• Monitoring desertification processes in Mongolian Plateau using MODIS tasseled cap transformation and TGSI time series

    分类: 地球科学 >> 地理学 提交时间: 2017-12-18 合作期刊: 《干旱区科学》

    摘要: Most remote sensing studies assess the desertification using vegetation monitoring method. But it has the insufficient precision of vegetation monitoring for the limited vegetation cover of the desertification region. Therefore, it offers an alternative approach for the desertification research to assess sand dune and sandy land change using remote sensing in the desertification region. In this study, the indices derived from the well-known tasseled cap transformation (TCT), tasseled cap angle (TCA), disturbance index (DI), process indicator (PI), and topsoil grain size index (TGSI) were integrated to monitor and assess the desertification at the thirteen study sites including sand dunes and sandy lands distributed in the the Mongolian Plateau (MP) from 2000 to 2015. A decision tree was used to classify the desertification on a regional scale. The average overall accuracy of 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015 desertification classification was higher than 90%. Results from this study indicated that integration of the advantages of TCA, DI and TGSI could better assess the desertification. During the last 16 years, Badain Jaran Desert, Tengger Desert, and Ulan Buh Desert showed a relative stabilization. Otindag Sandy Land and the deserts of Khar Nuur, Ereen Nuur, Tsagan Nuur, Khongoryn Els, Hobq, and Mu Us showed a slow increasing of desertification, whereas Bayan Gobi, Horqin and Hulun Buir sandy lands showed a slow decreasing of desertification. Compared with the other 11 sites, the fine sand dunes occupied the majority of the Tengger Desert, and the coarse sandy land occupied the majority of the Horqin Sandy Land. Our findings on a three or four years’ periodical fluctuated changes in the desertification may possibly reflect changing precipitation and soil moisture in the MP. Further work to link the TCA, DI, TGSI, and PI values with the desertification characteristics is recommended to set the thresholds and improve the assessment accuracy with field investigation.

  • THE ROLE OF ACTIVE REGION CORONAL MAGNETIC FIELD IN DETERMINING CORONAL MASS EJECTION PROPAGATION DIRECTION

    分类: 地球科学 >> 空间物理学 提交时间: 2016-05-12

    摘要: We study the role of the coronal magnetic field configuration of an active region (AR) in determining the propagation direction of a coronal mass ejection (CME). The CME occurred in the AR 11944 (S09W01) near the disk center on 2014 January 7 and was associated with an X1.2 flare. A new CME reconstruction procedure based on a polarimetric technique is adopted, which shows that the CME changed its propagation direction by around 28 degrees in latitude within 2.5 R-circle dot and 43 degrees in longitude within 6.5 R-circle dot with respect to the CME source region. This significant non-radial motion is consistent with the finding of Mostl et al. We use nonlinear force-free field and potential field source surface extrapolation methods to determine the configurations of the coronal magnetic field. We also calculate the magnetic energy density distributions at different heights based on the extrapolations. Our results show that the AR coronal magnetic field has a strong influence on the CME propagation direction. This is consistent with the "channeling" by the AR coronal magnetic field itself, rather than deflection by nearby structures. These results indicate that the AR coronal magnetic field configuration has to be taken into account in order to determine CME propagation direction correctly.