Sentinel-6: Potential for Ocean Swell Detection: Effect of onboard data compression on geophysical parameter retrieval, a data driven analysis

Understanding the role of ocean swell, monitoring and modelling it is critical for a diverse range of oceanographic research, coastal management initiatives and for better weather forecasting and climate modelling. <br/>Currently, swell measurements are obtained through in-situ measurements, wave models, and satellite measurements. So far, swell...

Towards Water Availability Predictions with Earth-Observed Open Data in Man-Made Reservoirs Worldwide

Small to medium-sized man-made freshwater reservoir are a reliable source for drinking water supply, hydropower generation and irrigation purposes worldwide. However, water volumes in these reservoirs can be significantly affected by prolonged droughts, resulting in severe impacts on society (Kozacek, 2014; Mahr, 2018). To mitigate the impact of...

Improving satellite remote sensing methodologies for analyzing landscape dynamics in arid environments with focus on Egypt

Metasurface Antenna for Space-Based SAR

Synthetic Aperture Radars (SAR) have demonstrated to be great instruments for space-based Earth observation in the microwave frequency. Metasurface antennas, on the other side, are a new type of planar antennas with a great potential for space applications, as they are compact and easy to produce. Several methods have been developed in the past...

Remote Sensing of Surface Melt on Antarctica: Opportunities and Challenges

Surface melt is an important driver of ice shelf disintegration and its consequent mass loss over the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Monitoring surface melt using satellite remote sensing can enhance our understanding of ice shelf stability. However, the sensors do not measure the actual physical process of surface melt, but rather observe the presence...

Estimating Navigable Areas in Scarce data River Environments: A Chindwin Case Study

The seasonal Chindwin river (Myanmar) forms the central artery for transportation in the region. However, the dynamic river behaviour, archaic boat equipment and limited monitoring, yearly results in large numbers of grounding ships, causing injuries and economic losses. A pilot project involving CoVadem technology was initiated in the beginning...

Phase Diversity for the Deployable Space Telescope

The Deployable SpaceTelescope Project was started at Delft University of Technology in 2014. The projectaims to develop an ultra-high resolution Earth Observation telescope with aresolution of 0.25m, but with a much lower mass and volume than its competitorscurrently in operation. In order to meet the stringent mass...

Viable Service Design Method for Earth Observation Applications: Developing a method for the design of viable services for applications using on big and open earth observation data as a resource

The publicly funded ESA Copernicus and NASA Landsat earth observation programs are publishing their data as open data in the promise of 30 billion euro of financial benefit for the EU as well as 50.000 new jobs, both by 2023. The move by these two space agencies fits in a larger pattern of ‘new space’, in which the launch and exploitation of...

FlySPEX: Channeled Spectropolarimeter for Atmosphere Remote Sensing

CONTEXT. Spectropolarimetry is proposed as a relatively new option in the field of remote sensing for the characterization of aerosol particles and the investigation of cloud properties, that are key factors for the enhancement of climate model's accuracy. The use of multi-wavelength, multi-angle information of the scattered flux and...

Next-generation satellite gravimetry for measuring mass transport in the Earth system

The main objective of the thesis is to identify the optimal set-up for future satellite gravimetry missions aimed at monitoring mass transport in the Earth’s system.The recent variability of climatic patterns, the spread of arid regions and associ- ated changes in the hydrological cycle, and vigorous modifications in the ice coverage at polar...

A Deployable Telescope for Sub-Meter Resolutions from MicroSatellite Platforms

Sub-meter resolution satellite imagery serves a more and more important role in applications ranging from environmental protection, disaster response and precision farming to defence and security. Earth Observation at these resolutions has long been the realm of large and heavy telescopes. The costs of building and launching such systems are...