Shunlin Liang

This book describes the algorithms, validation and preliminary analysis of the Global LAnd Surface Satellite (GLASS) products, a long-term, high-quality dataset that is now freely available worldwide to government organizations and agencies, scientific research institutions, students and members of the general public. The GLASS products include leaf area index, broadband albedo, broadband emissivity, downward shortwave radiation and photosynthetically active radiation. The first three GLASS products cover 1981 to 2012 with 1km and 5km spatial resolutions and 8-day temporal resolution, and the last two GLASS products span 2008 to 2010 with 3-hour temporal resolution and 5km spatial resolution. These GLASS products are unique. The first three are spatially continuous and cover the longest period of time among all current similar satellite products. The other two products are the highest spatial-resolution global radiation products from satellite observations that are currently available. These products can be downloaded from Beijing Normal University at http://glass-product.bnu.edu.cn/ and the University of Maryland Global Land Cover Facility at http://www.glcf.umd.edu/The GLASS products are the outcome of a key research project entitled “Generation & Applications of Global Products of Essential Land Variables”, supported by funding from the High-Tech Research and Development Program of China and involving dozens of institutions and nearly one hundred scientists and researchers. Following an introduction, the book contains five chapters corresponding to these five GLASS products: background, algorithm, quality control and validation, preliminary analysis and applications. It discusses the long-term environmental changes detected from the GLASS products and other data sources at both global and local scales and also provides detailed analysis of regional hotspots where environmental changes are mainly associated with climatechange, drought, land-atmosphere interactions, and human activities. The book is based primarily on a set of published journal papers about these five GLASS products and includes updated information. Since these products have now begun to be widely used, this book is an essential reference document. It is also a very helpful resource to anyone interested in satellite remote sensing and its applications.

This textbook provides a comprehensive and very detailed insight into Chinese Contemporary Geography in English. It documents the geographical issues associated with China's rapid growth. Since initiating the reforms and open policy, China has achieved tremendous success. China's rapid growth is now a driving force in the global economy and is achieving unprecedented rates of poverty reduction. However, China also faces a number of sustainability and emerging challenges associated with rapid growth such as growing regional disparities in terms of per capita income and social-economic development, sustainable resource development, and issues related to regional and global economic integration. In addition, rapid economic growth has also brought about major challenges such as resource shortages, ecological and environmental destruction, land degradation and frequent disasters. This book presents the authors’ reflections. This lavishly illustrated book covers physical geography, history, and economic and political systems of the world's most populous country. The major focus is on geographical issues in China's contemporary development: agriculture, population, urbanization, resource and energy, and environment. The lead author of the book has taught relevant courses in China for three decades, and authored and edited multiple textbooks for Chinese students. This book will appeal to undergraduate students of geography and related disciplines with a regional focus on China and to the general reader who wants to learn different geographical aspects of modern China with little academic background in geography.

This textbook provides a comprehensive and very detailed insight into Chinese Contemporary Geography in English. It documents the geographical issues associated with China's rapid growth. Since initiating the reforms and open policy, China has achieved tremendous success. China's rapid growth is now a driving force in the global economy and is achieving unprecedented rates of poverty reduction. However, China also faces a number of sustainability and emerging challenges associated with rapid growth such as growing regional disparities in terms of per capita income and social-economic development, sustainable resource development, and issues related to regional and global economic integration. In addition, rapid economic growth has also brought about major challenges such as resource shortages, ecological and environmental destruction, land degradation and frequent disasters. This book presents the authors’ reflections. This lavishly illustrated book covers physical geography, history, and economic and political systems of the world's most populous country. The major focus is on geographical issues in China's contemporary development: agriculture, population, urbanization, resource and energy, and environment. The lead author of the book has taught relevant courses in China for three decades, and authored and edited multiple textbooks for Chinese students. This book will appeal to undergraduate students of geography and related disciplines with a regional focus on China and to the general reader who wants to learn different geographical aspects of modern China with little academic background in geography.

This book is unique in its ambitious and comprehensive coverage of earth system land surface characterization, from observation and modeling to data assimilation, including recent developments in theory and techniques, and novel application cases. The contributing authors are active research scientists, and many of them are internationally known leading experts in their areas, ensuring that the text is authoritative. This book comprises four parts that are logically connected from data, modeling, data assimilation integrating data and models to applications. Land data assimilation is the key focus of the book, which encompasses both theoretical and applied aspects with various novel methodologies and applications to the water cycle, carbon cycle, crop monitoring, and yield estimation. Readers can benefit from a state-of-the-art presentation of the latest tools and their usage for understanding earth system processes. Discussions in the book present and stimulate new challenges and questions facing today's earth science and modeling communities.

A comprehensive resource of basic principles and practical algorithms Remote sensing of land surfaces has entered a new era. A series of operating satellites from the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) program, other international programs, and commercial programs are producing tremendous volumes of data at significantly higher levels of measurement precision. In order to effectively interpret the data and estimate Earth surface variables, scientists require ever more sophisticated and targeted quantitative algorithms. Quantitative Remote Sensing of Land Surfaces fills this reference need, connecting theoretical, physically based modeling to specific applications. Shunlin Liang divides his much-needed resource into two parts. The first presents the current understanding of optical remote sensing with an emphasis on radiative transfer modeling of the atmosphere, canopy, soil, and snow. The second, greater part of the text, discusses a variety of practical algorithms for estimating land surface variables quantitatively. It includes state-of-the-art quantitative algorithms for: *Sensor calibration *Atmospheric and topographic correction *Estimation of a variety of biophysical and geophysical variables *Four-dimensional data assimilation The book cites more than 1,300 references, and the companion CD-ROM includes useful computer program codes and valuable data sets. The author assumes no special mathematical background beyond a good working knowledge of statistics, calculus, and linear algebra on an undergraduate level. Graduate students as well as practitioners of interdisciplinary research on the Earth’s land surface environment will find Quantitative Remote Sensing of Land Surfaces to be a peerless addition to the professional literature.