Study Questions for Lecture 12 - Biosphere

1. What is the biosphere?

2. What are biomes?

3. What is albedo?

4. What are the inputs to photosynthesis?

5. What are the inputs to respiration?

6. How do you calculate net photosynthesis (NPP)?

7. What is the difference between units of biomass and units of net primary production?

8. What is the effect of temperature on the rate of photosynthesis and respiration?

9. Give an example of a carbon source and carbon sink. What causes each example to be a source or sink?

10. Name three methods of measuring biomass and/or NPP.

Study Questions for Lecture 13 - Cryosphere

1. Describe why time series data is useful for understanding glacial changes.

2. List 3 factors that influence the spectral reflectance of snow/ice.

3. What type of remote sensing wavelengths does Side Looking SONAR use?

4. Provide an example of how satellite time series are being used to monitor the cryosphere and how the information collected is pertinent to understanding the cryosphere 

5. What has higher albedo? Fresh snow or a glacier?

6. What is the difference between Landsat and MODIS imagery compared to RADAR and LIDAR?

7. True or False: Both infrared and radio waves cannot be detected through cloud cover.

8. Why is Altimetry useful for analyzing the cryosphere, name 1 satellite that has Altimetry capabilities?

9. Choose one of the sensors covered in class, and explain how it senses cryospheric features and/or phenomena. What are some applications of the data this sensor gathers?

Study Questions for Lecture 14 - Lithosphere

1. What are the two types of lithosphere?

2. What is the thickest and which is the thinnest?

3. Name 3 tectonic plates.

4. Where are earthquakes and volcanoes most likely to occur and why?

5. Is INSAR an active or passive remote sensing technology?

6. What is the shift in the returned wavelength called using INSAR? 

7. How sensitive is INSAR to vertical movement?

8. Why is volcanic ash an issue for aircraft?

9. What satellite system has been designed to detect ash? Using what active remote sensing technology?

10. How does GRACE work?

11. What region has recently been shown to have had surface movement associated with water loss?

Study Questions for Lectures 15 - Monitoring Change from Space

1. What are the four data considerations do you need to make when using remote sensing to assess environmental change?

2. Why is spatial detail important to consider?

3. Why is the temporal context (benchmark or baseline) important to consider?

Study Questions for Lectures 16, 17 and 18 - Cyclical patterns, abrupt and gradual changes

1. Label the following changes as cyclical, abrupt, or gradual

a. Animal migration ______________
b. Broadleaf phenology ______________
c. Decline in forest health ______________
d. Fire ______________
e. Flowering of plants ______________
f. Shift north in animal range due to climate change ______________
g. Insect damage___________
h. Land conversion from forest to a road__________
i. Reforestation following the abandonment of a city block__________

2. Which spectral signature might you see before a fire, and which might you see after a fire?

3. What data source is best for locating active fires?

a. Landsat data
b. Camera time-lapse data
c. MODIS temperature data
d. GPS data

4. What data source is best for mapping the total area burned in a year across British Columbia? a. Landsat data

b. Camera time-lapse data
c. MODIS temperature data
d. GPS data

5. What is the easiest way to distinguish fire and harvest disturbances using Landsat imagery?

a. Spectral signature
b. The size and shape of the disturbance
c. The duration of the disturbance
d. The forest regrowth following the disturbance

6. What data would you use if you wanted measure phenology for the whole planet in 2015?

a. Camera time-lapse
b. Landsat data
c. MODIS data
d. GPS data

7. What data would you use if you wanted to measure the phenology of specific trees in your backyard?

a. Camera time-lapse
b. Landsat data
c. MODIS data
d. GPS data

8. Label the following patterns/changes as plant phenology, fire, insect disturbance, land conversion (forest converted to a road), or reforestation.

9. Label the points on the phenology curve as maturity, senescence, or greenup

10. How can you calculate the growing season length from satellite imagery?

a. Length of time between greenup and maturity
b. Length of time between greenup and senescence
c. Length of time between maturity and senescence

11. True or false: When a broadleaf tree puts on leaves in the spring, more blue and red light is absorbed by the tree

12. Which of the following is an example of land conversion?

a. Forest harvesting
b. Forest fire
c. Clearing a forest for agriculture

13. Which disturbance moves large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere immediately? 

a. Insect disturbance
b. Forest harvest
c. Forest fire
d. Forest clearing to build a road

14. Which disturbance only affects specific tree species?

a. Insect disturbance
b. Forest harvest
c. Forest fire
d. Forest clearing to build a road

15. An outbreak of which insect in BC affected > 18 million hectares and killed > 700 million cubic metres of timber between the 1990s-2000s?

a. Western spruce budworm
b. Tent Caterpillar
c. Eastern spruce budworm
d. Mountain Pine Beetle

16. Describe how you could use GPS data to protect the migration path of caribou in Canada.

17. How can you use GPS data to determine where and when wolves are eating prey?

18. Why is plant phenology important to grizzly bears?

19. Do insect outbreaks appear gradual or abrupt in satellite imagery? Explain why.

20. Describe how you can tell the difference in satellite imagery between a forest harvest and an area that was cleared to build a neighborhood.

Study Questions for Lectures 20 - Our Changing Oceans

1. What 5 aspects of the ocean can remote sensing assist with understanding?

2. What technology is used on the ICESAT satellites?

3. What does ICESAT Measure?

4. What is the main challenge with mapping coral reefs globally?

5. When was the first global survey completed?

6. What is the general temperature of the ocean in the tropics? Near the poles?

Study Questions for Lectures 21 - Observing the Human Footprint

1. What three indicators of the human footprint are commonly assessed using remote sensing?

2. What two satellite programs are associated with producing nightlights images? Describe three ways the sensors and/or imagery of each program differ.

3. How can night lights be related to the human footprint?

Study Questions for Lectures 23 - Geo-Spatial Networks (22?)

1. Describe one geo-spatial network in detail: What remote sensing datasets does it use? What qualifies that network as a Big data Network?

Study Questions for Lectures 25 - The Future of Observing the Earth from Space(23?)

1. What, in your view, is more important: data continuity with new versions for old programs, or new, innovative satellite programs?

2. What is a constellation network of satellites?

3. What are two benefits and two downsides of Google deciding to blur certain locations in Google Earth? What do you think about their decision to blur locations?

4. What are some issues associated with small cube sat programs?

5. Why should we care about sustainability of space science programs?