Airborne thermography and ground geophysical investigation for detecting shallow ground disturbance under vegetation
This thesis discusses the potential of airborne thermal prospection for detecting shallow ground disturbance beneath vegetation based on images acquired by the NERC Airborne Thematic Mapper (ATM) at thermal infrared wavelengths. Shallow ground disturbance creates a differential heat flux due to a variation in the thermal properties between disturbed and undisturbed soils. When observed above a canopy, the effect of vegetation growth on the thermal regime of the underlying soils is poorly understood. The research extends current understanding by examining areas where ground disturbance is known to exist under variable vegetation cover at an archaeological site at Bosworth, Leicestershire and areas of abandoned mine activity on Baildon Moor, W. Yorkshire and in the N. Pennine Orefield, Weardale. The investigation focuses on qualitative image interpretation techniques, where anomalies on day and night thermal images are compared with those manifest on the multispectral images, and a more quantitative approach of Apparent Thermal Inertia (ATI) modelling. Physical thermal inertia is a parameter that is sensitive to volumetric variations in the soil, but cannot be measured directly using remote sensing techniques.
McManus, Kay Barbara
Airborne thermography and ground geophysical investigation for detecting shallow ground disturbance under vegetation. This thesis discusses the potential of airborne thermal prospection for detecting shallow ground disturbance beneath vegetation based on images acquired by the NERC Airborne Thematic Mapper (ATM) at thermal infrared wavelengths. Shallow ground disturbance creates a differential heat flux due to a variation in the thermal properties between disturbed and undisturbed soils. When observed above a canopy, the effect of vegetation growth on the thermal regime of the underlying soils is poorly understood. The research extends current understanding by examining areas where ground disturbance is known to exist under variable vegetation cover at an archaeological site at Bosworth, Leicestershire and areas of abandoned mine activity on Baildon Moor, W. Yorkshire and in the N. Pennine Orefield, Weardale. The investigation focuses on qualitative image interpretation techniques, where anomalies on day and night thermal images are compared with those manifest on the multispectral images, and a more quantitative approach of Apparent Thermal Inertia (ATI) modelling. Physical thermal inertia is a parameter that is sensitive to volumetric variations in the soil, but cannot be measured directly using remote sensing techniques.
airborne ground geophysical investigation detect shallow ground disturbance vegetation discus potential airborne thermal prospection detect shallow ground disturbance beneath vegetation base image acquire airborne thematic thermal infrared wavelength shallow ground disturbance create differential heat flux due variation thermal property disturb soil observe canopy effect vegetation growth thermal regime underlie soil poorly_understood extends current examine area ground disturbance know exist variable vegetation cover archaeological_site leicestershire area abandon mine activity yorkshire investigation focus qualitative image interpretation technique anomaly day night thermal image compare manifest multispectral image quantitative apparent thermal inertia modelling physical thermal inertia parameter sensitive variation soil measure directly use remote_sense technique