As part of the study project Amtsvenn the first UAS flight campaign was successfully conducted on the 3rd of March 2022. High-resolution multispectral and very high-resolution RGB imagery was collected with the WingtraOne. The campaign was supervised by the “Biologische Station Zwillbrock e.V.” to survey the low disturbance of the UAS on wildlife and no disturbances were observed.
The study project investigates how UAS imagery can be used to detect and spatially model the humidity and vitality of bog vegetation. For ground truth, humidity and temperature are measured in a measurement setup developed by the students, representing different gradients (elevation, vegetation, degradation) of the bog.
This study projects follows the ongoing research in the Vechta bogs and kicks off the in April 2022 starting “Reversal Project” [en].
There are many research project, bachelor and master thesis topics for students interested in remote sensing and spatial modelling in bog ecosystems. If interested, please contact Jan Lehmann [en], Hanna Meyer [en] and Laura Giese [en].

Interested in working in peatland restoration monitoring and remotesensing ?
We have 2 positions available, one in our group of remote sensing and spatial modelling and one in the group of Ecohydrology and Biogeochemistry [en].

See http://go.wwu.de/m1pft and http://go.wwu.de/27inm.

What to do when the spatial or temporal resolution of satellite data is insufficient for the research topic? Our study shows how the strengths of two satellite sensors in terms of spatial and temporal resolution can be combined in a data-driven approach. As a result, from 1999 on, we can generate Land Surface Temperature data with a subdaily temporal and 30m spatial resolution for the Antarctic Dry Valleys – a dataset that can be used for various research applications, such as species distribution modelling or to model further relevant environmental information.

• Lezama Valdes L-M, Katurji M, Meyer H. 2021: A Machine Learning Based Downscaling Approach to Produce High Spatio-Temporal Resolution Land Surface Temperature of the Antarctic Dry Valleys from MODIS Data [en]. Remote Sensing 13, 4673. doi: 10.3390/rs13224673

From October 18 to 22 we met together with colleagues from different research institutions for a first joint meeting of our "Earth Observation Network" in the Bavarian Forest. During "Walk&Talk", presentations and joint data acquisition in the field, we exchanged ideas and planned joint research and teaching activities in the field of remote sensing. More information and pictures can be found on the pages of the Earth Observation network [en].

We welcome all students to the new winter semester (2021/22). Information about our courses can be found under the entry Teaching [en].
Please note: The master module starts at the 25.10.

The OpenGeoHub Summer School took place Online from 1 to 3 September 2021. We gave a workshop on „Mapping the area of applicability of spatial prediction models“. All course material [en] as well as video recordings of the Lecture/Practical [en] session is available online. Further information about the scientific project can be found on our pages on Uebersat [en].

The first project meeting of the Carbon-4D project took place between the 7th and 10th of September in the Fichtel Mountains. In cooperation with the soil ecology group of the University of Bayreuth, Maiken Baumberger and Hanna Meyer installed profile probes for soil temperature and moisture measurements. From now on, the 15 probes will be moved every three weeks to measure at several different sites. Furthermore, the University of Bayreuth performs chamber measurements and analyses soil cores. The measured data will be used for the development of a 4D model for the mineralization of soil organic carbon on a landscape scale.
 

Maiken Baumberger [en] is our new team member from August on.
She will work within the Carbon4D [en] project on the landscape-scale mdoelling of soil respiration.
Welcome to the working group, we are looking forward to working with you!

As part of a master thesis and a research project, Jan Lehmann and the students Candy Fahrenholz and Henning Schneidereit accomplished a field campaign in the national park “Western Pomerania Lagoon Area” from the 13th of June until the 17th of June. With special permits of the national park, which are needed because of strict flight and entry bans, and in close cooperation with the staff of the national park, the two bird sanctuary islands, including active breeding colonies, were mapped with the WingtraOne. A multispectral dataset with information of about 700 hectare was collected and the reaction of the birds towards the drone were observed. The campaign did work out exceedingly well and now we are looking forward to analyse the dataset in aspects of vegetation and structure as well as for the inventory of breeding birds.

More information about the project. [en]

Can our machine learning models make reliable spatial predictions or are we predicting into unknown space? Find out in our recent publication on assessing the area of applicability of spatial prediction models that just got published Methods in Ecology and Evolution:

• Meyer H, Pebesma E. 2021: Predicting into unknown space? Estimating the area of applicability of spatial prediction models [en].’ Methods in Ecology and Evolution 12 (9), 1620-1633. doi: 10.1111/2041-210X.13650.

Eva Bendix Nielsen is a PhD student at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand and will be working with us for the next months as a visiting scientist in the project Antarctic Science Platform [en].
Marvin Ludwig [en] starts with us on 1 April as a research assistant in the project Uebersat [en], and will work on the development of methods for the transferability of AI models in remote sensing.

Welcome to the working group, we are looking forward to working with you!