Extracting accurate terrain in vegetated areas from ICESat-2 data

The uncertainty of ICESat-2 terrain accuracy, especially in vegetated areas, limits its scientific application, and there is barely any comprehensive modeling evaluation for this uncertainty. In this study, we propose a terrain quality classification model with uncertainty measurement for extracting...

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Main Authors: Binbin Li, Huan Xie, Xiaohua Tong, Shijie Liu, Qi Xu, Yuan Sun
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2023-03-01
Series:International Journal of Applied Earth Observations and Geoinformation
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1569843223000225
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author Binbin Li
Huan Xie
Xiaohua Tong
Shijie Liu
Qi Xu
Yuan Sun
author_facet Binbin Li
Huan Xie
Xiaohua Tong
Shijie Liu
Qi Xu
Yuan Sun
author_sort Binbin Li
collection DOAJ
description The uncertainty of ICESat-2 terrain accuracy, especially in vegetated areas, limits its scientific application, and there is barely any comprehensive modeling evaluation for this uncertainty. In this study, we propose a terrain quality classification model with uncertainty measurement for extracting accurate vegetated terrain from ICESat-2 altimetry products, which includes two main parts: 1) training samples are used to construct a terrain elevation quality classification model; 2) the relationship between the vote entropy and elevation accuracy is analyzed to measure the uncertainty of the predicted results of the model. Compared with airborne LiDAR data from multiple areas of the world, it is confirmed that the extracted results can meet the different quality requirements for terrain elevation data in vegetated areas (95th percentile of the absolute error: 1 m, 2 m, and 3 m) with a higher than 90% purity (proportion of accurate terrain). The accuracy of the extracted results is ∼0.5–0.9 m, ∼0.9–1.3 m and ∼1.1–2.9 m, respectively, and that of the eliminated results is ∼1.2–3.8 m, ∼2.0–4.4 m and ∼3.4–5.8 m, respectively. The results also show that the method can extract high-accuracy terrain in high vegetation cover areas (where the tree cover index is higher than 80%), and has the potential of applying to large-scale and even global-scale vegetated terrain. Moreover, the method is also suitable for non-vegetated areas. The extracted results can meet the corresponding quality requirements for non-vegetated areas (root-mean-square error: 0.333 m, 0.667 m, and 1 m), and their purity is also high than 90%.
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spelling doaj.art-b67acc5b37824f6cb8b521f8708dc5282023-02-15T04:27:30ZengElsevierInternational Journal of Applied Earth Observations and Geoinformation1569-84322023-03-01117103200Extracting accurate terrain in vegetated areas from ICESat-2 dataBinbin Li0Huan Xie1Xiaohua Tong2Shijie Liu3Qi Xu4Yuan Sun5College of Surveying and Geo-informatics, and Shanghai Key Laboratory for Planetary Mapping and Remote Sensing for Deep Space Exploration, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, ChinaCollege of Surveying and Geo-informatics, and Shanghai Key Laboratory for Planetary Mapping and Remote Sensing for Deep Space Exploration, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China; Shanghai Institute of Intelligent Science and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China; Corresponding author.College of Surveying and Geo-informatics, and Shanghai Key Laboratory for Planetary Mapping and Remote Sensing for Deep Space Exploration, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, ChinaCollege of Surveying and Geo-informatics, and Shanghai Key Laboratory for Planetary Mapping and Remote Sensing for Deep Space Exploration, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, ChinaCollege of Surveying and Geo-informatics, and Shanghai Key Laboratory for Planetary Mapping and Remote Sensing for Deep Space Exploration, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, ChinaCollege of Surveying and Geo-informatics, and Shanghai Key Laboratory for Planetary Mapping and Remote Sensing for Deep Space Exploration, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, ChinaThe uncertainty of ICESat-2 terrain accuracy, especially in vegetated areas, limits its scientific application, and there is barely any comprehensive modeling evaluation for this uncertainty. In this study, we propose a terrain quality classification model with uncertainty measurement for extracting accurate vegetated terrain from ICESat-2 altimetry products, which includes two main parts: 1) training samples are used to construct a terrain elevation quality classification model; 2) the relationship between the vote entropy and elevation accuracy is analyzed to measure the uncertainty of the predicted results of the model. Compared with airborne LiDAR data from multiple areas of the world, it is confirmed that the extracted results can meet the different quality requirements for terrain elevation data in vegetated areas (95th percentile of the absolute error: 1 m, 2 m, and 3 m) with a higher than 90% purity (proportion of accurate terrain). The accuracy of the extracted results is ∼0.5–0.9 m, ∼0.9–1.3 m and ∼1.1–2.9 m, respectively, and that of the eliminated results is ∼1.2–3.8 m, ∼2.0–4.4 m and ∼3.4–5.8 m, respectively. The results also show that the method can extract high-accuracy terrain in high vegetation cover areas (where the tree cover index is higher than 80%), and has the potential of applying to large-scale and even global-scale vegetated terrain. Moreover, the method is also suitable for non-vegetated areas. The extracted results can meet the corresponding quality requirements for non-vegetated areas (root-mean-square error: 0.333 m, 0.667 m, and 1 m), and their purity is also high than 90%.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1569843223000225ICESat-2Terrain elevationVegetated areaLaser altimetry
spellingShingle Binbin Li
Huan Xie
Xiaohua Tong
Shijie Liu
Qi Xu
Yuan Sun
Extracting accurate terrain in vegetated areas from ICESat-2 data
International Journal of Applied Earth Observations and Geoinformation
ICESat-2
Terrain elevation
Vegetated area
Laser altimetry
title Extracting accurate terrain in vegetated areas from ICESat-2 data
title_full Extracting accurate terrain in vegetated areas from ICESat-2 data
title_fullStr Extracting accurate terrain in vegetated areas from ICESat-2 data
title_full_unstemmed Extracting accurate terrain in vegetated areas from ICESat-2 data
title_short Extracting accurate terrain in vegetated areas from ICESat-2 data
title_sort extracting accurate terrain in vegetated areas from icesat 2 data
topic ICESat-2
Terrain elevation
Vegetated area
Laser altimetry
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1569843223000225
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AT xiaohuatong extractingaccurateterraininvegetatedareasfromicesat2data
AT shijieliu extractingaccurateterraininvegetatedareasfromicesat2data
AT qixu extractingaccurateterraininvegetatedareasfromicesat2data
AT yuansun extractingaccurateterraininvegetatedareasfromicesat2data