ATLAS Production Research Articles

Spatiotemporal analysis of wildfires and their relationship with climate and land use in the Gran Chaco and Pantanal ecoregions

The Gran Chaco and Pantanal ecoregions are the largest remaining dry forest areas in South America. Supporting diverse savanna, woodland and wetland ecosystems, these ecoregions are experiencing rapid changes in land use and fire occurrence with implications for ecosystem integrity. Our study characterizes the spatiotemporal patterns of wildfires in the Gran Chaco and Pantanal, and then examines the relationship between patterns of fire occurrence and climatic and anthropogenic drivers. We evaluated fire data of the last two decades (2001-2020) using the MODIS Collection 6.1 and the Global Fire Atlas products. Results of the fire pattern characterization were then used to model the probability of fire occurrence across each ecoregion (Random Forest, Generalized Linear Model, and Generalized Additive Model).Our results indicated that most of the total burned area belonged to the Humid Chaco, while the largest individual burned areas were mainly observed in the Pantanal. Fires primarily occurred during the dry season, with the majority of burned areas recorded during this period. Findings from the three modelling approaches consistently illustrated the spatial distribution of fire occurrence, depicting a declining probability of fire occurrence from East to West. All models underscored the importance of three variables to predict fire occurrence: temperature, livestock abundance and forest cover. Fire occurrence increased with increasing maximum temperatures and livestock presence and decreased with tree cover. This research helps to clarify the potential consequences of changes in land use, rainfall regime and temperature, and uncontrolled burning practices on the current fire activity in the Gran Chaco and Pantanal ecoregions. Understanding the spatiotemporal patterns of fire occurrence and their relationship with climatic, environmental and anthropogenic drivers can help to design more effective management strategies to mitigate fire impacts and to preserve the ecological integrity of these highly diverse regions

A global forest burn severity dataset from Landsat imagery (2003–2016)

Abstract. Forest fires, while destructive and dangerous, are important to the functioning and renewal of ecosystems. Over the past 2 decades, large-scale, severe forest fires have become more frequent globally, and the risk is expected to increase as fire weather and drought conditions intensify. To improve quantification of the intensity and extent of forest fire damage, we have developed a 30 m resolution global forest burn severity (GFBS) dataset of the degree of biomass consumed by fires from 2003 to 2016. To develop this dataset, we used the Global Fire Atlas product to determine when and where forest fires occurred during that period and then we overlaid the available Landsat surface reflectance products to obtain pre-fire and post-fire normalized burn ratios (NBRs) for each burned pixel, designating the difference between them as dNBR and the relative difference as RdNBR. We compared the GFBS dataset against the Canada Landsat Burned Severity (CanLaBS) product, showing better agreement than the existing Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS)-based global burn severity dataset (MOdis burn SEVerity, MOSEV) in representing the distribution of forest burn severity over Canada. Using the in situ burn severity category data available for the 2013 wildfires in southeastern Australia, we demonstrated that GFBS could provide burn severity estimation with clearer differentiation between the high-severity and moderate-/low-severity classes, while such differentiation among the in situ burn severity classes is not captured in the MOSEV product. Using the CONUS-wide composite burn index (CBI) as a ground truth, we showed that dNBR from GFBS was more strongly correlated with CBI (r=0.63) than dNBR from MOSEV (r=0.28). RdNBR from GFBS also exhibited better agreement with CBI (r=0.56) than RdNBR from MOSEV (r=0.20). On a global scale, while the dNBR and RdNBR spatial patterns extracted by GFBS are similar to those of MOSEV, MOSEV tends to provide higher burn severity levels than GFBS. We attribute this difference to variations in reflectance values and the different spatial resolutions of the two satellites. The GFBS dataset provides a more precise and reliable assessment of burn severity than existing available datasets. These enhancements are crucial for understanding the ecological impacts of forest fires and for informing management and recovery efforts in affected regions worldwide. The GFBS dataset is freely accessible at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10037629 (He et al., 2023).

Monitoring and Mapping Urban Sprawl Over Heritage Hotspots Using Copernicus Land Monitoring Services: The case of periurban large-scale, wind-powered water extraction mills in Palma (Mallorca)

Among the varied group of human constructions of heritage interest are the old wind-powered water extraction mills that sometimes form large-scale sets in rural areas with high wind potential. On the Mediterranean island of Mallorca (Spain), up to 2,400 windmills dating from the 19th and early 20th centuries have been counted. The areas in which they are located are considered heritage ‘hotspots’, i.e., areas prone to specific problems, such as the progressive abandonment of ethnological heritage resulting from urban sprawl over areas with an agricultural orientation. This article aims to monitor urban sprawl in the municipality of Palma, to quantify and map its impact on a set of windmills located mainly in the plain of Sant Jordi, to the east of the city. The study has been carried out using methodologies and analysis techniques from the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service’s Urban Atlas and Imperviousness Density products. The study shows that areas with agricultural land uses have been progressively transformed into urbanised ones. This transformation has impacted, above all, windmills located in peri-urban areas adjacent to the city. The analysis aims to show the analytical possibilities of Copernicus services and products, and their applicability in the planning and management of peri-urban agro-industrial heritage.

Spatial Variability of the Frontal Zones and its Eddies Generated in the Norwegian Sea

The Norwegian Sea is the meeting place of warm and salty Atlantic waters with cold and fresh Arctic waters. The thermal and haline frontal zones (FZs) formed as a result of this interaction are areas of increased horizontal gradients of physical, chemical, and biological parameters, and have a significant impact on regional circulation. Many mesoscale eddies are generated in the FZs which are actively involved in the eddy dynamics of the Norwegian Sea. The aim of this work is to analyze the spatio-temporal variability of the vertical structure of FZs in the Norwegian Sea, as well as the eddies that form within their boundaries. The work uses data from the oceanic reanalysis GLORYS12V1, as well as the Atlas of Mesoscale Eddies "Mesoscale Eddy Trajectory Atlas product META 3.2 DT" for the period 1993--2021. We analyze the average depth and thickness of FZs, the vertical distribution of their thermohaline gradients and areas. The work examines the seasonal and interannual variability of the volumes of thermal and haline FZs, the seasonal and interannual variability of mesoscale eddies, their spatial distribution, trajectories, and main parameters. In some areas, deepening of FZs has been established, and their thickness can reach 900 m. The presence of significant haline gradients in the layer of 250--750 m has been found, while thermal FZs can be traced vertically up to 1000 m compared with haline FZs. In some FZs, the interannual variability may exceed the seasonal one. The greatest variability of haline FZs can be traced in the autumn period, and the smallest -- in the winter--spring. It is noticeable in the summer period that thermal FZs weaken. Eddies can leave the boundaries of the FZs and move away from the place of origin for hundreds of kilometers. The number and lifetime of cyclones exceed similar estimates for anticyclones, while anticyclones travel long distances compared to cyclones.

Вертикальная изменчивость интенсивности фронтальных зон Норвежского моря

The Norwegian Sea is the meeting place of warm and salty Atlantic waters with cold and fresh Arctic waters. The thermal and haline frontal zones (FZs) formed as a result of this interaction are areas of increased horizontal gradients of physical, chemical, and biological parameters, and have a significant impact on regional circulation. Many mesoscale eddies are generated in the FZs which are actively involved in the eddy dynamics of the Norwegian Sea. The aim of this work is to analyze the spatio-temporal variability of the vertical structure of FZs in the Norwegian Sea, as well as the eddies that form within their boundaries. The work uses data from the oceanic reanalysis GLORYS12V1, as well as the Atlas of Mesoscale Eddies "Mesoscale Eddy Trajectory Atlas product META 3.2 DT" for the period 1993--2021. We analyze the average depth and thickness of FZs, the vertical distribution of their thermohaline gradients and areas. The work examines the seasonal and interannual variability of the volumes of thermal and haline FZs, the seasonal and interannual variability of mesoscale eddies, their spatial distribution, trajectories, and main parameters. In some areas, deepening of FZs has been established, and their thickness can reach 900 m. The presence of significant haline gradients in the layer of 250--750 m has been found, while thermal FZs can be traced vertically up to 1000 m compared with haline FZs. In some FZs, the interannual variability may exceed the seasonal one. The greatest variability of haline FZs can be traced in the autumn period, and the smallest -- in the winter--spring. It is noticeable in the summer period that thermal FZs weaken. Eddies can leave the boundaries of the FZs and move away from the place of origin for hundreds of kilometers. The number and lifetime of cyclones exceed similar estimates for anticyclones, while anticyclones travel long distances compared to cyclones.

A Rapid and Easy Way for National Forest Heights Retrieval in China Using ICESat-2/ATL08 in 2019

Continuous and extensive monitoring of forest height is essential for estimating forest above-ground biomass and predicting the ability of forests to absorb CO2. In particular, forest height at the national scale is an important indicator reflecting the national forestry economic construction, environmental governance, and ecological balance. However, the lack of inventory data restricts large-scale monitoring of forest height to some extent. Conducting manual surveys of forest height for large-scale areas would be labor-intensive and time-consuming. The successful launch of the new generation of spaceborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) (The Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-2/the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System, ICESat-2/ATLAS) has brought new opportunities for national-scale forestry resource surveys. This paper explores a method to survey national forest canopy height from the new generation of ICESat-2/ATLAS data. In view of the sparse sampling and little overlap between repeated spaceborne LiDAR data, a strategy for assessing the overall change of canopy height for large scales is provided. Some spatially continuous ancillary data were used to assist ICESat-2/ATLAS data to generate a wall-to-wall (spatially continuous) forest canopy height map in China by using the machine learning approach and then quantifying the analysis of forest canopy height in various provinces. The results show that there is a good correlation between the model forest height and the verification data, with a root mean squared error (RMSE) of 3.30 m and a coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.87. This indicates that the method for retrieving national forest canopy height is reliable. There are some limitations in areas with lower vegetation coverage or complex topography which need additional filtering or terrain correction to achieve higher accuracy in measuring forest canopy height. Our analysis suggests that ICESat-2/ATLAS data can achieve the retrieval of national forest height at an overall level, and it would be feasible to use ICESAT-2/ATLAS products to estimate forest canopy height change for large-scale areas.

Characteristics of ocean mesoscale eddies in the Agulhas and Tasman Leakage regions from two eddy datasets

Mesoscale eddies play an essential role in the freshwater transport, ocean circulation and climate. Although there is no completely objective eddy dataset, observations can better reproduce the eddies in the ocean as data resolution is improved and eddy detection methods are developed to some extent. This study uses satellite altimeter data and compares the Mesoscale Eddy Trajectory Atlas Product (META) with the Global Ocean Mesoscale Eddy Atmospheric-Oceanic-Biological Interaction Observational Dataset (GOMEAD) to analyze the mesoscale eddy characteristics in the oceanic pathways in the Agulhas Leakage (AL) region at the intersection of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, and the Tasman Leakage (TL) region between the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Here we show that, the META dataset is more applicable for the detection of small-radius eddies, but this product increases the risk of over-detection. The GOMEAD dataset offers precise eddy boundaries and is useful for identifying large diameter eddies. The characteristics of eddies in the AL and TL regions are analyzed, and the results indicate that GOMEAD is more suited for eddy detection and analysis in the AL, while the META dataset is better suited for studies of mesoscale eddies of the TL region. Choosing the appropriate dataset is important for understanding the role of mesoscale eddies of different areas in a changing climate.

Mapping the Missionary World: Nineteenth-Century Missionary Atlases with Special Regard to Justus Perthes’s Production

ABSTRACT The nineteenth century marked a turning point in the way that European missionary endeavours were mapped. The expansion of missionary societies and their needs brought to the fore the issue of systematization and visualization of data related to missionization. The primary aim of maps was not to mark the geographical features of an unknown region but to quantify missionary activity and its distribution in various parts of the world, thus marking a shift in focus from exploration to statistics. This article analyses the production, reception and distribution of mission atlases during the nineteenth century, with a case study of Peter Grundemann’s Allgemeiner Missions-Atlas (1867–1871), published by Justus Perthes in Gotha, Germany—the first interdenominational missionary world atlas. The appearance of such an atlas illustrates how Protestant societies spread modern Western concepts of mapping and used professionals in the production and marketing of missionary maps.

From data to practice change – exploring new territory for atlases of clinical variation

Despite decades of atlas production and use within multiple healthcare systems, and consistent reporting of geographical differences in the utilisation of services, significant levels of clinical variation persist. Drawing on over forty years of combined experience using atlases of clinical variation, we reflect on why that might be the case and explore the role of atlases have played in efforts to reduce inappropriate overuse, underuse and misuse of healthcare services. We contend that atlases are useful but, on their own, are not enough to drive change in clinical practice and improvement in patient outcomes. Building on four conceptual models we have published since 2017, we argue that atlases, with their focus on measuring healthcare utilisation by residents in different geographies, generally fail to provide sufficient information and statistical analyses to truly assess the nature of the variation and support action for change. They seldom use structures such as hospitals or teams as the unit of analysis to understand variation; they rarely feature the key elements of healthcare performance which underlie variation; they are mostly silent about how to assess whether the variation measured is warranted or truly unwarranted; nor do they identify evidence-based levers for change. This means that a stark choice confronts producers of atlases – to either continue with the current model and more explicitly rely on other players to undertake work to complete the ‘data to action’ cycle that is necessary to secure improvement; or to refine their offering – including more sophisticated performance measurement approaches, nuanced guides for interpretation of any differences found, support for the selection and application of levers for change that align with local context, and provision of evidence-based options for implementation.

Implementation of FAIR principles in the IPCC: the WGI AR6 Atlas repository

The Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has adopted the FAIR Guiding Principles. We present the Atlas chapter of Working Group I (WGI) as a test case. We describe the application of the FAIR principles in the Atlas, the challenges faced during its implementation, and those that remain for the future. We introduce the open source repository resulting from this process, including coding (e.g., annotated Jupyter notebooks), data provenance, and some aggregated datasets used in some figures in the Atlas chapter and its interactive companion (the Interactive Atlas), open to scrutiny by the scientific community and the general public. We describe the informal pilot review conducted on this repository to gather recommendations that led to significant improvements. Finally, a working example illustrates the re-use of the repository resources to produce customized regional information, extending the Interactive Atlas products and running the code interactively in a web browser using Jupyter notebooks.

Constructing “Russian civilisation”: A critical introduction to the National Atlas of Russia (publ. 2004–2008)

ABSTRACT This paper presents a critical analysis of the Russian National Atlas (2004–2008), the presentation of which is based on the tradition of the Soviet school of complex atlas production, and which is the first (and so far only) Soviet and post-Soviet Russian national atlas. Following the critical cartography approach, this paper deconstructs the atlas’ structure and the range of presented maps to decode the construction of the national spatial identity and the imposed “cartographic silences”. The paper shows how the presented maps and texts aligns with the overarching image of the Russian State as strong military state, and reveals the colonial narratives toward its Northern and Eastern peripheries.

The Geographers Royal: a summary and partial history

ABSTRACT The paper presents a summary biographical history of those persons who have held the title Geographer Royal or a variant since its inception in 1682. The distinction can be made between individuals who held the title because of their personal standing and geographical accomplishments, and those, principally map makers and geographical publishers, who held the title as a reflection of excellence in the commercial production of maps and atlases. The honorific Geographer Royal or equivalent illustrates the importance of royal patronage and the public recognition of geography’s commercial outputs. Neither topic is addressed in existing histories of geography.

Retrieval of forest canopy height in a mountainous region with ICESat-2 ATLAS

Forest canopy height is one of the important forest parameters for accurately assessing forest biomass or carbon sequestration. ICESat-2 ATLAS provides the potential for retrieval of forest canopy height at global or regional scale, but the current canopy height product (ATL08) has coarse resolution and high uncertainty compared to airborne LiDAR-derived canopy height (hereafter ALCH) in mountainous regions, and is not ready for such applications as biomass modeling at finer scale. The objective of this research was to explore the approach to accurately retrieve canopy height from ATLAS data by incorporating an airborne-derived digital terrain model (DTM) and a data-filtering strategy. By linking ATLAS ATL03 with ATL08 products, the geospatial locations, types, and (absolute) heights of photons were obtained, and canopy heights at different lengths (from 20 to 200 ​m at 20-m intervals) of segments along a track were computed with the aid of airborne LiDAR DTM. Based on the relationship between the numbers of canopy photons within the segments and accuracy of ATLAS mean canopy height compared to ALCH, a filtering method for excluding a certain portion of unreliable segments was proposed. This method was further applied to different ATLAS ground tracks for retrieval of canopy heights and the results were evaluated using corresponding ALCH. The results show that the incorporation of high-precision DTM and ATLAS products can considerably improve the retrieval accuracy of forest canopy height in mountainous regions. Using the proposed filtering approach, the correlation coefficients (r) between ATLAS canopy height and corresponding ALCH were 0.61–0.91, 0.65–0.92, 0.68–0.94 for segment lengths of 20, 60, and 100 ​m, respectively; RMSE were 1.90–4.35, 1.55–3.63, and 1.34–3.23 ​m for the same segment lengths. The results indicate the necessity of using high-precision DTM and using the proposed filtering method to retrieve accurate canopy height from ICESat-2 ATLAS in mountainous regions with dense forest cover and complex terrain conditions.

Learning About the Soviet State: The Establishment of Soviet Educational Cartography in the 1920s and 1930s

ABSTRACT This paper presents an overview of the development and the establishment of Soviet educational cartography, using the example of school world atlases. Geography, as a compulsory school subject, began to be implemented in the curriculum only after 1934, putting maps right at the centre of the educational process. This triggered the formation of new governmental committees and centralized map production, introducing new approaches to school atlases and new content that was aligned to the newly developed programme. This paper, therefore, examines the changes in the cartographic production and content of school world atlases from the late nineteenth century until 1937 against the context of changes in managing and perceiving the Russian and Soviet spaces.

Seasonal variability of mesoscale eddies in the Banda Sea inferred from altimeter data

Using the mesoscale eddy trajectory atlas product derived from satellite altimeter data from 1993 to 2016, this study analyzes statistical characteristics and seasonal variability of mesoscale eddies in the Banda Sea of the Indonesian seas. The results show that there were 147 mesoscale eddies that occurred in the Banda Sea, of which 137 eddies were locally generated and 10 originated from outside. The total numbers of cyclonic eddies (CEs, clockwise) and anticyclonic eddies (AEs, anticlockwise) are 76 and 71, respectively. Seasonally, the number of CEs (AEs) is twice larger than the number of AEs (CEs) in winter (summer). In winter, CEs are distributed in the southern and AEs in the northern basins, respectively, but the opposite thing occurs in summer, i.e., the polarities of mesoscale eddies observed at the same location reverse seasonally. The mechanisms of polarity distribution reversal (PDR) of mesoscale eddies are examined with reanalysis data of ocean currents and winds. The results indicate that the basin-scale vorticity, wind stress curl, and the meridional shear of zonal current reverse seasonally, which are favorable to the PDR of mesoscale eddies. The possible generation mechanisms of mesoscale eddies include direct wind forcing, barotropic and baroclinic instabilities, of which the direct wind forcing should play the dominant role.

Geography and linguistics: Histories, entanglements and departures

AbstractLinguistic geography has been considered a part, if not a sub‐discipline, of linguistics rather than geography. This was not always the case. In the late 19th century geography was integral to linguistic science through the practice of language surveying and production of linguistic maps and atlases. By the early 20th century language became a geopolitical concern in Europe during and after the First World War. This paper argues that historical geography can make an important intervention in recovering the entwined yet forgotten histories of linguistics and geography and explain the roots of geography's indifference to linguistic study which has, among many issues, contributed to the marginalisation of other languages in favour of English. This paper traces the history of geography's association with language as a consequence of empire, colonialism and nationalism and considers the reasons for their divergence and why geography continues to have a significant role in linguistics but not vice‐versa. This paper concludes by reflecting on what historical geography brings to linguistic geography and how it can write about a significant, yet often forgotten, geographical tradition.

A Geographical Approach to Water Resource Mapping for Atlases

We examine water resource mapping as an important component of the geographical approach in land hydrology and in the water sector which serves to assist considerably in dealing with water problems and water resource management. We suggest that seven groups of water resource maps be distinguished: introductory maps, maps of formation of surface and subsurface water regimes, maps of assessments of water resource potential, maps of water management, maps of anthropogenic impacts on water, maps of hazardous hydrological phenomena and maps of water protection measures. Characteristic properties water resource mapping for atlas products are identified using a case study of territory surrounding Lake Baikal as a site of global significance. We compiled an inventory of water resource themes covered by various atlases of the Baikal region and determined gaps relating to economic aspects of water and to maps on water protection. Limitations of the traditional isoline method in geographical water resource mapping are shown. At hillslope level where atmospheric precipitation transforms to surface runoff further to stream flow, it is recommended that the indication localization method be used, which is based on interdependencies of components of the geosystem. Water runoff mapping at the regional level in the hydrographic network uses the technique of long-channel (epure) mapping based on tools of structural hydrographic and Horton-Strahler classification. A technique of regionalization is described for flood hazards, water protection and recreation zoning of Baikal’s shores as well as cartographic modeling of processes in the Selenga river delta.

Explore cloud solutions for ATLAS with $250,000 AWS cloud credits

Maintaining the huge grid computing facilities for LHC experiments and replacing their hardware every few years has been very expensive. The California State University (CSU) ATLAS group recently received $250,000 AWS cloud credit from the CSU Chancellor’s Office to build the first virtual US ATLAS Tier 3 to explore cloud solutions for ATLAS. We will use this award to set up full ATLAS computing environments on the cloud for ATLAS physics analysis frame works, MC generation, simulation and production. We will also develop policies for ATLAS members to submit jobs to the cloud and develop an economic model focused especially on the cost effectiveness of cloud solutions for ATLAS through extensive real user experience. The results will help ATLAS computing and physics communities decide future directions with incoming LHC upgrades.

Trends in Onomastic Research in Brazil

This article brings together recent onomastic investigations developed in Brazil between 2011 and 2018. In the field of toponomastics there is some degree of uniformity resulting from both the use of the same research paradigm and the development of projects dedicated to the production of toponymic atlases in several regions of the country. In the field of an-throponomastics, however, there is dispersion and fragmentation of anthroponymic studies due to non-affiliation with the field by some sociolinguistics and literature researchers The comparison between research papers in this review and a number of onomastic studies in Europe reveals that the socio-onomastic field is an emerging one in both Brazil and Europe. There are investigations that relate the studies of linguistic settings to toponymic studies and socio-anthroponomastic investigations based on data collection in written documents or data generation through field investigations. The existence of comparative anthroponomastic re-search and studies dealing with theory, methodology and literature review in the field of an-throponomastics can be observed. Studies about Brazilian indigenous onomastics and sec-ondary non-official personal names used by Brazilian city councilors has been found just in Brazil in the literature review presented in this paper.

An overview of carbon capture and storage atlases around the world

Recent concerns about climate change and greenhouse gas emissions have a clear effect on the energy sector, directly affecting the use of fossil fuels. Companies and countries that depend on these sources of energy (so-called not clean) take actions to search for palliative solutions. The production of atlases of carbon capture and storage (CCS) is one of the collaborative actions that seeks to systematize and organize several aspects involving the use of CCS technologies. This paper focuses on an analytical overview of approaches addressed by five different CCS atlases published by Brazil, the United States, Canada, Mexico, Norway, and South Africa. The five atlases are available for public access; an analytical overview could substantiate the academic and technical decisions related to the future publication of a new atlas for any country and suggests the inclusion of new topics such as social and environmental issues.