Mapping and monitoring the health and vitality of coral reefs from satellite: a biospheric approach.
Biospheric studies of coral reefs require a planetary perspective that only remote sensing from space can provide. This article reviews aspects of monitoring and mapping coral reefs using Landsat and Spot satellite images. It details design considerations for developing a sensor for equatorial orbiting spacecraft, including spectral characteristics of living corals and the spatial resolution required to map coral reef communities. Possible instrumentation choices include computer techniques, filtered imagers, push-broom spectral imagery, and a newly developed hyperspectral imaging scheme using tomographic reconstruction. We compare the salient features of each technique and describe concepts for a payload to conduct planetary-scale coral reef monitoring.
Dustan
P
P
Department of Biology, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC 29424, USA. dustanp@cofc.edu
Chakrabarti
S
S
Alling
A
A
D000818:Animals; D003063:Cnidaria; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000379:methods*; D018534:Earth, Planet; D017753:Ecosystem; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D056890:Eukaryota; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008386:Marine Biology; D009791:Oceanography; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D012984:Software; D018531:Spacecraft / Q000295:instrumentation*