°-90°), and fast response time (≈1.3 s). Besides, the fluffy fabric airflow sensor can be combined with a pristine fabric airflow sensor to realize highly sensitive detection in a wide airflow range (0.05-7.0 m s-1 ). Its potential applications including transmitting information according to Morse code by blowing the sensors, monitoring increasing and decreasing airflow velocity, and alerting blind people walking outside about potential hazard induced by nearby fast-moving objects are demonstrated. Furthermore, the airflow sensor can be directly integrated into clothing as stylish designs without sacrificing comfortness. It is believed that the ultrasensitive all-textile airflow sensor holds great promise for applications in smart textiles and wearable electronics.

Xinyi Shen

Papers

Inundation Extent Mapping by Synthetic Aperture Radar: A Review

Physical sensors for skin-inspired electronics

Bioinspired Fluffy Fabric with In Situ Grown Carbon Nanotubes for Ultrasensitive Wearable Airflow Sensor.

Near-real-time non-obstructed flood inundation mapping using synthetic aperture radar

Global aerosol change in the last decade: An analysis based on MODIS data