Drone opportunities for monitoring the Critical Zone: variables, synergies, validation and protocols
Earth-observation instruments are essential to monitor and understand fine-scale biogeochemical, ecological or anthropogenic processes affecting the Critical Zone. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), thanks to their high flexibility and payload diversity ranging from optical to microwave wavelength, offer an unprecedented way to gather high resolution data in time and space. UAVs also offer great synergies with satellite-based data, thus allowing for data comparison, multiscale explanation, model calibration and data fusion. Scientists have not yet explored the full potential of drones for monitoring parameters such as land surface temperature, soil moisture, water extent and level fluctuations, crop water status, river health, forest cover and atmospheric properties in a consistent manner. Indeed, identifying essential variables for various ecosystems, quality control of UAV missions and alignment with other data, and related protocols improving data quality can be a challenging task for the Critical Zone community.
This session calls for communications highlighting innovative UAV-based experiments using drones, in combination with satellites or without, to spatially and explicitly map and monitor the Critical Zone processes in diverse ecosystems across the planet. The main focus will be on materials / in situ survey requirements and data calibration / validation to design generic standardised protocols rather than on data (post-)processing. Two main deliverables are expected from this session: producing a special issue in an international journal and building a network of keynodes UAV platforms across Europe in line with the eLTER program.
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Cover image: #eLTERinSites photo collection, captured at?Braila Islands - Romania by photographer Evgeni Dimitrov