Analyzing Long-Term Drought Effects on Land Surface Temperature and Vegetation Using National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration Satellite's Data

Summer 2016

URL:http://nia.ecsu.edu/reuomps2016/teams/terascan/

Team Members: Cornelius Holness, Derek Morris, Daquan Rascoe,

Mentor:Andrew Brumfield

Analyzing the effects of Drought in the Northeastern North Carolina area with NOAA satellite products to determine a correlation between Land Surface Temperature and Vegetation. The Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) data sets for summer 2002 -2013, provided by the State Climate Office of North Carolina NC CRONOS database, provided evidence that since 2007 the northern coastal plain of North Carolina has been experiencing a long-term summer drought. Summer is defined as the months between late June to late September.

Utilizing Elizabeth City State University's (ECSU) 1.5m L-band SeaSpace ground station the team received live Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) imagery from NOAA polar orbiting satellites each day for the month of June. The primary goal of this research was to observe the correlation between land surface temperature (LST) and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) due to long-term drought using NOAA satellite data. In the month of June 2016, the team collected imagery data through the SeaSpace© TeraScan® system and produced LST and NDVI. Various GPS locations were selected in Northeastern North Carolina of different biomes such as swamp lands, grasslands, and farmlands. The team collected and utilized data in the areas of Camden County, Gates County, Pasquotank County, and Perquimans County. Using the SeaSpace Graphical User Interface (GUI) Teravision®, The data points of each product at the various biome locations were analyzed for daily and weekly averages.

Using the GPS locations found in United States Geological Survey (USGS) of the swamps lands, grasslands, and farmlands were entered and saved as survey points in TeraVision's GUI. All of the passes in the month of June that were received and processed into LST and NDVI products at the direct broadcast ground station at ECSU were loaded into TeraVision. The values were then extracted from each of the points and evaluated by their biome specific location for LST and NDVI. With Excel the team conducted analysis for daily trends, regional trends, biome trends, and weekly trends.

Keywords: Land Surface Temperature,TeraScan,Vegetation,TeraScan,TeraVision, USGS

Producing 3D point cloud and digital elevation models through the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Historic St. Luke's Church case study

Spring 2016

URL:http://nia.ecsu.edu/ur/1516/teams/uav/index.html

Mentor: Mr. Edward "Clay" Swindell

Team Members: Tangee Beverly, Cornelius Holness, Nigel Pugh, Tori Wilbon

This research project was initiated to demonstrate the ability of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) to gather elevation and 3D data using only a visible light camera. The chosen test case was the structure and property associated with Historic St. Luke's Church. This historic property represents Virginia's oldest standing church built in the late 17th century. While the property area associated with the church covers several acres, The UAV team chose to focus on the historic structure and immediate surrounding area. The intention was to fly a DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ UAV along a gridded flight plan designed to capture an array of images at defined intervals. These images were subsequently processed with the Pix4d software to produce an image mosaic of the gridded area, a 3d point cloud and digital elevation model (DEM), and finally a 3D model of the historic structure. The dataset will expand on the historical and the geographic placement of the structure and will assist Historic St. Luke's in directing future archaeological and landscape studies on the property.

Keywords— archaeology, aerial imagery, DJI Phantom 2 Vision+, drone, U.A.V.

Remote Sensing Archeological Sites through Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (U.A.V.) Imaging

Spring 2015

URL: http://nia.ecsu.edu/ur/1415/teams/uav/Index.html

Mentor: Mr. Edward "Clay" Swindell

Team Members: Cornelius Holness, Tatyana Matthews, Khaliq Satchell

Abstract

Advances in technology and lowering cost make drones, or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (U.A.V.), appealing platforms for remote sensing. Data acquired through these technologies have broad appeal and widespread application across many industries and disciplines. Archaeologists have used aerial imagery derived from many sources as a means of identifying sites and ancient landscapes, yet this imagery has traditionally been acquired through satellite and aircraft platforms making cost and time a primary concern.  For this reason, the availability of inexpensive U.A.V.s affords archaeologists access to obtaining their own data at a fraction of the cost. However, are they effective? For the purposes of this study, the DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ UAV, along with supporting software, was evaluated for its ability to create visible light imagery and elevation datasets useful in remote sensing archaeological sites. To test its effectiveness, a site was chosen in Bertie County, North Carolina discovered in 2007. The Salmon Creek site (31BR264), as it is known, is partially understood from previous archaeological studies as the location of a 16th Century Native American village. This previous work provided a foundation which our results could be tested and evaluated against and proved important to our interpretation of the data. The project not only demonstrated the effectiveness of the U.A.V. to acquire usable datasets, but contributed to the ongoing research.

Keywords: archaeology, aerial imagery, DJI Phantom 2 Vision+, drone, remote sensing, U.A.V.